THE FUTURE OF FACTUAL FORMATS
FACTUAL TV
Laycock is also “absolutely in the market
for reality, dating relationship shows, universal themes and highly entertaining.” She’s keen for producers to rethink Discovery. “We have been changing a lot and we are now in the market for big ideas…. We’re hungry for content and have deep pockets.”
LOVE IS IN THE AIR Dating shows have proved particularly useful as a bingeable draw to non-linear services. Netflix, whilst backing competition shows for its Reality slate, such as DSP’s Interior Design Masters and Multistory Media’s The Big Flower Fight, has recommissioned its two dating hits Talkback’s Too Hot to Handle and Love is Blind, from Kinetic Content. This time last year, ITV’s director of
Television Kevin Lygo, faced with the Covid shutdown of Love Island, was calling for more fact ent formats. As we head into the second half of 2021, the broadcaster now has its 2021 series of Love Island, with ITV2 further loved up in the shape of Potato’s Ready to Mingle and The Cabins, from 12 Yard. It is currently looking for “really shiny real world competitions,” says ITV controller of factual entertainment Jo Clinton- Davis, speaking at this year’s Sheffield DocFest. HBO Max, now in the same stable as
Discovery +, is showing enthusiasm for formats Jennifer O’Connell, executive vice president, nonfiction and live-action family for HBO Max, has described the skills on show in its titles Craftopia, Full Bloom or The Great
Pottery Throwdown as “extreme creativity… It’s satisfying to watch someone be so adept at something that they can make such impressive things.” Love Production’s Great Pottery Throwdown
HEART WARMING CONTENT
“WE WANT
YOU FEEL HAPPY, SAFE AND WELL”
THAT EITHER TRANSPORTS YOU, OR MAKES
is once more back in the ascendant, having moved from the BBC, to Channel 4 and now streaming on HBO Max. The production company has been at the centre of the British love affair with competition programmes. The Great British Sewing Bee has been a big hit on the BBC. Its legendary long-running format The Great British Bake Off, now a banker for Channel 4, was one of the top 10 highest-rated shows in the UK last year, sandwiched between high profile drama and broadcasts by Boris Johnson and the Queen.
THE AMERICAN DREAM The US networks are also sniffing around the classic format. Rob Wade, President of Alternative Entertainment at Fox recently name-checked The Repair Shop, saying that it was “bothersome” that there weren’t more factual formats on air in the US. One that has survived is Studio Lambert’s Undercover Boss for CBS, now in its eleventh season. The US networks are interested, they see that formats can offer a long tail, but US network commissioning is a famously brutal process - they need something that has instant impact or it dies. Donna Clark, the managing director of EndemolShine’s DSP, notes the international
Summer 2021
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