FRIDAY'S ESPRESSO - 3rd November
The most followed newsletter about unscripted in the world
1. JUMP TO WIN
The game-show The Jump, produced by Talpa Studios, premiered successfully Saturday 21st October on the Dutch channel RTL4. RTL Hungary has already recorded a daily prime-time version that will air in 2024: Hungarian Scripted Productions collaborated with Talpa to produce it.
The peculiarity of the format is that it is set on top of a towering 40-meter-long bridge. Here five contestants compete for a huge cash prize. Their goal is simple: to cross the bridge by answering ten questions correctly. The stakes are high: answer wrongly, and they’ll plunge from the bridge.
The show begins with a quick game to determine the 'Controller’, who has the power to decide who plays. They can either pick themself or choose one of their opponents. Refusing to play is not an option. Each question consists of several fun, thought-provoking statements, but only one of them is true.
Players make their choice by physically jumping on the statement they believe is correct. A correct guess means they advance to the next question. But if they’re wrong, they take a heart-stopping drop out of the game.
As the game progresses, the number of answer options increases, ramping up the challenge. Only the contestant who survives the tenth and last jump wins the big cash prize.
Linking the wrong answers of the contestants to a “physical punishment” is always an effective mechanism (if well-calibrated, as in this case): Boom!, Still Standing, Wrecking Ball; 101 Ways to Leave a Gameshow are just a few examples of this typology.
2. COMEDIANS ON JOURNEY
RTBF Creative, the distribution arm of Belgium Public media RTBF, that last year co-produced The Yurt Celebrity Green Challenge (see Friday’s Espresso 13rd Jan) with Why Why Productions, presented a bunch of new formats on air next year.
Among them The Comedy Expedition Challenge, also co-produced with Why Why Productions. In this format, combining humour and extreme adventure, two stand-up comedians, led by the survival professional Loury Lag (pic), have three days and two nights to hike through an unspoiled wilderness and reach the final beacon.
To guide them along the way are a series of beacons with a twist: each one contains a piece of the map, but opening them has a downside: the arrows that unlock them contain messages that will further complicate the expedition.
At the end of their journey, both comedians take to the stage and recount their adventure in front of an audience. A vote determines the overall winner, who takes the trophy home.
Of course the concept of the “comedians’ journey” is quite common (see, for example, the Finnish Travel Battle-FE 14th Feb, the Italian Viaggi Pazzeschi - FE 26th May and many others), and also the final sketch based on the previous mission (see, for example, the “classical” Comedian At Work).
But the beacons with arrows are an original visual characterization. And, anyway, the only important things in shows like these are the charisma of the participants and how much they make laugh.
3. REBOOT STORY
Big Brother is back on ITV2 and ITVX after a 5-year hiatus. Gladiators has returned on BBC One and BBC iPlayer after a 15-year hiatus. Survivor is on air on BCC One and BBC iPlayer as well 20 years after the show last aired in the U.K (on ITV). Jeopardy! (that premiered in 1964!) will be returning on ITV and ITVX after a 27-year hiatus.
And these are just some of the countless examples of reboots, one of the most relevant media trends of these years all around the world.
Now Secret Story is added to this long list. The show, on air on French commercial broadcaster TF1 from 2007 to 2017 (succeeding to Loft Story, the first French localization of Big Brother) is rebooting on the same channel after a 6-year hiatus, produced by Banijay France’s Endemol France.
More recently, the format has been adapted also in Spain and Portugal.
Revamping old classics is the simplest answer to the risk aversion policy of the commissioners, that are in troubled waters. But maybe is not the best choice for the viewers and definitely not for the whole market.
