Formats Trending This Fall

The trend-trackers at The WIT have identified format adaptations that made waves on social media this fall, with Canadian adaptations, in particular, garnering a lot of buzz. Among the formats on the list are treatments of Love Island, Secret Story, Bachelor in Paradise, The X Factor and RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Dating formats were top draws on fall slates, as reflected by their large Instagram followings. L’île de l’amour, the French-Canadian adaptation of Love Island, amassed 59,000 followers after its September debut on TVA. The Quebecois treatment is hosted by singer Naadei Lyonnais and narrated by comedian Medhi Bousaidan, each of whom has their own dedicated social media following: 100,000 and 123,000, respectively.

Canada also found success with Bachelor in Paradise Canada, its adaptation of The Bachelor spin-off, which welcomes a mix of former contestants and new ones. After debuting on Citytv in October, the series scored 31,000 Instagram followers, with host Jesse Jones having more than 4,300 himself.

Talent search programs continued to be popular among audiences this fall, with X-Faktor Belarus notching 24,000 IG followers after its airing on Belarus 1 in October. Its four judges each have their own large follower count, with Olga Buzova’s at 23.1 million, Seryoga’s at 157,000, Ruslan Alekhno’s at 78,500 and Sergey Sosedov’s at 18,700.

Drag Race Italia garnered a sizable following—55,000—after its premiere last month on discovery+ in Italy. The adaptation of RuPaul’s Drag Race featured high-profile judges, including Tommaso Zorzi, known for winning the fifth season of Grande Fratello VIP (the Italian version of Celebrity Big Brother); actress Chiara Francini; and Italian drag queen Priscilla. Zorzi has 1.8 million followers, Francini has 618,000, and Priscilla has 31,000.

A local adaptation of the Secret Story format, La casa de los secretos, debuted in September on Telecinco in Spain with around 44,000 followers. The format is based on an original French reality series, which itself was retooled from John de Mol’s Big Brother. The Spanish treatment is the format’s first celebrity edition, seeing VIP roommates living together in an isolated house, each with a secret the others shouldn’t know about. It, too, benefitted from a star-studded cast: Gemeliers music duo Jésus Oviedo (603,000 followers) and Daniel Oviedo (583,000), DJ Sofía Cristo (282,000) and actor Luis Rollán (237,000).