Debmar-Mercury & ITV Ink Deal on Talk Show

SANTA MONICA: Debmar-Mercury and ITV Studios have teamed up for the new talk show The Chefs, with Debmar-Mercury acquiring the worldwide ownership rights to the series, while ITV Studios handles the international distribution.

Debmar-Mercury will likely offer a multi-week on-air test of the show as a strip later this year or in 2011, ahead of taking it into national distribution. The U.S. version will be taped in New York and will feature a daily roundtable discussion about a variety of food-related topics. ITV Studios will produce all local formats of The Chefs outside of the U.S.

The Chefs marks the second original production between Debmar-Mercury and ITV Studios this year. The two are also teaming up on the launch of a new U.S. version of the British daytime talk show The Jeremy Kyle Show.

“The Chefs successfully combines food, a topic that no one can live without, celebrities and a panel of premier chefs in a winning new talk format,” said Mort Marcus, co-president of Debmar-Mercury. “It has the ability to play across all daytime and early fringe time periods.”

Ira Bernstein, Debmar-Mercury co-president, added, “We’re excited to be working with ITV, whose success in this genre (Hell’s Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares) we believe will be an integral part of this project and which clearly has already tapped into one of the hottest genres in TV today.”

Paul Buccieri, the president and CEO of ITV Studios, commented, “The Chefs has an extremely broad appeal and it takes a really fun approach to one of the cornerstones of all our lives, food. I am delighted to be working on another show with the Debmar-Mercury team.”