TV Formats MIPCOM 2019

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TVFORMATS

WWW.TVFORMATS.WS

OCTOBER 2019

MIPCOM EDITION

Social Experiments / Physical Competitions / Co-Development Pacts Bertram van Munster / Bake Off ’s Richard McKerrow / Fremantle’s Rob Clark

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12 TV FORMATS

CONTENTS

Adapting to the Times

FEATURES 24 WHAT IF?

Checking in on what’s new in the high-risk game of social-experiment formats.

34

With Brexit looming in the U.K., a reality TV host presiding over the Oval Office in the U.S. and a seemingly unending stream of news headlines from all over the world with stories each more rattling than the next, these are, indeed, strange times we’re living in.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Chelsea Regan Alison Skilton Associate Editors David Diehl Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Genovick Acevedo Sales & Marketing Coordinator Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Formats ©2019 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvformats.ws

Television tastes can be a great barometer of what’s going on politically and economically in the world. When the events of real life are dark and twisty enough themselves, programming that provides optimism and escapism is often what’s in demand. Light entertainment can be the perfect antidote to the nonstop onslaught of doom-and-gloom discussions about climate change, recessions and riots. Perhaps that’s part of the reason the bizarre, wacky, laughter-inducing antics of The Masked Singer have struck a chord in so many markets around the world recently.

Also, the heartfelt contestants and slow-burn style of The Great British Bake Off have charmed viewers all over the globe, including in the U.S., where a local version returns in time for the holidays. In this issue of TV Formats, we hear from Love Productions’ Richard McKerrow about the warmth and care that have given rise to the hit show. We also hear from The Amazing Race co-creator Bertram van Munster, who talks about how the series is perfect for a whole family to watch together.

The authenticity and “real reality” of social experiments are resonating, with the current market trend being toward those that explore true-to-life societal issues. We examine what’s new in social-experiment formats in another in-depth feature. TV Formats also shines a light on the wave of physical competition formats, reflecting the zeitgeist of mindfulness surrounding health and fitness.

It’s not just viewers’ tastes that are shifting with the times; buyers’ budgets are as well. Game shows tend to see a rise in commissions when the economy is in a slump. As Fremantle’s Rob Clark tells us in this issue, the genre—lauded for being safe, cost-effective and reliable—is back in a big way.

As minimizing costs and risk, and maximizing innovation, are top of mind for many in the formats business during these challenging times, we also explore how codevelopment is becoming increasingly popular.

After a long stretch of complex dramas awash with complicated (sometimes morally compromised) characters, all hail the entertainment format.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

34 FIT FOR TV

There’s a wave of physical endurance competitions hitting the format market.

38 IT TAKES TWO

Distributors are partnering with broadcasters and producers to co-develop new concepts.

38

INTERVIEWS

42

Bertram van Munster

46

Bake Off ’s Richard McKerrow

48

Fremantle’s Rob Clark

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Marrying Millions

A+E Networks Generation Dating / Marrying Millions / Solo Wars Two strangers, one old and one young, attempt to fix each other’s love lives in the A+E Networks format Generation Dating. “It brings together people from completely different generations to help one another learn a new approach to finding love, and in the process, they find themselves forging unexpected friendships,” says Hayley Babcock, head of format productions and acquisitions at A+E Networks.

Marrying Millions puts couples—in which one is of considerable wealth and the other on the lower end of the financial spectrum—in focus, leaving friends, family members and the audience at home to wonder if it’s true love, money or the superficial attracting them to one another. One hundred singles compete for love and/or a cash prize in the dating game show Solo Wars.

Armoza Formats

“We are excited to continue establishing relationships with key broadcasters and producers across the globe.”

—Hayley Babcock Queens of Love

Queens of Love / Song of My Life / Single Parents Cruising The Armoza Formats-developed dating show Queens of Love follows as three drag queens come to the rescue of a hopeless single. “This unique take on dating combines the fun that the queens bring to the show with the authentic responses that they bring out in the participants, enabling truer and better decisions to be made and bringing relatable issues to viewers, all wrapped up in a fun and fabulous package of a show,” says Avi Armoza, CEO. Also in the dating arena, Single Parents Cruising watches a single mom and single dad set sail on a ten-day cruise with other single-parent suitors on board for the chance to find love. The studio-based entertainment format Song of My Life sees four famous contestants try to uncover who has a personal connection to each live song performance.

“Dating shows are very popular worldwide, and with Queens of Love, you get to tap into this genre with a completely new and glamorous take.”

—Avi Armoza

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Lodgers

Banijay Rights Don’t / Lodgers / It’s a Knockout Banijay Rights’ physical game show Don’t gives families the chance to win money by following one simple rule: don’t.

(Don’t blink. Don’t play with matches. Don’t get tired. Don’t play ball in the house.) “It’s a truly original, comedic and physical game show that will have global appeal for a wide range of broadcasters,” says Andrew Sime, VP of formats. In Lodgers, potential roommates, young and old, meet for the first time at a speed-dating event exclusively designed to match up wealthier old-age pensioners and hard-up millennials. The physical-entertainment show It’s a Knockout is back with a modern touch. “A part of TV history for more than half a century, this iconic format has been making viewers laugh, cheer and proudly root for their countrymen in some of the biggest TV markets in the world,” says Sime.

“Banijay Rights is one of the leading format creators and producers in the world.”

—Andrew Sime Hot Property

BBC Studios Hot Property / Late Night Guestlist / One Hot Summer: Heartbreak Holiday In the BBC Studios dating format Hot Property, one hopeful singleton has to choose a potential partner without having met them. In round one, it’s based only on a single possession owned by each suitor, then by walking around the houses of the remaining contestants and finally, by meeting the person closest to them. The company’s format catalog also features the entertainment show Late Night Guestlist and the reality series One Hot Summer: Heartbreak Holiday. “Content for youth-skewing platforms continues to grow, and our launches Hot Property and One Hot Summer: Heartbreak Holiday are both aimed at 16- to 24-year-olds on BBC Three,” says Andre Renaud, senior VP of global format sales at BBC Studios.

“Equally, a strong, fun, family-friendly format like Late Night Guestlist has the opportunity to delight a broad audience.”

“Hot Property is a dating show with a twist where you choose a potential partner without having met them.”

—Andre Renaud

Five Guys a Week

Fremantle Five Guys a Week / Epic Gameshow / The Family Brain Games Fremantle’s reality-dating series Five Guys a Week follows one woman on a quest for a new romance. She invites five potential suitors to move into her house with her for a week, all at the same time, all under one roof. Another highlight is Epic Gameshow. “Fremantle, as the home of game shows, has created a huge weekly event-viewing format for ITV in the U.K., made up of our incredible gameshow catalog,” explains Rob Clark, director of global entertainment. “We’ve taken some of our biggest game shows such as The Price Is Right, Strike It Rich and Card Sharks, added in a marquee talent presenter in Alan Carr and given each show an epic new ending.” Meanwhile, The Family Brain Games is a quiz show that sets out to uncover a country’s brainiest family.

“Five Guys a Week is the simplest new format of 2019.”

