TV Formats MIPCOM 2016

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TVFORMATS

WWW.TVFORMATS.WS

OCTOBER 2016

MIPCOM EDITION

Social-Experiment Formats / Co-Development Partnerships / Talpa Media’s John de Mol / NBCUniversal’s Paul Telegdy & Meredith Ahr / Married at First Sight’s Michael von Würden / Naked Entertainment’s Simon Andreae

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CONTENTS FEATURES

What’s Working?

In my many conversations with execs throughout the year, one question continuously pops up: what types of shows are working? When it comes to formats, the answer has generally been: more of the same.

Ricardo Seguin Guise Publisher Anna Carugati Group Editorial Director Mansha Daswani Editor Kristin Brzoznowski Executive Editor Joanna Padovano Managing Editor Sara Alessi Associate Editor Victor L. Cuevas Production & Design Director Phyllis Q. Busell Art Director Simon Weaver Online Director Dana Mattison Senior Sales & Marketing Manager Elizabeth Walsh Sales & Marketing Manager Andrea Moreno Business Affairs Manager

Ricardo Seguin Guise President Anna Carugati Executive VP Mansha Daswani Associate Publisher & VP of Strategic Development TV Formats © 2016 WSN INC. 1123 Broadway, #1207 New York, NY 10010 Phone: (212) 924-7620 Fax: (212) 924-6940 Website: www.tvformats.ws

Talent searches and competitions continue to hold coveted prime-time slots in many markets. Most of the classic entertainment formats, some of which launched nearly two decades ago, are still on air in one iteration or another.

There are also a handful that have been reappearing on new broadcasters after a period of absence. In this issue we hear from John de Mol, the creative force behind many unscripted megahits that are going strong globally.

With drama still riding high on schedules around the world, scripted formats remain a popular pick. The U.S. has tried its hand at some high-profile scripted adaptations from international shores, though with more failures than successes (which is perhaps why there are far fewer in the networks’ fall lineups this year compared to last). So what has been working best in the U.S.? NBC has several examples, including America’s Got Talent and The Voice. NBC Entertainment’s Paul Telegdy talks to TV Formats about some of the successful franchises he oversees. Also, Simon Andreae, a veteran of the nonscripted entertainment industry, discusses how his experience on the broadcast side of the business informs his work now at Naked Entertainment.

Factual and factual entertainment have been cited by many execs as genres that are working quite well currently. Generally cost-effective, these types of formats can be “the little engines that could” in a channel’s schedule—experiencing slow but steady builds that in the end create quite a bit of noise. A prime example is Married at First Sight, and we hear from its creator, Michael von Würden, about the keys to the show’s international success. Married is among the latest crop of social-experiment formats making waves globally. This genre has been in high demand as audiences seek out programming where authenticity reigns supreme. TV Formats takes an in-depth look at some of the elements needed to turn a social experiment into a global success story.

As distributors, producers and broadcasters look for format concepts that are truly new and innovative, many are teaming up to co-develop ideas. We explore some of these partnerships in this edition.

—Kristin Brzoznowski

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38 WHAT WOULD YOU DO? Social experiments are all the rage, but certain key elements must be in place for these formats to become global success stories.

46 46 TEAM SPIRIT Distributors, producers and broadcasters are aligning across borders to jointly develop concepts.

INTERVIEWS

54 Talpa Media’s John de Mol

58 NBC Entertainment’s Paul Telegdy +Universal TV Alternative Studio’s Meredith Ahr

62 Married at First Sight’s Michael von Würden

64 Naked Entertainment’s Simon Andreae

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A+E Networks The New Wife / UnREAL / Bride & Prejudice Through its partnership with Pulse Films, A+E Networks is launching the format The New Wife, commissioned by Channel 5 in the U.K. The show, part of the company’s MIPCOM offering, sees a divorced parent move in with an ex and the ex’s new spouse for two weeks. “It’s where good parenting and failed marriages collide,” says Ellen Lovejoy, the VP of international content sales at A+E Networks. The company is also launching its first scripted format in Cannes for the hit drama UnREAL. “We are in the process of taking the format out into the market, so that is very exciting,” Lovejoy adds. Another relationship-themed format from A+E is Bride & Prejudice, showcasing the struggle some people face to get their families to accept the person they love.

“All networks are looking for ways to build a buzz, and our formats can deliver on that.”

—Ellen Lovejoy The New Wife

Armoza Formats Curvy Supermodel / Born to Be a Chef / The Ex Team The reality competition Curvy Supermodel, on offer from Armoza Formats, features plus-size models who set out to change how beauty is defined. “We see that broadcasters are looking for new prime-time shows and feel-good content, and Curvy Supermodel provides both of these elements,” says Avi Armoza, the founder and CEO of Armoza Formats. Keeping in the prime-time competition arena, Born to Be a Chef watches as ten young apprentices push their budding talents to the limits. “Born to Be a Chef is a dramatic and tough competition that is perfect for family viewing,” Armoza says. The Ex Team, meanwhile, is a provocative new factual-entertainment format in which a bachelor who just can’t seem to find “the one” will be guided by a team of people who know him best: his exes.

“Armoza’s risk-taking and innovative approach has led to strong international successes.”

—Avi Armoza The Ex Team

BBC Worldwide !mpossible / Let It Shine / Thirteen From Mighty Productions, set up by the co-creators of The Weakest Link and Tipping Point, comes the brand-new BBC One quiz show !mpossible. “With exciting gameplay, a truly original concept and a big cash prize, it has the potential to be a schedule highlight for any broadcaster,” says Suzanne Kendrick, the head of global format sales at BBC Worldwide.

Kendrick says she’s looking forward to having initial conversations with broadcasters about the new BBC entertainment show Let It Shine, launching next year. “It’s a fantastic new take on the talent-search genre with bags of prime-time appeal.”

Among the slate of scripted formats from BBC Worldwide is Thirteen, a drama about a young girl adjusting to life after being kidnapped and held captive for 13 years. The series debuted on the revamped online-only BBC Three service.

“We’re excited to be coming to the market with a diverse raft of high-quality, award-winning and trailblazing new formats.”

—Suzanne Kendrick Thirteen 422 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Beauty World Search The Fashion Hero The reality series The Fashion Hero, produced by Beauty World Search and distributed by Looking Glass International, follows as people from all walks of life try to fulfill their dream of becoming a model. Hosted by celebrity singer/actress Brooke Hogan, the series is based on the popular online program of the same name. “Fashion Hero is an exciting and groundbreaking reality competition series that will change the parameters of the fashion industry,” says Caroline Bernier, the president of Beauty World Search and executive producer of The Fashion Hero. “We are also proposing an original revenue model for broadcasters with a strong social-media integration that is already happening in 138 countries. We aim to bring digital eyeballs back to television. This series will target the new generation eager to be famous and be an inspiration for their peers.”

“We are challenging fashion and changing lives.”

—Caroline Bernier The Fashion Hero

Canal 13 Chile Runaways / Young at 40 / It Was Worth It Canal 13 Chile is presenting three new productions through worldwide distributor Comarex, including the hit Runaways (Preciosas). The series tells the story of four women who meet while serving time in jail and the adventures they have after they make a successful escape. “Runaways, our latest prime-time production, has proven that the audience is eager for strong, different stories,” says Marina Del Canto, the VP of international sales at Canal 13 Chile. “This production is filmed with 4K technology, which makes it of incredible quality.” There is also the romantic comedy Young at 40 (Veinteañero a los 40) and the telenovela It Was Worth It (Valió la Pena). “These are all very innovative stories with universal values that can be appealing to audiences from all over the world,” says Del Canto.

“We have fresh stories for different audiences.”

—Marina Del Canto Young at 40

CJ E&M Words Wars /Between the Scenes/Sweetheart in Your Ear The experimental entertainment series Words Wars looks on as seven people of various nationalities who speak different languages live together for two months in a remote village and must collaborate to create a new lingua franca.

CJ E&M is offering this format to international buyers, along with Between the Scenes, a dramatic reality show about the romantic relationships that go on behind the scenes of a web show. “This is a unique cross-platform experience and can work on every web series that is planned to go into production,” says Jin Woo Hwang, the company’s head of global format development. Then there is Sweetheart in Your Ear, an experimental dating show. The format watches as daters first talk over the phone and then decide only from the conversation who they want to go out with.

“We believe our new experimental formats are truly transferable and workable in any territory.”

—Jin Woo Hwang Between the Scenes 424 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Electus International The Toybox /Running Wild with Bear Grylls /Separation Anxiety In the series The Toybox, expert toymakers compete for an opportunity to present their inventions to Mattel, but face a jury of children first. “Toybox speaks to the dreamer in all of us, to those of us who have thought up great ideas and inventions, and sees contestants try to fulfill their dreams,” says John Pollak, Electus International’s president of global distribution and Electus Studios. Running Wild with Bear Grylls has had three successful seasons on NBC in the U.S., and Electus International is licensing the formats rights for the show. “Running Wild takes viewers out of their element and puts us alongside A-list celebrities as they attempt to break out of their comfort zone and experience a true outdoor adventure,” says Pollak. Another company highlight is the game show Separation Anxiety.

“Continuing to expand our format business in Latin America and CEEMEA is key to our continued growth.”

—John Pollak Running Wild with Bear Grylls

Fox Networks Group Content Distribution Brain Games / School for Husbands / In Love Again A hit on National Geographic Channel, Brain Games is being offered as a format to the global market by Fox Networks Group Content Distribution. The company’s format slate also includes School for Husbands, a competitive reality show focused on relationships, and the comedic drama In Love Again, which originates from Turkey. “We are really excited to bring our first dedicated format catalog to the market with over 35 formats that will appeal to our international format partners,” says Prentiss Fraser, the company’s senior VP, global head of content distribution. “National Geographic is in over 171 countries and FOX in 146 countries, so we are able to work with our channels on a range of high-quality scripted and unscripted formats from around the world, developing new innovative formats that are proven successes with high ratings.”

