ITV

Tag: bring

  • FremantleMedia to bring the best in US reality to Mipcom

    MUMBAI: Fremantle International Distribution (FID), the distribution arm of FremantleMedia, will attend Mipcom this October with a raft of US reality shows to suit all audiences.
     
     

    For the first time, FID will be offering international buyers the hugely successful fashion reality series, Project Runway, from Miramax and Weinstein Company Inc. Starring super model Heidi Klum, Project Runway, was a smash-hit success when it aired on Bravo in the US last year.
     
     

    Project Runway, which is set among the glitz and glamour of New York, gives 12 talented fashion designers the opportunity of a lifetime – a chance to have their designs shown in front of the global fashion community and displayed in the pages of Elle magazine. Through a series of challenges, designers are eliminated, ultimately leaving one to claim their place in fashion’s spotlight. In addition, 12 up-and-coming models join the designers on their quest for celebrity. Each week, we see the models eliminated until one is left standing.

    FID will also be presenting the brand new and hotly anticipated The Apprentice: Martha Stewart. From Mark Burnett Productions in association with Trump Productions LLC, The Apprentice: Martha Stewart will retain the format of the original hit series including weekly eliminations, but the show will be tailored to Stewart’s personality and brand identity. The tasks will be centred around Stewart’s areas of expertise: media, home renovation, entertaining, design, merchandising, technology and style.

    Season four of the original US hit, The Apprentice featuring Donald Trump will be a hot property for Mipcom 2005. This bold reality series tests competitors’ survival techniques in New York City’s corporate jungle. The candidates face weekly business challenges and strive to reach the top. One promising candidate will become an apprentice Trump. Season one was the highest rated new series of the 2003-04 season, gaining an average audience of 20 million viewers. The finalé gained an incredible audience of 28 million viewers – 167 per cent above NBC’s prime time average. Season’s two and three also delivered strong ratings, taking the top two positions as the highest rated entertainment series on NBC.

    Another hit series that FID is delighted to debut this October is Season five of American Idol. The television phenomenon that smashed all records on Fox to become the season’s Number One show in the US, returns. Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, America’s favourite judges, lend their professional expertise and often unwanted criticism, as they search to discover the next American Idol. With two shows each week, season one grew until over 35 million viewers tuned in for the finale, Season two 2 gained ratings up to 91 per cent higher than Season one, while Seasons three and four became the highest rated series in the US in the 2003-2005 seasons.

    Brand new from FremantleMedia’s UK production company talkbackTHAMES the controversial Bring Your Husband To Heel is set to cause a stir among those in wedded bliss. In this hilarious show wives are helped to train their husbands with the help of professional dog trainers. After determining what ‘breed’ their husbands are and what areas they need to improve, the wives begin practicing to command a dog (their husbands). Hidden cameras capture the results, which may include bringing their husbands home early from the pub. Bring Your Husband To Heel debuted on BBC2 in the UK this August.

    British grime gurus, Kim Woodburn and Aggie Mackenzie are out in force at Mipcom as FID introduces buyers worldwide to the third series of talkbackTHAMES’s How Clean Is Your House? UK along with the second series of How Clean Is Your House? USA.

    Woodburn and MacKenzie uncover the dirty secrets of Britain’s filthiest homes. Armed with little more than a pair of rubber gloves and some valuable household advice, they persuade the unhygienic, the messy and the downright disgusting to clean up their act. Along the way, they reveal some horrifying facts about the bugs and microbes lurking in our homes. Meanwhile, our unstoppable hygiene experts, return to the US for a second season where viewers get to see inside some of the dirtiest homes imaginable and meet the occupants.

    In Too Posh To Wash, Kim and Aggie are out again – but this time it’s personal! The queens of clean, with the help of soap and forensics, attempt to expose those committing crimes against cleanliness and shame the offenders into cleaning up their acts and their armpits! Too Posh To Wash is a Talkback Production.

    Fremantle International Distribution MD David Ellender said, “We are very proud of the strength of our entertainment slate for Mipcom 2005. Our highlights originate from some of the top entertainment producers in the US and UK. From all-star celebrity talent shows to amusing makeover series, we really do have something to offer everyone.”

  • Comedy Central to bring `Distraction’ back for second season

    MUMBAI: Comedy Central has ordered a second season of the network’s hit game show – Distraction.

    The announcement was made by Comedy Central executive vice president, original programming and development Lauren Corrao. The second season order is for 14 episodes and it will premiere in the first half of 2006.

    Produced by FremantleMedia North America and hosted by British comedian Jimmy Carr, this outrageous, laugh-out-loud game show revolves around Carr’s sharp, dry wit and his brash dealings with contestants.

    Based on FremantleMedia’s British show of the same name, Distraction demands the ultimate in physical and mental endurance from its contestants. The show pitches four rivals in a battle of wits to answer general knowledge questions while being “distracted” by a series of challenges, aimed at throwing them off course.

    “We’re excited to bring Distraction back for a second season of nudists, masochists and narcissists. The focus of the contestants is truly amazing to watch and they’ll need every ounce of it as they put themselves through the challenges the writers and producers have cooked up for the new season,” said Corrao.

    “We are very proud of the outstanding response to the first season of Distraction. We look forward to building on our success with Comedy Central as we head into another season,” said FremantleMedia North America CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz.

