Yahoo News How ‘The Traitors’ Is Leading A Global Formats Revival – Mip TV Preview
The Traitors has done for formats what Top Gun: Maverick “did for the summer blockbuster,” says Glenn Hugill, with barely a hint of hyperbole.
Deal or No Deal exec Hugill, who was not involved with the creation of the The Traitors, believes its success “benefits all of us in the business.” He is one of several unscripted creatives and sellers who tell Deadline they are bullish about the state of the sector.
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As these execs gear up for next week’s Mip TV confab in Cannes, Hugill does not refrain from talking up The Traitors’ impact, a show that has now made waves in the U.S., UK, Australia, France and a number of European territories, along with its home country of The Netherlands where it was forged by All3Media label IDTV.
“I think if it had failed, the entire genre would have stalled,” says Hugill. “As it is, formats have been given a whole new lease of life by a complex, heavily formatted, incredibly niche concept that still worked. It’s an incredibly ‘have-able’ idea.”
The Traitors UK host Claudia Winkleman, who is having a serious moment, is the “formats version of Tom Cruise,” Hugill jokes.
The Traitors, which is set in a castle and sees ‘faithfuls’ sniff out ‘traitors’ each day while competing in challenges and building up prize money, really started taking off around Christmas time in the UK and a successful U.S. version has since aired on Peacock. Both have been recommissioned and more territory deals are imminent, we understand.
Multiple elements of the show have come in for praise over the months including the diverse cast, use of non-celebrities (although not in the U.S.) and playalong nature, which creates a rare level of word-of-mouth buzz not seen in the formats game for a number of years.
Distributor All3Media International’s Nick Smith is tasked with selling the show around the world and will be taking part in a Mip TV Traitors masterclass. He says formats and docs are “feeling the love” from buyers at present. In the weeks leading up to Mip TV, Deadline asked around two dozen distributors to submit Hot One ideas and the vast majority were unscripted, with some of the best scripted fare likely used up at March’s Series Mania confab in Lille.
“Before the pandemic, journalists were always asking me whether the formats boom had ended,” says Smith, who has been with It’s a Sin seller All3 for more than 15 years. “People kept asking about where the new formats were coming from, but now we’ve had The Masked Singer and Traitors blowing up in 20 territories in two years.”
Shepherding The Traitors’ success has not been plain sailing, Smith explains candidly, pointing to the incredible demands on his team’s time and the pace at which versions have rushed into production.
“I would love to say it’s been pleasant but it’s difficult when you’ve got multiple buyers in a territory chasing the same show and there can be upset,” he adds.
All3’s Mip TV catalog is packed with formats as the Louise Pedersen-ran seller looks to ride The Traitors wave, with the likes of Traitors UK producer Studio Lambert’s Rise and Fall and under-wraps format The Unknown from IDTV and The Cube maker Objective leading the charge.
Smith predicts guessing game shows in the vein of The Masked Singer and The Traitors will continue to dominate, taking advantage of a penchant for family co-viewing.
This sentiment is echoed by Fremantle EVP Global Acquisition and Development Vasha Wallace. Fremantle makes The Traitors in the Nordics and Wallace says the fact that “adults can watch with their kids” is a boon. “There is something about shows playing to a family audience that has real appetite and broad appeal,” she adds.
The next generation
In a similar vein, Wallace will be pushing Channel 4’s The Piano at Mip TV, the latest format from Great British Bake Off maker Love Productions, hosted, unsurprisingly, by Winkleman.
The heart-wrenching show, which drew floods of tears across the country when it aired earlier this year, is leading a packed Fremantle formats slate and involves amateur pianists sharing their stories and music with the general public. Unbeknownst to them, they are being watched by two acclaimed performers who may give them a once in a lifetime invitation to play on one of the world’s most prestigious stages.
Wallace spent time pitching to Nordics Discovery Group recently and says “competitors, allies and buyers alike are really interested in what is happening” in the international formats industry.
“They gravitate to shows like [The Piano] because it’s raw, authentic and emotional,” she adds, stressing the scripted beats that more and more formats are beginning to hit. “There’s a recession, inflation and a war in Europe happening and a feel-good escapist show allows you to retreat from the world. We’re seeing similar buying patterns to the previous recession [in 2008-9].”
Unlike the previous recession, however, Wallace flags buyers’ new demand for “clippable” shows like The Piano, for which the most emotional scenes can attract buzz when published in short bursts on social media.
