FRIDAY'S ESPRESSO - 19th January 2024
The most followed newsletter about unscripted in the world
1. TWICE THROUPLE
The trend of formats about love, in all its forms and declinations, is one of the most popular ones of this season (and not only). The last one is Couple to Throuple, produced by Fremantle label Naked, that will premiere on the streamer Peacock February 8th.
The concept is clear from the title: it’s a series focused on polyamorous relationships. Four curious couples experiment with bringing a third partner into their relationship while at a remote tropical resort, where they will meet, mingle and date a group of singles, many of whom are experienced in polyamory.
The host Scott Evans and the sex and relationship expert Shamyra Howard will supervise the sexual experiment. At the end of the series, the couples will decide if their pairings have room for one more, if they will go home as they arrived, or if they will depart separately.
Interesting twist, but, despite of the fact it is described in the promo as “a journey for love unlike you’ve ever seen before”, OutTv recently announced a brand-new format based on the same concept (but, to tell the truth, it is not yet on air: see Friday’s Espresso 1st December). Which one arrived first?
2. URBAN MUSIC FOR EMERGENT ARTISTS
Digital contents are becoming more and more popular for linear channels, that are investing an increasing amount of their budget in their BVOD. This is the case of Feat, the new talent show of the public Spanish broadcaster RTVE, that will be on air soon (the precise date has not yet been announced) on their streaming platform Playz, produced by the Argentina Zeppelin Studio.
The rules of this very classical singing talent, presented by Inés Hernand (youtuber and host of the last Benidorm Fest, pic) are the usual ones of the genre: 12 emergent artists (both Spanish and Argentine) of international urban music (this definition is actually not very clear) will face different challenges: interpreting covers, composing their own songs, interacting with the audience and working in a group.
They will be evaluated by a Spanish/Argentine jury and the winner will sign a contract with Sony Music España for the production of an album to launch on the international distribution. Another case of format with an “extra-television purpose”, in a way similar to the “business-shows” like Mission Start Ab (see FE 15th December), The Big Spark (see FE 24th November) and others.
3. TWO TRENDS TO KEEP AN EYE ON
In this very first slice of 2024, the relevance of another couple of trends can be confirmed. The first one is “Trav-food”, i.e. combining travel show and food, with different purposes (discover their own origins, new places…: see Big Zuu’s 12 Dishes in 12 Hours - FE 25th August, Sabor De América - FE 7th July and others).
The last example is Around The World in 80 Weighs, by Mothership Productions, that premiered on Channel 4 January 16th in primetime. In this docuseries six people from across Britain, who are each living with obesity, travel the globe to better understand the relationship between food, culture and body size, and in the process see if they can lose weight along the way.
The idea is that they will find out how food impacts into the daily lives of people raised in nations with different attitudes to body image and appetite, when compared with the cultural norms of the UK.
In the first episode the six tourists visited Japan, which has an obesity rate of about 4%, compared with 25% in Britain. Next week, they’re going to Tonga, where we’re informed that about 93% of adults are considered to be overweight.
The second trend seems to be one of the most important ones of the last year: transforming a scripted series / movie from scripted to unscripted (the most famous cases are of course 007′s Road to a Million - FE 1st April, and Squid Game: the Challenge - 17th June).
Now, The Four Seasons, co-created, produced and hosted by Emmy-award Tina Fey (30 Rock), is going to land in Netflix later in 2024, based on the eponymous movie of 1981.
The film — which was written and directed by Alan Alda and stars Alda, Carol Burnett, and Rita Moreno — follows three couples who vacation together every season but whose worlds are upended when one of them divorces. Its title was derived from the four concerti composed by Antonio Vivaldi, that give a bit of an Italian touch to the plot ; )
