DRG Picks Up International & Format Rights for The Brigade

DRG has acquired the exclusive international finished program and format rights for The Brigade, a cooking challenge and transformation show commissioned for BBC Two.

From Expectation Factual, The Brigade was built around the Brigade de Cuisine concept developed by 19th century chef Auguste Escoffier, wherein a group of culinary talents work together in the kitchen to put forth the best food. In the format, a distinguished chef—like Jason Atherton in the BBC Two version—serves as a mentor to ten chefs. These chefs will travel around the world and work as a team to try to master the local cuisine, facing off against seasoned local kitchens in cook-offs each week.

Dave Clarke, DRG’s executive VP of content, said: “The Brigade takes a factual-entertainment framework and merges it with documentary-style storytelling. By combining this with a rich seam of cooking and travelogue, Expectation Factual has created a fresh, new contemporary cooking format. The intriguing series can readily play out in any territory and its raw energy, renegade spirit, transformative challenges and genuine insight to how kitchens work will appeal to broad audiences worldwide. We are extremely excited to be working with the talented team at Expectation Factual and can’t wait to bring The Brigade to the international market.”

Alexia Edwards, COO at Expectation, added: “The DRG team has a long-standing reputation for successfully representing food formats internationally and therefore readily understood our show and the opportunities it presents. We are delighted that The Brigade is in such good hands and we look forward to developing our relationship with DRG—and to seeing how The Brigade brand can develop—when the show officially launches in 2019.”