On reality shows, it’s us against the world
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Global is the name of the game for several new and returning reality competition series.
Increasingly, networks and streaming services are looking overseas for the contestants and concepts of their latest TV offerings. NBC’s “America’s Got Talent: The Champions” (Mondays, 8 EST/PST) pits winners and finalists from worldwide “Got Talent” franchises against each other, including British singer Susan Boyle, Australian illusionist Cosentino and Moldovan sword swallower Alex Magala.
Netflix’s “The Final Table” and “Ultimate Beastmaster” are billed as global competitions, each featuring contenders from countries such as India, Brazil and Mexico being put through the wringer in the kitchen and on an extreme obstacle course, respectively.
Mark Burnett (“Survivor,” “The Voice”) is bringing new talent competition “The World’s Best” to CBS right after the Super Bowl Feb. 3, asking contestants to impress celebrity judges as well as 50 international experts. And in the seventh and final season of Lifetime’s “Project Runway: All Stars” (Wednesdays, 9 EST/PST), U.S. designers will compete alongside winners from other global “Runway” spinoffs.
The decision to bring in international designers was easy for “All Stars” executive producer Rob Bagshaw.
“Once a show is a hit, you’re always trying to find a fresh approach and make the show feel as big as it possibly can,” Bagshaw says. “I also think American audiences are more open than they used to be, in terms of having a global conversation on whatever theme the show has. Fashion is inspired by so many different cultures, and ‘Project Runway’ has always reflected that.”
CBS also wants to reflect a global perspective in “World’s Best.” In addition to American judges Drew Barrymore, RuPaul Charles and Faith Hill, more than 40 countries are represented among performers and a panel of experts known as the “Wall of the World.”
“We love the idea of experts at the top of their fields from around the globe coming together to judge the best talent. We’ve never really seen that outside of things like the Olympics,” says Sharon Vuong, senior VP of alternative programming at CBS En-
tertainment. It shows “what the evolution of the talent show can be,” and helps turn an otherwise standard competition into a “global event.”
Attracting the broadest possible audience is key for “Final Table” co-creator Robin Ashbrook, given Netflix’s worldwide subscriber base of more than 137 million.
By setting competitors across the globe against one another, “everybody has a stake in it,” Ashbrook says. Each episode of the show – which shoots in Los Angeles and flies in international chefs – focuses on a specific country, with teams competing to prepare signature national dishes from Japan, England and Spain, among others.
The cooking challenges are based in part on “where Netflix has a huge subscriber base,” Ashbrook admits. “Clearly, we were going to South America, and Europe factored heavily into the equation. But alongside that, the primary reason for picking those targets was, what are the main culinary destinations in the world?”
Ashbrook credits the recent spike in global TV competitions to social media, where videos of international talent can quickly go viral on YouTube and other platforms.
“In a world of Instagram and Twitter, (people) don’t differentiate whether that’s coming from two miles around the corner or 2,000 miles away,” he says. “Talent is talent.”