FORMATS BETWEEN REAL AND VIRTUAL
...plus a number of South African formats
A FORMAT TO GO TO THE SPACE
There are formats that stand out more for their extra-television factors (i.e. creating or making something extraordinary happen in the real world, outside the confines of television) than for their 'intrinsic' value. Such is the case of a project recently announced by Banijay Asia, whose ultimate goal is to... send an Indian citizen into space.
Here is the production company's official presentation: “Banijay Asia has announced its collaboration with Space Exploration and Research Agency (SERA) to produce an innovative format show that will showcase the nationwide hunt for one ordinary Indian citizen who will journey into space on a future Blue Origin New Shepard mission. […].
This announcement builds on SERA’s recent news announcing India as a partner nation for their human spaceflight program aimed at giving an opportunity to citizens from countries with few or no astronauts to travel into space. SERA’s mission is to democratize space travel by opening up opportunities for ordinary citizens to experience the wonders of space exploration.”
Other similar projects have been announced in the past, but to the best of my recollection none have ever come to be realised (if you can think of any, let me know!). In June last year, Stars on Mars was broadcast on Fox (see FE 21 April 2023), but in that case the base where the 'celebronauts' lived was on Earth, in Australia to be precise, and was only a simulation of what life on the red planet would be like.
This time - it seems - it's for real.
BURGLARS CONTENT CREATORS
The trend towards 'hybrid' formats, capable of moving across multiple platforms and suitable for both linear and digital contexts, is gaining ground and is destined to become an essential feature of new content (we also reported on this in the ‘Rethinking Formats’ FE special on 23 August).
This is the case of The Infiltrators, launched late last year on Channel 4.0 and for which Banijay Entertainment has just picked up the international rights. The format is a heist-themed gameshow from Cowshed Studios, the production company within creative agency, Cowshed Collective and the deal was brokered by Luci Sanan at 53 Degrees North Media.
This is the official description of the format made by Banijay: “Originally launched on Channel 4’s digital-first brand, Channel 4.0 – a dedicated YouTube and social media channel – The Infiltrators is a gameshow featuring popular content creators posing as a group of mastermind thieves. The format revolves around the contestants as they infiltrate an eccentric billionaire’s home and navigate a complex security system in a series of weird and wild physical challenges.”
The format is also 'hybrid' in that it mixes game shows and humour, as can be seen in the episode below. The television scenario is moving more and more to the online level, and the content is adapting to this transaction…
SOUTH AFRICAN FORMATS
It's going to be a hot autumn in South Africa in terms of formats, with important unscripted shows about to launch (or relaunch), but sadly none of them new.
The first is the reboot of the 9th season of SA's Got Talent on public broadcaster SABC after a 7-year hiatus, now produced by Anele Mdoda's production company Rose and Oaks Media.
More recently, the reboot of Dancing With the Stars was announced, with Rapid Blue producing the BBC Studio (BBCS) format alongside Primedia Studios. A channel for the new season has yet to be announced, but it has previously aired on South Africa's public broadcaster SABC2 and then SABC3 as Strictly Come Dancing, and then on the M-Net channel in 2018 for a single season, still with Rapid Blue.
Primedia is also reviving The Voice SA, which was also on M-Net, for a free-to-air audience. The media group also announced plans to bring M-Net's Idols to the SABC and a free-to-air audience. It has also acquired the rights to Dutch reality show The Traitors (distributed by All3Media International) to create a local version of the show for African audiences.
Rapid Blue also produced Love Never Lies for Netflix South Africa, which will debut on 29 November. The show will follow six couples as they attempt to tell the truth and pass an eye scanner lie detector test in order to win a cash prize. It's a Spanish format that premiered in 2011, but now seems rather dated given the advent of new AI technologies behind similar formats like The Honesty Box, which we talked about in the last issue of FE.
So many formats, but new air is desperately needed...
NEWS IN A NUTSHELL
López y Leal Contra el Canal, the Spanish version of the German format Beat the Channel, premiered on Wednesday 4 September in prime time on Antena 3, produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with BoxFish
The celebrity edition of The Weakest Link returns to Spanish screens after a twenty-year hiatus, always on Wednesday 4 September at prime time under the local title El Rival Más Débil as a counter-programme to Antena 3 (for the record, the challenge was won by López y Leal Contra el Canal with a 13.3% market share - more than double that of El Rival Más Débil )
Emparejados (Paired), an original programme produced by Proamagna for Atresmedia, had its premiere always on Antena 3 on Thursday 5th September, also in this case as a counter-programme to Telecinco's Gran Hermano
Mediaset España has given the green light to a new version of the comedy, journalism and current affairs format Caiga Quien Caiga (CQC: ‘Whoever Falls’), produced by Warner Bros. ITVP España (WBITVP) and created in Argentina in 1995 by prodco Cuatro Cabezas
In addition to the South African version (see article above), All3Media International revealed that a Romanian version of The Traitors has been commissioned by Pro TV.
Chilevisión is preparing to premiere Los 8 Escalones (‘The 8 Steps’), a family quiz show produced by Kuarzo Entertainment, which has been broadcast for several years on eltrece in Argentina
CORRECTION: Last Friday's Espresso about The Box format misspelled the name of the production company: 'Seefod TV' instead of the correct version 'Seefood TV'. We apologise to the producers and readers.
