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Adventurous spirit grips reality series
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19/09/2023 5:01 pm
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Arthur Essebag
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
Arthur strikes gold W
hen the likes of Talpa’s John de Mol, Channel 4’s Alex Mahon and Sony Picture Television (SPT)’s Wayne Garvie are toasting your indefatigability and creativity, it suggests you deserve an award. So it’s no surprise to see Arthur Essebag, one of France’s best-known TV hosts and founder of Satisfaction Group, picking up the Gold Award at this year’s International Format Awards, to be held on the eve of Mipcom in Cannes on October 15. A coproduction between leading players in the formats business C21Media, FRAPA and EMC, in association with MipFormats, these are the leading awards for the global format business, recognising creativity and excellence across a range of categories. The International Formats Business Gold Award is given annually by C21Media, FRAPA, EMC and Mipcom to executives who have made an outstanding contribution to the formats business and Essebag joins previous recipients Mahon and Garvie. A leader in the development of the French unscripted sector since the 1990s, Essebag is known for hosting comedy shows and TF1 stalwarts Ce Soir Avec Arthur, Vendredi Tout est Permis Avec Arthur and Le Grand Concours. In the 1990s, he went into business with Stéphane Courbit, now Banijay Group’s chairman, to create what became the foundation for Endemol France, before leaving to launch his own indie, Satisfaction, in 2010. Satisfaction Group now produces more than 1,200 hours of TV every year and has a strong library of formats following its acquisition of the French operations of SPT in 2020, including Who Wants to be a Millionaire? and Dragons’ Den in France, which sit alongside its own creations such as Divided and Liar Liar. The group owns a roster of French production companies including Ah Production, Enibas, Ellimac, La Grosse Equipe, Factual Factory and Alef One. Satisfaction has also struck strategic joint-
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Arthur Essebag, the French TV host, entrepreneur and founder of Satisfaction Group, will receive the Gold Award at The International Format Awards in Cannes this year in recognition of his contribution to the industry. By Nico Franks
Arthur fronts The Wheel and Le Grand Concours (below) for France’s TF1
Congratulations to Arthur on receiving this prestigious award. I value Arthur as a renowned presenter and TV producer. His entrepreneurial spirit, impeccable flair, and infectious humour have truly set him apart in the world of business. Here’s to many more successes ahead! John de Mol Founder, Talpa
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THOUGHT LEADERSHIP: Arthur Essebag
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
venture agreements with major players in the unscripted space. These include John de Mol’s Talpa Network, giving Satisfaction access to the Dutch company’s formats including The Floor in France, and Fulwell 73, after Satisfaction launched the UK firm’s Visual Suspect format on TF1. Earlier this year, the company also took a stake in Yes Yes Media, the unscripted UK- and US-based production company launched by TV host Richard Bacon, having previously picked up the former Blue Peter presenter’s formats I Literally Just Told You and Silence is Golden for France. “Being the first French producer to receive the award means a lot – it indeed sheds light not only on Satisfaction Group but also on all independent producers who strive to bring to the market the most original and disruptive formats. This award comes at a time when our group is successfully expanding across the world,” says Essebag. Born Jacques Essebag in Casablanca in 1966, he took his first steps as a presenter on Radio Massy Palaiseau in the Paris suburbs in the 1980s, before taking on the pseudonym Arthur and crossing over to television. Essebag was at one point VP of Endemol France, before leaving to start again by launching Satisfaction, as part of Arthur World Participation Group. No stranger to Cannes and doing deals against the backdrop of the Palais, Essebag was at MipTV in April as the indie’s umbrella company, Satisfaction Group, looked to grow its international presence, with big announcements on that front due in October relating to Israel, Italy, Iberia and Latin America. Meanwhile, Satisfaction has become something of a go-to for non-French producers and creatives who aren’t necessarily affiliated with major production and distribution groups in France but want to get their formats on air in the country in long primetime, which can mean a show must go on for hours and hours. For example, Warner Bros International Television Production tapped Satisfaction to get The Wheel on air on TF1 in France over the summer, elongating a one-hour format in its native UK into a 145-minute show. Satisfaction’s pièce de resistance, however, must be turning a five-minute segment on Fulwell 73’s The Late Late Show with James Corden into the two-hour show called Visual Suspect on TF1. “We create drama from beginning to end. We change the mechanics. It’s our secret recipe,” says Essebag, who reveals Satisfaction is also developing formats for major streamers in France with episode lengths under one hour, while it is also experimenting with incorporating artificial intelligence into forthcoming talent formats, such as Emotion. The tech Essebag is most preoccupied with, at home at least, is Twitch, the Amazon-owned interactive livestreaming service popular with gamers. “Twitch, for me, is the future. It’s TV for the next generation and YouTube is the catch-up service,” says Essebag, who believes if he was starting out again today, it would be Twitch, rather than radio, that would provide his big break.