—Rob Clark 396 WORLD SCREEN 10/19

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Babysitter Celebrity Undercover

Global Agency Babysitter Celebrity Undercover / Golden Spoon / Sanatorium of Love Celebrities are given makeovers to transform their appearance before going incognito to take care of kids who are unaware that they are spending the day with one of their idols in the Global Agency reality-entertainment format Babysitter Celebrity Undercover. In the cookery format Golden Spoon, a mother’s homemade dish faces off against a re-creation whipped up by a professional chef, with their children serving as the judges. Six senior women and six senior men head off to a health resort in the mountains, where they get to know one another and experience new adventures in Sanatorium of Love. Izzet Pinto, the founder and CEO of Global Agency, says the company has “added successful formats from Poland, France and Japan.”

“We are excited to share our new strong lineup with our clients during MIPCOM.” —Izzet Pinto

Hunan TV Magic Chinese Characters / The Sound / The Rocking Bridge Hunan TV is bringing a brand-new format to MIPCOM, Magic Chinese Characters, a daily strip game show centered on the profoundness of Chinese words and expressions with loads of games and a special twist. “The second seasons of existing formats like Super-Vocal and The Rocking Bridge continued to perform well for the channel, while the third series of The Sound is returning in Q1 next year with overwhelming expectations across the country,” says Lester Hu, head of formats and international business. The company is introducing Hunan TV International Biu Project at MIPCOM, launching a global hunt for fresh, entertaining and innovative ideas. “Biu Project is an extremely successful content-incubation program where many of our original hits were developed, funded for pilots and then commissioned for full series,” Hu explains.

Magic Chinese Characters

“We are eager to find the next generation of entertainment hits and work with international talent to achieve success in China and the rest of the world.”

—Lester Hu

Inter Medya The Perfect Couple / Exathlon / The Box Challenge Sold by Inter Medya, The Perfect Couple is a reality format that follows as men and women try to win keys to the only house on an island. The company’s format slate also features the sports-based reality competition Exathlon and the game show The Box Challenge. “Inter Medya has already established itself as one of the leading distributors of Turkish series and films in the world, but as the visibility of the company and its various format-promotion strategies increases, buyers have started to come to us for their format needs as well,” says Can Okan, founder and CEO. “In the coming year, we will continue to invest in our format business and expand our production and sales network, as we believe that formats will become more important for our company’s future.”

The Box Challenge

“We invest a lot of time and effort in the development, production and distribution of entertainment, reality and game-show formats.”

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Red Carpet Survival

Nippon TV Red Carpet Survival With past hits that include Dragons’ Den/Shark Tank, Silent Library and Beat the Rooms, Nippon TV has a brand-new entertainment offering for the international marketplace: Red Carpet Survival. The game-show format sees contestants act as bodyguards who must safely escort a VIP down the red carpet, even if it means suffering physical blows or surviving a series of crazy traps secretly set in their way. As soon as the red carpet is laid, whether it be at a university campus, airport or hotel, the game show begins. “It is a comical, fun format suitable for prime-time family viewing,” says Fusako Nagashima, head of formats, international business development, at Nippon TV. “It can be easily adjusted to local budgets and works with celebrities and different locations. The concept is simple but visually different and simply entertaining to watch.”

“Entertainment is in our blood, and Red Carpet Survival is created to open up a new era for entertainment.”

—Fusako Nagashima

NTV Broadcasting Company Dr. Driver / Dinosaur / Reluctant Hero NTV Broadcasting Company is looking to notch up local adaptations on some of the scripted series from the Russian broadcaster, including Dr. Driver. “The best overall prime-time event of the 2018 season, this light, engaging and universally appealing format about a former ER doctor working as an ambulance driver is going into season two,” says Timur Weinstein, NTV’s general producer. Dinosaur is a crime drama with comedic elements, built on the controversy between a father, who is a former criminal, and his newly found son, a police investigator. The story in Reluctant Hero centers on a man who harbors a deadly illness but discovers that his tumor shrinks if he does something courageous. “NTV formats have just the right mix of high-paced action, plot twists and character misfortunes to keep the audience entertained,” Weinstein says.

“These formats are like a holy grail for the TV industry; very few know about them, but if discovered, they bring viewers hours of great TV.” —Timur Weinstein

Dinosaur

The Story Lab Undercover Twins / Pulling with My Parents / I Want to Have Your Baby There are two new dating shows on The Story Lab slate for MIPCOM: Undercover Twins and Pulling with My Parents. Undercover Twins sees identical twins looking for love as one and the same person, while Pulling with My Parents follows as parents take control of their children’s love lives to help them find “the one.” Progressing on the themes of family and relationships, I Want to Have Your Baby charts the emotional journey of couples and singles as they make a final attempt to fulfill their dreams of parenthood. “All three of these new shows are incredibly engaging and hold mass appeal for a global audience, as these experiences are relatable to all,” says Fotini Paraskakis, executive VP of entertainment for The Story Lab Global.

“The Story Lab continues to push boundaries with innovative and engaging content that can be tailored for individual territories to give it real local flavor.”

—Fotini Paraskakis 400 WORLD SCREEN 10/19

Undercover Twins

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A+E Networks’ Seven Year Switch.

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Joanna Stephens checks in on what’s new in the high-risk game of social-experiment formats.

T

o a degree, all reality formats seek to find the universal in the particular, but few do it with such fearlessness as social experiments, with their mission to cut through the frills of culture and conditioning to reach to the heart of the human condition.

For Michael Iskas, the president of The Story Lab Global, the best social experiments put “the real back into reality” by tackling the big things, from poverty and populism to refugees and relationships, in a responsible yet entertaining way. These shows, whose antecedents can be traced back to Big Brother and Survivor in the early 2000s, open a window on human behavior and psychology by testing people under controlled, albeit extreme, conditions.

Then there are the social experiments that trade on shock value and fly-on-the-wall voyeurism to deliver a less edifying—if no less addictive—form of entertainment. “Those are still engaging to watch,” Iskas agrees, “but I don’t think that they reflect the current market trend, which is increasingly towards formats that are hard-hitting, provocative, tackle real topics and challenges, but don’t shock for shock’s sake.” The world, in short, doesn’t need more naked celebrities on yachts. “Quite apart from taste considerations, I don’t think we can go much further down that road without alienating mass-market audiences,” Iskas says.

Hayley Babcock, the head of format production and acquisitions at A+E Networks, says that the social norms upon which the original social experiment was built must chime with the culture, standards and accepted practices of potential export territories. “If a format is meant to surprise viewers with the concept of an arranged marriage, for example, one has to know if arranged marriages are commonplace in a particular country,” she says. “If so, that format is unlikely to have the same entertainment value or the impact of a social experiment.”

Sumi Connock, BBC Studios’ creative director of formats, makes a similar point: “Many issues are universal, but certain territories place more weight on particular issues. For this reason, social-experiment formats that are issue-based don’t

travel in quite the same way, or at the same speed, as broader genre formats. And when they do travel, a detailed production bible and a specialist production consultancy are paramount.”

Finding the right local talent can also be tricky when adapting social experiments in multiple markets, adds Revital Basel, the managing director of networks at Keshet International (KI)—especially if the star is the story. She cites Koda Communications’ celebrity-led dating format Anna’s 12 Steps to Love, which follows professional dancer Anna Aronov on a 21-day quest to find the perfect partner. The format lives or dies on casting a relatable celebrity singleton who’s willing to put themselves into a hyper-emotional, revealing situation and be filmed at their most exposed and vulnerable.

