NBC Universal Blazes a Trail with Unscripted Formats

Yvonne Pilkington, the VP of formats for NBC Universal International Production, talks with TV Real about the expansion of the company’s formats remit.

Oxygen’s dance/weight-loss competition show Dance Your Ass Off became the most-watched series premiere in the network’s history among women 18 to 49, adults 18 to 49 and total viewers with its June 29 debut. And it’s not just in the U.S. that the show has struck a chord; the format, which features full-figured contestants using dancing to drop pounds, was presold by NBC Universal into Poland, Belgium and the Netherlands, even before the first U.S. episode aired.

Dance Your Ass Off is one of many unscripted formats that NBCU has been finding success with as of late. The expansion of its TV formats division is part of NBCU’s plan to more than double international revenues to $5 billion, through pay-TV channels expansion, local film and TV content production and a focus on strategic growth markets. And the company has been delivering on all these key points, with formats playing a central role in its local-content strategy.

"We have, in six months, got 32 deals across 13 formats in 15 territories," explains Yvonne Pilkington, the VP of formats for NBCU International Production. Momma’s Boys, a dating series; Eight or Eighty, a game show; Top Chef, a reality cooking competition; and the Real Housewives franchise are among the priority nonscripted titles in the company’s format catalogue. This follows on the success NBCU has had with its scripted Law & Order format, which has been ordered for a second season in the U.K. by ITV and has a host of further deals pending in territories such as Russia, France, Finland, Greece and the Middle East.

"With reality, we’re definitely moving toward reality that has more of a heart," says Pilkington of the current trends. "I don’t think people want overly constructed reality shows. One of the things about Momma’s Boys is the relationship between mothers and sons can’t really be faked. If you have strangers in a house, it’s arguable to say that a lot of those relationships are contrived and they’re just played for the camera. If you have the additional element of a mom, who’s obviously very invested in her son’s emotional well-being, that really gives a reality show a heart." 

As for priority growth markets, Pilkington points to Continental Europe; "Principally, that’s where a lot of format trends begin. It’s very rare that you would get an initial pickup of a format in Asia or Eastern Europe unless you’ve had it placed in at least two key European territories; they always wait for a track record."

The U.K., Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and France are of particular focus. As is Greece. "They have a massive appetite for [formats in Greece] and quite a small pool of production companies all vying for the same rights," Pilkington notes.

For NBCU, Pilkington says, formats are "very much a business on the up. We’ve only just begun."