Arthur is one of France’s most talented television presenters. His success is naturally that of a great producer, always curious, attentive to the smallest artistic details of his productions. But it’s also that of an entrepreneur who has built up – repeatedly – some of the world’s largest audiovisual groups. Starting out in entertainment, he has expanded into magazines, documentaries and fiction, both in France and abroad, where his formats are highly sought-after. TF1 is proud of today’s award to Arthur, and happy to share in his audiovisual success over many years. Ara Aprikian, executive VP of content, TF1 Group A force of nature, a whirlwind of ideas, creative and business, Arthur is totally unique. As an onscreen performer, Arthur is, of course, ‘talent,’ but talent who acts as a talent magnet himself, his mentoring of fellow performers illustrating his commitment to nurturing others. In reaching out beyond France, he has established a unique set of international relationships. I have long given up being surprised when I meet someone from the other side of the globe who tells me they have recently met Arthur Essebag. A true internationalist, there cannot have been a better recipient of this award than my friend Arthur. Wayne Garvie, president, Sony Pictures Television You only have to meet Arthur once to experience the irrepressible charisma, ambition and drive that make him not only one of France’s most beloved TV hosts, but also one of the world’s most dynamic content producers. It is this shared DNA, the desire to find innovative and new ways to operate in our industry, that makes Arthur stand out and forms the basis of the creative alliance between Fulwell 73 and Satisfaction. Congratulations to Arthur on this well deserved award. We look forward to working with him in the future and to combining our know-how to entertain people across the world. Leo Pearlman, co-founder, Fulwell 73 It’s super-rare to have a host who is also a producer and idea generator. Arthur is very entrepreneurial and he’s had big formats that have travelled all around Europe. Arthur is not easily defeated. He’s a bit like the sea: one day you might find a churning tempest and on another it might be calm and tranquil. You never know what you’re going to get but it’s always something really interesting, unpredictable, fresh and compelling. He’s indefatigable, genuinely interested in the international television business, loyal to his team and I would never bet against him. Alex Mahon, CEO, Channel 4
Previous recipients of the Gold Award 2022: Wonwoo Park, creator of The Masked Singer 2021: Anette Rømer, STV Production 2020: Wayne Garvie, Sony Pictures Television 2019: Peter Fincham, Expectation Entertainment 2018: Alex Mahon, Channel 4 2017: Paul Gilbert, CBS Studios International 2016: Gary Carter, KLOK 2015: Annie Wegelius, former SVT programming chief 2014: Mark Itkin, William Morris Endeavor
2013: Stephen Lambert, Studio Lambert/ All3Media 2012: David Lyle, Fox Reality 2011: Dick de Rijk, creator of Deal or No Deal 2010: Reg Grundy, former CEO of Grundy Television 2009: Peter Bazalgette, former creative director of Endemol Group 2008: Stephen Leahy and Trish Kinane, Ludus Entertainment 2007: Merv Griffin, creator of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Adventure reality
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
Fort Boyard
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he 2007/08 US writers’ strike was credited with giving birth to a whole new genre: reality television, often heavily constructed by the producers and paving the way for a generation of ‘influencers.’ When the scribes downed their quills again in 2023 the unscripted industry, while being very careful to publicly state it would never want to take advantage of the situation, waited to see what might move into the void this time. And while not new, the sudden boom in adventure reality formats old and new suggests it might just be the genre. Be it classics like Fort Boyard on France 2, reboots like Survivor on the BBC, newer shows like the UK pubcaster’s Race Across the World, big swings with blockbuster budgets like Amazon Prime Video’s 007’s Road to a Million, or more niche concepts like Be Entertainment’s Destination X, it’s a genre that is evolving while drawing big audiences back to linear. So what’s driving this popularity? In some respects it’s a classic IP play. While Dan Grabiner, the outgoing head of the UK and Northern Europe at Amazon Studios, is keen to point out the 007’s Road to a Million commission predates the tech giant’s US$8.5bn acquisition of Bond studio MGM, it certainly doesn’t hurt to start sweating that asset on television and in unscripted for the first time. “When we set up this team and started thinking about what we would do in unscripted, large-scale British IP was very high on the agenda,” says Grabiner, who is leaving Amazon in mid-October to launch his own production business. “It doesn’t take a genius to think, ‘Why don’t we start talking to Bond?’ It’s probably the pre-eminent piece of iconic, travelling British IP and it’s never been adapted for television. Having said that, you don’t just walk into the office and ask [long-time Bond producer] Barbara Broccoli for TV rights. “It was only when we were pitched an idea by 72 Films that was a very clever, cinematic adventure show infused with doc quality, that we thought, ‘Hang on, why don’t we go to them now with this?’ They’ve been