“In Love Again resonates with men and women alike.”

—Prentiss Fraser In Love Again

FremantleMedia Get the F*ck Out of My House / Match Game / Families Gone Wild One hundred strangers cram into an average-sized home and compete to become the last man standing in Get the F*ck Out of My House, one of FremantleMedia’s MIPCOM highlights. “It’s a subversive and intriguing social experiment that compresses different characters with bold personalities in a very provocative environment,” says Rob Clark, the company’s director of global entertainment. FremantleMedia is also promoting Match Game, in which two contestants attempt to match the answers of celebrities by filling in the missing blank. Clark calls the format “fun, fool-proof and family-friendly.” There is also Families Gone Wild, a reality format set in the wilderness, where dysfunctional families must learn how to support each other.

“Families Gone Wild takes a novel approach to reconciliation, and it’s a rollercoaster ride for the audience,” says Clark.

“Our MIPCOM slate is packed with a diverse mix of formats, from provocative and noisy reality through to tried-andtested classics.”

—Rob Clark Match Game 426 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Global Agency Love Café / My Wife Rules / The Married Game Eight women eager for marriage have the chance to meet the man of their dreams in Love Café, part of Global Agency’s slate for the market. My Wife Rules, meanwhile, is a cooking contest in which husbands have to prepare meals based on instructions from their wives. “We will present Love Café and My Wife Rules for the very first time to our clients,” says Umay Ayaz, the company’s head of acquisitions. “We believe that they will be two of the most talked-about brand-new formats at MIPCOM and will get a lot of attention from international broadcasters.” Another highlight is The Married Game, a dailystripped show in which four men—three of whom are married—must try to convince a savvy bachelorette that they are single.

“These formats are highly entertaining, but also sensitive and romantic, which brings a different and unique approach to the dating genre.”

—Umay Ayaz The Married Game

ITV Inter Medya Join Instant /Celebrities in the Kitchen /Answer If You Can The online interactive game show Join Instant, which ITV Inter Medya is presenting at MIPCOM as part of its formats push, offers second-screen technology that allows viewers to play along at home. ITV Inter Medya’s president and CEO, Can Okan, is also highlighting the format Celebrities in the Kitchen for buyers. Over the course of 13 weeks, 13 celebrities receive formal culinary training from professional chefs. The stars are evaluated on their cooking abilities both by a judging panel and a public jury of 50 people.

Answer If You Can, meanwhile, is a quiz-show format that challenges contestants to answer questions while they’re placed in uncomfortable situations designed to distract them. These conditions are based on the contestants’ fears, weaknesses, personalities and habits.

“Join Instant gives the opportunity to everyone with internet access to join the contest from his or her home.”

—Can Okan Join Instant

Keshet International ManBirth / World’s Most Evil Killers / #TheFeed A ratings success in Asia, ManBirth is a new social-experiment format on offer from Keshet International (KI) in which soonto-be fathers get the opportunity to go through the mental and physical challenges their partners experience during pregnancy.

“The result is a heartwarming, feel-good format, which explores gender roles and relationships like never before, unraveling new truths about pregnancy,” says Keren Shahar, KI’s COO and president of distribution. As part of the company’s new true-crime slate from U.K. indie Woodcut Media, Keshet International is launching World’s Most Evil Killers. Each episode focuses on one notorious killer who has made national and international headlines. Also being introduced is the social format #TheFeed, which features culinary bloggers, restaurant critics, chefs and foodies who offer their perspectives on culinary hot spots.

“We continue to turn over every stone, searching every corner of the world to bring the best and most distinctive stories to our buyers.”

—Keren Shahar ManBirth 428 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Like It Love It International The Lyrics Board This year marks the 25th season of The Lyrics Board on public broadcasters NRK in Norway and SVT in Sweden.

The prime-time format has traveled to nearly 40 countries. “The message for this year’s MIPCOM is that The Lyrics Board is Singing with the Stars,” says Andy Ruane, co-creator of the format and the managing director of Like It Love It International. “Instead of dancing, the stars are singing.” In the show, a line from a song is hidden behind The Lyrics Board and one of the two teams must guess what song the line is from. The teams feature two piano-playing captains joined by four singing celebrities each week. “In the U.S. we want Elton John and Billy Joel as the team captains, and we want to shoot in Vegas,” says Ruane.

“The Lyrics Board is a classic longrunning celebrity game show.”

—Andy Ruane The Lyrics Board

Mediaset Distribution Code Name Solo / The Boss is Back / The Store of My Life There are two new scripted formats that Mediaset Distribution will be talking to buyers about at MIPCOM. The first, Code Name Solo, is a police thriller centered on a dangerous clan linked to international drug trafficking. The second, The Boss is Back, focuses on a mob boss who resurfaces after 30 years. “The stories are strong and adaptable for everybody,” says Manuela Caputi, the head of international sales for the Mediaset catalog at Mediaset Distribution. Caputi says that in addition to scripted formats, the company is eyeing the entertainment space. “It’s a very competitive market, but we are experimenting with new formulas such as the branded format The Store of My Life, which provides a great opportunity to use a big sponsor and is a unique program that we believe we can sell abroad.”

“We would like to expand our catalog with more entertainment formats.”

—Manuela Caputi Code Name Solo

Nordic World The Stream / Cash Out / To the Rescue In Nordic World’s The Stream, new artists are discovered and created in a way that replicates the workings of today’s music industry. Throughout the competition, the songs performed are released on the digital platform Spotify. Another company highlight, Cash Out, sees ordinary people being given a helping hand to achieve their ambitions, though it may require them to sell off precious belongings. Two comedians come to the aid of small companies struggling to stay afloat in To the Rescue. “All three shows tackle issues that are not only universal in their appeal but are also universally relevant,” says Paulina Eklund, the VP of sales for the Nordics, North America, LatAm and Africa at Nordic World. “They’re fun in the moment, but they also give viewers a lasting gift in the form of new information, new skills or a new way of looking at life’s challenges.”

“We strongly believe in ‘entertainment with a purpose.’”

—Paulina Eklund Cash Out 430 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Red Arrow International Look Me in the Eye / Kiss Bang Love / Streetlab Emotions run high in Look Me in the Eye, Red Arrow International’s social-experiment format that attempts to reunite divided families and friends through the power of eye contact. “Commissioned by ProSieben in Germany and proving a success around the world, Look Me in the Eye is a highly personal, genuine and life-changing new format,” says Henrik Pabst, the company’s managing director. From the creators of Married at First Sight comes Kiss Bang Love, a new dating-experiment format that examines the influence of physical chemistry on a romantic relationship.

“The show has been licensed in over ten territories, including Germany, the U.S., Australia and Denmark,” notes Pabst.

Streetlab, meanwhile, looks on as four friends test some of their wacky theories about human behavior.

“Our formats slate this MIPCOM highlights our commitment to working with some of the world’s top creative talent across entertainment, reality and comedy.”

—Henrik Pabst Kiss Bang Love

Secuoya Content Distribution La Vega / Che, The Survivors / Victor Ros The top three format highlights from Secuoya Content Distribution showcase the breadth of the company’s catalog. La Vega is a reality format produced in Chile with TVN. The program focuses on young people who don’t want to study or work and helps to teach them valuable lessons. Secuoya also has the scripted format Victor Ros. There’s now a second season of the period thriller for the marketplace. “Our big bet in scripted this year, Che, The Survivors, is an international co-production about the epic adventure of Che’s guerrilla survivors, which is a fascinating real story that will capture the audience,” says José Miguel Barrera, the company’s head of international. “It is based on the final moments of one of the most emblematic figures of the last decades.”

“After the success of the first season, we think that Victor Ros is a very interesting product for the international market.”

—José Miguel Barrera Victor Ros

Talpa Global 5 Golden Rings / The Next Boy/Girl Band / The Story of My Life The new game show 5 Golden Rings promises interactivity and cross-platform engagement. The format comes from Talpa and the ITV Studios label Possessed. “We’re proud to introduce the iconic and unique connected game show with refreshing questions that are never too hard or too easy,” says Maarten Meijs, the managing director of Talpa Global. The company’s slate also features the talent competition The Next Boy/Girl Band, in which two top record labels face off to create the next super group. “The Story of My Life is also a fantastic addition to our slate,” Meijs says.

He describes the format as a “talk show with a twist.” Also, following the introduction of the series Dance Dance Dance last MIPCOM, Talpa Global has closed a wide range of deals for the format.

“Talpa’s aim is to create unique content that’s able to turn viewers into fans by engaging them across multiple platforms.”

—Maarten Meijs Dance Dance Dance 432 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Televisa Internacional My Next Me / Domus / Los Gonzalez In My Next Me, a talent-show format that Televisa Internacional is presenting at MIPCOM, three music idols mentor aspiring young talents to help them launch their careers.

The stars share personal stories about their own journeys to the top. My Next Me also uses the Tune Machine, a nextgeneration software, to ensure that the contestants’ singing ability is assessed objectively. The reality show Domus takes the survival format to a new level in a search for the most extreme survivor. The show combines outdoor survival challenges with physical ones performed indoors under conditions similar to those found on Mars. Televisa Internacional is also offering the scripted comedy format Los Gonzalez, which sees a fictional family perform real hiddencamera pranks on unsuspecting victims.

