The ‘Spanish format wave’ continues to blow stronger than ever, making the country the number one format importer in the world. Here is a brief list (in random order) of the formats bought/adapted and/or broadcast this summer.
Invictus, ¿te atreves? (‘Invictus. Do you dare?’) premiered in June on Spanish public broadcaster La 1. Produced by RTVE in association with Boxfish, the format is the Spanish adaptation of A League of Their Own, a British sports-based celebrity comedy game that first aired on Sky One UK in 2010 (where it’s still running) and international versions in the US (CBS), Australia (Network 10), Germany (Sky Deutschland) and Denmark (Kanal 5). The format is a mix of comedy and (wacky) competition show, with two teams of celebrities – the Red Team and the Blue Team – competing in a series of physical and mental challenges. Each episode features the country’s most successful athletes: Olympic stars, gold medallists and many other famous athletes who will be responsible for motivating their teammates.
The Dutch game The Connection (2022) will be adapted by the new prodco Satisfaction Iberia – the Spanish arm of the independent French prodco Satisfaction Group – under the title La Conexión, always for La1. The premise of the show is that the answers from all the rounds are connected and lead to a single answer, the ‘final connection’, which is revealed in the final round. However, the show is particularly notable for the combination of some physical elements with Augmented Reality, in a scenographic set that also plays an active role in the show’s development (the answers to the different questions are also generated with AR).
Mediaset España will produce First Dates Hotel for the private channel Cuatro. This spin-off of the classic British dating show First Dates will follow on from the previous spin-off, First Dates Crucero: instead of a luxurious boat, this time the singles will meet in a romantic hotel on the Mediterranean coast, hosted by Carlos Sobera and his ‘staff’ of Cupids.
Mediaset has also acquired the rights to adapt Keshet International’s Israeli game show Boom!, which until now has been in the hands of its main rival Atresmedia and has been broadcast in Spain for eight seasons on Antena 3, produced by Gestmusic, a production company owned by Banijay Iberia. In the new version, the local adaptation of the format will be in the hands of Spanish production company Mediacrest. The show, which will also be broadcast on Cuatro and hosted by Christian Gálvez, pits two teams of four against each other to defuse a total of ten bombs by answering questions whose answers are represented by coloured wires.
On the other hand, the game The Jump, from Dutch prodco Talpa Studios again, will be broadcast on the private channel Antena 3. The Spanish version, called ¡Salta!, is produced by Buendía Estudios and is the third international version after the Netherlands (RTL4) and Hungary (RTL). The format is characterised by the fact that it takes place on a 40-metre bridge. Five contestants compete for a huge cash prize. Their goal is simple: to cross the bridge by answering ten questions correctly; if they answer incorrectly, they’re thrown off the bridge. Each question consists of a series of fun, thought-provoking statements, but only one of them can be true. As the game progresses, the number of possible answers increases, making the challenge even harder. Only the contestant who survives the tenth and final jump wins the big cash prize.
Finally (for now), That’s My Jam: Que el Ritmo no Pare (‘That’s My Jam: Keep the Rhythm’), the adaptation of NBCUniversal‘s internationally successful music game, created and hosted by Jimmy Fallon, will premiere on NBC in 2021 (and the Us series has just been renewed for a third season). In the original game (we don’t yet know what the Spanish version will be like), teams of celebrities compete in music-themed challenges, some of which are recurring segments on The Tonight Show, such as ‘Mixtape Medley Showdown’, ‘Slay It, Don’t Spray It’ and ‘Wheel of Musical Impressions’.
And bet it’s not over yet?
