1. AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN GERMANY
Saturday 4th November the game show Promo Touchdown, Die Football Show (produced by Banijay Germany and RTL) premiered in prime time on the German channels RTL and RTL+.
Two teams of three celebrities face each other in 7 spectacular and fun American football-themed games (that includes also “side elements” like cheerleaders, mascots and a brief entertainment show between first and second time).
The host is Daniel Hartwich (pic), who at the beginning of the show acts a kind of Ted Lasso: contrariwise to the original, he is a “European” football coach ironically trying to explain the basics of American football to the teams.
In the big final we’ll find out which of the two is the real “Football Master” and will take home the trophy.
The format can be included in the “funny -or escapist- games” trend, like, for example the recent Upside Down (see FE 27th Oct), The Big Bang (see FE 15th Sept) and others: maybe not particularly sophisticated, but colorful, cheerful, suitable for the whole family, perfectly designed to protect us from the scarring world outside.
2. KOREAN KARAOKE
Friday 20th October premiered on the CJ ENM-owned music channel Mnet, King of Karaoke: VS, produced by CJ ENM itself.
As the title says, 100 participants, chosen from a huge number of candidates from across the country, challenge each other in a big, spectacular studio to win the title of King of Karaoke and the prize of 100 million won (approx. 71.000€).
To judge them, there is a panel of 10 celebrities, among them obviously a number of k-pop legends.
Using karoake in a show is not a particularly original concept (see, for example Le Plus Grand Karaoké de France, on air a year ago on M6, see FE 7th Oct 2022: in that case the participants were 1000). But the karaoke (“Noraebang” in Korean) is deeply rooted in the Korean culture and with this format CJ ENM hopes to replicate the success of its other music competition hit I Can See Your Voice, licensed in 28 different countries.
3. GEN Z LOST IN WILDERNESS
There is a new trend growing quickly in this period: we can call it “wilderness for Gen Z”. Examples of these formats -that mix up ingredients of the “old” survival shows with new generations- are the German 7 vs Wild (2 seasons on You Tube and now on Amazon Freevee with the title 7 vs Wild: Teams) and the recent The Life Trail (see FE 13rd Oct).
X Days Outside, produced by Tuvalu Media (on the Dutch channel NPO3/PowNed Wednesday 22nd November) fits into this thread.
The concept is simple. Nine young people enter the adventure without preparation. No time to think, but only 10 minutes to get what they think they need to survive. To begin with, the dinghy on which they are shipwrecked in ice water.
After being drowned, they have to fend for themselves for the first 24 hours and go searching for the training camp of a couple of survival experts. They will teach young people the skills they desperately need, in order to face extreme mental and physical challenges, quite easy to imagine.
Interesting experiment and trend, but now it’s time to find something a bit more original to avoid the risk of saturation.