Italia 1 Re-Ups SevenOne’s Schiller Street

MUNICH, March 20: Following the success of the
first season, Mediaset-owned network Italia 1 has renewed the local version of the improvisational comedy
format Schiller Street,
distributed by SevenOne International, for a second edition of 20 episodes.

Starting immediately,
Italia 1 will be broadcasting double episodes of the series every Tuesday
evening, under the title Buona la prima!. The first season, which aired in spring 2007,
drew an average of more than 3 million viewers per episode. The
Italian version is an RTI Spa production, made by Grundy Italia jointly with
Bananas and Cattleya.

SevenOne International
has also sold Schiller Street
to broadcasters in France, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, the Czech
Republic, Russia and Turkey. The comedy format, which originally aired on Sat.1 in Germany as Schillerstrasse, sees various comedians get together on stage
without a script.

Jens
Richter, the managing director of SevenOne International, commented: “We’ve
already sold the Sat.1 improv comedy to broadcasters in more than 20 countries. Schiller
Street is one of the most
innovative TV concepts in years, and is in demand all over the world. We
wish Italia 1 every success in its second season.”

—By Irene Lew