My Next Me

TV Asahi Hide-and-Seek with Drones / Beat the Champions / Ranking the Stars One of TV Asahi’s new formats this season is Hide-andSeek with Drones. “This show combines a conventional popular game with the latest cutting-edge technology,” says Yuka Kakui, TV Asahi’s head of format development and sales for the international business department. Also on offer from the company is Beat the Champions, a sportsentertainment program featuring celebrities and amateurs challenging athletes at their own sports with special handicaps. “This format, which sold to many countries and aired in the U.S. last year, has the potential to travel widely to other regions,” Kakui says. In the talk show Ranking the Stars, celebrities rank each other in a variety of categories, ranging from dating to personality to lifestyle, and the same is asked of 100 ordinary people to see how the scores compare.

“Japanese formats are highly unique and have strong concepts.”

—Yuka Kakui Ranking the Stars

Twofour Rights This Time Next Year / The Home Game / Strip Date Personal transformations, home makeovers and dating take center stage in Twofour Rights’ formats slate. This Time Next Year is a prime-time studio entertainment show highlighting a series of real-life transformations. “This Time Next Year is the year’s fastest-selling new format, already appealing to buyers all over the world,” says Anthony Appell, the director of Twofour Rights. “It’s wholesome, feel-good TV with such emotion in the transformations [and] it makes compelling viewing that works the world over.” Strip Date, another MIPCOM highlight, is a dating show with a twist that tests modern preconceptions of beauty, image and attraction. Twofour is also showcasing The Home Game, which Appell says “makes over the makeovershow format, fast-forwarding to the big reveal of the new home and the all-important new price.”

“Across the board, we’re strong in the formats space, and believe in simple, feel-good formats with truly universal appeal.”

—Anthony Appell Strip Date 434 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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Vivendi Entertainment Guess My Age / Love à la Carte / Time’s Up Vivendi Entertainment, which was created following Vivendi’s acquisition of Can’t Stop Media in 2015, is looking to further the reach for the format Guess My Age. “From the very beginning, Guess My Age was designed to become a global format,” says Matthieu Porte, the company’s executive VP of international and development. “Guessing someone else’s age is a universal matter, which we have packaged in a highly addictive gameplay so that each episode brings nostalgia, suspense and emotion to every age group.” Vivendi Entertainment also brings to Cannes Time’s Up, a new family-entertainment game show based on a famous board game. The format sees two teams of teenagers, each paired with a celebrity, compete in a live-action game. Love à la Carte, meanwhile, gives four single chefs the chance to find real love and a partner for life.

“We are looking for the next paper ideas that we will commission and transform into formats with strong international appeal.”

—Matthieu Porte Love à la Carte

Zodiak Rights All Against 1 / Make My Body Better / Undressed Zodiak Rights is showcasing All Against 1, a weekly entertainment program that uses integrated app technology that “allows the whole family to play along at home against the brave contestant in the studio and the entire nation, live,” says Andrew Sime, the company’s VP of formats. Make My Body Better is a presenter-led program featuring individuals whose lives are overshadowed by a severe health issue and undergo life-changing treatments. Two strangers meet for the first time and strip each other down to their underwear in a dark room in the entertainment format Undressed, which Zodiak Rights is also presenting at MIPCOM. “As a viewer you’re invested in the couple and share in the vulnerability and excitement they experience during their emotional encounter,” says Sime.

“We’ve got a good mix of formats on our MIPCOM slate, ranging from prime-time studio entertainment to world-class factual entertainment.”

—Andrew Sime Undressed

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A+E Networks’ Seven Year Switch.

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what would Social experiments are all the rage, but certain key elements must be in place for these formats to become global success stories. By Kristin Brzoznowski ould you marry someone you’ve never met? Show up for a date entirely nude? Volunteer to sit in jail if you weren’t convicted of a crime? These are some of the scenarios at the heart of today’s popular social-experiment formats, which document how real people behave in certain situations.

As producers and broadcasters have cycled their way through countless twists and tweaks on reality-based shows—from dating to dancing, survival to celebs—social experiments have emerged as the genre du jour. Many would argue that they present a more “real” depiction of reality than formats in years past.

“Audiences are crying out for authenticity, and without a doubt, social experiments have exactly that,” says Grant Ross, the executive VP of global creative development and format acquisitions at Banijay Group.

John Pollak, the president of global distribution and Electus Studios at Electus International, agrees. He says that the popularity of this genre was born out of a backlash against some of the more heavily produced (sometimes even semi-scripted) reality fare. “Docusoaps were the ‘it’ genre for a long time; they were everywhere,” Pollak says. “Audiences began to see that many of these shows were produced in such a way that meant they weren’t always ‘real.’ There was so much of it that people finally had enough. They wanted to go in the opposite direction, which is real, authentic programming. A social experiment does that.”

When you hear the word “docusoap,” it’s relatively straightforward what the concept entails. The term “social experiment,” however, can be much less clear. Generally, they center on ordinary people being put into extraordinary scenarios. Audiences can easily see themselves reflected in these participants and may begin questioning how they would react if they were facing the same circumstances.

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Rob Clark, FremantleMedia’s director of global entertainment, argues that “social experiment” is just a buzzy new term to describe a certain form of reality show. “How it differs is that often it’s slightly less formatted and more observational,” he says.

SILENT OBSERVERS “Factual-entertainment formats have always been strong, and social experiments are a new breed of these,” says Harry Gamsu, the VP of format acquisitions and sales at Red Arrow International. “They’re noisy enough to get primetime slots, whereas a docureality or traditional factualentertainment format would struggle to be loud enough in prime time to cut through.”

The genre combines elements of reality shows, documentaries and soaps, says Etienne de Jong, the head of international productions at Talpa Global, which is behind the social experiments Utopia and Dating in the Dark. What defines a series as a social experiment “has more to do with the basic idea of the format—whether you give 15 people a piece of land, some chickens and cows and see if they can create a new world or not, or if you can fall in love by meeting somebody only in the dark,” he says. “The premise of the format has a big ‘what if’ question to it. It asks, What if…? and What would I do?”

“You’re setting up an environment or situation for a realworld activity to take place in so that you can observe it,” explains Hayley Babcock, the head of formats, international programming and production at A+E Networks, which has a roster of social experiments that includes 60 Days In and Seven Year Switch. “You want to provoke conversation, thought and introspection, but it’s very softly formatted.

Once you get the casting right, you largely just sit back and observe. You couldn’t script it as well as it actually unfolds if you wanted to.”

Nor would you want to, as true life has the potential to be more compelling than fiction since the stakes are real, and so are the people viewers are connecting with.

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which is the ultimate goal with shows like these.

“These characters walk into a world that might feel incredibly foreign to them, but within that world they feel comfortable,” Pollak says. “It is the special sauce of producing. Nothing feels over the top. It feels intentionally genuine and people on the show appreciate that and are more willing to let their guard down and share.”

While social experiments have the appearance of being largely observational in nature, it takes more than just turning a camera on to get a show that is compelling and can be successfully formatted in multiple markets. The production team still plays a key role in constructing the setting and pairing together the personalities needed to drive stories forward.

For example, in FremantleMedia’s new social-experiment format Get the F*ck Out of My House, 100 participants are placed together under a single roof, where in the end only one will remain.

Viewers are invited to “come revel in the chaos of the human zoo,” says Clark, as cameras document all the action of how and why people leave the show.

GUIDING LIGHTS

Following the success of the Italian original, Undressed has been licensed by Zodiak Rights into a number of European countries, including Poland, where it airs on TLC.

One of the most successful social-experiment formats as of late is Married at First Sight, which has been licensed into more than 25 markets. “The format has all the elements in it that make a social experiment work,” says Red Arrow’s Gamsu. “It’s got a very simple but loud premise. It’s a question that we’ve all asked ourselves: would you get married at first sight? When you watch it you start questioning that! There’s a focus on great casting, but it’s casting of people we can imagine ourselves being or knowing. They’re not alien to us. The other key thing is

The stories within the series are propelled by “the people and the situations that they find themselves in—that is all driven by the production team,” Clark explains. “They cast it, they make sure the right people are in, they have chosen the location—and they have not chosen this house for comfort!” There are also very strict rules in place that participants must abide by.

“Although it’s a social experiment, it is quite formatted,” Clark says. “We want shows that are returnable. Sometimes social experiments aren’t returnable because once you’ve seen the dénouement of the experiment you don’t want to see it again.

Watching a petri dish is not necessarily the best entertainment.

Watching something that’s formatted, that has the feeling of a

“Watching a petri dish is not necessarily the best entertainment.”

Rob Clark, FremantleMedia that it touches on a universal topic. Marriage is something we can all relate to, so as a viewer you engage with it straightaway.”

LOOKING FOR LOVE Electus’s Pollak agrees that when it comes to social experiments, relationships and dating are a great fit. He says that viewers can easily relate to the singles featured in the Dating Naked format, since (nudity aside) it’s ultimately about searching for love. The way that the format is structured and how the producers have crafted the environment are what help the social experiment to play out as naturally as possible—

very loose program but is primarily story-driven, that makes a big difference.”

Gamsu at Red Arrow is aware of the fact that, along with a strong premise, solid format pillars do need to be in place.

He cautions, though, “Don’t overproduce it; watch how it unfolds naturally.”

“The hand of the producer should be a nice soft touch,” Gamsu says. “We’re not leading the conversations. Compared to other dating formats, Married at First Sight is a more softly constructed show in the way that the journey develops. You want the narrative to progress naturally.”

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Red Arrow International’s Kiss Bang Love uses relationship experts to help select the singles who will take part in the social experiment.

