Keshet International’s Kelly Wright

Kelly Wright, senior VP of distribution and new business at Keshet International, tells TV Formats’ Elizabeth Bowen-Tombari about the ins and outs of building an entire city for the buzzy new reality game-show format 2025 and what viewers can glean about human behavior from the bold, experiential series.

Keshet International’s 2025 takes place in a near-future smart city that was built from the ground up. Humanoid hosts run the city as contestants vie for social currency in the completely immersive, high-tech world. With a nod to futuristic series like Westworld and movies like The Truman Show (which sees the lives of the characters played out on TV), 2025 follows as a group of contestants enter the city and live their lives, all while the audience plugs into their every move, 24/7.

The city’s residents are there not only to live, but to play a game of social climbing; they enter the city equal in every way, but each subsequent decision they make has a very literal price. Carrying the tagline “Life is a game. What will it cost you to win?,” the series—and its viewers—follows as contestants choose where to sleep, what to eat, how to communicate with the outside world, all at a cost displayed on the giant scoreboard that towers over the city center. Capital is earned by completing tasks and receiving support from the viewing public, as well as the city’s other residents.