A sense of adventure Adventure reality is booming with reboots of classics like Survivor and newer shows like Race Across the World pulling big, young audiences back to linear channels. But what’s behind the trend and where does it go next? By Clive Whittingham pitched a lot of TV shows over the years and never said yes to anything. In this case it connected and they fell in love with the format.” For the mega production groups created by a decade of big M&A activity, pushing historic IP is part of the business plan. James Townley, chief content officer for development at Survivor owner Banijay, is also looking to bring IP from different parts of unscripted into the trendy adventure reality genre. “Endemol Shine North America is producing Deal or No Deal Island for NBC,” he says. “The trends at the moment are adventure reality and gameshows, so there is this hybrid in which we have expertise. Creatively, we’re thinking how we extend these brands, especially in a market where there is a lot of interest in formats outside the studio.” Banijay also has Buddy Games, from Bunim-Murray for CBS, which is another unscripted, outdoorsy format drawn from scripted IP. One of the oldest French production
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companies in existence, Banijay France-owned Adventure Line Productions (ALP) was founded in 1972 and has long been known for classic adventure reality formats Fort Boyard and Koh-Lanta. It recently promoted Frédéric Lussato to president and Julien Magne to MD. The pair believe that despite the genre coming with a relatively hefty price tag for unscripted, current worries about economic issues and tightening budgets could also be boosting its popularity. “It may be expensive but it’s still less expensive than a scripted show,” Lussato says. “I believe platforms will go more and more non-scripted for this reason. We’ve seen in France, with LOL on Amazon’s Prime Video, you can bring a big audience to the platform with a show that, in the end, will always be less expensive than scripted.” Lisa Perrin, MD of international production at ITV Studios, has Alone on her slate. As well as the main A+E Networks version, the u
I believe platforms will go more and more non-scripted. You can bring a big audience to the platform with a show that, in the end, will always be less expensive than scripted. Frédéric Lussato
Adventure Line Productions
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AHEAD OF THE CURVE: Adventure reality
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
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Adventure reality seems to be a particular fit for a generation who are constantly on the lookout to challenge themselves to become better people. Geraldine Smink Talpa
Adventure Line Productions’ classic adventure reality format Koh-Lanta
The BBC’s Race Across the World was put on hold during the pandemic
show is being produced for a variety of international broadcasters on varying budgets. Perrin points out these shows bring another advantage in that they can be produced in hubs, helping to bring the costs down. “Passing the know-how around the group is really important. People understand how to make it and there’s a lot to share around health and safety protocols. It is cheaper than scripted. Some scripted shows wouldn’t achieve the ratings the BBC gets for Race Across the World on a Sunday night. I would say it’s a good ROI when you get those numbers.” Race Across the World, made by All3Media-owned Studio Lambert, went on a two-year hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic. Production shutdowns may seem like a nightmare
for a genre that requires a lot of international travel, but the restrictions may also be a factor behind the rise in popularity of shows that mix adventure, reality and gameshow elements. “The Covid situation was a point where people wanted more nature and escapism on TV and those years created a need for adventure,” says Lussato at ALP. Dutch format specialist Talpa recently launched a specific adventure reality division, led by Geraldine Smink and Wim van Dam, to capitalise on the trend, with Million Dollar Island in its line-up and other commissions in the works. Smink agrees: “Escapism might be a reason. Netflix and other global streamers have embraced adventure reality early on with shows with Bear Grylls and others. Adventure reality seems to be a particular fit for a generation who are constantly on the lookout to challenge themselves to become better people.” Townley, who also has Australian shows Rush and The Summit on Banijay’s slate, says advances in technology – particularly the use of drones to shoot impressive outdoor scenery – is also a huge factor. “There’s a real appetite from global buyers in the reality space, but more and more buyers are asking for that cinematic feel, and shows like 007’s Road To a Million are only going to drive that,” he says. The Brian Coxnarrated series offers competing duos the chance to win a prize of more than US$1m each. Casting is already underway for a second season. “Drone shots are not new but from
