1. SINGING A CAPPELLA
The brand-new musical show Zing! (“Sing!”) premiered Tuesday 26th May on the Dutch channel NPO 1 in primetime, produced by ITV Studios Netherlands.
In the first episodes, 36 vocal groups, singing “a cappella” (without accompaniment) take part in a kind of great audition, to be chosen by some “mentors”. These three professionals (Tania Kross, Glen Faria en Roel van Velzen) first select a number of groups and then train them, in order to reach the final and possibly become the best vocal group of the Netherlands. The hosts are Giovanca Ostiana en Anne-Mar Zwart.
Quite a traditional formula without big innovative elements (apart from a cappella singing), but with a cheerful and positive atmosphere, in a cosy, intimate studio.
2. BEAT THE TIME MASTER
HBO Max in Spain has greenlit the “extreme competition show” Time Zone from Zeppelin, part of Banijay Iberia, that created the format with EndemolShine Nederland, also part of Banijay, and it’s expected to air this July.
This format, employing video game aesthetics, is set on Time City, a huge, abandoned facility where the Master of Time (the eSports presenter and streamer Cristina López Pérez, aka Cristinini - pic) has created a real-world video game: Time Zone. Outside its perimeter is desert and dust; inside 10 players will take on a series of challenges and complete the levels to defeat the Master of Time.
Each level will require mental and physical skills, and in this competition time is everything, as at the end of each round the player with the least amount of it remaining is eliminated. However, ‘time zones’ scattered around the arena offer a few minutes of relief, because when players are inside them, time will stop. Each task also offers the chance to win a reward, from receiving extra seconds to stealing minutes from their teammates. In the final level, a player must face the Master of Time in a final duel, where only one will remain.
P.s. Recently, time has become quite a popular topic, at the centre of a number of formats (see the Japanese Time Potion, that has more or less the same concept, even if in a completely different context -see Friday’s Espresso 16th Sept - and the Korean Time Hotel -see FE 14th Apr).
P.p.s. While HBO Max has been merged with Discovery+ and rebranded Max in the US, the rebrand won’t reach Europe until next year.
3. AGAIN IN THE METAVERSE
Unreal! -with the Irish social media star Olivia Neill (pic)- premiered on BBC Three on May 29th, and will be followed by BBC Northern Ireland on June 14.
After suffering a recent heartbreak, Olivia is going to explore the hottest new dating trend on the planet – dating in the metaverse. With this premise, Olivia embarks on a journey across the UK both physically and virtually to meet companies at the cutting edge of this technology and the real-life people who’ve not only found love and relationships online, but found themselves again. And she finally tries her hand at dating to see if she can find the next Mr Olivia Neill. The question is: will she find true love in a fake world?
After ITV (with “The Voice Studios”) and Channel 4 (with Come Dine/Mine With Me, see both on Friday’s Espresso 19th May) also the BBC seems to invest on Metaverse, or at least give it a chance. Actually BBC partnered with The Sandbox Metaverse to bring some of the company’s IP in to the virtual realm, including Doctor Who and, for the unscripted, Top Gear. It will be very interesting to see the feedback.
Hi Axel, I've discovered your newsletter very recently and I must say I am enjoying it as a media professional myself from India.
It will be interesting to see how the meta verse based shows have performed. Is there any global format set in the metaverse that has become a hit yet?