Paolo Bonolis

TV Real Weekly, March 5, 2008

Creator/Presenter

Ciao Darwin

The scientific process of natural selection has been successfully adapted to the television world in the hit entertainment show Ciao Darwin, first produced by RTI Mediaset in Italy and subsequently sold to broadcasters around the world as a format by Distraction.

Providing a fun twist on science, Ciao Darwin sees teams of 50, split into common stereotypes such as blondes vs. brunettes or old vs. young, go head to head in competitions like bravery, style and talent. Various challenges put them to the test in the battle for the endurance of the fittest. They are cheered on by celebrity captains and each series culminates in the creation of the “ideal” human who comprises all the winning attributes of each episode.

Ciao Darwin was created by Stefano Magnaghi and Paolo Bonolis, who has also been a writer on the series and the host of the five seasons that have aired in Italy. The last one ended in January and averaged a 23-percent audience share with peaks of 25 percent. The format has also found success in Hungary, Poland, Romania, Greece, Vietnam, and recently Distraction closed deals with ABC Studios in the U.S. and Endemol France.

“We’ve had Ciao Darwin in our catalogue for five years and its rise to international success has been gradual, but now we are seeing it reach its true potential and we can foresee a bright future for this format,” says Michel Rodrigue, the CEO of Distraction.

Bonolis believes that there are two reasons for the success of the show. “The first is that it’s a kaleidoscope of all the variables of a hit variety show and secondly, it’s able to play with aspects of society that can be considered embarrassing,” he says. “We did episodes that pitted homosexuals against heterosexuals, or whites against blacks, beauty against ugliness in a way that was devoid of any hypocrisy. And this allowed the show to be fun and entertaining.”

The secret to adapting the show to other countries, Bonolis explains, “depends on not being hypocritical about the characteristics of a given country. There certainly can be lighthearted episodes with overweight vs. underweight people, or tall vs. short, women who have had plastic surgery vs. women au naturel. But in order to take advantage of everything the format has to offer, when you get into a specific culture, you have to have the courage to deal with the differences. If you don’t manage to get into the scars of every culture, even if in a fun, ironic or lighthearted way, in order to say, look how stupid it is to be divisive, you are stripping Ciao Darwin of its potential to be a unique and one-of-a-kind format.”

Distraction’s Rodrigue expects to close numerous deals at MIPTV.

—By Anna Carugati