Case Study: Power Couple

Revital Basel, the VP of sales at Dori Media Group, talks to TV Formats about the prime-time reality format Power Couple.

Love is put to the test like never before in the prime-time format Power Couple, which looks on as couples compete to see how well they know each other for a cash prize. “Power Couple is an innovative and fresh reality format,” says Revital Basel, the VP of sales at Dori Media Group. “It shows the couples’ dynamic in extreme, funny and moving situations that give the viewers a whole new watching experience.”

The original Power Couple, which was developed by Abot Hameiri, premiered in 2014 on Channel 10 in Israel. A second season was broadcast successfully in the country last year.

“We stepped in [as distributor] when Power Couple was only a paper format,” says Basel. “We saw the strong mechanism of the format and believed it could succeed around the world.”

The show sees couples move into a villa for six weeks, during which time they face extreme challenges that will test how well they know each other. “In this game, couples who are confident in themselves and believe in their relationships can turn that into a lot of money,” says Basel. “Power Couple is a different experience in the reality-show genre, bringing a lot of humor, emotions and love to the screen.”

The first country to adapt Power Couple was Portugal, where FremantleMedia produced a local version titled The Power of Love for broadcast on SIC. After that, the format was sold into a number of other territories, including Germany (RTL), Brazil (Record TV), Hungary (RTL), South Africa (MNET), Croatia (RTL), India (Sony TV) and Mexico (TV Azteca). It was also licensed in Slovenia and China.

“The international versions are very similar to the original format,” says Basel. “They vary in the number of episodes and couples. They all kept the heart of the mechanism—how well you know your partner and how much you are willing to bet on [that]—even though there is diversity in the execution of the different adaptations.”

Thus far, Power Couple has only been sold as a format for local treatments; no finished-tape sales have been secured as of yet.

“We believe the success so far is only the beginning,” says Basel. “Additional seasons are developed in the countries that the format aired in and we see a lot of interest from additional territories.”

She adds: “The great thing about this show is that it appeals to all audiences, across age and status. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship can easily relate [to] and love this show.”