“You see this woman falling in love on the TV screen before you,” Basel says. “You feel her emotional journey and it’s compelling to watch. But the challenge will be finding local ‘Annas’ in each territory that picks up the format.”

GETTING REAL The rawness and authenticity of social experiments like Anna’s 12 Steps also contrast favorably with many of today’s reality-TV offerings, which have become increasingly constructed in recent years. There’s growing evidence that viewers have had enough of contrived narratives and faux emotions; they want to see real people living through real situations that resonate with their own experiences.

If you can get viewers to ask, How would I behave in that situation?, you’re likely to have a success on your hands, Iskas at The Story Lab reflects.

KI’s Singletown, broadcast on the U.K.’s ITV2, sees five couples press pause on their relationships to spend a summer living the single life in London. “It poses the real-life question of, Is the grass greener on the other side?” Basel says. “People anywhere in the world can immediately relate to the question of whether they’d be better off staying in a relationship that isn’t working for them, or starting anew.”

Recent months have seen a spate of suspected suicides among reality-TV contestants, including two former stars of ITV2’s Love Island. Indeed, a report earlier this year in

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Keshet International’s Anna’s 12 Steps to Love offers an intimate view of one celebrity’s search for a partner.

the U.K. newspaper The Sun claimed that, since 1986, some 38 people worldwide have died in suspected suicides linked to reality TV shows. Understandably, this has sparked a conversation about the psychological pressure of instant fame; the safety, dignity and emotional stability of contestants and whether producers and broadcasters are doing enough to protect the vulnerable.

DUTY OF CARE David Williams, managing director of non-scripted at Keshet UK, says that with a show such as Singletown, the duty-ofcare process starts the moment a potential contestant walks into the production offices and extends well beyond the airing of the last episode. “From keeping all data secure to verifying identity, taking professional references and medical and psychological assessments, duty of care is a huge part of the casting process,” he says. “And if concerns arise at any point, we will always err on the side of caution.”

During filming, contestants are closely observed by professionals and have access to 24-hour support. “But the bigger challenge is to ensure they can access any support they need once filming stops and they return home,” Williams adds. “Not only does Keshet go into each production with the level of post-show support agreed with the broadcaster, but the program of care is constantly refined throughout a project’s lifespan.”

Over at A+E Networks, Babcock reports similarly stringent safety guidelines for all formats, regardless of genre.

“Each show will have its own particular and specific needs,” she says, with physically challenging formats requiring more stringent physical safety guidelines, and emotionally challenging shows requiring more psychological support. Not only should safety protocols and

practices be “baked in” from the get-go, she adds, but they should also be guided, upheld and monitored by all the production stakeholders, from IP owners and distributors to local producers and broadcasters.

OF THE MOMENT

With its Channel 4 show about living with dementia, The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes, CPL Productions went as far as obtaining consent not only from the on-camera participants but from their families—and on a daily basis.

“We also made sure there was additional and independent help for contributors and their family members, as the ongoing duty of care was of paramount importance,” says Nina Etspueler, the group creative director of Red Arrow Studios, CPL’s parent company.

With dementia currently the focus of much attention as life expectancy increases around the world, The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes is also a good example of a social experiment that, as Etspueler puts it, “captures the zeitgeist.” The best social experiments, she adds, “take a subject that is relevant and resonant, and dig deep to explore it from the inside in an innovative, empathetic and entertaining way, revealing much about the current state of our society and our values.”

Interestingly, BBC Studios has been mining similar territory with Our Dementia Choir, which explores the positive effect of music on the lives of both people living with dementia and those who care for them. “This huge social experiment helped raise awareness of the effects of music therapy, but it also contributed to scientific research that could help others in the future,” Connock says. She adds that the producer, Curve Media, partnered with a major U.K. charity to ensure that the science supporting Our

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Dementia Choir was both credible and potentially useful to future research programs.

Red Arrow has taken on another issue arising from the world’s greying population—social isolation among the elderly—in its critically acclaimed Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds, also produced by CPL Productions for Channel 4.

Now licensed in more than ten territories, the format unleashes a posse of tiny children on the residents of a care home in an intergenerational experiment designed to help alleviate loneliness, anxiety and depression.

You Are Not A Loan, the first fruit of The Story Lab’s fact-ent co-creation partnership with Renowned Films, sees 30 people from a single postal code join forces to eliminate their debt. It undoubtedly ticks the entertainmentwith-a-purpose box, addressing a genuine social problem— the U.K.’s spiraling addiction to debt. But it also has all the elements of a cracking good story, complete with drama, tension, highs, lows and (one hopes) a happy ending, as a community works together to wipe out £500,000 of collective debt in just 12 months.

Echoing The Story Lab’s Iskas, Etspueler believes there is a move away from confrontational, antagonistic shows toward “gentler, more empathetic ideas” that aim to change hearts, minds and attitudes in a positive way. The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes, Our Dementia Choir and Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds fall into this category—as does arguably the most successful social-experiment format of recent years, Married at First Sight (MAFS). Created by Red Arrow-owned Snowman Productions in 2013 for Denmark’s DR, the format explores the science of romance by matching strangers and introducing them at the altar. The newlyweds then agree to live together for several weeks, before deciding whether to divorce or stay together.

WEDDING FEVER

MAFS has been formatted in some 30 territories, including the U.S., where the success of the ninth season resulted in Lifetime ordering two more seasons; and Australia, where the sixth season on Nine Network won its prime-time slot for every episode. But its success was certainly not a given, Etspueler says, with many buyers initially alarmed by its controversial premise and noisy, headline-grabbing title.

“But once broadcasters understood that, at the heart of the show, there is an authenticity and honesty about helping single people find love, and that it’s a beautifully formatted idea, any feelings of risk became a desire to do something bold and fresh,” she adds.

MAFS also epitomizes arguably the most important quality needed to make a format replicable: a challenge that resonates universally. While MAFS turns on the basic human urge to find a mate, KI’s ambitious 2025 tackles the game of life itself. The format, which rolled out on Keshet 12 in early February and has been commissioned for a second season, sees 12 contestants enter a generic “near-future” mini-city, operated by humanoid robots. The moment they enter the purpose-built community, contestants begin to play a game of strategy, where their status, options and, ultimately, fate are determined by the social currency they accrue. “The situation is not specific to any one territory and is immediately familiar to anyone living in an urban environment,” Basel says. Psychiatrists are on hand to ensure that the city’s denizens remain safe—and sane.

The scale of 2025’s set makes it a prime candidate for a production hub. “We’ve built a completely bespoke unit on a 64,000-square-foot plot, which houses the 2025 city itself, the production rooms and a set for the live show,” Basel says.

Keshet is viewing the city as a long-term investment. “When we’re not using the hub, we’ll have space for at least two or three additional countries to come on board,” Basel adds.

