NATURAL GROWTH:
Premium unscripted shows range from nature documentaries to hard-hitting examinations of crime and politics
New premium unscripted plans to survey Asian animals and American life.
ITV Studios has grown a mighty family tree for nonscripted content — with new branches sprouting all the time. Via its various in-house labels and partnerships, the distributor has helped a diverse array of reality-based shows to flourish the world over.
Long-running competition shows and formats are thriving. Multistory Media’s “Come Dine With Me” is produced in 43 territories; over 14,000 episodes in many languages have aired across the globe. Bafta-winning “Love Island” is the most-watched show on ITV2 ever and is sold in 17 territories.
ITV Studios’ nature programming is expanding, too. “Wild Tokyo” is the latest in Oxford Scientific Films’ series of blue-chip natural history programs. For over half a century, the production company — based in London and Cardiff, Wales — has delivered prestigious, award-winning shows, such as “Meerkat Manor,” and with ITV Studios, “The Magical Land of Oz.” This content has captured the attention of a global audience which Clare Birks, OSF’S chief executive, puts down to the company being “great innovators” when it comes to dynamic storytelling.
The female-run outfit partnered to produce “Wild Tokyo,” a one-off, hourlong film that takes its cues from OSF’S previous series “Wild Weather” and “Wild Korea.” OSF’S Japanese partner was keen to replicate those successes with a show focusing on the cohabitation of their metropolitan capital’s 38 million residents and its thriving local wildlife. Though intended to be timed with the 2020 Olympics, Birks notes that despite the games’ postponement, “Wild Tokyo” is still “selling really well.”
ITV Studios’ talent roster now boasts Sir David Attenborough thanks to thirdparty producers Atlantic Productions, who produced “Attenborough’s Journey,” and Icon Films who landed the veteran to narrate its film “India’s Wild Karnataka.”
He had been aligned with ITV Studios’ competition and “we were a bit jealous,” admits Julie Meldal-johnsen, EVP of global content at ITV Studios. “But we got him last year and now we’ve actually got him for a one-off, too.”
Meldal-johnsen is also proud to be working with Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning documentarian Deeyah Khan pointing to a pair of films under the title “Trump’s America” — one on what it’s like living as a Muslim in the U.S. today and the other on the anti-abortion movement.
The studio is also capitalizing on what Meldal-johnsen calls the “culturally agnostic” appeal of engineering. A reteaming with Windfall Films, the producers of “Building Giants,” has produced “Arctic Ice Railroad” and “Waterfront House Masters,” a series which sees experts maneuver entire homes to new locations next to water. Twofour’s “Impossible Engineering,” a series that has sold in over 120 territories, will soon hit screens for a sixth season and take viewers on a journey to London, Canada’s Whistler, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Rotterdam, Netherlands, to discover the most mind-blowing feats of building mastery the world has to offer. The breadth of unscripted content in ITV Studios’ arsenal is not only a refusal to be typecast but rather a slate engineered to show that any partnership is possible.
Partnership is key for ITV Studios. Meldal-johnsen cites hard-hitting series “24 Hours in Police Custody,” from The Garden Productions, which is heading across the pond for an American version. “It just gets consistently amazing ratings here, and so we were keen to help The Garden navigate a coproduction rather than licensing the format out.”
“We are hungry for factual [content], and we’ve set ourselves a very high bar,” says Meldal-johnsen. “We pride ourselves on our long-term relationships, and our doors are always open.” ɿ