Television in international markets is successfully reviving entertainment shows from the past. Physically demanding competitions or reality shows with celebrities are also thriving. In streaming, queer dating is scoring. Here's a look at the key international formats in the Reality & Entertainment segment for November and December 2021.
Ninja Warrior is the hit of the region
The Ninja Warrior format once again thrived in multiple markets this autumn. It is a more production-intensive project requiring a large studio. The show features physically fit individuals competing against a course full of obstacles. Here, the Japanese TBS format is distributed by Eccholine. It has been given several spin-offs - a celebrity version, dueling teams or a children's version. It has not yet been adapted in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, viewers may know its foreign versions as Ninja Factor.
In our region, Hungarian TV2 broadcasts its own Ninja Warrior. The third series ran in October and November every Monday to Friday from 20:00 to 22:30. In a strongly competitive market, it achieved an average market share of 10.8 % in the 18-59 group according to Nielsen data. TV2's daily averages were 9.5 % in the weeks in question.
In Poland, the local version is broadcast by Polsat, and in the autumn it deployed a 4th series on Tuesday prime-time. According to wirtualnemedia.pl, it achieved a share of 10.5% in the 18-49 group, which was two percentage points above Polsat's normal performance in the early autumn season. The fifth season of Ninja Warrior is already set.
In Germany, commercial leader RTL has been offering the Ninja Warrior show since 2016 and is reaching younger age groups well with it. The fifth season finale recorded a share of 16.2 % in the 14-49 group, while the station's average was only in single digits in December. The winner was circus acrobat Rene Casselly.
Returning after 18 years
In its 30 years on the German market, the classic game show Let's Make a Deal (Geh aufs Ganze!) has changed broadcasters and programe windows - it has tried deployments ranging from daily access to weekly prime-time. Now, after an 18-year hiatus, Sat.1 has brought it back, choosing Friday nights, when its rival RTL is picking up success with Ninja Warrior. Let's Make a Deal held up: the three episodes had an average share of 13.6 % in the 14-49 commercial group, according to AGF/GfK. The problem was a more significant drop after a strong start: while the first episode reached a share of 17 %, the second dropped to 14.6 % and the third to 9.3 %. However, for Sat.1, used to end-of-year performances of around 7.4 %, this still meant above-average numbers and improved station figures each time. Sat.1 has already confirmed new episodes for 2022.
Let's Make a Deal is a game show based on strategy and chance instead of knowledge. The presenter offers contestants from the audience an unknown prize, for example. This can be significantly more valuable, or much less, than the prize they are already guaranteed at that moment. Only when they have made their decision will they find out if they have done the right thing.
The format has just changed distributors. The rights to all markets except the US, Canada and Germany have been acquired by Can't Stop Media.
The trend of returning to established TV brands is a long term one. In recent months, the Hungarian commercial channel TV2, for example, has been riding this wave, reviving the dating show The Bachelor (A Nagy Ő) after a 17-year hiatus. As a one-off event, Germany’s ZDF brought the big Saturday show Wanna Bet? (Wetten, dass...?) and achieved an exceptionally high 50.2% share in the commercial target group 14-49 (source: AGF/Gf). ProSieben revived Stefan Raab's former daily late-night show TV total with a new presenter as a weekly in the main slot at 20:15. Although the ratings gradually declined, according to the website dwdl.de, they stayed in a solid above-average range.
Celebrities again
We already reported on the success of celebrity reality formats in our analysis of September and October. But it is not only Power Couple that is successful in this genre. Among the proven hits is also I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! from ITV Studios. In this show, a dozen celebrities leave the comfort of their home, travel to a harsh jungle and fight for the win. Audience involvement is important - they vote and decide which celebrities will face tough challenges and which ones will leave the competition.
The factor of live broadcasts and filming in exotic locations several time zones away from Europe make I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! an expensive project. However, the coronavirus helped in this case and, for example, filming of the UK version was moved from Australia to Wales and from a jungle to a castle.
The format has been adapted in dozens of countries. It has achieved significantly above average viewing figures for several years in Germany on RTL, where it is broadcast as an event at the beginning of the year and will continue in January 2022. The British original is a success on ITV and in November-December it was in the top 3 most watched R&E shows along with Strictly Come Dancing (StarDance) and The Great British Bake Off (Peče celá země in Czech).
Queer dating site
ViacomCBS's dating reality show Finding Prince Charming is doing well on streaming services. It's an LGBTQIA+ dating show in which a group of contestants vie for the heart of a single person. They spend time under the same roof, trying to avoid being eliminated from the show, stand out above their "rivals" in love, experience romance, and find a relationship at the end.
The show originated in America for cable stations Logo and VH1, but was made popular by the streaming services' programe creators. It was adapted by Discovery+ in Denmark and by Videoland in the Netherlands.
In Germany, a local Prince Charming is being created for the streaming platform TV Now, rebranded as RTL+, and only secondarily, with a time lapse, is being broadcast by the linear station Vox. Exact streaming data is lacking, but RTL+ declares satisfaction and states that the third series was the most successful, recording a 30% increase in viewership compared to the second. It has already announced the next series.
In Germany, in addition to the classic version with gay men, they also launched the female spin-off Princess Charming.
The queer dating show Prince Charming was also newly brought by the Polish VOD service Player from the Discovery family. wirtualnemedia.pl reports that the results exceeded the expectations of the TV group, which promptly included the show in the 10:30 pm slot on the linear station TTV. In the linear broadcast, it achieved shares at the level of station averages - 3.25% in the 16-49 group.
New formats
What's in store for formats in the near term? Following the success of the baking competitions spearheaded by The Great British Bake Off, 'baking' is also on the cards at distributor Can't Stop Media: its My Cake is the Nation's Best format has been relaunched in France by C21Media and has also been commissioned in Germany and Italy.
France's main commercial broadcaster TF1 has ordered prime-time singing show Blind Duets from Turkish company Global Agency, according to TBI. In it, professionals sing duets with talented amateurs, who, however, initially remain undercover. A rival format, The Secret Song, has announced further sales.
American NBC took an element of Jimmy Fallon's late-night show That's My Jam and made it into a stand-alone musical game show format. There are first ambiguous viewing figures and also first international sales - TF1 in France has announced its own version, according to C21Media.
Source: mediaguru.cz
