FRIDAY'S ESPRESSO - 24th November
The most followed newsletter about unscripted in the world
1. BIG SPARKS FROM SINGAPORE
It was 2001 when The Tigers of Money (this is the literal translation of the original title) premiered on Nippon Tv, the very first “business talent”. A couple of years later Sony distributed it all around the world as Dragon’s Den (English title) or Shark Tank (US title). According K7’s report Tracking the Giants, in 2022 this format is still at the 6th place of the “Top 100 travelling unscripted formats 2022/23”, with 27 active versions.
During these 20 years, dozens of similar formats have been launched all around the world, without significant variations from the original model. The last one is The Big Spark, developed by Elevandi and TiE Global Summit, that is going to premiere across CNA platforms (an English language Asian network owned by Mediacorp) February 2024.
The rules are the usual ones: 24 start-up teams will pitch and test their best business ideas through a series of challenges and masterclasses, to some of the region’s most prominent venture capitalists for a prize of S$1 million (approx. 630.000€) in seed funding.
The extra-television development is the most interesting part. Beyond the reality show, The Big Spark aims to be a platform to cement Singapore’s position as a launchpad for innovation and entrepreneurship. Mediacorp will lend its wide reach and multiple platforms to support the region’s start-up culture, connecting key players across the ecosystem to nurture promising enterprise.
2. A TALENT FOR A NEW UK-POP BAND
Using talent shows to create a new -hopefully successful- band is not so original either: Popstars -the first experiment in this sense- was launched in New Zealand in 2019 and localized in around 40 countries.
Now SM Entertainment, the K-pop agency behind NCT, aespa, SuperM and many others K-pop groups, has partnered with UK television production company Moon&Back, led by multi-BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Hall (Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor, One Direction), British media executive Dawn Airey (C4, C5, ITV, Sky, Getty Images), and talent manager Russ Lindsay (Ant & Dec, Simon Cowell).
The idea is to create a talent show that will form and launch a UK boy band. Preproduction for the series, which will be shot in the U.K. and South Korea, is underway. A broadcast partner has not yet been announced.
SM Entertainment has already done something similar: a few months ago they produced NCT Universe : LASTART (see FE 19th August), another format show to find new members for a brand-new NCT unit (named NCT NEW TEAM: pic).
This time the goal is even higher: creating a UK boy band for a global audience. Also in this case, a television format that encloses a more ambitious -and profitable- business project.
3. A SCOTTISH TRAVEL WITH SOCIAL TRIALS
“Social shows”, i.e. formats created around socials / influencers and their followers, were very popular a few years ago (I think for example of programs like Nickelodeon’s The Viral Factory, Keshet’s Celebrity Showmance and others) and recently have been revitalized (e.g. the Belgian Becoming a Guru).
BBC Scotland has just commissioned a pilot (for the moment without title) from independent production house Tern Television based on these issues. The protagonist is the comedian Paul Black, who has 232,000 followers on TikTok; 114,000 on Instagram and 76,000 on X (pic).
According to the show’s description, he ‘has grown bored of his mighty and ever-growing influencing powers’ on social media, so will be ‘handing the reins over to the public for this raucous comedy roadshow, which will see him take on an array of wild challenges set by his social media followers.’
Too little information to pass judgment, of course. Anyway, formats created by synergies between ‘classical’ genres (in this case, the travel show) and socials is one of the promising roads television has to take in the next few years.