HUB APPROACH A+E’s Babcock is also a fan of production hubs for set- or location-dependent formats. She references Alone, which has wrapped its sixth season on HISTORY, in which contestants are dropped into the wilderness, armed only with basic survival equipment and their own cameras. Their mission is to stick it out for as long as they can handle the physical hardship and loneliness, not to mention the atavistic fear of being eaten by a bear. While in this instance nature provides the actual set, Babcock says a production hub is still invaluable in helping to keep costs affordable, with producers able to share investment in location scouting, setup, technical equipment and even below-the-line staff.

For Babcock, two of A+E’s most successful socialexperiment formats—Seven Year Switch and Bride & Prejudice—demonstrate why audiences are increasingly drawn to the genre. “First, each has a baseline DNA of good intentions,” she says. “The end goal of the created structure is to see if something happy, good or positive can occur. And second, the participants’ experiences in each show are genuine. The jumping-off points may come from a constructed setting put together by a TV production, but the personal journeys are relatable and could happen in the ‘real world’ without stretching the imagination too far.”

The sales figures support Babcock’s analysis. A+E’s Seven Year Switch has been picked up by, among others, the U.K.’s Channel 4, Australia’s Seven Network, Italy’s Fox Life, Spain’s Antena 3 and RTL4 in the Netherlands. Bride &

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The Story Lab’s No Sleep No FOMO drops celebrities into foreign cities.

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Red Arrow’s Married at First Sight has been a huge success in Australia on Nine.

Prejudice, featuring unconventional couples whose conventional families are thwarting their unions, has spawned local iterations in Australia and the U.K.

STAR POWER On the question of whether social experiments are appropriate vehicles for celebrities, Babcock believes fame and real life make uncomfortable bedfellows. “A true social experiment explores a new world and assesses how everyday people react in that new, experimental world,” Babcock maintains. The moment famous faces are involved, the show becomes a different animal—even if the celebs in question are displaying genuine emotions and living real experiences.

BBC Studios’ Connock is less hard-line, noting that star power can help bring audiences to a social experiment, especially if the star in question is passionate about the project. This was the case with Our Dementia Choir, which was presented by well-known U.K. actress Vicky McClure, who helped care for her grandmother after she was diagnosed with the disease.

“Celebrity involvement can help raise awareness of an important issue,” Connock adds.

Connock reflects the general view when she says there is a definite shift in tone from the voyeuristic reality formats of recent years to shows that are more socially conscious. “As a result, there has been an uplift in demand for factual entertainment with a purpose, which is where most of our social experiments fall,” she says. A case in point is The Week the Women Went, which first aired on BBC Three in 2005.

The format, which sees all the women walk out of a community for a week to see how the men get on without them, has recently enjoyed a surge in sales, “most likely down to the current climate and the #MeToo movement encouraging female empowerment,” Connock says.

Relevance is also a powerful factor in selling social experiments, Connock adds. She points to Filthy Rich and Homeless, in which five wealthy volunteers swap their privileged lives for a spell on the streets. SBS ordered a local version of the BBC format to help expose the myths and explore the realities of living rough. After the first season, which aired in 2017, it was reported that Australian homeless organizations saw a spike in volunteers and donations, indicating that social experiments can, as Connock puts it, “provoke thought and promote change.”

As to where social experiments will take us next, Connock tips shows that explore the generation gap à la Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds and another hot issue du jour: sustainability. “Given how conscious Generation Z is about the environment, plus the rise in veganism and plant-based lifestyles, I wouldn’t be surprised to see this also taking shape in some form of social experiment in the not-too-distant future.”

Filthy Rich Go Green, anyone?

BBC Studios’ fact-ent social experiment The Week the Women Went has sold into about a dozen markets.

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Global Agency’s Pick’n Run.

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FIT FORTV Producers and distributors weigh in on the wave of high-stakes, physical endurance competitions in the formats market.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

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n an increasingly on-demand age, broadcasters clamoring to attract audiences to real-time TV know they can reliably bet on two things: sports and competition shows. The crop of physical endurance-style formats making their way across the globe combine these elements to create TV spectacles that showcase the impressive feats that humans are capable of.

Unlike a straightforward sporting event, these competition formats allow viewers a more intimate look at the contestants taking part, making the connection to these peak performers all the more palpable. “The audience wants to relate to emotions, characters, backgrounds and values of the cast and their surroundings,” says Can Okan, founder and CEO of Inter Medya. “With a show like Exathlon, the format brings not only these important elements but also the element of sport. And this combination has a structure that appeals to the whole family—like a new version of sports that creates local heroes who the audience connect with in their hearts and feel the competition and struggle that they are in.”

At MIPTV, Banijay Rights introduced Catch!, which puts a grueling, high-energy spin on the classic children’s game of tag. “What’s so special about Catch! is that it’s a formatted

sports event in many ways,” says Andrew Sime, the company’s VP of formats. “It’s like watching a sport that you are very familiar with; there’s no difference from watching football or tennis. It’s a fast-paced competition with rules and very fit athletes taking part, as well as some celebrities.”

SPORTS FANS

Catch! has launched in Germany on SAT.1 to much success. “It’s event television that gives people something to talk about with their colleagues when they go to work the next day,” says Sime.

Part of the draw, he adds, is the aspect of endurance. “In Catch!, it’s about physical prowess and stamina. In Survivor, you see a different type of endurance, which is people who are stuck in one inhospitable landscape for weeks on end.” Both have audience appeal, Sime says. “To watch people who are doing such physically intense feats with such skill is particularly compelling.”

Spurring the trend is the fact that health and physical well-being are, by and large, a greater focus in the overall cultural consciousness these days. “People have more awareness about exercise and different ways of approaching physical activities,” says Andrew Zein, senior VP of creative, format development and sales at Warner Bros. International

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on their butt; they want to see topflight contenders who all have a fair shot at winning.

ARE YOU READY?

With its acquisition of Castaway Productions, Banijay Group landed the rights to the lucrative Survivor brand.

Endemol Shine’s The Bridge is an adventure-reality format that originated in Spain.

TV Production. “There are more 5K events, 10K events, Tough Mudders. Health and exercise are societal topics.”

He adds: “Previously, where there were physical endurance-style competitions like World’s Strongest Man, the general public could never quite understand the levels of fitness or how people attained it. The new breed of shows, in some ways, is slightly closer to what people can understand or aspire to, plus the general public’s understanding of what it takes to climb something or carry something or pull yourself up something means that they can [grasp] the show better.”

Warner Bros.’ Million Dollar Mile, which aired in the U.S. on CBS, is set in a real-world urban environment and competitors are meant to represent a broad cross section.

“What we are striving for is authenticity,” Zein says.

To achieve that authenticity and relatability, casting is a crucial element. And, unlike with some of the physical competition series that were popular in the past, today’s audiences aren’t tuning in to laugh at someone getting knocked

“Having equality in their health status is a must and a serious point to pay attention to,” says Umay Ayaz, head of acquisitions at Global Agency, which represents formats such as Pick’n Run, Battle of the Couples and Tahiti Quest.

For Endemol Shine Group, home to competitions such as The Island, The Bridge and Big Bounce Battle, establishing a basis of care for the contestants is standard practice, says Lisa Perrin, CEO of creative networks. “We look very carefully at whether someone could complete the task, mentally and physically. Nobody is going to get [cast] if they can’t survive on an island, if they are physically or mentally not able to cope with the reality of what that brings. All of our teams cast with really rigorous checklists in mind. We make sure that people can stand up to the task ahead of them.”