Banijay’s Ross cites maintaining a hands-off approach as one of the greatest challenges when it comes to producing a socialexperiment format. “You have to trust your format and the experiment,” he says. “If you get nervous and try to intervene, you will throw things off.”

In the case of The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds—which Banijay’s sales arm, Zodiak Rights, represents—“if you leave half a dozen 4-year-olds in a room with a chocolate cake and tell them they cannot eat it, there is no need to get in the way or move things along,” says Ross. “What will play out is pure comedy.”

watch and get into the lives and heads of. If you don’t cast that properly, it’s not going to work. It might be a great world that you’ve created, but viewers need to care about the people in it that they are watching.”

The better the casting, the better a producer can, more or less, predict how the stories will play out by considering the backgrounds of the participants and what their chemistry with one another might be like.

Red Arrow’s Gamsu says that getting the casting right is one of the most time-consuming pieces of the overall production process. “That pulls you into a longer preproduction period. You also have a longer running time for the show itself. For a true experiment to come to fruition and be credible, it needs to run over an extended period of time to see real change. Otherwise, you’re just fooling the audience and it doesn’t work. So you do have a longer production period as well.”

There is a delicate balance that has to be achieved with social experiments in giving the audience just the right amount of story. This was one of the key lessons that producers learned with Utopia.

The original Dutch version, which has been successfully airing for more than two and a half years, is based on daily, 25-minute episodes. When the format was adapted in the U.S., FOX opted to air the show twice a week rather than every day. “It was impossible to tell the story in this amount of time,” says Talpa’s de Jong. “Real social-experiment formats are about storytelling. The viewer will never be hooked if you have to tell a story that happened over five or six days in real time in only two hours.”

In Germany, Utopia was on for nearly 50 minutes a day, double the duration of Holland’s version. “For the viewer, that was too long,” de Jong says. “You then have to tell much more story and situations are being [edited to run] longer. Holland is the best example of the format, in the daily, 25-minute structure.”

IMMERSIVE ENTERTAINMENT Also, by airing a social-experiment show in a daily slot, viewers get immersed in the stories and the following becomes similar to that of a soap opera, de Jong says. “For a broadcaster, it’s very good because it’s cheaper than a real soap with actors that you have to pay big salaries!”

“You go into a social-experiment production not knowing how it’s going to play out—that’s a scary thing!”

John Pollak, Electus International The same rings true about trusting in the premise for the format Undressed, Ross explains. “By placing two strangers in a room and asking them to undress each other, the resulting connections that naturally occur are real and fascinating to observe.”

CHARACTERS WANTED One important piece—if not the most important piece—in eliciting genuine stories that engage the audience is casting.

“Because you’re not telling the people on the show what to do or say, you need to find great characters,” says Electus’s Pollak. “These are the people that viewers are going to

Banijay’s Ross points out that broadcasters also get the benefit of social experiments creating a fair bit of noise in their schedules. “In a landscape of multiple channels and screens and the need to stand out, it’s a marketer’s dream come true,” he says.

Clark feels confident that the subversive nature of Get the F*ck Out of My House will pique broadcasters’ interests.

“This is a loud show. This is not one of FremantleMedia’s broad-appeal talent shows; it’s a different sort of format for us. It’s targeted for younger adults, male and female viewers, and it’s supposed to be provocative. Calling the show Get the F*ck Out of My House in itself is a provocative statement.”

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The Electus International format Dating Naked, which was originally produced for VH1 in the U.S., follows as people go on blind dates while completely unclothed.

While Clark admits it’s not an easy show to produce, he does say it’s a challenge he’s excited to undertake. “As a producer, you very much have to move with the flow of what’s happening; you can’t plan ahead. You don’t know the outcome.”

Even with the core premise of the social experiment in place and a general idea of the story that’s to be told, there are still many variables at play that impact the outcome of the final series. “You go into a social-experiment production not knowing how it’s going to play out—that’s a scary thing!” says Electus’s Pollak. “With Dating Naked, you cannot control the reactions or the feelings that people have toward each other,

and trust in the production and the experts to bring out the best in themselves and get the most out of the experiment.”

A+E Networks’ Babcock expresses a similar sentiment concerning the emotional support needed for participants on shows like 60 Days In, in which participants are locked in prison with real criminals, and Seven Year Switch, following couples who swap spouses as part of switch therapy. “You put in as many safety nets for these individuals as possible,” she says.

EMOTIONAL SUPPORT “You are dealing with real emotions, people and relationships.

You have to be incredibly respectful of that and incredibly

“We’re not trying to create car-crash moments.”

Hayley Babcock, A+E Networks but producers can set up the dates and the moments so that when those feelings happen, they are able to catch them.

Then they’re real and they’re great. You need to have a great team in production, but also in post-production who can then grab all of those moments and create a show around them.”

INTO THE UNKNOWN Red Arrow’s Gamsu adds, “You want to be prepared and know what’s coming, but it’s impossible to do that; you can’t tell exactly what’s going to happen. That’s what delivers the great content. For a viewer, it makes it thrilling. For a producer, it’s pretty stressful! You have to believe in the format and believe in the premise. You have to believe that even if it doesn’t follow the exact path you wanted it to, that’s a positive, and it’s what makes it a more interesting show to watch and produce.”

One of the variables that is all but impossible to control is the emotions of the participants, notes Gamsu. This is why having knowledgeable experts—skilled in psychology, matchmaking, communication, etc.—involved can pay off.

“The experts are really important,” he says. “We don’t want to play with people’s emotions. The [participants] must trust us

careful with it, without going so far as to sugarcoat the situation and prevent them from experiencing the consequences of their choices and decisions. You walk a fine line.”

Babcock says this is why it’s important to enlist qualified psychologists, psychiatrists and family therapists. They not only help choose the appropriate people to participate in the show in the first place, these experts then guide the process so that the experience is fruitful, not detrimental.

“We’re not trying to create car-crash moments,” she says.

“Will there be some jaw-dropping, emotional, intimate, revelatory moments? Probably, as these situations are so dramatic— cameras or none.”

Babcock says that social-experiment formats, to a certain degree, present a mirror of what’s happening in society; therefore, she sees the genre delving into more personal depths in the future. “As people get used to sharing their private worlds publicly, thanks to social media, that firewall between private life and public life is not as apparent. That may then be reflected in the kinds of moments and stories happening in our society, which we will then see on screen.”

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Armoza Formats’ The Final Cut-Down.

Team Spirit Distributors, producers and broadcasters are aligning across borders to jointly develop concepts.

By Mansha Daswani t would appear that the formats business is taking a page out of the international drama playbook, at least when it comes to creative collaborations. Over the last few years, an increasing number of distributors have been entering into co-development partnerships with broadcasters as they look for new ways to come up with the next big global hit.

“There’s no doubt that co-development is the future,” states Alon Shtruzman, the CEO of Keshet International (KI). “We see more parties collaborating on projects. The economy, competition and obviously [market] saturation are all supporting the trend toward co-development. We think it’s more than a trend; it’s strategy.”

Avi Armoza, the founder CEO of Armoza Formats, says that development alliances result in both financial and creative benefits. “The creative benefit is important in coming up with formats that travel, as it can help bring you to a new and innovative result through the combination of cultures and ways of thinking,” Armoza explains. “This is particularly important in the current industry, where the widespread consolidation often leads to stagnation in creativity. The financial benefits can either come through decreasing your risks or through enabling you to come to an improved product with higher potential.”

I

Guillermo Borensztein, the VP of co-productions and new business development at Argentine broadcaster Telefe, lists three main reasons for entering co-development partnerships, as it has done with Sony Pictures Television, FremantleMedia, Warner Bros.’ Eyeworks and KI. “The first is [they enable us to] continue working with leading players that can provide us added value. Second, these agreements are important for us to strengthen our presence in the world as a producer that generates innovative content. Finally, in some cases, we also satisfy the needs of our own screens. That [success] allows the distributor to introduce a proven format.”

BEARING FRUIT Borensztein says he and the team at Telefe’s content and international business segment (led by Tomas Yankelevich) have been “very pleased” with its alliances so far. This year Telefe aired Dueños de la Cocina (Kitchen Owners), which was co-developed with Warner Bros.-owned Eyeworks Argentina. Next year, Telefe is expected to air an entertainment format that was developed in collaboration with KI, Shtruzman says, having inked a partnership with the broadcaster in 2015.

KI has been very active on the co-development front over the past year, particularly in Latin America, the U.S. and China.

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Croton Media to partner on the development of local versions of Traffic Light and Loaded. “It’s a really exciting project for us since these series are two of a handful of scripted formats ever to be imported into China from outside of Asia.

It’s also the first time either format has been remade for the Asian market.”

Shtruzman adds, “China is like a theme park for TV creators. There are so many TV stations and the audience is so diverse and hungry for great television.”

Armoza Formats also has co-developed projects in China, aligning with Sohu.com for The Running Show. In Europe, meanwhile, the distributor partnered with TF1 on the interactive studio-entertainment format The People’s Choice and with TV Barrandov on The Final CutDown. The company is also working with TVA in Canada on several projects and is now collaborating on a new concept with the broadcaster.

“As Armoza Formats has grown, our mission has evolved and shifted from an Israel-centered focus to encompass a more global perspective,” Armoza says. “Our international partnerships and cooperations around the world enable us to realize this evolution by combining Israeli creativity with key industry players and open up strategic, creative and commercial possibilities that might have never otherwise emerged.”

HOT SPOTS Telefe partnered with Eyeworks Argentina to develop Dueños de la Cocina, which aired on the Argentine broadcaster this year.

In the U.S., KI has a deal with Telemundo Studios “to codevelop and produce new Spanish-language formats and series to air on the Telemundo network,” Shtruzman says.

