So it sounds like ITV have sold Saturday Night Takeaway to the US. For it sounds like a $25m series. Serious stuff, and we’re intrrigued how it’s going to work – how will they work the ads in given that nationally everyone is likely to be playing their own thing? Or will they finally, FINALLY live the dream and have contestants playing for ads actually broadcast during the show? Or will they change that bit completely? We know they’re changing the title.
Of course the last time they tried something along these lines in the US is was Johnny Vaughan non-hit My Kind of Town. NEVER FORGET.
I always assumed that “win things shown during the ads” bit was sort of bull, as I never actually saw any of the stuff advertised during the show.
Although I am stuck with UTV, so that might be the problem
I always thought it was very silly that this has never been the case. As it is, the cross-promotion leads to the brilliant catchphrase “did you watch it?” “No.”
I’m intrigued to see which elements make it over intact. I’m not quite convinced the chemistry would be there for Little Neil Patrick Harris, I’m a Celebrity Get Out Of My Ear would be fine (but the title gag wouldn’t work in the US), Ant vs Dec would need a big shift. The audience surprise at the start should be OK.
I bet they keep the BLOODY SUPERCOMPUTER.
There’s no reason the End of the Show Show wouldn’t work. As suggested, Win the Ads is going to need some reworking to fit the US TV system, but it’s just a big prize quiz really.
As far as I’m aware variety shows are basically uncopyrightable so they will definitely being elements that make SNT SNT hence the large price tag. But which?
If they don’t have NPH doing a big song and dance number at the beginning and end of each show, they’ve wasted their money, to be honest. Hopefully with ITV Studios producing (by the looks of things) it could be a relatively successful Americanisation.
It wouldn’t surprise me if they brought back some of the elements which they’ve ditched in the UK – I could see What’s Next working well, as well as some of the live hidden camera type stuff. An Ant vs Dec that’s actually a proto-Beat The Star wouldn’t surprise me.
(Note to American producers: available, not cheap, although compared to spending $2.5m per episode on a format, I’m a bargain. I worry that the sheer amounts of money being sloshed around – NPH isn’t doing this for free, y’know – will mean this may come up on every list of really expensive TV failures from 2015 onwards…)
The more I think about it, the more it feels a little bit like ITV are having a good old laugh at NBC’s expense.
Are we really saying that America, with its 300 million people, couldn’t come up with a multi-segment entertainment programme of its own and feels the need to buy the rights to a UK show which will have a different title, likely a different hook to hang the show off and very probably lots of differing segments? I mean *what*? As far as I know hidden camera doesn’t need to be paid for (with the possibility of the estate of Allen Funt sub: check that) (although the set-ups might, but I’m sure they can think of their own), singing and dancing won’t have rights issues, so what is being bought for $25m exactly?
I’m looking forward to finding out. In the meantime I can’t wait for Matthew Perry’s Sabado Gigante on CBS (probably).
Two possibilities I can think of:
1) It’s a bidding war to get NPH into the “NBC family” rather than the format itself.
2) Compared to the perceived costs of making it themselves (assuming $2.5 million is all in), the difference is small enough that they feel the established format will play well enough with advertisers to make it worthwhile.
The problem with 1) is that it doesn’t seem to be attached to any exclusive deal, which you’d expect, and the problem with 2) is that there’s no way in hell a one hour variety show costs that much money to make. And the value of the format compared to the value of the host is not significant, surely.
So I’m going to go with 3) bidding war, insane US TV logic, network desperation.
(To reiterate, NBC, since this seems overly harsh: great call, terrible price tag, pay me money.)
My feeling on 1 seems to be confirmed by the network comments on Vulture (http://www.vulture.com/2014/10/nbc-neil-patrick-harris-variety-show.html) which are all “He’s great! We’ve so glad we’ve got him! He’ll be wonderful! Oh yeah, and it’s a British thing.”
I’d be interested to know how much an episode of SNT costs to make, famously Noel’s House Party was around £400k an episode twenty years ago, Beat the Star was a million about five years ago, suspect the budget wouldn’t be like that in 2014.
That sort of slot you’d be looking at around £400-£500k, but talent costs (i.e Ant ‘n’ Dec’s salary) might be paid separately. This isn’t based on anything but an educated guess based on the slot.
Interesting stuff, thanks Paul.
Was at a meet the producer event a few months back and they said it was around £600k *gulp*
Oh OK, so definitely the higher end of the budget, but not as excessive as past shows have been (which seems reasonable).
So the US premium for not using the name or features seems to be a million quid per episode. Someone ought to be getting a large bonus.
I’d think they might put this on during the summer; best time to do something like it, and less competition (It could pair well with American Ninja Warrior I think)..
BBC ONE
Bargain Hunt (R) 1.88 (28.0%)
Perfection 1.00 (14.6%)
Pointless (R) 3.71 (23.8%)
BBC TWO
Flog It! (R) 0.95 (6.0%)
Eggheads 1.34 (7.3%)
Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two 2.20 (11.2%)
University Challenge 2.66 (11.8%)
Only Connect 1.92 (8.4%)
ITV (INC +1)
Dickinson’s Real Deal 0.85 (12.2%)
Tipping Point (R) 1.93 (19.1%)
The Chase 3.27 (22.0%)
CHANNEL 4 (INC +1)
Countdown 0.35 (5.0%)
Fifteen to One 0.39 (5.2%)
Deal or No Deal 0.70 (6.9%)
Come Dine With Me 0.97 (7.2%)
Coach Trip 1.02 (6.2%)
ITV2 (INC +1)
Release the Hounds 0.38 (1.8%)
A nice little uptick for RtH, there.
I have to agree with you on that Brig.. who knows, we might set our sights on a season 2 if possible.