a cost-efficiency point of view, 10 to 15 years ago you’d have been up in a helicopter paying X, Y, Z,” Townley points out. “There used to be a huge cost attached to those aerial shots in the past and now you have incredible shots from drones. It’s highly achievable on a fairly manageable budget. The budget for The Summit would be significantly higher if we were getting those shots from a helicopter.” Another attraction of the genre is its co-viewing audience skew, often bringing back live day-and-date appointment-to-view, as well as a younger audience that had long been feared lost to linear channels. “We have to be different to what YouTube or TikTok offers,” says Lussato at ALP. “It’s extremely important to have young people back watching TV. Creating a big rendezvous is less easy in the new era with lots of different screens.” Interestingly, some YouTubers are creating their own adventure reality formats, as in the case of 7 vs Wild, which follows seven teams of content creators and influencers surviving in the wilderness with just seven basic items. Hosted by Hamburg-based CaliVision Network on YouTube, the property has been sold by Germany’s Quintus Studios to Amazon-owned Freevee, which will bring the three seasons of the show to its free, adsupported streaming television service on connected TVs around Germany. Kate Phillips, director of unscripted at the BBC, faced criticism for rebooting Survivor – a show that aired for two seasons on ITV in the early u
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2000s with only limited success – but points to the opportunities provided by co-viewing event TV that people recognise. “There is still an audience for big event television, so if somebody is pitching you a reboot, our job as BBC commissioners is to give the licence fee payer the best value for money and the best shows on screen,” she says. “No commissioner instinctively wants to do a reboot; they love that process of working with an indie to take a paper idea from pitch to screen. But ultimately we do need to put the best pitches on screen and sometimes – not often at the BBC – that is a reboot.” Perrin at ITV Studios also has ITV2’s Loaded in Paradise (sold internationally as Catch Me If You Can), an influencer-led format that, again, skews to a younger audience despite being on linear TV. “Travel has always been popular on TV. I’m never going to go to Mongolia but I’d quite like to have a look at it,” she says. “Race Across the World is a great show, extremely well made and very clever scheduling. It has that dynamic of family relationships while travelling that we can all relate to. I know from my friends and family everybody is watching it in all age groups and talking about it. “We found with Alone, when The Garden made it for Channel 4, that although the overnights weren’t big, the catch-up numbers were huge. It will be interesting to see if Survivor works and the BBC can relaunch it successfully. If they can, then you can really say that genre has arrived back in the UK.”
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There’s a real appetite from global buyers in the reality space, but more and more buyers are asking for that cinematic feel, and shows like 007’s Road To a Million are only going to drive that. James Townley Banijay
So where to next? Our execs had big ideas for how the genre will evolve. Smink at Talpa says: “Million Dollar Island is an adventure reality show without challenges and without eliminations, which makes it quite unique in the genre. What we’re working on next are concepts for which you don’t necessarily have to fly around the world. We are creating shows that combine psychological reality components with intoxicating locations fixed or within controlled environments, such as trails. Naturally, we are focused on cost-efficiency, hubs and sustainable operations.” Perrin is looking at Destination X, which ITV Studios produces for M6 in France, for clues. “It’s got a huge reality element to it with the participants travelling to unknown locations in a blacked-out bus. That’s where the genre is going,” she says. “It will morph into things like that, rather
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
than just a take on travel documentary. You’ll see more pure reality concepts like Destination X.” All3Media-owned Dutch firm IDTV is one of the hottest companies in the world following its breakout success The Traitors, and creative director Jasper Hoogendoorn believes crossover from genres like its psychological reality hit will become prevalent in adventure reality. “At MipTV there’s always a big presentation about trends and we got our own theme with The Traitors and formats that are copying it, so that’s a big compliment,” he says. “We learned a lot from The Traitors and since then came up with our new adventure reality show, The Unknown, which launched in the Netherlands and has sold to other countries.” Economic pressures, declining budgets for channels and a prolonged commissioning hiatus through the summer – none of this immediately screams a bright future for adventure reality, which is expensive to make and involves a lot of international travel. But looked at another way, it’s bringing cinematic values and cliffhanger moments (sometimes literally) to TV for a fraction of the cost of a scripted show. Moreover, adventure reality shows have been in production all year while many drama writers and stars have been on strike. If Survivor does make a splash in the UK on BBC One and 007’s Road to a Million lives up to its considerable budget and hype on Prime Video, then watch out for an explosion of new ideas in this space in 2024/25, as well as the growing influence of adventure reality in many more genres.