“It’s a big step for us. It’s going to be the first Spanish-language original produced under the KI banner. We believe the intellectual and creative collaboration between Telemundo and KI can result in very exciting projects.”

Across the border in Mexico, meanwhile, KI has a broader deal with Televisa, which has the right to remake some of its formats in the next three years. “We have shows like Loaded—which has also been commissioned by Channel 4 in the U.K.—already in the works as a Spanish production.

In the next two years we’re hoping to have at least three or four more projects.”

SKILL SETS KI’s alliances over the last year demonstrate how bullish it is about opportunities in Latin America. “We find that the Latin market is dynamic and creative,” Shtruzman says.

“The networks are very opinionated, and they know what they want. Part of the essence of co-development is bringing to the market not only IP but also skills and expertise.

Historically we only came to the markets with a bag of great IP. Now we also have a bag of skills, creativity and experience. It’s so exciting when two parties from different cultures collaborate to develop one project, and we feel that the collaboration with Latin American and Hispanic networks is very creative and fruitful.”

Shtruzman says that KI has also been “very active” in China with deals like the one it has with Huace Group/

For ITV Studios, its longest-running development alliance has been with Reshet, partnering with the broadcaster on a joint venture called The Lab almost three years ago to create ideas for the Israeli market, the U.K. and the U.S. that could then be formatted elsewhere.

“We have five or six formats that came out of that, produced and on air,” says Mike Beale, the executive VP of global development and formats at ITV Studios. “The biggest one in the sense of ongoing [production] is Game of Chefs. It’s just been announced for its third season in Israel, we’ve had seasons two and three commissioned in Romania and it’s been made in Germany.”

More recently, ITV Studios Global Entertainment (ITVS GE) aligned with Formata Production and Content, a start-up in Brazil run by Daniela Busoli. “That is a dual relationship: format production and also development. We’ve got a couple of things coming from that, both going into Brazil and coming out of Brazil,” Beale says.

ITVS GE also entered into a deal with Korea’s CJ E&M that Beale refers to as less of a development pact and more of a “format swap.”

CJ E&M has a much broader relationship with Endemol Shine Group. “We have invested our best creators and producers in creating a show that has the potential to become the next big thing,” says Jin Woo Hwang, the head of global format development at the Korean media group. “The producers of Endemol Shine’s Big Brother and CJ E&M’s The Genius Game have been working together, and we have created a completely new format called The Society Game.”

For Endemol Shine, the pact allowed it to secure a foothold in Korea, which Lisa Perrin, CEO of Endemol

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process to work, it needs “designated champions” from each partner. “Codevelopment is all about teamwork and integrating different processes and sensibilities. Each designated champion obviously has a team behind him/her, and each champion brings the local sensibilities and the local knowledge.”

RELATIONSHIP TIPS

Shows developed by The Lab, ITV Studios’ venture with Reshet, include Game of Chefs, which originated in Israel and has been adapted in Romania, among other markets.

It also helps for the two sides collaborating to respect each other and enjoy working together. “There should be a match,” Shtruzman says.

“As you know, in love and business, a match can come from different directions. If it’s a good match with good chemistry and we share the same vision, it will work. I wouldn’t say [you need the same] sensibilities. Actually, many times the vision is based on different sensibilities, especially if you want to develop a show that will work locally and also globally. So the sensibilities can be different—in fact, it’s pretty exciting to have different sensibilities in the same process. If we share the vision of creating a big, interesting, international show, and if there’s good chemistry between the parties, that’s the ground for co-development. When you’re codeveloping, one plus one equals more than two. That’s the reason to co-develop.”

Armoza keeps three criteria in mind when determining who to partner with. “The first is whether or not it will bring about a new result, something that will stand out from the competition in the market or that will provide for an untapped need,” he says. In the case of The Running Show with Sohu, for example, “Partnering with the largest streaming platform in China, in particular on an original non-scripted show, was far from the norm. Yet we saw the potential to bring about fresh and cost-effective content and to utilize the as-yet untapped potential in China.”

A view towards “long-term collaboration” is also essential: “Ideally, the impact of the initial partnership will lead to other joint commercial prospects,” Armoza says.

Shine Creative Networks, refers to as an “upcoming hot Asian market. [The partnership] really made sense for us and our team in Asia.”

Collaboration in practice included plenty of face-to-face meetings between the Endemol Shine and CJ E&M teams.

“We’ve had probably four or five big meetings either in Korea or Cannes,” Perrin says. “We’ve split it between Europe and Asia. We’ve had the team from our Asian market [participating], but we’ve also supported it with good creatives from around the group.”

“In practice, it’s face to face as often as you can, but realistically that’s two or three times a year,” ITV Studios’ Beale says of the collaboration process. “And give it time. It’s not a half-hour meeting in Cannes or any other market for that matter. Spend time with each other, at least a day if not a couple of days in those meetings. And then [you need] regular catch-ups. The worst thing about development is if stuff goes into a limbo and isn’t moving forward. With Reshet we have [phone calls between] Israel, London and L.A. It’s early morning L.A., early evening Israel, and you block out a couple of hours and you have those regular calls, fortnightly or monthly, to make sure that stuff is moving. It’s easy to get lost. Communication is very important.”

Borensztein at Telefe notes the importance of clearly defining your needs at the outset. “From here, parties exchange ideas and pre-select concepts to develop. We coordinate meetings between the teams that in most cases include traveling. We send our suggestions, they send back theirs and we go back and forth until we all feel comfortable with the content and then introduce it to the decision-makers. Up to [this point] it’s just an approved idea [for] development that includes a proposed structure of the show. If it’s greenlit, we enter into preproduction, which includes developing a bible, budgeting, etc., with many more people involved on both sides.”

Outside of constant communication, KI’s Shtruzman says that for the co-development The creators of CJ E&M’s The Genius Game are part of a team that is working with Endemol Shine on new concepts.

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KI entered into a deal with Huace Group/ Croton Media to develop a Chinese version of Traffic Light.

Lastly, and most important, Armoza notes, is the need for “shared goals and values. While this may often seem to be the case at a superficial glance, an in-depth understanding of the true goals and values of a potential partner can highlight differences that can challenge a collaboration, despite the best intentions. It is only when your aims truly align that you find a prosperous and long-term partnership.”

Telefe’s Borensztein looks for “producers with great track records and strong distribution arms” that have complementary approaches to creating, financing, producing and revenue-sharing.

MATCH-MAKING CJ E&M’s Hwang, when asked what he looks for in potential partners, lists “creativity, experience [and a] commercial and collaborative mindset…. Everyone is looking for something new, and co-development ideas can provide something new.

However, making a show that travels well is not something everyone can manage. We call this the ‘global competency,’ and this is the greatest benefit that CJ E&M can obtain. Korea has so many talented people. We can make fast, effective, original, fresh shows, and we are looking for more opportunities.”

What benefited the CJ E&M and Endemol Shine partnership was the fact that the companies had worked together on the Korean adaptation of MasterChef. “We already had a relationship with them and were talking to them every day and it wasn’t us forcing them to the altar, so to speak!” Perrin quips.

Speaking more broadly on what she looks for in partnerships, Perrin notes, “Development never works unless both sides respect each other and both sides think they are

creatively akin and talking the same language. Those fundamentals are where you start from. And then it’s thinking hard about the personalities that are in the room [during development meetings].”

NEW ALLIANCES Following the Korean experience, Perrin is exploring other co-development opportunities. “I’m looking at Scandinavia.

We’ve got lots of good producers in Scandinavia. I feel like it’s a territory that can launch international formats and I’d like to explore a co-development deal with a broadcaster there. It’s something I’ve started taking baby steps toward.”

ITV Studios’ Beale is also looking at potential partnerships with European broadcasters. “It’s a key trend we’re seeing where the broadcasters want to find a new format, they can’t find the one they’re looking for, so are keen to develop their own. We’re looking for new windows.”

Ultimately, Beale says, these deals are as much about relationship building as they are about creating new format ideas. “It’s a relationship thing,” he says. “Development and creation of IP and ownership of IP are very emotive things, especially for the creators. You want to be in partnership with somebody you know you can trust, you know you can have open conversations with, otherwise the development process is not going to work. Going back to Reshet, that is one of the great things we have with them—a very open dialogue. If we think an idea is bad or they think an idea is bad, then we tell each other. You can’t waste time pottering along developing stuff that isn’t going to work for you.”

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The creative force behind so many unscripted megahits, from Big Brother and Deal or No Deal to The Voice, John de Mol is perhaps more productive now than he ever has been in his prolific career. Since selling his company Talpa Media to ITV last year, Talpa operates as a separate business unit within ITV Studios. As de Mol tells TV Formats, he now has more time to dedicate to what he really loves: brainstorming sessions, creating pilots and

By Anna Carugati selling formats.

TV FORMATS: What benefits have you derived from ITV’s acquisition of Talpa and what benefits has ITV derived from the deal?

DE MOL: After the deal with ITV, we organized our management team in such a way that now I only spend 10 percent of my time dealing with management issues, whereas before it was much more. The good result of that is that I can spend much more time and effort and energy creating new formats with my team, selling them and making pilots. So there has been an immense increase in the pipeline of formats at Talpa.

Another benefit of the ITV deal is that we are seeing an increasing number of Talpa formats on ITV channels. We are very proud to announce that the ITV version of the show Dance Dance Dance is going to be produced in Holland. I consider that a big compliment because the ITV executives have all been here and they said, “Well, you guys do such a fantastic job here, we couldn’t do it better in the U.K., let’s produce our version here [in Holland] as well.” Last, but not least, we have created together with ITV a new format called 5 Golden Rings, a very original quiz show that will be broadcast on ITV early next year. It has also sold in Holland and probably will sell in Germany. We are going to produce it in Holland in a sort of hub, with all the international versions made here.

