Game Shows Adjust for COVID-19

Game-show formats are proving to be readily adaptable for fresh content as lockdowns and social-distancing measures are observed around the world due to the coronavirus pandemic.

With the coronavirus pandemic continuing to affect production on new titles to deliver to broadcasters and streamers, certain genres are proving to be more readily adaptable to create fresh content amid lockdowns and social-distancing measures. Among those genres is the game-show format. On BBC Studios’ slate, there’s the long-running The Weakest Link, while Hindsight and Hat Trick produce Mastermind, both formats easily produced remotely; Armoza Formats boasts Beat the Grid, created pre-COVID-19 but more than ready to meet the moment; there’s the revamped Septante et Un (71) from Never Ending Story; and Global Agency’s Home Quiz, made specifically for these unprecedented times.

Chief among the strengths of game-show formats during the current conditions are that they can be recorded in volume at cost-effective prices and that it takes little time to bring them from the studio floor to the TV screen, according to Sumi Connock, BBC Studios’ creative director of formats. Pointing out the preproduction advantages game shows provide, Connock says, “Casting can be done effectively over Zoom, and question writing/verification is easily done remotely. Scripts follow a similar structure and therefore can also be done remotely, as well as building any technical gameplay software. This means that you can do all of your preproduction in lockdown and be ready to block-record in-studio, making them ideal to suit the quick-turnaround demands of broadcasters who have many slots to fill.”

While the sheer efficiency of game-show formats during COVID-19 could be enough to recommend them, they also provide the kind of entertainment that families stuck at home crave. “If the doctors ordered any kind of TV for families locked down during coronavirus, it would be game shows,” says Connock. “They provide great escapism from what’s happening in the real world and they are usually something that the whole family can engage in together.”

Avi Armoza, CEO of Armoza Formats, agrees. “From the content point of view, watching game shows—especially ones that viewers can play along with—is really the ‘ultimate family viewing.’ This, of course, makes it very suitable for the current times where families are all at home together.”

Families can still enjoy the interactive experience of watching a game show even without the proxies of a live audience—provided the gameplay isn’t contingent on audience participation. As Connock points out, “Many highly successful game shows do not require a live studio audience, and in fact, the lack of a studio audience also speeds up recording times.” The Weakest Link, for instance, doesn’t have a live studio audience. “The host is suitably socially distanced from contestants and the contestant podium positioning would just need to be adapted very slightly to meet regulations. Then it’s about spacing and socially distancing in the galleries/control room and production offices in accordance with local government guidelines.”

When a game show does require a live audience, technology makes it possible for them to play from home. Have You Been Paying Attention?, produced by Working Dog for Network 10, launched its newest season last month to its biggest premiere ever. The show, which pits five well-known and well-informed news-watchers against one another to see just how much news they’ve retained, is typically filmed in front of a live studio audience with panelists. “We have taken the show to a hybrid studio base and our guests are isolated,” says Have You Been Paying Attention? Executive Producer Michael Hirsh of the new season. “We are using a combination of domestic and professional audio-visual equipment.”

Global Agency has acquired the international rights for the game show Home Quiz, which sees celebrities compete over a video link from home for cash prizes that will be donated to a foundation battling COVID-19. In the format, a host and three celebrity contestants participate remotely via a video conference application.

Though as quickly and efficiently as remote and self-shot programming methods have been ushered into the TV mainstream, it’s likely to take a backseat just as fast, according to Connock. “Broadcasters are limiting the amount of self-shot programming they are commissioning at present and are starting to look to a post-lockdown future,” explains Connock, adding, “I think there will come a time—quite soon—when people will seriously tire of the mosaic of faces on Zoom as a form of mass entertainment. There have been far too many TV commercials with sad piano music and montages of empty streets intercut with people on Zoom calls, and that is not really a substitute for a proper creative vision. In fact, an intravenous infusion of properly 4K studio glitz could be very welcome globally!“

Armoza, too, believes that the home movie novelty has passed its heyday. “There was a time for formats with self-shot videos at the start of the pandemic as a solution for the immediate need for content,” he says. “They have a more limited lifespan, as these formats are mainly talent-based, and I don’t believe they are a long-term solution.” There are, after all, more savvy options afforded by modern technology. CGI, for example, is used to give the impression of a much larger studio than the one in which Armoza Formats’ Beat the Grid is shot, with 80 percent of the set constructed in CGI in post-production.

“We are creating a technological hub that we supply to our clients to compose on the actual gameplay that they are shooting, and this can save up to 50 percent of the cost of any production of any game show,” says Armoza. “Technology has a very important role [during the coronavirus], as it can also help limit the number of people in the studio as well using limited cameras.”

In want of a way to continue the run of Septante et Un (71) on the Belgian French-language pay-TV channel RTL TVI amid the coronavirus pandemic, Never Ending Story developed a new interface. Based on Headstrong’s American format Beat the Crowd, Septante et Un (71) sees one player compete face-to-face with 70 opponents over ten rounds in front of a live studio audience; the new digital interface allows the 70 competitors to “join” the studio-based player and presenter Jean-Michel Zecca remotely using their home computers and a virtual display in the studio.

As with any sea change in an industry, new opportunities are bound to crop up. And the global cultural climate amid a health crisis that’s touched every corner of the planet is more than ready for game show producers to roll out distracting and diverting programs, all while adhering to necessary health and safety best practices. As BBC Studios’ Connock puts it, “Broadcasters need light and shade across their schedules, and the ability to provide their audience with some escapism via a bonkers game show cannot be underestimated. Whether this is via game shows set in the real world—which feel likely to be a future trend—or through non-traditional Q&As that defy the conventional format beats of a quiz, the prospect is exciting both for programmers and their audiences.”