As the parkour courses in Inter Medya’s Exathlon are designed to test all aspects of an athlete’s abilities, “our contestants should have a combination of speed, swimming, jumping, balance, flexibility, strength, dexterity, coordination, muscle memory and sporting intelligence,” says Okan. “They have to perform at their highest level consistently, as this is the only way to be the champion.”

For a format as advanced as Survivor, which is going to have its 40th season in the U.S. in 2020, the casting has had to evolve along with the show. “The contestants are now so well-versed in Survivor gameplay and history, they know every trick in the book,” says Sime. “So, as producers, you’re constantly trying to stay one step ahead of them. That informs your casting. You want a mix of people who are slightly more naïve, slightly wilier and some more experienced.”

The casting target differs for a show like SAS: Who Dares Wins, in which ex-Special Forces soldiers put recruits through a re-creation of the SAS selection process. “The mix you’re looking for there is about different backgrounds, different physical abilities and challenging preconceptions so that the people you meet in episode one change in front of your eyes as the series goes on,” Sime explains.

With most of these physical-style competitions, location is key. Some are played out on large-scale sets strewn with obstacles, while others send contestants to far-flung locales with challenging elements all their own. As both of those possibilities can be costly, producers often look to the productionhub model to amortize the expenses.

“We have one production set up in Fiji for Survivor, and over the course of the year, that plays home to the French production, German production, Swedish production—the top-tier productions that can afford to go there, film one series at a time and then move on to the next

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one,” Sime explains. “We have a second hub in the Philippines, and what they do there is much more about trying to find economies of scale. There are three productions normally running in parallel. For example, they’ll set up the games in the morning, and one country will go play those games, then in the afternoon, a second country will play those games. There are economies of scale that you can find.”

Banijay Rights is evaluating the potential of a centralized production for Catch!, as it’s still early days on the format. “A hub needs to follow the demand; it can’t create the demand,” cautions Sime. “You want to make sure that it solves problems and doesn’t cause them.”

The key, he says, is to help producers at any budget be able to make versions of the show, “as long as the end product is at the quality that we and the viewers expect it to be.”

LEARNING TO SHARE Perrin says that Endemol Shine has been “forward-thinking” in its hub initiatives, going back to the days of Fear Factor and Wipeout. With The Island, for example, “We were aware that not every country has a Channel 4 budget to play with, so we scouted a number of islands where we could film back-toback without exhausting one island’s resources. As you can imagine, there are only so many coconuts and they take a long time to grow! So, we managed to get a couple of islands nearby each other, and that meant that we could film back-to-back and bring the price down for some countries.”

Exathlon is produced at a hub, which currently extends over 350,000 square meters in the Dominican Republic. “It is essential to produce a show like Exathlon at a specific location where we have the ability to improve and innovate new parkours as well as form an international competition platform for multiple territories,” says Inter Medya’s Okan. “This means that players from one particular country not only

compete with each other, but they also get to compete with those from other territories. These international competitions add another dynamic to the format.”

LOCAL FLAVORS Global Agency’s Ayaz says that hubs can be helpful in making the production process easier as well, since mistakes can be avoided by using an established framework already in place.

“On the other hand, it reduces the authenticity and localization,” she adds.

Warner Bros.’ Zein also expresses some concerns about using a hub model. “Hubs are really tough to pull off! If you have a big entertainment show, [a live] audience is a crucial factor. No one yet has really been able to nail the multipleversion hub in front of an entertainment audience.

“The next route, which we went for Game of Games and Million Dollar Mile, is to create the big-ticket items, which in this case are the obstacles,” he continues. “We built those centrally and we then make those available to the local versions around the world. That then means that you can offer broadcasters a competitive price, it’s got the production values that they would want and that you would want, and you also get some certainty on the execution. From there, finding a good physical location is relatively straightforward.”

A challenge, Zein says, is to ensure that there’s enough variety in the gameplay that it doesn’t become repetitive.

Looking ahead, he believes that the physical-style formats that can balance humor, entertainment and proper competition are the ones that will rise to the top.

“We all want entertainment to work in prime time, especially up against drama,” he says. “These shows have an immediacy to them. It’s in everybody’s interest that we find shows that work for the audience in the entertainment genre and in an affordable price bracket.”

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Inter Medya’s Exathlon is produced out of a hub in the Dominican Republic.

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Dori Media’s Power Couple.

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It Takes

TWO

In the quest for the next big thing, format distributors are partnering up with broadcasters and producers to co-develop titles that will have global appeal. By Kristin Brzoznowski

T

he word “co-development” has been popping up quite a bit in the format business, as distributors are increasingly looking to alliances with producers and broadcasters in the hopes of coming up with a global hit. More than just a buzzword, this collaborative format strategy can help with costs, risk and getting concepts off the ground. It also puts to the test the age-old adage of “two heads are better than one” with regard to creativity.

“The business has become tougher—tougher in its demands and tougher on the budgets that networks can allocate to new shows,” says Avi Armoza, founder and CEO of Armoza Formats, which recently joined the ITV Studios group.

“Development, by nature, is the most expensive and riskiest part of the business. So, wherever broadcasters or partners can reduce risk and make a more costeffective cooperation, this is the major [motivation] for co-development.”

“In Israel, we are very creative to find a solution of how to do things without a lot of money, to be attractive and catch the eyes of the people,” says Nadav Palti, the president and CEO of Dori Media Group, which has co-developed a slew of formats with various partners around the world.

Sophie Ferron, founder, president and executive producer at Media Ranch, highlights the creative benefits that codevelopment with international partners can bring about.

“The world is more and more global, so it makes sense to partner with others to create something that has wider appeal,” she says. “Also, not all partners—networks, creators, producers, distributors—come with the same approach, so it gives the project a broader audience.”

WORKING TOGETHER Earlier this year, RTL Group established its own Format Creation Group (FC Group), dedicated to the development of factual-entertainment formats and reality shows. The group will be working closely with RTL broadcasters in different countries “to reflect their needs in the local markets,” says Matthias Scholten, managing director of FC Group.

“Successful programs in the Netherlands also often work well in Germany, France or Spain, and conversely, a format that flopped in one country is generally also likely to flop in another European country,” Scholten adds. “At FC Group, we can learn from the different experiences within the RTL Group broadcasters to become ever more innovative.”

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Armoza Formats co-developed the entertainment show The People’s Choice with France’s TF1.

RTL Nederland, serving as an add-on to the development teams of the respective networks, Scholten explains. “The development teams within the broadcasters are close to their own ‘daily fires’ and rightly have their focus on the time slots of their own channels; we will bear this in mind.”

There are advantages to working directly with broadcasters, says Armoza. “When a broadcaster is involved, you can already look into the possibility of having a season produced.

Or, if you need to produce a pilot and invest in building a set.”

CASTING A WIDE NET In addition to working with networks, Media Ranch is codeveloping projects with format creators, brands, producers and distributors. “We have many types of co-development partnerships,” says Ferron. “It’s very important to us to start with a strong relationship with creators, so that they trust us with their ideas—to come to us first, knowing that we will make their idea shine and collaborate as partners. The same can be said with networks that need content partners to help them with their programming needs; we can’t collaborate without the other.”

