All the latest news from Realscreen on Tuesday, 3 February

 

Blue Ant alum joins Muse

Muse Entertainment has named Jennifer Harkness as senior vice president of global development and partnerships, wokring out of the company’s LA office.

Harkness will oversee documentary and unscripted content, with a remit to expand partnerships domestically and internationally.

Harkness joins from Blue Ant Studios, where she was senior vice president of development and production, with credits such as The Great Art Fraud (BBC Two) and Ghosting (CBC/ Peacock).

She prevously had stints at Cream Productions and Temple Street Productions.

 

Belgium’s The Way Out heads to UK 

Tuesday’s Child is bringing Belgian escape room format The Way Out to U&Dave as UKTV ushers in a renewed comedy entertainment strategy.

Mel Giedroyc is hosting the 4 x 60-minute series, in which Ed Gamble and Nish Kumar captain rival teams through a series of bespoke themed escape rooms.

Each team captain has selected two comics to join them. Gamble has enlisted Chloe Petts and Lou Sanders – Giedroyc’s co-host on previous U&Dave format Unforgivable – while Kumar has picked Amy Annette and David O’Doherty.

At the end of the series, the winners will be the team that conquers all four escape rooms in the fastest overall time. The Way Out format originates from the Belgian concept created by Roses Are Blue, which debuted on VTM in 2019 and has run for six series to date. 

 

Banijay, ITV strike YouTube pact

ITV has unveiled a partnership with Banijay UK for its YouTube Sales team to represent shows from Banijay Rights.

The partnership marks a significant expansion of ITV’s YouTube sales offering, expanding its portfolio and giving brands the opportunity to buy advertising around more premium content on YouTube.

Banijay UK-produced shows such as Would I Lie To You?, MasterChef, Peaky Blinders, SAS: Rogue Heroes, Location Location Location and One Born Every Minute will now be among ITV YouTube Sales’ offering.

The deal builds on ITV’s strategic partnership with YouTube, announced in December 2024, for ITV’s commercial team to sell the full range of advertising opportunities including content both made by ITV Studios and commissioned by ITV.

 

 

 

Topics