THE REALITY EVOLUTION
In the beginning there were reality shows. You didn't have to say anything else, just 'reality', which was an absolute novelty. Even the mechanics were a novelty: a bunch of contestants locked up somewhere - a house, in the beginning - under the gaze of cameras 24/7 (plus nominations, eliminations and all the rest).
It was a worldwide success, but after years of repeating itself identically with only minor variations on the theme (practically only the places t where the contestants were locked up: house, farm, restaurant, bar...), it began to become repetitive and tiresome. And so they begin to evolve and 'branch out', let us say, into three strands.
The first is 'adventure reality' (pioneered by the historic Survivor): the contestants are in inhospitable places, in extreme conditions (desert islands, glaciers, high mountains, jungles, oceans...) where they are constantly pushed to their limits. It is still a very popular trend today, with formats such as The Summit, No Way Back and many others.
The second, more recent, is 'social reality' (the precursor of which was The Circle), in which the classic reality show hybridises with the dynamics of the socials from which it often draws its participants. One of the most recent examples is the Korean format The Influencer on Netflix.
The third is ‘psycho reality’, i.e. formats with a ‘psychological’ twist: discovering the traitors / saboteurs within a team, or who has the money or the power, who's lying... The forerunner of this trend was the historic The Mole, but it was The Traitors that established it worldwide, making it one of the hottest trends of the period.
There are many titles to remember (e.g. The Power - Qui A le Pouvoir, The Anonymous), but we will limit ourselves to mentioning the latest, Watch Your Back, recently announced by Talpa Studios, the result of a partnership between Talpa Studios itself and Kinetic Content (Love Is Blind). It is a format about which virtually nothing is known, but the few words that have been used to describe it ('a psychological game of trust and deception') place it clearly within this strand.
For now, this is the most advanced (and interesting) trend in reality. We will see what the next developments will be...
THE SPANISH WAVE: two adapted game shows
The exceptional season of Spanish formats continues to flourish on all networks, both public and private. Here are the last two titles announced in the past few days, adding to the long list that is constantly being updated.
The first is the Spanish adaptation of Keshet International's ¡Boom! format, which premiered on 9th September on Mediaset España's Cuatro, produced in collaboration with Mediacrest and hosted by Christian Gálvez (Pasapalabra).
The format, which until last year was broadcast on Antena 3, was created in Israel by Keshet Broadcasting and, in addition to the Spanish version, has a total of 21 international adaptations, including Argentina, the United States, Italy and France.
The concept is well known: the game pits two teams of four players against each other, each of whom has to ‘deactivate’ a total of ten bombs by answering different questions, the answers to which are represented by coloured wires.
The second one is the Dutch game show The Floor, which will be produced for public channel La1 (RTVE) by Satisfaction Iberia, the new prodco launched last January (which will also produce the Portuguese adaptation of the same format, premiering on 14 September on RTP1).
Created and distributed by Talpa Studios, The Floor has been produced in 14 countries since its premiere in the Netherlands in 2023, including the United States, France, Spain, Germany, Argentina and Italy (where the second series premiered last Tuesday 10 September, produced by Blu Yazmine).
Also in this case the concept is well known: 100 contestants face off in question-and-answer duels on a giant LED floor divided into 100 equal boxes, each representing its own area of knowledge. The aim is to conquer the entire floor and win €100,000.
Both game are simple, straightforward and engaging, as good formats should be.
THE SPANISH WAVE: an exported talent show
But Spain is also an exporter of formats. After the recent news that the Spanish successfull entertainment show El Hormiguero is coming to Italy in September on Mediaset's Italia 1, it has been announced that the Shine Iberia’s talent show Cover Night will be adapted in Georgia, where it will be produced in-house by IMEDI TV and presented by Manika Asatiani and Maka Zambakhidze.
Launched on RTVE's La 1 last year, Cover Night is a talent show in which singers from all over the country compete to be the best cover artist by reversing hit songs in different musical styles.
To tell the truth, a talent show with a cover theme is nothing new. To mention just one recent example, The Tribute - Die Show der Musiklegenden, broadcast on German free-to-air channel Sat.1, is a format adapted from the Dutch original The Tribute: Battle of the Bands, created by Talpa Studio, on SBS6 from 2022 (see FE 2 July). And there have been several others based on the same concept in the past.
But, you know, in formats the same themes often return...
NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
Stranded On Honeymoon Island, the adventure dating show created by Snowman Productions, has been commissioned by the BBC for a UK version: it will be produced by CPL Productions, a Seven.One Studios company (which also holds the distribution rights)
El Gran Premio de la Cocina ('The Great Kitchen Prize') will be broadcast on 16th September on La1, the main channel of the public network RTVE: it is the Spanish version of the Argentine culinary programme created and produced by BoxFish TV
Channel 4 has commissioned a new obs-doc series for its More4 channel that follows presenter Amanda Owen, a.k.a. the Yorkshire Shepherdess, as she and her family renovate a derelict farmhouse in the Yorkshire Dales
Lo Spaesato, the Italian version of the 90's DR format Comedy On the Edge, will premiere on RAI2, produced by Stand by Me
A new season of Los 50, the Latin version of the French format Les Cinquante (created and distributed by Banijay), will be broadcast in October on Telemundo, the American Spanish-language terrestrial television network owned by NBC
Lucha de Antojos ('Fight the Cravings'), a new reality cooking competition, will premiere on 19 September on the premium plan of ViX, the streaming service owned and operated by TelevisaUnivision