Media Ranch aligned with Quebecor Content to launch Horsepower, a six-month incubator initiative aimed at creating exportable TV formats from Quebec.

Dori Media Group has around 25 titles that have come out of co-developments, among them Power Couple. Developed in partnership with Abot Hameiri, it has been adapted in markets such as Germany, Mexico and Brazil. “Abot Hameiri was responsible for the production, we did the development together, but we’re responsible for the distribution worldwide.

We split the revenue,” Palti explains.

Armoza Formats previously aligned in a development deal with France’s TF1. “There are at least two big formats that we are very proud of that came out of this co-development, but they [aired] elsewhere,” Armoza explains. “It was successful from the perspective of development and our ability to sell the formats worldwide, but it was not successful from the point of view of [broadcasting] within France.”

The studio game show Babushka was developed in partnership with TF1 but was commissioned in Turkey, Spain and

the U.K. Similarly, Armoza Formats worked with the French broadcaster on the entertainment show The People’s Choice, which was ultimately commissioned in Turkey, Brazil and India. “Although we did the development in France, we kept our independence and flexibility to market those shows internationally,” Armoza explains.

TAKING THE LEAD Despite all of the apparent benefits that co-development can bring, the arrangement is not without its challenges. To avoid some of the pitfalls, Armoza suggests that creatively, there needs to be one clear leader. Then it’s about assessing complementary strengths, such as if one partner has production capabilities or if one has direct ties to a broadcaster or platform.

“There is creative collaboration, but I don’t think it’s the essential part,” says Armoza. “The commercial perspective is more of a key element in the agenda. When you create, you need to have as few people [as possible] who have a clear vision to execute the show. Keeping it too wide can create conflict and doesn’t push the format forward.”

Media Ranch’s Ferron has a different stance: “There is the financial risk that is shared, but truly, we really value the creative process,” she says. “That is our main focus—a freshness and different point of view offer different strengths.”

For Ferron, the main challenges in co-development are working with different personalities, countries’ cultures and levels of expertise. “We need to quickly come to an understanding of exact roles in the development process,” she says.

“Another key challenge is to remind ourselves that we’re creating a format,” Ferron continues. “So, the idea needs to be developed accordingly, and we need to make sure we are developing something that the market is actually looking for— hopefully creating a format that the market wants and needs but doesn’t know it yet.”

With its positive view on co-developing formats, the company is aiming to enter more alliances in the future. “Codevelopment is a strong and desirable focus for Media Ranch,” says Ferron. “We want to join forces with the most brilliant, creative international creators, producers and networks from around the world to develop the best format to come.”

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Bertram van Munster

S

ince its premiere on CBS in 2001, The Amazing Race has dominated the outstanding reality-competition category at the Primetime Emmys, winning a total of ten times. Created by Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri, the show has become a valuable format brand with hit versions in Canada, Vietnam and China, among other markets. The Amazing Race returns to Australia this year after a five-year gap on a new home, Network Ten. Eureka is making the new Australian version in association with van Munster and Doganieri’s production company, Profiles Television. Ahead of jetting off to a “very remote place” as he plots his new National Geographic series Race to the Center of the Earth, van Munster spoke to TV Formats about his long-running franchise and its enduring appeal in the U.S. and across the globe.

By Mansha Daswani

TV FORMATS: How has The Amazing Race been able to endure as long as it has and remain beloved by audiences worldwide?

VAN MUNSTER: It’s relatable, and it’s great for an entire family to watch together. You see how successful it is around the world—that tells you something. We’re in 130-plus countries. We have formats going around the world. It keeps going and going! Of course, the creative that surrounds it and the concepts are very strong. We have a great army of people working on the show. Around the globe, we have well over 3,000 people that have worked on the show or still work on the show. We’ve gone through generations of cameramen. People get old on the show! It’s unbelievable.

TV FORMATS: How long does it take you to map out a route for each season?

VAN MUNSTER: To come up with the idea for the route, I look at what we’ve done in the past. I can do it in a couple of hours, on the back of a newspaper. The actual creative layout, how they’re going to travel, takes three or four months. Once I lay it out, I go to the network and say, What do you think? If they approve it, then I’ll go out with my producers and challenge producers and we lay out the course and the route. There has to be a flow to it, a logic to it; it has to go from A to B to C to D. You look on the map and see where the logic lies. It feels random, but it’s not random at all.

TV FORMATS: How have you been able to innovate every season?

VAN MUNSTER: Imagination. I’m never running short on imagination and creativity. As I travel around the world with my team—I write the outline for the show every season—there is so much to see and so much that gives you ideas. It’s so broad. I can’t sit in a room and do it. I go around the world and whatever I see, whenever I see an opportunity to get something out of it that is unusual and creative and fun and dramatic, I jump on it. As a result, I’ve gone around the world 92 times!

TV FORMATS: What’s the approach to casting?

VAN MUNSTER: Casting is the backbone of the show. We have fantastic casting people who have been working with us for many, many years. We do this together with the network. We present the network a wide array of people—before it was people from all walks of life, but the last two seasons were themed [such as reality TV or social media personalities]—and if we all agree, then we move forward on getting the contestants in place.

TV FORMATS: Do you have any favorite cities? Are there some that are particularly good to film in?

VAN MUNSTER: The world is very small! My favorite places depend on the mood I’m in. You want to go to Sicily? Let’s go to Sicily, that’s a great idea! There always has to be a logic to how we lay out the route. It has to make perfect sense logistically because it deals with finances and creativity. Logistics, finances and creativity belong together; they all have to be on the same page. If something is not working, we take it out. And there has to be a flow in how you race around the world.

TV FORMATS: Twitter didn’t exist when the series premiered in 2001. How has social media changed how you make the show?

VAN MUNSTER: When we started, we wanted to keep everything a secret. That turned out to be impossible! You can’t yell at people in an airport and say, don’t take a picture of my cast! My lightbulb went on and [I realized], we have a diamond in the attic and nobody gets to see it. Why don’t we let it all out in the open? Then we can take advantage of social media. [In season 25] we started in Times Square in New York—you can’t be more in the center of the universe than in Times Square. There were hundreds 10/19 WORLD SCREEN 421

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The Amazing Race Canada wrapped its seventh season this year as one of CTV’s top-rated shows.

and hundreds of people taking pictures, which were all over social media. It worked! We went from keeping things a major secret to putting things out in the open, and it’s just been much more effective. We take full advantage of social media wherever possible. And they take advantage of us. It’s a good marriage.

TV FORMATS: The Australian version of The Amazing Race is coming back this year, with a new home on Ten. What can you tell us about the new adaptation?

VAN MUNSTER: It’s in full swing. Australians have a great sense of humor. It’s going to be a fantastic show. We have a great team there.

TV FORMATS: What advice can you give to international producers on casting and plotting out the routes for their own versions of the format?

