Hot Picks

The Secret Gameshow

Type: Format
Length: 1 x 90-minutes
Producer: Asahi Broadcasting TV Corporation/NBCUniversal Formats
Broadcaster: Asahi (Japan)

The first project developed out of a partnership between NBCU Formats and Japan’s Asahi Broadcasting TV Corporation (ABC), this competition series was a year in the making before its launch in February.

In the format, unsuspecting office workers sit down at their desks to find themselves the star of a gameshow needing to perform a series of increasingly difficult and embarrassing challenges to win a life-changing amount of money. However, this fact must remain unknown to their colleagues.

In each episode contestants must pass three rounds to build up their money total, whilst celebrity guests comment on how they think they are doing. If they fail to complete the challenge, they are eliminated. If colleagues query their actions, the host must decide if they’ve been rumbled and should be eliminated. If each contestant succeeds in the final challenge, they will walk away with £10,000.

Despite being branded an ‘office’ competition series, Ana Langenberg, senior vice-president of format sales and production, NBCU Formats, regards it as a “workplace format”, and therefor does not require an office setting. The obvious barriers that Covid-19 presents have not dissuaded buyers, she says, and the team “has been in negotiation” with interested parties.

German, US Hispanic and Latin American buyers have already shown interest in the format, with Langenberg noting that NBCU Formats’ development team had worked closely with Asahi to “think internationally and make it relatable to many different markets”. There is acknowledgement that the format is most suited to “territories that have done wacky things themselves”. “UK commissioners would want to see a western take on the format before falling for it,” she concedes.

Mend It For Money

Type: Format
Length: 20 x 60-minutes, 1 x 60-minutes (pilot)
Producer: Chalkboard TV
Broadcaster: Channel 4 (UK)

The recent spike in interest for restoration and renovation programming was strong motivation for NBCU Formats to make their own inroads in this space, and the 20-episode commission from Channel 4 has encouraged the company for wider pick-up, according to Langenberg, along with its unique format beats.

“A UK commission is always a great thing to go to market with,” she says. “And, a lot of broadcasters like fact-ent with a competition edge.”

Chalkboard’s series combines high end restorations with social history, as some of the best restorers in the country give objects a new lease of life. But there’s a twist. The three restorations featured in each episode will see two of the country’s top craftspeople compete to get the job. Going head-to-head, the restorers must pitch their plan for bringing the prized item back to life and how to get the maximum price when the item is sold, before agreeing a profit share deal with the owner.

Langenberg says the competition element will help the show differentiate it from the BBC’s The Repair Shop, which “does a great job, but has an emphasis on the more emotional element”. “We feel ours will still have that with the pieces brought in,” she notes, however.

It is an example of one of the welcome additions to NBCU’s catalogue from stablemate Sky’s now-subsumed sales arm Sky Vision.

Langenberg says the series has been optioned in a couple of territories already and NBCU Formats is targeting the US. She shrugs off potential competition from similar shows already in the international market.

“It’s part of the game of how creative and development works, there’s a collective unconscious that drives creatives in similar directions,” she says. “You just hope yours gets a commission in an important market and is given a good slot which will give good ratings.

“There’s a lot of space in the US, enough windows to have shows that work in the same space.”