EUROPEAN GAMES
A country-specific Romanian / Spanish game + a French quiz + a Norwegian comedy game
“SMALL” FORMATS, BIG IDEAS
In this era of 'creative homologation', sometimes to find good ideas you have to go outside the mainstream and look in the so-called 'minor realities'.
On 19 September, the Romanian public channel TVR premiered season 15 of Câştigă România ('Win Romania', but distributed as 'Win Your Country'), a 48-minute studio-based prime-time quiz show that debuted in 2017.
Originally created by Bucharest-based Zucchero Media, the show is a simple and effective quiz show that mixes the suspense mechanism of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? (the presenter was the long-time host of the Romanian version of the British quiz show) with knowledge of one's own country (the format tests contestants' knowledge of their own province, country or state, competing against representatives from other parts of their country) and strategic elements of the famous board game Risk.
Now Spain's Television de Galicia (TVG) has ordered its own version of the show, following a deal with Spanish producer Miraveo and US format distributor Small World IFT. Set to air this fall under the title Gana a Tua Aldea!, it comes after Small World IFT inked a deal with A Coruña-based Miraveo for the rights to the gameshow format during C21’s Content Americas in Miami at the beginning of the year.
Win your country's format!
EVALUATE YOURSELF!
This evening, Friday 4 October, the new game 10 Sur 10, Combien Tu Te Mets? ('10 out of 10, how much do you bet?'), produced by Satisfaction Group and presented by the famous host Arthur, will premiere on the French commercial television channel TF1.
This game also has an interesting twist: the 10 celebrities have to rate their knowledge on a scale of 1 to 10, with level 1 questions corresponding to 'niveau CP' (first grade level) and level 10 corresponding to university level. The higher the level they choose, the more points they get. So who's going to think they're smarter than they are and take all the risks to win? Who will underestimate themselves and play it safe?
The VIP participants will compete in three rounds and a final. Each round will be played out in a different way, with multiple-choice questions, pictorial answers and a speed test. Candidates will be eliminated at each stage. The last two will face off in a breathtaking final.
DUMBEST PEOPLE
And finally, a comedy game from Norway: Norges Dummeste (Norway's Dumbest), which was broadcast on public broadcaster TV2 last August and quickly became a ratings hit. The concept starts out as a classic game: twelve celebrities are tested on knowledge that everyone should have, and in a series of physical and mental rounds.
In each episode, the smartest goes home, and the funny thing is that nobody wants to win the competition, because the winner will have the dubious title of 'Norway's dumbest'.
First there are simple practical tasks, followed by a test of logical thinking; then the celebrities return to school for written and oral exams: in practice, this means a quiz on the students' knowledge of everything from geography to Norwegian proverbs. And so on.
A simple, amusing and somewhat cynical game, its success has attracted the interest of BBC Studios, who have secured international distribution rights from Norway's Montreux Film and Fjernsyn's.
NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
Por amor o por dinero (For Love or for Money), the reality show hosted by Alejandro Fantino on the Argentine free-to-air channel eltrece, in which 10 couples test their love, trust and relationship with money, premiered last Monday 30 September
The third series of the gam show ¿Cuál es el Bueno? (Which One Is the Good One?), developed and produced by TelevisaUnivision and Endemol Shine Boomdog, returned to Mexican Channel 5 as well on 30 September
Multinational studio Dori Media (DMG) has unveiled a number of unscripted shows in the run up toMipCom. The slate includes dating shows Spy Date and Love at Third Sight, trivia-based game show Smart Face, talent competition Da Next, street game Intuition, reality competition Stand-Up Warrior, and shiny floor game show The Best of All
Content powerhouse Banijay Entertainment has announced this year's titles across all genres for MipCom 2024. On the unscripted side, these include new competition format Three Are The Champions, Dutch reboot By Land, Air and Sea and travel series Eva Longoria: Searching for Spain. In addition, the powerhouse will celebrate its latest travel formats launched at last year's MipCom, including The Summit and Deal or No Deal Island
O4 Media, MBC Korea and Arré Studio have struck a deal to bring The Masked Singer to India. The companies have entered into an exclusive option agreement, which will see Arré Studio developing a localized treatment of The Masked Singer for the Indian market
Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai’s (NHK) international business arm, will expand its distribution partnership with Netherlands based Lineup Industries B.V. (Lineup) for US, Europe, Australia & New Zealand, and with Singapore-based Empire of Arkadia (EOA) to manage distribution for format sales across Asia.
Hello Axel, thanks again for this very informative article! Especially the information about Dori Media's formats, and it seems to me that only Spy Date among all of them sounds a bit original...
However, I have a question regarding the concept of "Norges Dummeste": so, actually, the core of concept is actually that the winner of the challenge is eliminated from competition and the worst one is staying until the end? That is the only twist on familiar competition here? If the concept is like that, I feel that this is classic feel of celebrity competition with the only twist in eliminating the smartest ones instead of the "dumbest" ones.... So, the "small" twist like this is actually enough for the format to become popular among world famous distributors?
Also, I remember the format "Stupid House" that won this year's MIP format pitch competition, and it felt to me rather original: celebrities are intentionally playing stupid in order to be crowned as a champions. But, also, how they could "act" they are stupid, potentially all of them could bluff they are stupid and that they don't have a clue about any challenge or question. It is hard to strike a perfect balance between challenges and them playing stupid, because it could become standard comedy show which can loose the core idea...
Overall, it seems to me that focusing on stupidity instead of intelligence is new trend in creating formats. But also, I wouldn't say that any of these mentioned formats succeed in developing this premise, and both of premises are really original and catchy. So,what do you think, is this a new trend and is there a room to create and develop better idea with the premise of focusing on the stupidity of competitors?
Best regards from me!
Djole