Left: Brian Cox narrates 007’s Road To a Million from Amazon Studios. Top: The Summit benefitted from the advent of drone technology. Above: ITV Studios’ international production chief Lisa Perrin
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NEXT BIG THINGS: Dating reality
Channel21 International | Fall 2023
Making a date format
Banijay’s Aussie format Love Triangle
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hen once television’s big unscripted pull was music and talent formats, with Idol, Got Talent, X Factor and others dominating Saturday nights in the UK and midweek primetime in the US, commissioners are increasingly falling for dating reality shows. Whether it’s Married at First Sight (MAFS), First Dates, Too Hot To Handle, Love Is Blind or even the rather icky MILF Manor, broadcast/terrestrial networks, cablenets and streamers alike cannot get enough of this buzzy genre. There’s a very ‘traditional television’ reason for this: you can make a lot of episodes for a relatively small amount of money and strip shows night after night through your schedules, particularly in the often tricky summer period. of Love Island for ITV2 in the UK shows the local version o 57 nights consecutively and the most recent season of Nine Network’s Married at First Sight Australia ran to 36 episodes of up to 90 minutes each. But the genre also solves a very modern problem for broadcasters: it draws the wayward younger demographics back to linear broadcast networks and their streaming services. Event episodes like MAFS’s MAFS weekly dinner parties or commitment ceremonies, I Kissed a Boy’s Boy ‘kiss off,’ or Love Island’s Island public votes and evictions also demand audiences watch live to avoid spoilers and contribute to the wave of social media discourse as it happens. So why is this genre punching through? This was a major topic of discussion at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival (ETVF) in late August, during a session titled Dating Formats: Never Enough. Daisy Lilley, Netflix’s director of unscripted in the UK, who has Too Hot To Handle, The Ultimatum and Love Is Blind on her slate, said: “Dating is one of those things that My Mum Your Dad
Dating reality shows can be both costeffective for broadcasters and rekindle their relationships with the seemingly lost youth audience. So what are the next innovations in this crowded genre? By Clive Whittingham
punches through because it’s universal and people see themselves in the people on screen.” Fiona Campbell, controller of youth audience at the BBC, which aired gay dating show I Kissed a Boy on BBC Three to much fanfare this year, added: “Everybody wants to find love. It is hard; break-ups can be more brutal now. Any content that can help you navigate that and make you feel better and not alone is a good thing. There are a plethora of dating apps and a huge appetite across a variety of people to find ‘the one’ and we’re making shows within that market. There is a big audience out there for these shows.” That toxicity in modern dating, despite there being more platforms than ever before to help you find a partner, is also front and centre for Lee McMurray, commissioning editor at Channel 4, which broadcasts First Dates and will shortly debut Banijay’s Australian format Love Triangle on its youth channel E4. “It’s never been harder to find love,” he said. “You hear it through cast and contributors on all the shows. It’s a minefield out there with the catfishing, ghosting, the toxic apps. It’s hard to find somebody ready, willing and wanting to find a deep connection. It’s a predicament that affects a lot of people and they want to see that reflected on screen. These shows, as well as reflecting that reality and what people are feeling about their own love lives, can give them hope. You can get a lot of guidance and advice, u
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TLC’s dating show MILF Manor
from the experts on MAFS, for example, there is a lot of backdoor take-out from it.” So what are the ingredients that make a good show in this area, other than “backdoor take-out” ? “There are a handful of essential ingredients that a lot of these shows will share,” McMurray said. “It won’t surprise anybody that when we do audience research the biggest word in the word cloud, 10 times bigger than any other, is ‘drama.’ “There is an addictive quality to the shows when they’re on every night and run for weeks on end; you get invested and sucked in. “Authenticity is another big one – increasingly the viewer is savvy and more sophisticated than they’ve been before because they consume so much of this content. They want to believe the people in the process are invested because if they don’t care why should you? “With a lot of these shows there are quite high stakes – with MAFS they’re marrying a complete stranger. The cast is key. And escapism – they’re very glossy and glamorous.” The line between drama and toxicity is a difficult one to tread. ITV’s version of Love Island has, tragically, lost two previous contestants to suicide, as well as the show’s host, Caroline Flack. This year’s contestants had their social media accounts taken away from them for the duration of the show for the first time so they couldn’t read the comments and DMs. However, ITV chief Kevin Lygo’s defence at ETVF in 2021 that participants are “psychoanalysed to death” as part of ITV’s standards and practices was, kindly put, an unfortunate turn of phrase. One trend is for TV in general, and these shows in particular, to be a little, well, kinder. “There is a version of Too Hot To Handle that could be quite nasty,” Netflix’s Lilley admitted. “These are incorrigible people, constantly making mistakes, treating the opposite sex like shit every now and again. The team work so hard to find people you can still root for. They make mistakes and you can’t believe they’ve done it, but you still love them. “For our dating shows we do tend to lean into heart and humour. Of course, you have the drama, and we love the drama because relationships are messy. Sometimes things aren’t straightforward, they do go a bit grey and off in other directions. At the heart of it, we go for people whose heart is in the right place. I hope you can see that in our shows.”
