EXCLUSIVE: Critical Content, the company behind shows such as MTV’s Catfish and NBC’s Celebrity Game Face, is moving into the next phase of an international formats strategy after closing a deal with German powerhouse producer Leonine Studios.
The company, which is run by Jenny Daly, has now struck eight international deals across countries including Australia, Korea, Belgium, France and Dubai as it looks for fresh formats that can be produced both internationally and in the U.S.
The first-look deal will see Leonine, which runs companies like SEO Entertainment, which remade Jimmy Fallon’s That’s My Jam locally, develop and produce Critical formats in Germany.
Daly said that Critical was looking forward to “tapping into their well of incredible talent” and “working together to bring new formats to life”, while Jochen Köstler, Leonine’s EVP Non-Fiction said the deal would “not only broaden our positioning but also provide exclusive access to exciting IP, aligning with our key strategic goals”.
The German deal follows pacts with Australia’s Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia, Korea’s Something Special, Singapore’s Refinery Media, Dubai’s Blue Engine Studios, Belgium’s Be-Entertainment and France’s ITV Studios France.
Daly told Deadline that the idea behind the strategy is both to bolster its volume of international format deals as well as have new projects, many with pilots and series orders, to pitch back into the U.S.
She describes the current state of the unscripted business in the U.S. like a “wobbly bridge” and is looking to create bigger, entertainment formats to get over this unscathed. This is to allow it to score series with the likes of Netflix, which has been looking for more “broadcast-style” shows, as well as the broadcast networks, which tend to order only a handful of big ideas each year.
“We’re building much more bigger formats in the world of shiny floor, physical competition, in the world of more social experiment,” Daly said. “I’m shifting much stronger into those arenas.”
She added that she wants to take advantage of owner SK Global’s reach in the scripted TV and feature world – the business is behind movies such as Anyone But You, starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell and Crazy Rich Asians and series such as Netflix’s Delhi Crime. Critical is also behind Netflix drama series Ginny & Georgia, which has been renewed for a third and fourth season.
“I’m leaning harder into it now, especially with our relationship with SK Global, in the sense of having big IP with our features and with scripted and really opening up more of a division that is truly focused in the format arena, premium space and that’s what we’re sharing with our partners globally,” she added.
One of its more notable deals is in Korea with Something Special. The two companies are working with Kang Suk-kyeong, writer of Netflix hit Physical: 100, which has just been renewed for a third season and is one of its global format gems, on a pair of new series.
“We are working with the creator of Physical: 100 and so we went in purposely developing shows that kind of fit under her banner,” she said.
The two projects are Fortune Train, a Snowpiercer-style reality series set on a train, and Smart House, a dystopian version of Big Brother.
The hope is to produce Fortune Train in Canada. “It is taking the idea of class and social class, and looking at the levels of what it would take for you to get to the front of the line. It takes Snowpiercer in a really fun way, and turns it into a very big, physical, psychological and sociological game show,” she added.
Smart House explores what people are looking at in terms of comfort levels. Through gameplay, it explores whether contestants are able to enjoy a life of luxury or end up in a compromised position if they’re not able to figure out the house.
Daly is planning to pitch both shows in the U.S. shortly, while Something Special will simultaneously pitch them in Korea.
“The other fun thing about having these international partners is there’s really an interesting and different sensibility that you get in different cultural influences. It’s been really fun to open up doorways of thoughts and how things could shift or land in a show,” she said.
STORAGE HUNTERS
Storage Hunters (TruTV)
While Daly is looking to bolster its library of large-scale shiny floor shows, she is also looking to get the most out of her existing IP.
Daly sold her T Group business to Critical Content in 2018. Before that sale, she produced three seasons, and over 60 episodes of Storage Hunters, for TruTV. The show, presented by Sean Kelly, followed a group of hunters who join in a bidding war for storage lockers that could be a win or a bust.
She is now looking to reboot the format in a slightly unusual way. “I am presently selling the finished shows, and I am taking in those pre-sales and putting those back into getting originals up and running. I am literally in the process of doing that as we speak.”
Critical owns the distribution rights and the format rights to Storage Hunters, while TruTV owner Warner Bros. Discovery has a piece of the show. However, if Daly is able to sell these to another, non-WBD network, the studio will still make money out of the deal. “I’m really excited about that and the goal is to be in production in 2025,” she added.
It’s not too dissimilar from a deal that Cineflix Productions did with HGTV’s Property Virgins and Everything But The House. Lifetime launched the show on its Home.Made.Nation strand after striking a deal for new episodes.
Back on the international front, Daly is nearly done with her international roll-out of partnerships. But she wants to close one more deal, north of the border, before she is done.
She said that she’s in the middle of figuring out a deal in Canada right now and Fortune Train would be part of it. “Fortune Train would be very well produced for Canada, with the landscape that we want to utilize. They have a really amazing train that actually is in functional usage going across the entire country. Putting this up on its feet in Canada would really probably solidify the partnership that I’m going to kind of commit with,” she added.
