Red Arrow International’s Henrik Pabst

Part of the Red Arrow Entertainment Group, Red Arrow International is a global distributor of scripted, unscripted and factual programming. It taps into shows from the group’s 19 production companies and also works with third-party producers and digital content partners. Among its recent top-selling series are the scripted drama Bosch and the unscripted format Married at First Sight. Red Arrow International has, in fact, opened the market up to a whole new genre of formats: social experiments. A recent addition is the heartwarming The Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds, which sees children spending time with retirement-home residents to the great benefit of the elderly. As Henrik Pabst, Red Arrow International’s managing director, tells World Screen, he is especially proud of this show, as well as the company’s diverse programming slate.

WS: Tell us about the format The Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds (working title).
PABST: The Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds is an idea that came from our company CPL Productions in London. Murray Boland and Danielle Lux [the company’s creative director and managing director, respectively] found an experiment that has been going on in the U.S., where you connect kids with elderly people to see if there is an upside for both of them. The children and the elderly people spend time with each other in retirement homes, and the physical and emotional well-being of the elderly people seems to improve dramatically. We test the old people’s physical and psychological state at the beginning, and then we see how they develop over the course of six weeks through a series of tests and exercises. When I saw the idea for the first time, I was personally very touched, and have been delighted to get the opportunity to distribute it. The market is responding so well to the show. People come to see the clip and they love it. To me, it’s genuinely real TV: a warm-hearted, emotional, real reality social experiment, and it definitely fits the zeitgeist. In every country—especially in the West—there are old people suffering from social isolation; it is a huge problem. We have to treat the elderly with respect. This kind of groundbreaking experiment, which actually raises an important social issue, is something to celebrate, and I can’t wait to see it travel. I don’t think it’s the next mega format, but it’s great television, and I can see it coming to many channels very soon.

WS: And it gives the channels an opportunity to do some good, and that will gain them goodwill and prestige.
PABST: Definitely. I’m passionate about the project. It touches something within me and seems to with a lot of people.

WS: You’ve also had success with other social-experiment formats.
PABST: This year’s The WIT session at MIPTV opened by highlighting that what Red Arrow started four years ago with Married at First Sight kicked off a whole new era of TV in terms of real reality and social experiments. And they are right because today Married at First Sight has 27 local versions, so we are marrying people in 27 countries. Wherever the show goes on air, it’s recommissioned and always wins its slot. We’ve also recently done something great in Australia with the series. Our production partner Endemol Shine Australia and broadcaster Nine Network have stripped the show over the course of nine weeks, featuring 10 couples over 29 episodes. And it has been a massive success, winning its slots and being the talk of the continent. You can’t go to a gym, get on a bus or be in a supermarket without hearing people talk about the show. This is something that makes us really proud at Red Arrow; we’re very happy about it.

WS: What other unscripted shows do you have in your slate?
PABST: Look Me in the Eye is an idea that also comes from CPL Productions. We launched it late last year, and it is currently in production in a number of territories, including Germany, France and Australia. It is also a kind of social experiment, based on the premise that if two people who have become estranged spend two minutes looking into each other’s eyes without speaking, it can help them reconcile their relationship where all other efforts have failed. It is a surprisingly emotional and powerful show, which I think will naturally travel to many territories.

Kiss Bang Love—our loud, noisy, edgy dating format—continues to do really well. We are now in 11 territories with that one, which is good. We have a fantastic show on ProSieben, Global Gladiators, an epic reality format. We have a great show from Ami Glam, a well-respected format creator whose Studio Glam U.S. operation has now partnered with our Red Arrow family. He has The Decision, which did well in Israel recently. It takes people on a 48-hour journey to help them make a life-changing decision. Our formats lineup is particularly strong at the moment, and the response from the market has been very positive.

WS: And it sounds like you have something for every budget. A lot of these shows are scalable, right?
PABST: Yes, it’s important to offer a breadth of scale. I think my colleagues have put together a fantastic slate this time, and our production companies continue to be enormously creative.

WS: What shows do you have on the scripted side?
PABST: On the scripted side, Cleverman is returning with season two, which is great given how well it did last year for SundanceTV [in the U.S.] and ABC in Australia. I’m happy about that, because there’s so much drama out there, and you only make a difference when your series is returning, the audience is loyal and is waiting for more. Also, funnily, the Germans are getting better at doing shows that travel and are prime for remaking. We have a show called Einstein that aired on Sat.1 and got an immediate recommission. It’s a crime procedural with a good portion of humor in it. We are discussing various remake offers at the moment, alongside a number of international sales. It would be great if it became as successful as our other German drama format The Last Cop, which was born in Germany and has now been remade in more than five territories, including a recent theatrical release in Japan. And not to forget Bosch. We launched season three at MIPTV, with season four greenlit. It’s great to see a show just get stronger and stronger with each season.

Scripted takes a little bit more time. For impatient people like me, it’s not easy, but we have a lot of exciting stuff coming along, and at the next market, we already have the next big thing.

WS: Factual is also now an important part of your catalog and offering, correct?
PABST: Yes, factual has always been with us, but maybe not in the volume that we have now. Over the last 12 months, we have built a robust slate that fulfills the access-prime needs of many of our clients, with shows such as Weather or Not and Motive to Murder. We also have a number of prime-time solutions, with shows like The Greatest Crimes of All Time for kabel eins in Germany and Empire Builders, a fantastic PBS show. I’m very happy that our non-scripted team and my head of sales and factual expert, Bo Stehmeier, have put together such a strong slate.

The combination of keeping our slate broad with a good mix between English and European content, working with quality indies, and the strength of our Red Arrow group of production companies means I am in a good mood!