Married at First Sight and Love is Blind seller Red Arrow Studios International is gearing up for a busy Mip TV where it will present Danish original Stranded on Honeymoon Island to buyers mostly for the first time, which recently launched strongly on Belgium’s VTM2.
President and MD Tim Gerhartz has high hopes for Stranded, which has elements of Married at First Sight but also challenges new couples to survive on an island in what is described as the ‘adventure reality’ sub-genre.
“The reason we believe in this show is that we have found a gap in the reality space,” says Gerhartz. “We describe Stranded as a fast-track relationship experience.”
Deadline understands a number of territory deals will close shortly and Red Arrow is currently seeking an Asian production hub from where it can make multiple Stranded versions.
“We can provide buyers with the infrastructure to jump on a format efficiently and quickly,” he says. “A hub can help a show be produced in line with the way it was developed, giving it a higher level of authenticity.”
Recession-proofing
For Gerhartz, production hubs, which have also been used in the past for the likes of The Wall, is one of the ways in which producers can recession-proof their shows, helping to drive the formats revival in times of economic strife.
Co-productions, which have been in the spotlight of late, are another way in which producers and sellers can keep the costs down and Fremantle’s Wallace points to RTL4’s The Beatbox karaoke format, which is made by UK indie Naked, The Netherlands’ Blue Circle and Korean outfit Something Special. “We wanted to benefit from each territory’s approach to music and what they’ve created is completely unique,” she says.
Budget is an ever-crucial part of the pre-greenlight conversation but Gerhartz believes producers can still focus on “content quality rather than cost efficiency.”
“It feels like there are less commissions at the moment but those that do get commissioned are big, bold and have an impact,” he explains. “There’s less room for the ‘nice to haves’.”
Mip TV provides an early opportunity for Shark Tank EP Phil Gurin’s fledgling TGC Global Entertainment to make a splash and the outfit will be pitching the likes of Canada’s Ultimate Challenge and Fridge Wars to buyers.
There is still room for major marquee scripted projects, Gurin says, but “in a world where platforms are facing increasing financial pressure, formats are a way for big global giants to keep the pipeline full.”
The veteran scotches the notion that the looming writers’ strike will benefit unscripted in any meaningful way, however, citing that “buyers won’t suddenly have a giant pool of money” if the strike goes ahead.
And while there’s certainly room to create and sell formats in today’s market, Gurin raises concerns that it is getting harder to secure those all-important Season 2 recommissions. “Recommissions are the holy grail but over the last few years you have to consider what has really taken off [beyond Season 1] besides Masked Singer and The Traitors?,” he questions.
Prior to The Traitors launch, debate was raging over reboots. In the UK alone, the next few months will see new versions of Big Brother, Survivor, Gladiators and Deal or No Deal, and many including the program bosses of the BBC and Channel 4 differ in their view.
The execs Deadline spoke with for this feature were unfazed.
Hugill, who recently joined the UK arm of Jimmy Kimmel and Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse as Chief Content Officer, says reboots “make perfect sense and are fully justified in the current climate.”
“You need to give viewers a recognizable reason to stop scrolling,” he adds. “Fighting against that is like screaming against the incoming tide.”
Gerhartz believes buyers are simply applying scripted learnings to unscripted following years of rebooted dramas and comedies. “I’m not surprised that unscripted is trying to replicate this. Is it successful? Sometimes,” he wonders.
The next development will be more unscripted spin-offs, predicts Hugill, as the genre again looks to ape scripted by making shows based in the same universe as the original but with a twist.
“You take a known branded universe and then spin something off that utilizes your connection and familiarity with that world,” he adds. “Think Deal or no Deal Island, Who Wants to be a Millionaire Manor or even Married at First Building Site.”
As buyers look to keep their pipelines stocked and budget woes plague scripted, format creatives and sellers are bullish. Wallace forecasts further positive developments as the streamers rejig to try and attract a broader, older audience, who are partial to a format.
“Broadcasters and streamers used to be siloed with drama and docs going to the streamers and broadcasters buying gameshows but these siloes are breaking down,” she adds. “Everything is becoming broader and this makes it easier for us developers to give these platforms the shows that work for them.”
With distributors and creatives alike readying themselves for another busy Cannes confab, those at the helm of the latest formats revival will be hoping that The Traitors is not the only show on buyers’ lips.
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