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There are a plethora of dating apps and a huge appetite across a variety of people to find ‘the one’ and we’re making shows within that market. There is a big audience out there for these shows. Fiona Campbell, BBC
McMurray agreed that casting is more important than ever. “Authenticity is key,” he said. “If people don’t believe they’re in the process for love then the audience can smell it, they react to it and they don’t like it. “You can tolerate a certain number of people who want to be on TV in the cast. You do need people who can deliver and give you good television and know what buttons to press to deliver engaging content and good scenes. But by and large, what you want is people who really care and want to be there to find love, so the emotions are authentic.” As much a part of watching the shows themselves is the social media activity and chatter that goes with them. Campbell at the BBC said: “BBC Three’s recent heritage is digital content and on-demand, and iPlayer is the primary home. The ethos of the channel and team is all about how we drive people from off-platform to a show and our team is expert in that. “From the very first pitch meetings we’re talking about campaigns and then the social team comes in and is integrated with the production company to bring it to life. For dating shows, we’re always trying to focus on to the original proposition of this idea that will make it stand out in such a healthy market. I Kissed a Boy was very distinct and we were fixing on what we could do off-platform from the first minute. We ended up with 34 million social impressions for a first season from a standing start and launching around Eurovision, which posed a real risk of drowning it out with the target audience.” Campbell credits show host Dannii Minogue’s involvement on socials and engaging the LGBTQ+ audience she already attracts with helping to drive that. The social team also posted preview clips on gay dating app Grindr. Netflix obviously lacks the live element, as opposed to Love Island’s appointment-to-view on ITV2 each u
Netflix’s Daisy Lilley
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Gay dating show I Kissed a Boy airs on BBC Three
night, but Lilley said socials can help with this. “The fans of Too Hot to Handle and Love Is Blind are so loud and you see that on socials immediately,” she said. “As that happens it drives people to watch the show and ‘eventise’ it. At Netflix, we can play around with the scheduling and release of the shows, which gives us a chance to keep the conversation going and make sure people watch the final together and help people feel like part of a community.” Charlie Irwin, MD of Fremantle prodco Thames, previously worked on X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent and now produces Too Hot To Handle for Netflix. “The Too Hot digital team work hard to keep that going. People come to the show at different times. Yes, you hope you have the majority of viewers at the time but with Too Hot you see people pick it up through the years, so the conversation keeps going and spiking at different times.” Mike Spencer, the exec producer of Love Island as part of his role as creative director at ITV Studios’ Lifted Entertainment, said this can be key to avoiding viewer fatigue, because while you want to freshen up the shows, you mess with their core format at your peril. “You make the show because viewers love it. But in last year’s version you could sort of guess what was coming next and for season nine we said we absolutely cannot have the islanders guessing what’s next,” Spencer said. “You have to have your core format but we’ve tested little tweaks. Surprises and twists in the format are good – don’t take it a million miles away but keep it feeling fresh, so the islanders and viewers don’t know what’s coming next. We’ve moved away from cliffhangers as the viewers have got more and more savvy.” Irwin added: “In any successful format you need a small twist and unique selling point that makes it stand out. In Too Hot, Hot they’re banned from sexual contact and that’s the name of the game. Beneath it is an authentic question about whether people can find deep and meaningful relationships and love without the lust and sex that we all think dating is. That’s the small unique point for us. It’s relatable. “You always look to freshen up series but the underlying format in question has to remain the same. The viewer has to know what they’re coming to the show for. In Too Hot, Hot it’s a sex ban and testing people; that will never be messed with.” So what’s the next turn of the wheel in a packed genre?
