FRIDAY'S ESPRESSO - 7th April

The most followed newsletter about international formats

1. WHAT KIDS CAN DO (WITHOUT PARENTS)

The British free-to-air public television Channel 5 has commissioned MGM Alternative UK to make a series exploring what happens when kids are unleashed into the world without parental supervision.

The format, Who Let the Kids Out? (w/t), looks at what various groups of children – between 9 and 10 years of age – get up to when encountering a number of funny, surprising and revealing dilemmas, all whilst their parents watch on from a secret location. A child behavioural expert will interpret the actions of the children and provide insight into their responses. 

Each of the scenarios will be designed to test the initiative, independence, moral compass and problem-solving skills of the children taking part. The parents, representing a variety of backgrounds with very different approaches to parenting, will get a chance to predict the responses of their child.

The series is clearly inspired (a bit too close, in my opinion) to the beloved, long-running reality show from Japan Nippon Tv Old Enough!, recently also on Netflix. Only the age of the protagonists changes: from 2 to 5 in the original version, a bit older in this case.

2. FAKE FORMAT, REAL ADV

A very curious piece of news. In the last days a new dating show on Peacock, the streaming service from NBCUniversal, has been announced: Love Language. The trailer -with reality star Francesca Farago (see pic)- is currently on the platform, Peacock’s app and the socials.

According to the streaming service, 10 of the “hottest singles in the world” have to live in a house together in a kind of paradise in the hopes of finding their true love. But the one barrier that’s going to be between them is language, because none of them speaks the same one.

The concept is very similar to The Language of Love on Channel 4, with Davina McCall as English host (see Friday’s Espresso 1st Oct 2021), but attention: in this case it’s not a matter of copycat, but a very original form of advertising. The supposed format is in fact a production created by Peacock and Duolingo, the well-known company which produces learning apps, and only the trailer (with Duolingo’s green-bird-logo always highly visible) is real (the program actually does’t exist!).

So, the whole operation is a cross-promotion between the 2 companies, disguised in a trailer of a fake format. Really brilliant, indeed!

3. FROM PITCH TO MARKET: FAMILY TIES OR LIES

Pitch contests are essential to give a chance to paper formats by medium / small indie prodcos, that would otherwise have no chance of being considered.

For example, Family Ties or Lies, the winning project at Armoza’s annual pitch competition, Formagination 2022, from Canadian-production company Studio BRB, is going to be launched internationally by Armoza Formats itself, as part of their MIPTV slate.

The format combines reality competitions and guessing game. 10 pairs of siblings from all ages and backgrounds live together in a holiday campground and must complete challenges to win big money and test their -true or presumed- relationships. The twist is that some of the pairs are total strangers, with completely fake family history.

In the finale, the winning pair will put to the test if they can tell the family ties from the lies, in order to deceive the other participants and cash in the prize.