FRIDAY'S ESPRESSO - 7th July

The most followed newsletter about international formats

1. THREE SHADES OF GAMES

In the turbulent contemporary media landscape the game show -in all its sub-genres- continues to be a stable point. In the last days 3 brand-new games -very different between them- have been announced or premiered.

The first one is Bro&Marble in Dubai, produced by Korean CJ ENM and premiering in July on the Korean streaming service TVING (operated by TVING Corporation, a joint venture which includes also CJ Group). The format is the television adaptation of the board game Blue Marble Game – a Korean version of Monopoly – with a team of Korean actors and K-pop stars as competitors.

Set in Dubai, the players in the game roll the dice to guide their camels’ movements across the game board. Depending on their destination, players must either pay tolls or own the spot to enjoy traveling to the iconic landmarks of Dubai.

Turning a board game into a tv game is never a simple operation, so let’s wait for the result…

The second one is Double the Money, a “real-world” game, commissioned by Channel 4, hosted by Sue Perkins (pic) and produced by South Shore through the pubcaster’s Global Format Fund, which was launched in 2020 to invest in UK-created and -produced formats with global potential.

In this format, pairs of contestants will unite on the first day of the show to receive a modest sum of money. Once the cash is in their hands, the clock starts ticking, and their mission becomes to double the money in order not to be eliminated from the game.

The show offers complete freedom to the contestants on how they spend their starting pot. However, contestants who use the same idea or the same hustle twice will be immediately eliminated. Finally, after weeks of pursuit, the duo that amasses the most money within the given time will claim a generous cash prize to add to their final pot.

The third one is the Dutch The Quiz with Balls, produced by Talpa, which premiered successfully in prime time last Saturday on SBS6, a free-to-cable Tv channel owned by Talpa Tv.

In each episode, a team of five friends, family members or colleagues, competes for a cash prize by answering one quiz question after another. For each question, each team member chooses one of six answer options. The answer options are linked to the balls, which start to roll when all answers are given. If a player stands on a correct answer, the ball stops in time. If not, the ball will knock the player into the pool.

Each question has as many correct answers as the number of players left on the platform. In the case of question 1, that means five correct answers and one wrong answer. With each player falling into the pool, a wrong answer is added to the six answer options of the next question. For each team, the objective is to stay as complete as possible for as long as possible, since the tenth and final question is worth 25.000 euros. 

Three completely different shades for the longest-running Tv genre.

2. TWO (+ 1) PET SHOWS

The “pet show genre” exploded in the Covid years. During all 2021 and 2022 there were dozens of formats/factuals about pets, from every point of view: makeover (Pooch Perfect), coaching (Puppy School), medical (Second Chance Pets), game (Top Dog), “thriller” (Pet Detectives), dating (Dating With Dogs) and many others.

Nowadays the trend has slowed down a little, but is still quite popular. To confirm this, Channel 5 have ordered 2 new pet shows that will be on air later this year.

The first one, Guide Dog Puppy School introduces puppies from guide and support dog organizations throughout the U.K. as they learn to provide life-changing assistance to help individuals achieve greater dignity and independence. Throughout the series we’ll follow the dogs’ stories as they transform the lives of the people they’ve been sent to help and their families.

Super Dogs, the second one, shines a light on the remarkable skills the pets are capable of. From detecting serious illness to locating missing pets, it will celebrate the stories of man’s best friend that go above and beyond to help humans, as well as their fellow animals. This docu-series will explore how dogs become more than just a pet, and explores the people, techniques and training that help to transform these animals into remarkable creatures capable of saving lives.

Both series are produced by DSP South, a Banijay UK company, but, to tell the truth, in both there are too many elements already seen in the shows mentioned at the beginning (check, for example, BossaNova Media’s Puppy School).

But that’s not all, because Channel 5 has also commissioned BBC Studios to produce Lost Dogs: Live, a live TV event, hosted by broadcast journalist and writer Clare Balding (pic) that will help reunite British dog owners with their missing pets. And this is a new shade of this popular genre…

3. …AND TWO LATINOS TRAVCOOKS

Spanish-language subscription streaming service Vix and ViX+ (which TelevisaUnivision launched last year in the US, Mexico and across Latin America), continues to expand its original offering, with orders for a number of new original titles.

On the unscripted side, it’s worth pointing out a couple of “travcooks” series, the sub-genre of factuals that joins the two most popular factual trends: cooking & travel shows. The first one is Qué Chica Es El Mundo (aka How Girly The World Is, w/t), which follows renowned chef Lorena García (pic) as she takes viewers on a personal journey through some of the cuisines of Mexico and Peru.

The second one is Sabor De América (America’s Flavour, w/t), hosted by Chef Jesús Diaz (pic), who hits the road to find the new flavor of Latin cuisine and discover how food is connecting cultures and communities across the United States.

Quite easy to produce and almost always effective, the “travcooks” by now are everywhere...