Spencer points to recently launched ITV format My Mum Your Dad, which features an older generation seeking love as a potential new trend. Campbell said she’s frequently receiving complicated pitches with multiple format points that lose the room. “Think clearly about what you’ve got that’s special and make it easy to understand and get – it needs to be supersimple and memorable,” she added. Lilley cited Netflix’s recent show The Ultimatum, where people who were already in a medium- or longterm relationship faced challenges and questions about whether to keep going, as an interesting direction of travel. “With queer dating, what you don’t want to do is commission something tokenistic. The Ultimatum was a great format with people at a crossroads in their lives, and why couldn’t it have a queer cast in the same way it could have a straight cast?” McMurray at Channel 4 was very keen on that show too. “A lot of the shows we talk about are about the beginning of things, because it’s joy, hope, optimism; you haven’t learned to hate each other yet,” he said. “What is trickier is grappling with existing relationships, people who’ve been together a while. I’d be keen to hear from people who have formats that speak to that. “We’re looking to commission high-volume, returnable formats and there’s no reason why one of those couldn’t be dating. They need to be distinctive, original somehow, with a USP, headline, thought or concept at the heart that makes it stand out. For us, it needs to be high-stakes, ambitious, audacious and extraordinary – marrying a stranger, forming a ‘thruple.’ Be punchy. “It has to be distinctive. There are some formats that feel derivative and the same as everything else out there. There has to be something original.”
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A lot of the shows we talk about are about the beginning of things, because it’s joy, hope, optimism; you haven’t learned to hate each other yet. What is trickier is grappling with existing relationships, people who’ve been together a while.
Lee McMurray, Channel 4
Charlie Irwin of prodco Thames
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Three-Year Plan Woodcut Media
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K indie Woodcut Media is perhaps best known for its slate of true crime series such as Pick TV’s World’s Most Evil Killers, which has run to more than 160 episodes, and The Suitcase Murders for Discovery in the UK. More recently, though, company founder Kate Beal has been concerned that the popularity of the genre could lead to exploitative TV and trauma for victims and families being hounded by multiple producers all chasing similar stories. The issue has even inspired a Dogwoof documentary film, called Subject. Beal is chairing the nascent Association of True Crime Producers (ATCP), a group of 10 indies entertainment and formats, so we took the decision specialising in true crime in the UK and Ireland who to invest heavily in that. Meriel Beale is hugely have joined forces to collectively establish best experienced and she’s been developing and pitching since February. Hopefully, this time next year, I can practice. “Everything is trending in true crime now,” Beal sit here and say the strategy is working. “It’s always a risk; we’re a small-to-medium says. “There isn’t a fashion like there used to be in terms of form or shape. All forms and shapes have company but we’re choosing to invest rather than grown in the last few years. Every single network take the profits. It’s an exciting risk to take. Meriel is really talented and we’ve got is doing it, which is incredible. I a diverse team, which provides thought the boom would be over us with different ideas and ways about three years ago, but the in.” appetite is still there from the The company is also viewer. considering its options for “It’s easier to find stories in expanding its US presence, the US, where there are more increasing the amount of people and more murders. It’s deficit financing and thirdincreasingly hard in the UK, where party projects done by you have the infamous stories its Woodcut International and the people surrounding those distribution arm and forming stories get approaches every few more productive alliances weeks. with other companies. “It’s something I have worried “Reasons to be optimistic: about and have been thinking the market is starting to shift, about for the past year, which has with people buying and being led to the formation of the ATCP to clear with mandates. Warner tackle exactly that. It came from Bros Discovery is the best a worry for the victims’ families example; they’ve suddenly when we all run to the same story It’s easier to find woken up and are being really and fight over it. stories in the clear about what they want,” “There need to be some rules US, where there are Beal says. of the game and fair play among “Reasons to be fearful: each other and, most importantly, more people and more with victims and families. We all murders. It’s increasingly I’m not sure they need as much as they did. But this is want a commission, but it’s only hard in the UK, where not necessarily in unscripted. television. We’re thinking about you have the infamous I’d be much more worried if I the best ethical approaches.” stories and the people were in high-end scripted at Meanwhile, Woodcut is diversifying its slate with female surrounding those stories the moment, because I don’t think anybody will be doing revisionist history series like get approaches every as much of that as they did. The Queens That Changed the few weeks. Some of the investments made World and military engineering previously have clearly not show Combat Ships, as well as Kate Beal paid off yet. eyeing expansion into factual “In terms of M&A, it will be more of a entertainment. It recently hired experienced producer Meriel Beale, whose credits include a buyers’ market than a sellers’. There will revamp of Through The Keyhole at ITV, as senior be more fire sales and rescue bids rather than getting a multiple of 12 for your exec producer of the genre. “Like every indie for the last few years, we’ve company. Some bigger groups been surviving hand to mouth. ‘Can we get through will start consolidating their Covid? Can we deliver this show?’ We’re doing OK labels. We’ve seen that with which at the moment, we’re in a stable place and we have Fremantle, ambitions. I want to grow the company and the team is starting to fold labels do too,” Beal says. “Commercially, we’d like to grow the formats in under one side of the business. There is longevity in factual leadership.”
