1) YOUTUBE BETS ON YOUTUBERS FOR UNSCRIPTED
It’s a while since YouTube has not been a simple content aggregator any more, but, with the creation of YouTube Originals, has become a real broadcaster. After a number of documentaries and docuseries (among them How to Olimpycs, a title that includes different contents), now, with Copy That! , which will premiere Nov. 29, it has made a qualitative leap.
Copy That!, is a competition series from Sony Pictures Television. Consistently with the nature of the channel, the protagonists are 4 young youtubers: Sofie Dossi (6.21 million subscribers), Luhhsetty (3.15 million), Rosanna Pansino (13 million) and Preston (17.9 million), everyone with a different expertise in gaming, cooking, dancing, beauty and makeup. In each episode, one of them shows his/her skill and the other 3 try to copy his/her work in a series of trials.
Looking at the short trailer, it seems that Copy That! is a full-fledged format (maybe the very first one of the channel), fast paced, fresh and fun: it’s not very focused on the online part (which in this kind of program is often a weakness), but on the work and the challenges in studio, which are much more interesting.
The global clash between AVOD, SVOD and linear Tv passes also through unscripted formats.
2) CELEBRITIES, BAD HABITS & ENVIRONMENT
After a number of Boot Camp formats (Boot Camp, Celebrity Boot Camp, Marriage Boot Camp…) it’s now time for Climate Bootcamp, commissioned by the Swedish public broadcaster SVT to Banijay.
In the 6×28’ series, a group of celebrities reflects which part of their lives has the biggest environmental impact on the planet (e.g. traveling too often, food habits, producing too much rubbish…). In order to correct their attitudes, they retreat in a camp in order to learn why they must change these bad habits. Equipped with the knowledge and necessary skills, the celebrities will then have to maintain it in their everyday lives.
It is difficult to judge the format from a few lines, but, to be honest, the theme and the label of “eco-format” seem to have more importance than the content itself.
3) MIPCANCUN & COPRODUCTION
Today is the last day of MipCancun 2021 (16-19 Nov), almost completely on-site. Regarding the unscripted, the most important event was the Co-production Forum, which was launched exactly a year ago in the online version and replicated at MipTv of this April.
The formula is easy: the MIP Cancun offers between 10 and 15 guaranteed pre-scheduled meetings that match producers across Latin America with top commissioners from the region as well as Talent agencies, Heads of Development, Financing Companies, Writers and… time will tell if something will come out.
This is probably one of the most relevant news of the last season, marked by the pandemic: thanks to the technologies, markets are not only places where to sell and buy contents, but also “active” cross-dimensional spaces where to cooperate globally and co-produce common projects.