Mipcom: Keshet Strikes First Deals for Social Media Reality Show ‘Celebrity Showmance’ (EXCLUSIVE)
British reality TV format “Celebrity Showmance” has been optioned in the Netherlands and Norway, marking the first international deals for the format.
The series comes out of the U.K. where it is on ITV2. It has now been picked up by FremantleMedia in the Netherlands and Nordisk in Norway. News of the deals emerged at Mipcom, the ongoing TV programming market in Cannes.
The series has celebrities form unlikely couples and then set out to get as much attention as possible from unwitting members of the public on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media. The couple that gets the most “likes” wins the show.
Keshet U.K. originated the show and Keshet International launched the format internationally at Mipcom. The Norway and Netherlands deals are the first agreements for local versions of the series.
In the U.K. the fake couples appeared widely in the pages of gossip magazines and tabloids. The match-ups included socialite Lady Victoria Hervey and footballer Jamie O’Hara, and Hayley Hasselhoff, the daughter of “Baywatch” star David Hasselhoff, and Kyle Christie, of reality series “Geordie Shore.”
The series was ITV2’s follow-up to hit reality show “Love Island” and taps into the fake news zeitgeist, but is not set up as social commentary. “It’s not a documentary, we’re not lecturing you about how obsessed society is with fake news, it’s fun,” Keren Shahar, boss of Keshet Intl., told Variety ahead of Mipcom.
ITV has also struck new deals for “Love Island” this week in Cannes.
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