As for the benefits of the deal for ITV, Talpa is doing extremely well financially and is contributing in a very healthy way to the profits of ITV. In addition, we’ve decided to team up in a number of important markets in which the local ITV Studios labels produce our shows.

TV FORMATS: How much has the TV landscape changed since Big Brother launched and has your process for looking for new ideas changed?

DE MOL: The television landscape has changed immensely. In each country, you see so many new smaller TV stations that focus on smaller audiences [and consequently] have smaller budgets to spend. At Talpa, we are always searching for the next big thing, but for the last four or five years we have also been looking for smaller formats. I can give you a few examples of very successful shows we have developed over the last few years. We recently premiered a new talk show called The Story of My Life. We have been looking for a talk-show format for a long time and we have succeeded. In The Story of My Life, a celebrity couple is interviewed by a host. The couple is 30 years old in real life and after ten minutes makeup artists turn them into 60-year-olds and 20 minutes later we turn them into 90-year-olds. That has such a huge impact when you have a talk show because it creates a whole new

atmosphere and a whole new discussion. The show recently premiered in Holland and was a huge success. The format was sold to a key territory before its official debut in the Netherlands, with more countries likely to follow suit.

TV FORMATS: Talpa has had great success in China. How did that come about?

DE MOL: Success always has to do with a little luck and the little luck I’m referring to is the fact that The Voice in China is so incredibly successful that it put us on the map in such a way that every Chinese TV broadcaster wants to be in touch with us to see what else we have in our creative catalog. We have signed a new deal for The Voice in China for three years with a new partner, Zhejiang Tangde, who has made a huge commitment of $50 million for three years to develop and produce at least three to four new formats in the Chinese market, of which Dance Dance Dance will be the first one.

TV FORMATS: Are there other territories where you would like to have a partnership or a joint venture?

DE MOL: When we started to think outside our borders in Holland, the expertise and experience I gained at Endemol had taught me that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have subsidiaries or joint ventures in small markets. The amount of work and attention you have to give them is the same as having a joint venture in a big market, but as far as the bottom line goes, they hardly pay off. So we have decided that in the main markets we try to have wholly owned subsidiaries and we have succeeded with that in the U.S., the Middle East and in Germany. In other big markets, like the U.K., France, Italy and Australia, we have joint ventures with very good local producers with whom we work exclusively. We have minority stakes in production companies in Russia and Africa.

TV FORMATS: The Voice in the U.S. keeps going strong. The business in the U.S. continues to work well for you?

DE MOL: Yes, absolutely, the U.S. is our biggest and most important market, although China is really very close, and [our performance in the U.S.] is based on the huge success of The Voice.

Season 11 feels like it’s the first season—it’s so good, so fresh and so fantastic. We have a relationship with NBC that led to the sale of another program for the network. We have sold a game show to the U.S., which is in preproduction and we are close to two other deals with other broadcasters. So the U.S. is still our number one market. But I’m curious to see when, for us at Talpa, China becomes a bigger market than the U.S.

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The American version of The Voice kicked off its 11th season on NBC this September with a brand-new coach lineup, on the heels of its third Primetime Emmy win.

TV FORMATS: When you have a show that has been on the air for many years, I imagine you have to strike a balance between leaving those elements that continue to work while refreshing other aspects. Is that an art?

DE MOL: Unfortunately that is an art and not a science! Because on one hand, as a producer of a format, you are working, thinking and inside the format for 24 hours a day, which leads to the fact that the people who make the show tend to get bored with certain elements of the format much sooner than the viewer, who sees The Voice twice a week. I don’t think the viewers get bored so easily. It’s very difficult to decide what to change and what not [to change]. That involves long discussions; sometimes even testing to make sure you don’t make mistakes.

TV FORMATS: Viewers often have their smartphones or another screen in front of them when they watch TV. Do you try to give them material for their smaller screens?

DE MOL: Yes, I think that’s the tendency of the last couple of years. Almost every format and TV show, at least what we develop, has elements for connecting with digital platforms.

Our philosophy is that we want to maintain our position as a forerunner in connected formats and engage both traditional [viewers] as well as millennials. On the other hand, I am still convinced that once in a while, people want to sit down on the couch, relax and just enjoy an entertainment show without pushing buttons, without using their phone, without using their apps. But the young generation, mostly, expects that a TV show has at least a few elements that make it interactive.

TV FORMATS: Are scripted formats more difficult to get right and to execute in many territories than an unscripted show?

DE MOL: Oh absolutely. If you create and develop fiction in the U.S., you create it for a market that everybody knows and in a language that basically everybody speaks. And because we have seen so many movies and scripted series from that market, we see cities and backgrounds that everybody knows. If we create a fiction series in Holland, we base it on local situations and local backgrounds. So the best you can achieve is that the basic idea of your series is something you can transform into a new background, but it is much more difficult than an entertainment format and unscripted formats.

Although, we have been modestly successful with a few [scripted] formats that we sometimes sold ready-made and sometimes sold the scripts.

TV FORMATS: Do you agree with people who claim that because of the popularity of drama, the time for reality and entertainment shows is over?

DE MOL: No, no, no, and if you look back at the history of the past 20 years, how many times have we heard that? Take the quiz show for example. The quiz show was dead until somebody invented Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and we did Deal or No Deal and quiz shows are alive as never before. It’s a matter of creativity. If you go back 50 or 60 years, a quiz show was based on [a simple formula]: a host in the studio, a contestant, the host asked a question and the contestant had to answer. Based on [this formula] we have seen 2,500 different formats in quiz shows. And we haven’t seen the end of it because on one hand, all the technological developments that we have seen in the last couple of years are, in some respects, maybe a bit of a threat to traditional TV, but on the other hand, they give us technical possibilities that we never had before.

Thanks to technology we can create formats now that were not possible ten years ago. Dance Dance Dance is a great example of a show that you could not produce ten years ago— impossible. Thanks to all the developments of virtual reality, augmented reality and computer technology, we are now able, within a reasonable budget, to create and re-create clips that were produced for tens of millions of dollars and shot for three weeks. We can reproduce that now in a couple of days in the studio. We can re-create famous dance numbers, everything from Beyoncé videos to the dance numbers in movies like Saturday Night Fever. Thanks to computer techniques we create a set and make it look exactly like the set you know from the video clip. And the celebrity couples, together with the best dancers from all over the world, work their asses off for months and train every day for hours to dance at a level of quality that you’ve never seen before.

TV FORMATS: What do you enjoy about the creative process?

DE MOL: We have a great team of roughly 25 people; the youngest I think has just turned 18. We have at least nine women working for us because I believe female intuition is very important. So the whole machine, with the people we have put together, is now functioning so well. It is a joy to have creative sessions with people who understand so well what it takes to create a format, what things you have to think of, what things you should and should not do. That’s why the pipeline is fuller than ever and I love the process, even if sometimes after six hours you have to conclude that you spent six hours and the result is zero. But the following week you have a meeting of one hour and the result is 100 percent.

And that is a feeling I can’t describe—the moment you feel, yes, now we have something which is really, really good. I never get used to it! If you get used to it, that’s the moment to stop and get out of the business and do something else!

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TV FORMATS: What led to the creation of a new alternative television studio at NBCUniversal?

TELEGDY: As we recalibrated our strategy, we envisaged a lot more producing, creativity and content creation.

Meredith [Ahr] agreed to come back from maternity leave to transform the studio into a global powerhouse of unscripted production and distribution. That process is nascent still, and we have a huge rollout across the coming year.

TV FORMATS: And the studio will still partner with other companies as you develop new shows?

TELEGDY: Endemol were our partners on Deal or No Deal. They have a prowess in the area of the event game show. Of course, we’re aggressive internationally as the next [alternative entertainment] company, and we have an amazing distribution company adjunct to ours, but with Endemol Shine’s relationships and expertise specifically in the big shiny-floor game-show arena, they are a natural partner for us. So Endemol Shine and our studio will be bringing The Wall to market gradually next year.

TV FORMATS: America’s Got Talent is still going strong for NBC, as other summer reality shows have seen ratings declines. How have you been able to achieve that?

TELEGDY: Simon Cowell returned for its 11th season [and will be back for the 12th]. It is on fire as the number one rated [summer] reality show in America. I’m not going to

By Mansha Daswani

Of all the U.S. networks, NBC has arguably been the most active when it comes to acquiring format concepts from the global market. This summer it aired an American version of the CJ E&M megahit Korean series Grandpas Over Flowers. The adaptation, Better Late Than Never, was given a massive promotional platform with spots aired throughout NBC’s coverage of the Olympic Games from Rio. Out of the closing ceremony, meanwhile, NBC offered up a preview of the 11th season of The Voice. Based on the Dutch format, the show has been a huge hit for NBC over the years—winning three Primetime Emmys as outstanding reality competition—and the network has refreshed it this fall with a brand-new coach lineup, adding Alicia Keys and Miley Cyrus to a panel with returning mentors Blake Shelton and Adam Levine.

Paul Telegdy, the president of the alternative and reality group at NBC Entertainment, talks to TV Formats about managing franchises and the brand-new Universal Television Alternative Studio, which will provide content to NBC and other outlets.

take any credit whatsoever for anything other than caring that that be the case. I care deeply that we raise the bar creatively and that we market it well. There’s a group of people who care deeply about sustaining this global franchise, including our partners who produce the show: FremantleMedia and Syco. Executives at both of those companies understand that they are on to a good one here, and we should all work really hard to keep it going. I applaud the executive producers of the U.S. show as they are absolute leaders in creativity. They are prepared to make a thousand small changes that you and I wouldn’t notice, but that they do. They inconvenience themselves on a year-round basis casting, caring and doing it better than anyone else. I’ve also got to say we’ve had brilliant and fun talent every year.