VAN MUNSTER: That’s why our guys are there. And we are welcomed everywhere. Where we were not welcomed, [the local version] didn’t work! It is a collaborative effort, where we can transfer our experience of many, many years doing this—and we got a bunch of Emmys in the meantime—and our connections around the globe. Whatever they need, we’re only a phone call away. That saves a lot of time, money and aggravation. We let them do their own creative. We’ll say, This works great or, This wouldn’t work for this reason.

TV FORMATS: Do any of the international versions feel substantially different from the original on CBS? VAN MUNSTER: Canada is doing a fantastic job. China did a great job. Singapore did a great job [with a regional version]. We’re pleased. The Israeli version is stretched quite a bit with interviews. But that’s their decision; we’re fine with that.

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TV FORMATS: How did Race to the Center of the Earth come about?

VAN MUNSTER: I was approached by Courteney Monroe [president of National Geographic Global Television Networks]. They had a concept from a company in England [Plum Pictures], and they liked it and asked if I would be willing to produce. We looked at it and said, Absolutely, it sounds like a fantastic idea, let’s do it. This is super exciting.

It’s new and fresh. It’s very different from The Amazing Race. It’s a completely different animal.

TV FORMATS: The TV industry has changed so much since we last spoke five years ago. What new opportunities do you see now that perhaps didn’t exist then?

VAN MUNSTER: There are a lot of opportunities. We are lucky—we get calls regularly to produce shows because people want to make sure they get done right and their money doesn’t get wasted. The deal-making has changed quite a bit. I have said to my team, Let’s be adaptive and make sure we’re not just working for hire.

I think work for hire is great for people just stepping into the business. As people develop and get skills, they can make better deals for themselves.

TV FORMATS: Is it more difficult to get genuine reactions out of contestants today, given that people have become so accustomed to filming themselves and posting on social media?

VAN MUNSTER: Our stuff happens so hardcore in the moment, you have to be yourself. You have no choice but to be yourself. You’re standing in the middle of an intersection in India with thousands of people and cars and mopeds cruising around you. That aspect can be there a little bit when you interview them, they can fake it, but in the reality of doing the show and being in the heat of the battle, you better be yourself!

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show in the U.K., and yet baking is incredibly popular; there is a real culture of country fêtes, where people set out their home baking. We thought, What if we were to do a very simple, amateur baking competition—looking for the best British home baker? It was a simple idea that had never been done before. Then we found out that there was a reason it hadn’t been done before, and that’s because every single broadcaster in the U.K. thought that it would be incredibly dull and boring, like watching paint dry. [Laughs] So they all said, Absolutely not, no way. The funny thing when I look back now is that all of the reasons they said “no” are probably all the reasons that it’s so successful.

We were passionate about it, and it never left our top five ideas that we hadn’t got commissioned. We pitched it to anybody and everybody! Finally, the then-controller of BBC Three thought it was a good idea, but not right for BBC Three. He passed it over to BBC Two. TV FORMATS: Did you anticipate that it would achieve the level of success it has?

MCKERROW: We never anticipated that it would grow in the way that it did. We just set out to make an original program with the best production values we possibly could. The show has been described as a sleeper hit. The first [season] did quite well, but I remember being slightly disappointed in the figures of the first episode. Anna Beattie, who is the co-creator of the show, said to me, “Don’t worry Rich, it’ll grow.” In a funny way, it’s a bit like baking: it takes time!

Everyone said, Baking is going to be boring, it’s not dramatic enough. But actually, baking is much more dramatic

Richard McKerrow The Great British Bake Off

By Kristin Brzoznowski

W

hat began as a simple idea to showcase Britain’s best amateur bakers has become a full-blown TV phenomenon: The Great British Bake Off. The hit show, created by Love Productions, has charmed viewers the world over with its heartfelt contestants putting their all into every last bundt cake, blueberry tart and baguette. The series returned in late August for its tenth season in the U.K., marking its third on Channel 4 after a move from the BBC. Its success has spawned a juniors spin-off and a slew of international iterations, including a U.S. version on ABC. Richard McKerrow, co-creator of Bake Off and creative director at Love Productions, shares with TV Formats the ingredients to the series’ success.

TV FORMATS: Where did the concept for Bake Off originate?

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but in a slow, deep way rather than a superficial, television way. When cooking goes wrong, you can add salt and pepper and race around to fix it. With baking, it’s about how you put it together before—that’s why [the bakers] kneel down and stare at it through the oven. In the end, the drama is less superficial, far deeper and more profound.

TV FORMATS: What do you look for in casting?

MCKERROW: The simple answer is brilliant bakers.

That is the one total rule; we want the best possible bakers. As a documentary maker, you’re trying to create an environment where people forget that the cameras are there, which is incredibly hard to do in constructed television. I look back to the first time that we brought the first group of bakers together, and we were watching them being watched by the two judges—I was in awe because they didn’t care that we were filming!

They were more obsessed with what the judges

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thought of their eclair, scone or loaf of bread than the camera. That’s the secret: when people are more passionate about the real thing that is going on than about being on television.

TV FORMATS: How do you keep it fresh and innovative, while still remaining true to the heart of the format?

MCKERROW: Fortunately, every year, 12 or 13 new bakers come along, with new stories and histories that are unique and individual. When we moved from BBC to Channel 4, the [hosting and judging] talent changed. But it didn’t make a difference to the show, because the true talents are the bakers—the ordinary people, not the celebrities. It doesn’t diminish the incredibly important role that the hosts and judges play; they are a vital and prominent part of it. But we have a mantra: Love the bakers, love the baking.

Every season, we try to make sure that we find the best possible bakers, that we find a broad range and also that the challenges are distinct and different. That’s not to say we wouldn’t do something that we’ve done before. There is the broad format of having the signature challenge, the technical challenge and the show-stopper, but I can’t begin to tell you the incredible amount of effort that goes into designing the various challenges. There’s a tremendous amount of work behind it and a team of people who really care about the show.

BBC Studios distributes the format globally. The format, like the original show, has grown slowly.

Denmark’s version is extraordinarily successful, with its latest series attracting over half of the viewing audience. Argentina did the first Spanish-language version in the [LatAm] region, ranking number one in its time slot with more than twice the share of the closest competition. There’s a version in Brazil.

We produce the American version, for ABC, in the U.K. The first-ever version we did was for CBS, The American Baking Competition, and it was shot in America. It didn’t do too badly, but one of the problems was that CBS didn’t promote it off-network.

When FOX put Gordon Ramsay against it with MasterChef, CBS didn’t move it. Therefore, it didn’t get picked up. We sold the finished programs of The Great British Bake Off to PBS, where it aired under the title The Great British Baking Show. Rob Mills [senior VP of alternative series, specials and latenight programming] at ABC Entertainment saw the British version on PBS and thought, Why don’t we let Love produce an American version in the same way they produce the British version? They let us do it the way we always wanted to do it.

TV FORMATS: How do you plot and test the challenges?

MCKERROW: We have an extraordinarily experienced, accomplished team that researches all the possible challenges. Then we try them out. We see how long it takes to do. That’s why Bake Off is really a 365days-a-year operation. Our contributor care almost reaches its most important period over the ten weeks [after the premiere].

