Mike Morley

Executive VP & Chief Creative Officer,
International Production
Sony Pictures Television

With its acquisition of the Dutch outfit 2waytraffic, Sony Pictures Entertainment ramped up its international-production initiatives. As executive VP and chief creative officer of international production for Sony Pictures Television (SPT), Mike Morley plays a hand in developing formats that can fit in a host of international territories. An Endemol veteran, Morley knows quite well what elements can give a concept worldwide appeal.

TV REAL: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? is an undisputed global phenomenon. To what do you attribute its popularity?
MORLEY: It’s a great show! Simple as that. Full of jeopardy, drama and aspiration. It’s a true classic. Two major factors in the worldwide popularity of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? are that we have been able to successfully localize the show while remaining true to the format and the brand, and our ability to keep it fresh. What has appealed to people worldwide is that the concept of the show is very simple, yet the audience and viewers at home are on the edge of their seats as the excitement and tension builds. We’ve demonstrated our ability to take our format brands to a global audience not only with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? but with other successful shows such as Mr & Mrs, Dragons’ Den and The Dating Game.

TV REAL: What else in your catalogue follows in the vein of Millionaire?
MORLEY: We have a number of exciting shows in our catalogue.  In the U.S., Embassy Row is producing The Newlywed Game, currently airing and just renewed on GSN, and is also working on Honey, Please, a smart, low-cost, candid-camera show that pits spouses against each other in a test of willingness to do certain difficult tasks such as hugging the pizza delivery man!
 
50-50 continues to be in demand, with recent sales in Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Mexico. Two of our shows from the Dutch production company Tuvalu, in which SPT has invested, have enjoyed recent successes: Stars in the Class and Columbus’ Egg, two factual-entertainment shows that have enjoyed strong ratings in the Netherlands. As well as seeing revived interest in Pyramid, we’re currently piloting three new game shows—all knowledge-based.
 
TV REAL: What are the challenges with adapting these game shows across borders?
MORLEY: The tricky part is tuning the format into the local culture and at the same time not altering the format’s unique selling points. Local humor, traditions and practices sometimes conspire to dilute a format’s potency, so you have to work creatively to improve the global product to get a good local fit. Localizing shows is one of the things we do best and it’s key that we do it in a cost-effective way. Our team of producers and creators, who have years of experience, can advise clients on how our formats brands will work best and have solutions to address the budgetary pressures that broadcasters are feeling. 

TV REAL: SPT/2waytraffic is very innovative with using technology. How important is interactivity nowadays with game shows, and what sort of interactive elements do you incorporate?
MORLEY: Interactivity is hugely important. Ten or 20 years ago, the only demand on a format was that it needed to be a good show. Now a show must be a 360-degree proposition—in other words, we must be able to package it so that viewers can enjoy it not just on TV but also online and on mobile—something we’ve done very successfully with Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

We’ve also enabled consumers to interact with our brands through physical and digital merchandise such asDVDs, board games, mobile games, ring tones and mobile wallpapers, which are all part of our game-show portfolio.