    New distractions for the second season include: Tattoo – tattoo – artists administer fresh tattoos while contestants try to concentrate on answering questions; Nudist on Turntables – wearing nothing but index cards with answers written on them, nudists rotate on a turntable as contestants are asked questions that correlate to the answers on the cards and must take the cards/answers off the nudists with their teeth; Electrocution – contestants receive an electric shock every time they blink as they attempt to answer questions; Geese Peck – contestants must answer questions while lying down in a pen, covered with feed, as geese eat off their bodies; and Catapult – a small catapult throws a bevy of items such as eggs, pies and flour into the contestants’ faces each time they buzz in to answer a question.

    First season distractions that will make an encore include: Clothes Pins – contestants must attach as many clothespins on their face as possible during a speed round of questions; Wrestlers, huge wrestlers body slam and throw contestants around while they are asked and answer a variety of questions; and Hot Shots, contestants down a shot of hot sauce before they can answer each question.

    Carr, the current host of Distraction in the UK, is a frequent performer at the Montreal Just For Laughs Festival and the US Comedy Arts Festival. He has also appeared on shows like The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien.

    Distraction is executive produced by Michael Dugan, whose credits include Comedy Central’s Trigger Happy TV, the game show Smush for USA Network and Apt. 2F for MTV.
     

  • Discovery to bring local lingo in dubbed fare

    NEW DELHI: As programming focus continues shifts, Discovery Communications has decided to review the use of language in its fare dubbed in Hindi.

    Reason: to bring it closer to levels of comprehension of the common man in India.
     

    A senior executive of Discovery India told indiantelevision.com, “We do undertake periodically an exercise to evaluate whether the usage of phrases and words in dubbed feeds is contemporary and understandable to our viewers. In Hind’s case too, we are doing the same.”

    Infotainment channels like Discovery, Animal Planet, Discovery Travel and Lifestyle and NGC have seen substantial upsurge in their viewership from the time they started making available a separate feed of their respective channels in Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
     
     

    This route of broadcasting the viewership through Hindi language feeds where the content is dubbed (as in the case of infotainment channels and kids channels ) or created has also been taken by sports channels like ESPN, which has several Hindi versions of its popular programmes in English.

    The present Discovery initiative has been necessitated as it was felt that those translating voice-overs and programming material into Hindi from mostly English — or the `language creators’, as Discovery would like to dub them — need to be made aware of the changing priorities and attitude of the company.

    For example, the Discovery programming executive said an exact translation of the English word `tectonic’ into Hindi may end up confusing the viewer further. In such cases, it has been decided in principle to retain the original English word.

    Similarly, in another instance the reference to historical events like `crusade’ has created problems while trying to find an appropriate Hindi equivalent.

    Pointing out that two workshops of the language creators have been lined up in the second half of March, the Discovery executive explained, “The effort is to make Hindi appropriate to the requirements and needs of the Hindi speaking audience instead of using high-flown language.”

    Another reason behind this move is that programming on various Discovery channels are undergoing a change and newer fare in the categories of history and wildlife are being introduced where literal translation of English phrases are not possible.

    The English-to-Hindi dictionaries available in the market have not been of much help either. For example, a particular such book, which sells like hot cakes in smaller towns of India, translates guitar into sitar.

    According to Discovery India, there are about six levels before a dubbed programming is cleared for airing on the channels and with the Hindi evolving, it’s necessary that newer people are taken on for such assignments.

    At the moment, Discovery India employs the services of about three outside companies where people are engaged in translating English programming into Hindi. Recently, Discovery took on another company to expand its base of `language creators.’ This new company is headed by Sailesh, a former print medium journalist-turned-TV professional who has worked in Hindi newspaper like Navbharat Times and TV channels like Zee News and most recently Total TV, a Delhi-specific channel.

    Discovery Communications, Inc. is a leading global real-world media and entertainment company operating in more than 160 countries and territories reaching one billion cumulative subscribers. Worldwide, the company operates 19 television brands, including Discovery Channel and TLC.

    Outside of the US, the company serves 450 million cumulative subscribers and operates 10 television brands. DCI ownership consists of four shareholders: Liberty Media Corporation, Cox Communications, Inc., Advance/Newhouse Communications and John S. Hendricks, the company’s founder and chairman.

    India has been successfully used by DCI to incubate its new portfolio of channels dedicated to lifestyle programming in markets outside the United States.

  • Pepsi to bring in Gatorade soon?

    MUMBAI: Mountain Dew may have been pitched as Pepsi’s new energy drink, but indications are that the beverage major may soon be launching the internationally popular sports drink Gatorade in India in a similar avatar.

    Speaking on the sidelines of a media conference to launch Mountain Dew, positioned as a refreshing energy drink for irreverent urban youth, PepsiCo India Holdings chairman Rajeev Bakshi said that the company was looking at launching Gatorade soon. When pressed to specify the timeframe within which the drink would be launched, Bakshi responded with a cryptic “very soon”.

    While Tropicana, Pepsi’s offering in the non carbonated soft drinks segment, will continue to be targeted at the top bracket premium consumer with any downward revision ruled out in the short term, Gatorade could well fill the masses’ need for an energy drink in the non CSD market. Pepsi officials present at the Mumbai launch of Mountain Dew, however, pointed out that Gatorade would, in all possibility, not be slotted as a sports drink. Pointing out that India is not a sport crazy country, Pepsi officials said that the company would try and pitch Gatorade as an energy drink instead.

    The company is currently conducting ad and consumer research for testing consumer tastes for Gatorade. Bakshi meanwhile said that the company, which had said last year that it was looking at doubling its 120 million strong consumer base in three to four years, is on course for the target. Pepsi A-ha, the lemon tinged cola introduced last March, meanwhile commands an eight to 10 per cent share of total Pepsi sales, he said.