Case Study: FremantleMedia’s Total Blackout

In a twist on the traditional game-show format, Total Blackout challenges contestants to complete a range of tasks all while in complete darkness. Games that may appear simple in daylight become quite difficult (and entertaining!) when the lights go out for the competitors in each episode. "The games are unpredictable and hard to solve, and it takes brains, courage and a sense of humor to survive Total Blackout," says Trish Kinane, the acting president of worldwide entertainment at FremantleMedia.

"Different challenges surprise and shock in every show and are designed to play on the challengers’ biggest fears," Kinane adds. "In utter darkness, contestants face games that push their heightened senses to the limit with hilarious results until there is only one challenger left with a chance to win a cash prize. It’s unashamedly entertaining!"

The show had an international birth, Kinane notes. It was co-created by Henrik Nielsen, a Danish FremantleMedia executive producer who is now based at FremantleMedia North America, and So Fujinuma, a producer at Fuji Television in Tokyo. The program is the first format to come out of the Creative Exchange Alliance, a partnership between FremantleMedia and Fuji TV announced in April 2010 at MIPTV that aims to co-develop and co-produce new formats for the international market.

"This format has had an amazing journey since its birth," Kinane says. "It was first broadcast in Japan on Fuji TV and travelled very quickly to Scandinavia, launching in Denmark on Kanal 5 in February 2011. It was an immediate hit with a broad appeal and more than doubled Kanal 5’s prime-time average, performing an incredible 129-percent higher."

The show performed equally as successful in Norway on TV Norge, where it attracted audience shares up to 279-percent above the prime-time average. It moved on to Sweden on Kanal 5 and has since been commissioned in Indonesia on ANTV, the Netherlands on Veronica and Belgium on VT4, where it again outperformed the broadcaster’s prime-time share.

"This show had a very fast rollout, because it was instantly appealing to broadcasters," Kinane says. "One of the things our producers learned during production was that the tone is important. It is a very fine line between the show being scary and funny. The format encompasses situations which can be scary for the contestants because they don’t know what is before them in the dark, but the result of their discomfort is funny to the viewers."

Kinane points out that there have been a number of technical challenges in producing and adapting the show. "We learned a lot about how to film successfully in the dark—which cameras work best, how differently sound is perceived when the contestants can’t see, and how to make an interesting contrast between the scenes in the dark, and the pre- and post-challenge sequences in the light."

As a way of increasing production efficiency, FremantleMedia is considering setting up a production hub for Total Blackout where multiple territories can come and record the show.

"Total Blackout has already travelled to seven territories," notes Kinane, "and there’s still huge interest in this format with new sales in the pipeline."