Although it’s obviously vital during the preproduction casting and during the weeks that we film, now we’re in the time when we can’t control the public reaction. [Duty of care] is something that I am very passionate about. Television is pretty well regulated and yet social media is utterly unregulated, and therefore, I can’t tell you what’s going to happen next. All we can do is look after the bakers to the best of our ability during that period of time.

TV FORMATS: Was the plan from the beginning to format it for international markets?

MCKERROW: We’re always driven by the creative. If you’ve designed something original, there’s always a chance that it could travel internationally. If you make it to the best of your ability, certainly with an English-language program, there’s a good chance you can have program sales. To then sell the format, that’s a whole different bar that you’ve got to hit, which is mostly judged by audience figures.

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Love Productions makes The Great American Baking Show for ABC in the U.S., one of numerous adaptations of the hit BBC Studios format.

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Rob Clark

Fremantle rom Got Talent to Idols, Family Feud to The Price is Right, Fremantle is home to some of the biggest format brands in the business. Rob Clark, director of global entertainment, has been encouraging the teams at the company’s vast network of production partners to keep a close eye on their local markets for innovative ideas that could become international hits. A champion of risk-taking, Clark tells TV Formats how these efforts have been paying off, putting Fremantle in peak-performance mode creatively. By Kristin Brzoznowski

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TV FORMATS: Do you think that scripted “peak TV” has peaked and the pendulum is swinging back the other way toward unscripted entertainment?

CLARK: Television is quite cyclical; people will commission more dramas, then get bored with that and commission more entertainment. If you look at major broadcasters, their entertainment commissioning is on the rise.

When you can spot a trend, it’s no longer worth spotting; it’s a fact. It was a trend a few years ago, and now it’s a fact: there are more people commissioning entertainment than there has been for a while.

Also, for a lot of younger people who are in the key demo that’s so sought-after by broadcasters, they have never seen game shows! They’re new to them. What is a heritage show for me is brand new for a 19-year-old; they don’t know that it preexisted or who the old host was.

This is good news for us because Fremantle is the home of the game show. We have a big catalog of game shows, and we have more game shows being made at the moment than we have for many years. We have 40 different brands of game shows being produced this year so far.

TV FORMATS: What types of entertainment are most in demand?

CLARK: One genre that has really gone into overdrive and is performing way above its normal benchmark is game shows. Looking at America, it’s gone from being a game show-free zone five years ago to having prime-time schedules that have been dominated by game shows. ABC went from being a second [place] network to being the major network over the summer period, and they’ve done that on the back of scheduling game shows on Sunday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Among big commercial networks, game shows are certainly the genre that is attracting a lot of attention at the moment. After the success that ABC had in the States, we have been talking to all the major networks about other game shows that are available. ITV [in the U.K.] is commissioning game shows left, right and center. There seems to be a trend throughout Europe whereby networks are coming back to game shows.

Again, it’s cyclical. You often see increases in game-show commissions when the global economy is tanking. In 2007–08, that was the last spike in game-show commissions. Why? Because they’re relatively economical, safe and they attract a broad family audience for co-viewing.

TV FORMATS: What’s your view on the quest for “the next big thing”?

CLARK: The idea that there’s never going to be another global hit is utter nonsense. [Laughs] The networks are desperate for global hits. If it’s a hit that’s traveled, it proves that the format works and can attract an audience.

There’s an argument that there hasn’t been space for new global formats because the old global formats are still doing rather well. This year is the wrong year to put that argument forward. There is a huge format that is traveling around the world at a rate of knots: The Masked Singer. It is the breakout hit this year. It took a long time to come outside of its homeland of Korea, but it was a big hit in America. It has sold in nearly every European territory, as well as in Australia and Mexico. We have rights [for The Masked Singer] in many European territories, and we’ve sold it in an awful lot of them. This is, without a shadow of a doubt, another global behemoth.

It has been a long time coming, though. We haven’t really had something of that scale since The Voice. Before that, they were sort of like busses all arriving: The X Factor, Idols, Got Talent. Then we had to wait a while before we got The Voice, and now we’ve got The Masked Singer.

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ITV2 airs a rebooted version of Fremantle’s Supermarket Sweep format, which is also headed to the U.S.

TV FORMATS: How are you tapping into the creative minds of Fremantle’s network of production companies for new format concepts?

CLARK: Fremantle is set up like a federal system in a way.

Each territory has its own production company, and the bigger territories have their own development team. Centrally, that development is monitored, and we’ll back it with money, our knowledge and passion, and we will work with our broadcast partners to get it on air. We do that not just within the network of companies like Fremantle France or Fremantle Spain; we also do it with the companies that we’ve invested in, as part of our strategy where we’ve made minority investments that will build to overall ownership in the long run. We have a vast network mainly centered around Europe and America, but not exclusively there. As a creative entity, at the moment, we’re probably at peak performance for the time that I’ve been here, which is 16 years.

We’re in good shape creatively, in terms of idea-generation and commissions for new shows.

That is not to say that we will not work with third-party producers. It’s always been my belief that a good idea can come from anywhere; that’s not just anywhere geographically, it’s anywhere within our industry or outside of our industry. Vasha Wallace [Fremantle’s executive VP of global acquisitions and development] and I meet people on a very regular basis, sometimes from big companies, sometimes from tiny companies, sometimes people who are just idea machines themselves. We’re always happy to meet people with good ideas and support them, whether they’re part of an internal company, a partly-owned company or a completely third-party individual.

TV FORMATS: What’s your view on the future of the format business with regard to the streaming players?

CLARK: People are platform-agnostic. From a Fremantle point of view, we want our programs, our formats, our IP and the stars who we work with to be on the most appropriate platform. What is great at the moment is that that 428 WORLD SCREEN 10/19

platform could be a streamer, a traditional broadcaster, a global network, a national SVOD. These are markets that didn’t exist five years ago. For a company the size of Fremantle, with our creative output and depth of catalog, this is a fantastic time to be a producer.

What streamers want are brands. When you have a back catalog like ours, with names that people recognize, those big global platforms are often perfect for us. We’re willing to do work-for-hire like with Confetti [on Facebook Watch], as long as it’s a global deal. We don’t have to be the IP owner. We have to be nimble and find different ways of working, and in doing that, we can work for everybody.

TV FORMATS: When you’re assessing the future of the format business, where do you see the greatest opportunities?

CLARK: I’ve learned that it’s really important to listen to your gut and to take risks. I sometimes worry that some of our broadcasters are too risk-averse—not all of them and not every time. To really create magnetic brands—that literally draw an audience in and won’t let them go—it has to be something new. It’s not just a twist of the dial; it’s quite a big turn of the dial. It needs to look fresh, feel fresh; it needs to be different!

That’s why The Masked Singer works. I have so much admiration for Rob Wade [president of alternative entertainment and specials] and his team at FOX who made the decision to go with The Masked Singer. It had been around for quite a long time, and nobody could see its potential; they could. The minute it was a hit in America, then, of course, everybody could see its potential. I admire broadcasters that take those sorts of risks. I’d like to see more risk-taking and more believing in gut [instinct] instead of always wanting to have everything proven before it goes on air.

We would never have been able to launch Idols or Got Talent if we’d have been in that situation. You couldn’t prove them; they were too big! You just have to take a deep breath, say yes, and then wait and see what the audience wants and hope they like it.

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