K7 World Entertainment & Reality Report January 2019 Your monthly selection of interesting entertainment and reality titles from around the world. Flirty Dancing Produced by Second Star K7.Media K7 World Entertainment & Reality Report January 2019 CONTENTS Introduction 2 New Year, New You: Three Directions In… Health & Wellness 3 Personal Transformation 3 Mass Health-Fix Experiments 4 Group Therapy 5 Premieres At a Glance 6 New Year, New Old: Two Directions In… Brand (Re)Building 7 Spin-offs and Extensions 7 Tweaked Revivals 10 Premieres At a Glance 14 New Year, New Moves: Three Directions In… Song and Dance 16 The Show Must Go On 16 I Sang It My Way 18 Making It Pay 19 Premieres At a Glance 21 K7 World Entertainment & Reality Report January 2019 Introduction The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed the pause in World Entertainment and Reality Reports over the festive period, which makes this an overview covering both the end of 2018 and the start of 2019. Here at K7 our end of year summarising took shape in the form of our latest Tracking the Giants: The Top 100 Travelling TV Formats report - an invaluable snapshot of what shows are REALLY selling and setting trends around the world. Confirming which way the wind is blowing with proper data is always satisfying, and news that the Format Buzzwords of the Last Three Years were 'Dating', 'Generations' and 'Physical' will come as no surprise to many. What's just as interesting is to note which genres and areas are seemingly in decline - but more likely just waiting for a new twist, or approach to reinvigorate them. Reality contests are one such area, but will the launch of Keshet's ambitious 2025 at the start of February herald a new era in Big Brother-style series? Watch this space... And there are signs that 2019 might see an increasing interest in formatting or gamifying social issues and reality experiment subjects, in new genre mash-ups, with shows like France 2's Au Cœur des Eléments (Tr. At the Heart of the Elements, Tuesday 11 December), in which host Olivier Minne is trapped inside a house subjected to special-effects-generated climatic forces in a kind of environmental 'escape room' game; BBC3's Is This Sexual Harassment? play-along drama/ discussion hybrid; and Het Uur Van De Waarheid (Tr. The Hour of Truth, 6 December, NPO1) which had contestants taking part in a studio quiz after 24 hours without sleep, and a neuropsychologist on hand to explain what sleep deprivation does to the brain. So, signs of plenty of original thinking still, but appropriately our three main themes, as one year ends and another begins, are in areas which come round as regularly as clockwork in the TV schedules, and require the efforts of the finest brains in the industry to keep them annually refreshed. The makeover genre may be in decline according to the evidence of Tracking the Giants, but in January the thirst for some sort of New Year, New You programming peaks nonetheless. There are notably fewer traditional ‘diet’ shows this time round, as viewers become savvier and more cynical about weight-loss promises, but plenty about other kinds of personal transformation, along with some larger-scale health experiments, and a raft of series employing the collective 'wisdom of the crowd' to effect mental, physical or social change. Despite plenty of appetite for fresh formats, it's inevitable that 2019 will also see no let-up in the reviving and stretching of familiar brands, just as in 2018. Our New Year, New Old section looks at some of the latest spin-offs, cross-platform extensions and reboots coming our way. And lastly, in New Year, New Moves we cover some of the old and new takes on the most robust genres of all, singing and dancing - including a look at the trend for mid-performance emotional reveals. The K7 World Entertainment and Reality Report is compiled by K7's non-executive director Clare Thompson *Tr. denotes K7’s literal translation of the original title into English. K7.Media !2 of !21 K7 World Entertainment & Reality Report January 2019 New Year, New You: Three Directions In… Health & Wellness Apologies for taking on the obvious genre at this time of year - there really is no escaping it - but at least there are some interesting new twists and directions other than straight diet shows emerging. Personal Transformation The most attention-grabbing way to get audiences interested in a weight-loss or transformation mission is of course to get famous faces to own up to their flab and take on a challenge. ITV's forthcoming Match Fit does just that, as a team of gone-to-pot star footballers from the 80's and 90's set themselves the task of getting back in shape to play a team of Match Fit - ITV international 90s rivals. There are some great bookings