1) MIPCOM IS COMING!
There’s only 3 days till MipCom and up to now there are 5221 participants from 2426 companies (but to tell the truth some of them are online only, difficult to know how many, because on-site and online participants are all mixed up in the database). For an unfair comparison, in MipCom 2018, which was the biggest audiovisual exhibition of all times, there were around 13.800 participants from 4721 companies (all physical, of course). However, this new hybrid edition is an important sign: things seem to return to normal. ¡Que viva Mip!
2) LOVE IS IN THE AIR (and in the markets)
In this most recent period, dating games seem to make the lion’s share. To mention only this week, 3 brand new formats of this genres have been launched before Mip.
BBC3 has announced Love in the Flesh, a dating series exploring the world of online dating. It focuses on potential couples who have met through dating apps and social media, but haven’t met in real life. Will there be real love when they finally meet?
Armoza Formats has announced the launch of its dating format, Dating the Mob, along with Dutch prodco Stepping Stone. The series focuses on 25 single women, that will tour three major stops in the life of a mysterious bachelor they’ve never seen. At each stop, each of the ladies must decide if they’ll remain on the journey or go to meet a new bachelor in the next episode; meanwhile, the bachelor watches as the women tour his life, waiting to see which will choose to meet him at the end.
Finally Love Raft, from Story Productions for DR3 in Denmark, is a dating series which sees 10 single people matched into couples before spending 10 days sailing down a river on a raft and meeting for festivities around a campfire.
All you need is (a format of) love.
3) …AND TRAITORS ARE IN THE CASTLE
The Traitors, a psychological adventure format, after being launched by All3Media’s IDTV and RTL Creative Unit a on Dutch broadcaster RTL4 in March, garnering good ratings, is going to have two adaptions by Studio Lambert, one for BBC and one for NBCUniversal. The show sees contestants move into a majestic castle and work as a team to complete challenging missions in order to earn money for the prize pot. However, three of the contestants are secretly traitors who attempt to deceive their way to the prize by eliminating other contestants. Generally, psychological elements are quite difficult to introduce in entertainment (do you remember in the past the reality Giuda’s Game -too cruel- and in the quiz Dirty Rotten Cheater -too weak-?), but in this case perhaps the right formula has been found.
BONUS TRACK: Nordic Entertainment (NENT) Group’s streaming service Viaplay and TV3 in Norway have revived the local version of classic gameshow Fort Boyard: the participants have to face challenges -both mental and physical- in the iconic 19th century French fortress. Originally created in 1990, the format has since been adapted in more than 30 territories and certainly is one of the best “out-of-studio” game ever.