ITV

Tag: Utopia

  • Fox cancels ‘Utopia’ reality TV show

    Fox cancels ‘Utopia’ reality TV show

    MUMBAI: ‘Utopia’, the Fox series dubbed as a one-year social experiment with 15 participants trying to create a new society from scratch has been discontinued by the network after 66 days.

     

    Based on a Dutch series by Significant Brother creator John de Mol, the show was made to challenge participants to produce their personal society. It aired its final episode on 31 October and pulled down its 24/7 online live-stream of the compound on 2 November.

     

    Throughout its run, Utopia was averaging 2.6 million viewers when it aired on Tuesdays and 2.4 million on Fridays.

     

     ‘Utopia’ premiered on 7 September and Fox began by airing the series two nights a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays.  The network then cut back to just Fridays due to Tuesdays’ low-ratings. The live-stream stayed up throughout filming, and viewers could gain access to multiple, around-the-clock feeds if they paid a $5 a month subscription fee.

     

    ‘Utopia’ presented a challenge to its 15 participants with wildly diverse backgrounds to create a working society with limited supplies and no indoor plumbing. They would have to decide on a type of government, economy, to follow a religion and other great choices a community must make in the beginning. The reality series also introduced the threat of elimination for one of the 15 contestants.

     

    On Fridays, the series will be replaced by reruns of Masterchef Junior.

  • FOX’s latest offering: a reality show ‘Utopia’

    FOX’s latest offering: a reality show ‘Utopia’

    MUMBAI: Utopia: a word we have mostly seen being used in literary articles, often times in reference to a society that the entire human community desires to live in. Literally, the word means a community or society that possesses highly desirable or perfect qualities. While most of us are still wondering if it’s feasible to have an Utopian society, FOX, one of the major American Television networks, seems to be working on the idea to create one such society with a new reality show, Utopia – an adaptation of a Dutch reality show of the same name.

     

    The Network has given a series order to executive producer and creator John de Mol, Jr. (The Voice, Big Brother).

     

    Utopia moves a group of everyday people to an isolated, undeveloped location for an entire year. Throughout the course of the year, the group is followed by cameras 24/7 and challenged to create their own civilisation. The US series is envisioned to last a year but its length will depend on what happens in Utopia. As the Utopians build the new society, each contestant must try to become indispensable to the group or risk being exiled to their regular lives and replaced by potential newcomers. (The original series has new participants joining at part of the elimination process, but it has not been determined whether the FOX version will feature that.) Cameras will follow the pioneers 24/7, with their efforts chronicled weekly on FOX and also online. The online component of the original series has been very successful, something the producers will try to replicate in the U.S.

     

    The show premiered in Holland earlier this month, where it was SBS 6’s top-rated unscripted series premiere in six years. Utopia continued as the No. 1 series in its Monday through Friday time period for 10 consecutive nights.

     

    Casting and location scouting for the U.S. series of Utopia will begin almost immediately.