1. PARENTS UNDER MICROSCOPE
Thursday 15th December (and the following day on Hulu) on the American channel ABC will premiere The Parent Test, described as "a provocative look at parenting”.
Based on a hit Australian television format, actually in The Parent Test there seems to be nothing provocative, limiting itself to present and compare different parenting styles. 12 families, with different approaches to the education of their children (the over-protective, the new-age, the intensive, the strict…) are put under the microscope in a kind of parenting stress test and will share learnings about emotional topics that compare the multiple styles of parenting.
2 specialist hosts in studio moderate the program that doesn’t seem to show anything new or remarkable.
2. KOREAN CAR KARAOKE
The “Korean wave” of formats (and not only) continues to be strong on the international markets, beyond the value of the contents themselves. The latest news is that the German free-to-air channel RTLZWEI has commissioned a local adaptation of Korean show Drive Thru-Oke, which will be re-titled Music Drive In.
In each episode, a contestant drives a car trying to win cash prizes singing at a kind of “drive thru” (a takeaway restaurant for drivers). The aim of the program is to get through the 3 barriers operated by the 3 judges (in the German version they’ ll be 3 local music stars) along the track, using their vocal chords. The singer/driver who manages to impress the 3 judges and to open all 3 barriers will win the prize.
The format, specially designed for the pandemic period (it was crowned Best Format Innovation in the Time of Covid 2021 at the International Format Awards), has been created by Space Rabbit Co. Ltd and has already had 2 adaptions so far (in Brazil and Saudi Arabia). Unfortunately now it appears really weak, uninteresting and definitively out of time.
3. A PODCAST FOR ALL TV PROFESSIONALS AND LOVERS
And finally a highly recommended podcast for both industry insiders and people who just love Tv. TV SHOW & TELL (https://play.acast.com/s/tv-show-podcast) is hosted by format consultant, producer and games devisor David Bodycombe and Justin Scroggie, former producer, now a format creator and global content specialist, known in the industry as The Format Doctor.
Each episode of TVSAT is an entertaining and accessible magazine built around a core interview with guests from both sides of the camera, who give listeners different perspectives on how TV shows are created, produced, presented and adapted. A full list of guests to date can be found here.
Around the interview segments, David and Justin chat about new or rebooted shows that have caught their eye, deep dive into a topical TV topic, and unpack a piece of jargon. In our play-along game Fake or Format, one host presents to the other two formats, only one of which is real. Every episode wraps with a funny or meaningful ‘object’ chosen by the guest from their career to ‘show & tell’ us about.
The highest rated episodes have reached 3000+ listeners, and they reached 98 different territories, just over half from the UK, and 12% from the US.