Debmar-Mercury Picks Up New Reality Game Show

LONDON, August 14: Hot
Seat, a new reality game-show
format from Standing Stone Productions, has been acquired by Debmar-Mercury for
distribution in the U.S. and markets outside of the U.K.

Standing Stone, a venture
founded last year by former FremantleMedia North America chief Tom Gutteridge
and Tim Berg, will retain the U.K. distribution rights. Gutteridge created the
series, which watches four contestants answer questions to collect prize money,
while the audience members try to take over the winnings.

Gutteridge commented, “I’m
very excited about working with Debmar-Mercury to bring Hot Seat to the U.S. and international marketplaces. It’s a
perfect daily game show, tailor-made for the U.S. network and syndication
models, and that’s why Debmar-Mercury is the ideal partner for us. As global
brands like Jeopardy! and Wheel
of Fortune have demonstrated, the
U.S. first-run syndication market for daily game shows can be the most valuable
in all television, requiring around 200 fresh episodes every year. We very much
hope to be in production in the U.S. early next year.”

Beata Hegedus, the managing director of Debmar-Mercury
International, added, “There is a huge appetite internationally for game shows
and, from our perspective, Hot Seat—with
a strong sense of dynamism—offers something completely different from
what’s currently out there. It effectively recaptures the drama that was once
offered by the world’s most popular game-show formats.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski