New TV shows test love in age of the cellphone

A NEW wave of television formats are set to get into viewers’ heads – and their private lives – like never before.

An eye-popping Italian game show that allows couples to snoop into their partner’s cellphone and a Spanish dating programme that uses hackers to spy on potential dates were unveiled at MIPTV, the world’s top TV gathering, in Cannes.

The shows are part of a new generation of programming that analysts say uses technology to make TV more intimate and compelling.

The Phone Secrets gives participants total access to their lover’s phone messages and social media accounts. The couple that survives the ordeal with the least to hide wins.

The makers of Hacked Love, which will air later this year in Spain, claim that six out of 10 people lie on their first date.

The new Israeli game show Contacts has found an ingenious way of putting relationships to the test.

Those taking part in the popular culture quiz must ring someone from their phone’s contacts list for an answer to a question even if they know it themselves. If their contact gets it wrong, they lose.

However, analyst Virginia Mouseler of the influential The Wit website, which charts trends in the industry, said other programme-makers were using technology in less sensational situations.

She said factual entertainment was moving away from raising goosebumps to providing a more feelgood vibe.

“Life coaching and self-help is emerging as quite an important factor in quite a few of the new shows coming up,” she told the MIPFormat arm of the gathering at Cannes.

An upcoming BBC show, In Your Ear, pairs people going through crises or major moments in their lives with their own personal gurus, who secretly give them advice through an ear-piece.

Yellow Card, a new Japanese show from Fuji Creative, goes one step fur- ther and employs a range of experts – from doctors to lawyers and etiquette experts – to follow participants and point out their failings.

Rather than giving them a shoulder to lean on, experts are there to give “a yellow card to bad habits”, the company said.

German TV channel RTL2 pulled on the heartstrings when it brought in health experts earlier this year to come to the aid of children of obese parents in Help! My Parents are Fat!

The hit show features an overweight father who had not eaten salad in 20 years but signed up to change because of the emotional pressure from his children. – AFP