in here - including England legends like John Barnes, David Seaman and Chris Waddle - but the real casting blessing for ITV is newly-crowned King of the (I'm a Celebrity) Jungle Harry Redknapp as team manager. Hopes will be high that the combination of much-loved, unreconstructed male icons from the past, the jeopardy of the pay-off, and some gentle health and diet advice along the way, will all combine to create a piece of entertaining telly with added benefits for its (presumably male, older) audience. Interesting too to note the inclusion of Neil 'Razor' Ruddock, who fronted his own, similar (and very enjoyable) series Football Saved My Life for Bravo back in 2006 - in that case forming a team of blokes struggling with varied mental and physical health issues to change their ways through the power of football. But increasingly there is considerable airtime being given to shows which encourage us to more seriously consider the impact of transforming our bodies - and whether it is always the right thing to do. Tapping in to audiences' growing interest in seeing the raw, unvarnished truth of surgical procedures, as they happen (Channel 5's Operation Live is one example now picked up for a two-part local version for Seven Network Australia), BBC3 is taking on the reality of cosmetic surgery, in Surgery on Show. In the six-part series seven young people considering going under the knife are taken into an operating theatre to watch a live plastic surgery procedure. Afterwards, they debate the pros and cons of plastic surgery with their family and friends, before revealing whether their decision has changed. Funded by the online channel’s new £10m factual entertainment pot, this is one of several recent shows BBC3 have commissioned to address body image issues amongst a young audience understandably preoccupied with physical perfection. Following on from a successful pilot focusing on obesity in April 2018, a four further 10' episodes of The Naked Truth launched on the platform this month, with participants speaking candidly about a particular body issue subject - loose skin, tattoos, male body image, missing limbs - whilst completely naked. The personal testimonies are brave, quite literally exposing, and of course social media catnip as - in the obesity pilot particularly - the audience debate the aesthetics and implications of what is on display. K7.Media !3 of !21 K7 World Entertainment & Reality Report January 2019 This month Banijay-backed indie 7 Wonder have also been casting for another body positive series for BBC3, appealing for "people who feel like something is holding them back from being active and would like 2019 to be 'their year'". More info on that one as it develops, but meanwhile the channel have announced Strictly Come Dancing champion Stacey Dooley as the host of its upcoming 8-part competitive makeover series Glow Up. Alongside her, Val Garland, Global Make-Up Director for L’Oréal Paris, and Dominic Skinner, Global Senior Artist for MAC, have been unveiled as judges of the 10 talented make-up artists being put to the test in creative challenges. Previously best known for fronting hard-hitting documentary series (including several on the dark side of the fashion industry), Stacey is a smart choice to lend credibility to a show inevitably very much about beauty and image. The co-existence of both these types of series on the channel perfectly sums up the schizophrenic attitude to personal appearance its young audience faces - and the tricky balance a PSB like the BBC has to strike as it tries to compete with YouTube whilst upholding its values. Mass Health-Fix Experiments Alongside these more personal transformations are some bigger scale New Year experiments, attempting to tackle health issues amongst the population at large. BBC2's The Twinstitute took the classic nature vs nurture as its starting point, as twin doctor hosts Chris and Xand van Tulleken (hugely popular with the 6-9 yr old crowd thanks to the brilliant Operation Ouch!) took on a series of health and diet experiments using 30 pairs of identical twins to test the alternatives. Questions addressed included how to lose weight, The Twinstitute - BBC2 improve memory and beat both pain and nausea without pills, whether moderate exercise or HIIT is more effective for weight-loss, plus the effects of smartphone use on IQ. It’s a simple but effective gimmick that the production really went to town on (twin bouncers and receptionists in matching uniforms at the Twinstitute) - light-hearted pop science TV that the van Tullekens deliver expertly, if not always the most rigorous in its findings. The pair are next set to tackle teen mental health and alcoholism in a 3 part series - Dr Chris & Dr Xand Investigate - for the BBC’s iPlayer.