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Founder and CEO Kate Beal on her goal to make more ethical shows with The Association of True Crime Producers while pushing into factual entertainment and formats. By Clive Whittingham
The Queens That Changed the World
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PRESENT IMPERFECT FUTURE TENSE: Fraser Ayres
Black history for us all
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happy and most excellent Black History Fraser Ayres, CEO Month to you. Whether it’s on this side and co-founder of of the globe in October or in February The TriForce Creative for our transatlantic brothers and sisters, it’s Network, TriForce always a good time to shine a spotlight on Productions and Blackcentric work. This focus that comes around once a year Dandi.org.uk, on why Black may seem tokenistic and almost ‘overdone’ to history is not something we some, and even in the UK many broadcasters should be remembering for just have stopped celebrating it with targeted one month a year. output. It is, however, incredibly important, and without it we wouldn’t have gotten our hit is reversed and the great Diversity, Equity & show Sorry, I Didn’t Know off the ground. The Inclusion (DEI) exodus – firing, call it what you comedy panel show highlights Black history will – has happened while the usual pointless (read: everyone’s history) through the lens of schemes are remerging and white people in giggles and celebration instead of the usual general are tired of being called racists. It has been a short period of incredible leaps tropes of oppression that are associated with forward and a potentially knee-jerk hard stop. Black history. The ‘Black Panther effect’ of Blackcentric Now in its fourth season on ITV, this year it leaves Black History Month for the first time work that transcends demographics is at a and will instead grace screens and online perilous point in commissioning. Work such platforms outside of the excellent, but quite as Atlanta, The Wire, Empire and Black-ish limiting, ‘Black allowed content’ of the month would never see the light of day in the current climate due to the nervous and very wrong of October. When we first aired, we were asked if it interpretations of our audience’s changing could run for more than one season: “Is there opinions. We can’t let that happen enough Black history for or we face losing out another series?” It turned Let us not go enormously. Amid the noise out that Black history goes back to being back to...well, when history inadvertently anti-Black and quick bucks of media that fosters exclusion, began. anger and hate, we have And every time any of us with our passivity and to continue to create turns on a screen or looks instead keep going work that, just by its very out of a window, we can forward and be proclearly see Black people Black, pro-everybody, all existence, counters that by opening doors, being getting a rough time, every year round and not just inclusive, and featuring month of the year. The stories from voices from all Black experience, although one month a year. over the place. it’s important to bring a The melting pot of creativity demands it, focused spotlight where often there is a deficit, exists all year round and doesn’t stop the but the simple economic reality is that our moment the clock strikes midnight at the end audiences are now more diverse than ever, and in them there hills, there be gold. Peacock’s of October or February. Until very recently that was beginning offices are a shrine to their enjoyment of the to change and we were beginning to see global smash hit and unashamedly BlackBlackcentric content in our very highest media empowered Bel-Air. Let us not go back to being inadvertently forms, and watch it transcend demographics anti-Black with our passivity and instead and speak to millions as it spread globally. Before our current industry freak-out, we keep going forward and be pro-Black, prowere seeing TV that many could never have everybody, all year round and not just one dreamed of – a world where, at its peak, a month a year. At TriForce Productions we will continue to Black Captain America gave speeches about wearing the stars and stripes in Malcolm keep making diverse content that speaks to Spellman’s The Falcon & the Winter Soldier, broad audiences, and at Dandi.org.uk, support and it aired globally. For a moment in this other production companies to do the same, brave new world, voices that had previously providing direct access to the talent they need. But to continue to do that with authenticity and been sidelined were being brought to the fore. However, much of that content was created nuance, we need those who come from the when the wheels were set firmly in the direction worlds we are portraying to be an integral part of making shows with more kinds of people for of shaping those stories. Actually, once these strikes are over, and more kinds of people. A lot has changed in a very short space of we all go back to having fun, let’s just give all time and now we find ourselves in a post-Black the money to Malcolm Spellman. It’ll make the Lives Matter world where affirmative action world a much, much richer place.
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Channel21 International | Fall 2023
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