Meredith and Simon Cowell together hatched America’s Got Talent based on a broken pilot for ITV with Paul

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O’Grady. America’s Got Talent has broken every global format record that is available to break and is a Guinness World Record holder. Simon and Meredith have been around it since the second it was thought of right through to the delivery of its [most recent] episode.

TV FORMATS: Tell us about the changes in The Voice, with the new mentor lineup.

TELEGDY: We’ve gone big. The Olympics are an enormous platform that comes around once every two years.

The Voice is a fantastic show that sustains 90 hours a year. We love it and want it to continue to thrive. Using the Olympics to introduce a new coach lineup was an obvious thing for us to do. The thing that had been staring us in the face is we hadn’t quite understood why we had a three-man, one-woman panel. So we were able to explore a very simple change, which was to have two men, two women. It was not a decision to create any false battle of the genders—that doesn’t exist with artists at this level. It gave us an opportunity to fulfill a long dream of all of ours, which was to work with Alicia Keys.

I know that’s sounds trite, but she’s amazing. She’s such a talented musician, and the music world reveres her. It is very clear that the contestants revere her, too. Miley Cyrus’s career started about the same time as Alicia’s because she was a child star, from a showbiz family.

Dolly Parton is her godmother! This is someone who has been dipped in fairy dust since she was born. Miley is

unstoppable when she puts her mind to things. She is a true pro.

We [previewed the new season] straight out of the Olympics Closing Ceremony.

There are some echoes here. America’s Got Talent is in its 11th season in its 11th year, and The Voice is in its 11th season in its fifth year. It’s done a different kind of duty, and it requires a different kind of maintenance project, and we are fully engaged in it.

We bookended the summer with America’s Got Talent going into the Olympics, back into America’s Got Talent, the culmination of American Ninja Warrior [based on a Japanese format] and into the Miley Cyrus/Alicia Keys season of The Voice. We’ve got the lights on in a big way, and we used this extraordinary platform [of the Olympics].

Broadcast tele vision is still really special. That’s part of what the message here is. Think about what we do differently than Netflix and the big over-the-top services that are hand-delivering niche programming, in many cases, directly to consumers on a direct marketing basis. We do the events that join generations of families together. We have millions of research data points around the extremely special relationships [audiences have] with mass-marketed, co-viewed, family-friendly, multigenerational programming: sports, live events, big reality competition shows.

Using [the Olympics] to get Meredith’s studio humming with fantastic broad franchises is the goal, and the building blocks are certainly there.

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America’s Got Talent was the first version of the now record-breaking format from FremantleMedia and Syco.

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TV FORMATS: How are you looking to position the studio in the international formats landscape?

TELEGDY: A lot of production companies understand that at a network, there are people who talk a lot and wave their arms around and have British accents, like me, and then there are people that are the secret sauce of what makes shows on the ground absolutely great from a real storyteller’s point of view. Anyone who wants to can pitch the network, and anyone who wants to can pitch Meredith, and production companies are pitching her.

We want the big, high-level franchises at this company, but we want variety and are prepared to do things in different ways.

With NBC since 2001, Meredith Ahr has been involved with some of the network’s biggest non-scripted franchises, including The Voice and America’s Got Talent. This summer, NBC elevated Ahr to the new post of president of Universal Television Alternative Studio. She tells TV Formats about this new initiative, which aims to deliver compelling unscripted entertainment to NBC and other outlets, in the U.S. and abroad.

TV FORMATS: What is your strategy for the new studio?

AHR: We’ve hit the ground running. In April 2017 we’ll come out swinging with actual tape, pilots or series that we can put in front of the international market. Our first series launched on NBC was Better Late Than Never. The next big new series launch for us is a game show called The Wall. We’ve shot ten episodes, and that will be launching in January. We have a great host in Chris Hardwick and amazing casting. Our other partner on The Wall is LeBron James. We have the runway until December or January to use his influence and his marketing prowess to help us launch this in a big way. It’s a big, shiny, rollercoaster event show. It’s wholly original and wholly new. There’s never been anything like it. We’re not dusting off old formats and throwing stuff on. This is something that networks around the world are craving. When you look at the top formats that have been so successful around the world, six or seven out of the top ten were really strong, highly replicable games.

Broadcast this summer, Better Late Than Never is an American version of the Korean format Grandpas Over Flowers.

We recently announced World of Dance with Jennifer Lopez, which will shoot in January. We partnered with World of Dance, the preeminent global dance brand, and the show will feature the world’s most elite dancers competing in epic battles. We are very excited about this one. We’ll be taking that out in April to the international community. It is going to be big in terms of the partnerships we have and the breadth. It has all the building blocks to be the biggie that everyone will be looking for. We followed with an announcement of a business show titled Funded, which is executive produced by and stars Rob Dyrdek and Tyra Banks. Rohan Oza also stars. This one will showcase entrepreneurs with revolutionary and disruptive business ideas that are primed to explode. People who are game-changing innovators will team up with our stars and benefit from their expertise in brand-building, media and investment expertise.

On top of Hollywood Game Night, The Wall, Better Late Than Never, World of Dance and Funded, we have at least five pilots and four series set to be shot by the end of this year.

TV FORMATS: What do you think the studio can offer the international format market?

AHR: The big message is, we’re developing in a big way. We’re going to be using NBC’s platform wherever we can to kick things off. We’re also really open and very collaborative, and we’re willing to partner with anybody. Since the announcement of the restructure, we’ve been getting brilliant calls from like-minded production companies and networks around the world.

We love making big, broad shows, always with the global market in mind. We’re not going to waste our time on something that’s going to be a one and done, where we don’t feel like a show is going to provide solutions to problems that other networks around the world share with us. We want to put our minds together and harness the fantastic producers we have, who want to make big shows.

You have to think about creating global brands from the start. We’ve got a fantastic team here who is rolling up their sleeves and at the beck and call to serve the producers and try to knock it out of the park with them. We’re thrilled and incredibly optimistic.

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less visible. The show is pretty formatted if you break it down, but those elements are relatively invisible if you aren’t looking for them. There is a solid structure to it, though, something which all of the international versions follow.

TV FORMATS: Did you have any initial reservations that a show with a somewhat risky premise like this might not work or that you wouldn’t get the outcome you hoped for?

VON WÜRDEN: Of course, it was a worry that this kind of risky premise could backfire. But we had great faith in our experts and in the sincerity of the participants’ purpose for joining the experiment—they were looking for another way to find love. And we hoped that we could help them to achieve that. Having this kind of noisy premise is also a treat for broadcasters!

TV FORMATS: How is the format structured in terms of stories?

VON WÜRDEN: When you look at the show from the outside, it doesn’t look structured, but it is. Through the story lines you have the marriage and the build up to it, and afterward you have the phase where they essentially start dating each other. You then go through all the normal stories that you would cover in following a couple who is building a relationship. The difficult part is to get the balance between the couples right and to be true to the stories while still protecting the integrity of the show. It’s also important to be true to the timeline of the show, so that you don’t swap around different scenes, and keep it as chronological as possible when telling the story and the way it developed.

By Kristin Brzoznowski

The social-experiment format Married at First Sight has more than just a noisy premise as its unique selling point; it has the ratings and global track record to back it up. Created by Snowman Productions and distributed by Red Arrow International, the series originated in Denmark and traveled quickly across the world. The format has been licensed into more than 25 territories, including the U.S., Australia, the U.K., Russia and Germany, while finished versions of the show have aired in 100-plus countries. Creator Michael von Würden, the managing director of Snowman Productions, talks with TV Formats about some of the keys to Married at First Sight’s success.

TV FORMATS: What was the genesis of Married at First Sight?

VON WÜRDEN: A production assistant working for Snowman came up with the original idea of following a young couple who had just gotten married without knowing each other before. We recognized that this idea had huge potential because it could be extremely loud. So we started developing the format around that idea and added the science layer to it.

Originally, it was a much more formatted idea than what the show ended up being. But since the original Danish series was airing on the public-service broadcaster DR3, then DR1, and the general TV trend in Denmark was moving toward more doc-style programming, we made the format pillars

Of the international versions I’ve seen, most of them have been very successful in managing the balance between being true to the experiment and also being true to the couples.

They must portray their stories and also the individuals as human beings with ups and downs, happiness and sadness.

TV FORMATS: What do you see as the keys to its international success as a format?

VON WÜRDEN: It’s actually pretty simple! It’s all about searching and hoping to find love—something that’s so universal, everybody can identify with it. All of the stories are real life. It’s about people like you and me just wanting the best in life. That’s the key. If you break down the idea of finding love, there are no differences whether you’re from the U.S., Hungary or Australia; it’s what everybody wants and covets in some way.

TV FORMATS: Why did you decide to use relationship experts to form the couples within the show?

VON WÜRDEN: We put a lot of emphasis on not having “television” pretend to create love. We went looking for people who know something about how people interact and how relationships between people evolve and can be sustained.

We went looking for some of the very best professionals in

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Denmark in these areas. These people are solely focused on creating the best possible matches and helping the couples to navigate through the experiment. They’re not concerned with making great television. That’s one of the most important parts of the process and the show, that we have these two different purposes in the production. We have the experts aiming to help the participants, and we have the producers trying to make a great show. As a producer, you must confront yourself all the time with the question: Will this help the couples find love? If it doesn’t, then you shouldn’t do it. We really stress to them not to manipulate situations, not to create settings that won’t benefit the couples. Stories and conflicts that you need to create a great narrative will happen naturally. They happen all the time in relationships. In Married at First Sight, a conflict doesn’t necessarily have to be big. It can be something as small as who will do the dishes tonight. That is relatable to everybody, and I think this is also the reason for the show’s worldwide success.

TV FORMATS: What do you look for when casting the series?

VON WÜRDEN: We look for people who wouldn’t normally go on television. They’re not in this to become famous or to see themselves on the big screen; they’re in it to find love. We are looking for people who are brave. Personally, I’m not sure that I would take part in this experiment! We try to emphasize all the time to the casting department that the participants need to be brave and, of course, open-minded. They need to be ready to be in this experiment, both in terms of the emotional situation they are in and also if they can handle the media and the pressure around it.

producer. She set the tone and voice of the show, which has carried through to the international versions. It’s about how to tell big stories out of small, everyday events. One of the classic scenes follows a trip to Ikea. We use it as an example of how people define themselves as a couple— who makes the decisions, who is dominant. A trip to Ikea pretty much shows you that! [Laughs] Documentarians can tell that story. They can find small, everyday settings that can chart the evolution of the couples. This also makes it very relatable for the viewer. When you sit on the couch next to your partner, you can turn to them and say, That’s just like me, or, That’s you! The choice of having documentarians producing it instead of traditional reality-TV producers makes a big difference.

TV FORMATS: What new projects do you have in the works?

VON WÜRDEN: Our most interesting project is the new show that FYI in the U.S. picked up, Kiss Bang Love. It has already been on air in Denmark, Australia and Germany. In Kiss Bang Love, we explore whether blind physical chemistry can predetermine romantic success. It’s kind of a spin-off project from the Married universe. In Married we use science to pick your match. In Kiss Bang Love we use chemistry.

TV FORMATS: What sort of know-how do you share with the various local producers about how to make the format work in their markets?

VON WÜRDEN: The biggest lesson for our producers is that you shouldn’t do anything in the show without having the goal of helping the participants to find love. If producers understand that, then it’s pretty hard not to do it right. Once the casting is done and you have genuine matches, it’s a straightforward show to produce. Then it’s all about trying to tell these peoples’ stories as honestly as possible.

TV FORMATS: What other lessons learned have helped to shape the format?

VON WÜRDEN: One of the most difficult things about doing the show is handling the expectations of the participants.

When we tell people that they have a match, they get pretty excited. If it doesn’t work out in the end, they are extremely disappointed.

Finding a way to do aftercare with the participants is one of the key learnings that we have developed along the way during the different seasons. Also, when the series goes on air and the press attention increases, there are so many layers to the aftercare that you wouldn’t normally have in a show.

TV FORMATS: What are the greatest challenges in producing a show like this one, where so much of the outcome is unknown?

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producers in the U.K. who can share a fun journey with an exciting brand over a number of years.

TV FORMATS: You’ve been a commissioner as well as a producer. How does your experience on the broadcast side inform your work as a producer?

ANDREAE: I’ve been in unscripted television for about 25 years, and I’ve spent about half the time as a producer and half the time as a network executive. Each side informs the other.

Network execs are looking at a lot of ideas—the pressure on their time is heavy. As a producer, it would serve you well to have ideas that are bold, attention-grabbing, simple and easily expressed, ideally just in the title or just in a title and a logline. The buyers have so little time to get through so many ideas, quite apart from their responsibilities to marketing, promoting and scheduling the shows, and in many cases helping shape the creative. You better have something that grabs their attention fast!

By Mansha Daswani

With more than two decades in the business of non-scripted entertainment, Simon Andreae has been on both the pitching and commissioning sides of the table. Last year, following a stint heading up alternative entertainment at FOX in the U.S., Andreae set up his own firm, Naked Entertainment, with the backing of FremantleMedia as a minority investor. Naked’s first commission, 100% Hotter, launched on 5STAR this summer, and the tentatively titled Stripped and Stranded hits Channel 5 this fall. The company has also received two commissions from Channel 4’s on-demand platform, All 4: Britain’s Best Boy Racer and Threesome Dating. Andreae, CEO of Naked Entertainment, talks to TV Formats about the company’s take on delivering innovative, brand-defining, unscripted entertainment.

TV FORMATS: What were your goals when you established Naked Entertainment, and how are you positioning it in the market?

ANDREAE: The company is a year old; we’re still a baby. The point was and still is to develop, create and produce innovative but mainstream factual-entertainment formats for the U.K., the U.S. and around the world. I have a particular interest in genres and approaches that are sometimes a bit radical, at times a bit high-wire, but at best can result in new turns of the wheel for unscripted television and ultimately provocative ideas that can become prime-time hits. That’s the point of the company. I’m also trying to create a family of best-in-class

TV FORMATS: Tell us about Naked Entertainment’s relationship with FremantleMedia. Why did you partner with them when you launched the company?

ANDREAE: I have known Cecile [Frot-Coutaz, CEO of FremantleMedia Group] for a few years. She was behind American Idol and The X Factor and a number of shows we used to broadcast on FOX in the States. I always found that she had a really good mixture of creative savvy and business strength. I wanted to be in business with her. The other thing was [that] I wanted a minority investor who wouldn’t own more than 25 percent of the company, so that we could remain a qualifying independent producer under the terms of trade in the U.K. I also wanted [to partner with] a company that was not closely affiliated with any one particular network, and also that had really robust distribution and reproduction arms. If we create a hit show, I want our partner not just to be able to make effective tape sales around the world, but to be able to make local versions fast. FremantleMedia has production companies around the world—they are among the largest, most proactive, most effective global IP disseminators.

TV FORMATS: How is the landscape for setting up an independent production outfit today?

ANDREAE: On the one hand, there are more and more outlets for television production, so there’s more real estate to occupy, which is good. On the other, there are certainly as many if not more production companies than there has ever been who are fighting for that real estate.

When setting up [an indie] today, it is helpful to have a backer, so that your back is not against the wall from the very first day. We’re privileged in that the funding [from FremantleMedia] will take us through what may be one, two, three years of loss-making while we build our business. We have the backing and the comfort to be able to do that. I always work best from a position where failure is not the end of the world! [Laughs] It allows you to climb higher up the risk ladder. You can be more daring in your taste. It allows us to pitch shows that we feel might be a bit “out on a limb” [for a network] to begin with. It might take a while for a network to come on board.

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the journey. It’s got the best elements of family soaps if you like, and the best elements of survival shows. I’ve come back from Panama, where we shot the first season. The first two families have completed the journey. There is an extraordinary amount of high drama. There are some comedy moments, but there is high drama and screaming and tears—and also embracing and redemption and expressions of love and forgiveness.

FremantleMedia is rolling out Naked Entertainment’s new Channel 5 series as a format called Families Gone Wild.

The other reason it’s more competitive than it used to be is that networks still employ some of the best television executives in the world, but production companies are in a much more powerful position to attract skillful creative executives. Ten-plus years ago, being a commissioning editor might well be the pinnacle of your career. Now, midlevel commissioning executives know that they may have the opportunity to go into jobs that are bigger and better and more exciting in the independent community. That’s partly because of the size of many of the independent groups, and partly because of the opportunities that they can afford for both creative freedom and financial success. Those opportunities weren’t there to anything like the same degree 15, 20 years ago. In a way it’s exciting, but in a way it’s scary that you are, as a producer, now competing with a greater tranche of the best of the best than you used to.

TV FORMATS: Is this the kind of format that requires a production hub?

ANDREAE: It doesn’t. It happens that [we shot] the first four episodes in Panama, partly because there are very different microecosystems there that we can use: swamp, mountain, beach, etc. Going forward, any episode can be shot in any remote environment anywhere in the world.

TV FORMATS: As you’re developing new ideas, how early in your creative process do you start thinking about how formattable a concept is?

ANDREAE: What we try to think about first is: how simple is it, how original is it, how extreme is it? If it’s all of those things, then I’m very happy. The next thing we always think about is, will this be something that has the potential to change television in some small way? Does it move the genre forward? If it does that as well, then we’ll almost certainly develop and pitch it. The other thing is, I’m fascinated by human behavior and the way in which television offers a fulcrum against which one can balance human morals and dilemmas and can consider the big themes of life: love, sex, marriage, friendship, betrayal, death, survival, redemption. If at its heart it has something that is core to the human experience, I get very excited. So [if a concept is] simple, original, extreme, can move the genre forward and is really about something that people fear or reach for, emotionally, that’s what we try to develop. You quite often find, of course, that if it is all of those things, it is quite likely to have scalability and saleability.

TV FORMATS: What are some of the projects you’re working on?

ANDREAE: We’ve been patient and thoughtful about getting a good team together, and patient and thoughtful about the ideas we pitch and how we pitch them. Our first series has started in the U.K.: it’s a sex-appeal makeover format called 100% Hotter for 5STAR. Our new format is called Stripped and Stranded (working title). One of the shows I created at Discovery was Naked and Afraid.

It has a predominantly male audience. I wanted to figure out if we could make a show that would attract the male audience that is interested in survival techniques and the female audience that is interested in family dramas.

Stripped and Stranded is a family survival show where in each episode, a family that is at war with itself is plunged into the wilderness. It’s airing on Channel 5 in the autumn. The channel’s commissioning executive uses quite a good phrase about the families: “If they can’t get on, they won’t get out!” You have to support your family members who you might not like or speak to at home. You have to pull together to find the exit point at the end of Naked Entertainment landed its first commission with 100% Hotter, a makeover format on 5STAR. 468 WORLD SCREEN 10/16

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