{"id":10054,"date":"2023-11-13T08:50:32","date_gmt":"2023-11-13T13:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev2.worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T14:25:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T19:25:29","slug":"josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Josh Duhamel Unites Longtime Friend Groups for Buddy Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

As adults, it can be difficult to find time to get together with a group of longtime friends. Everyone has separate careers and their own families to attend to, and some may have moved away. Over 20 years ago, actor Josh Duhamel and his group of childhood friends found a solution to this by holding an annual reunion in which they participate in a range of competitive games. Their yearly meet-ups inspired the 2019 scripted comedy\u00a0Buddy Games<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Around the time of the film\u2019s release, it became apparent that the concept could form the basis of a reality show. With the help of Bunim\/Murray Productions and Julie Pizzi, president, Duhamel developed\u00a0Buddy Games<\/em>\u00a0into a competition format based on the same premise: bringing tight-knit, longtime friend groups together for some good-natured competition (with a $200,000 prize, of course).<\/p>\n

CBS saw the potential for the series as well, and slated it for a Thursday 9 p.m. air time, bookended by\u00a0Big Brother<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Challenge<\/em>. With this star-studded broadcast pairing, Pizzi says \u201cwe knew we had to give this show its own DNA and define it as a buddy comedy. It was really the unique lens of casting\u201d that both sets it apart and allows it to stand alongside these other hit formats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really very different because we start with such an emotional edge [compared] to other shows, where people have to learn to trust each other,\u201d she continues. In\u00a0Buddy Games<\/em>, \u201cthey all show up with decades of friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are groups of friends\u2014like my group of friends, like all the groups of friends on this show\u2014everywhere,\u201d Duhamel notes. \u201cWhen they watch this, they see themselves in any one of these groups. I can\u2019t tell you how many people have come up to me like, \u2018How do we get on the show? I\u2019ve got a group, we\u2019d be great.\u2019 Because they sit and watch, and they see themselves and think, We could do this. Because it\u2019s not like\u00a0Survivor<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0The Challenge<\/em>\u00a0or some of the other ones where you have to be really athletic, you\u2019re on your own, and you have to compete as an individual. With this, you have the comfort of your group.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you have seen the scripted\u00a0Buddy Games<\/em>\u00a0film\u2014which at one point sees the friends hunt each other with bows\u2014the games in the format are much lighter. \u201cWe developed a lot of games,\u201d Pizzi says. \u201cPart of it was just figuring out which games could be really [universal] because we had cast members who were in their early 30s all the way to their 60s, and we had men and women competing against each other. Part of it was just dialing that up and then also theming out some of the games and finding where the inspiration was coming from and what we were testing. There was some strength, but for the most part, it was more about endurance. And honestly, your willingness to just get embarrassed and get messy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mostly, the games in the format are like \u201csuper-sized games that you could do at home,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey\u2019re not massive stunts.\u201d This includes human cornhole\u2014in which one person is splayed across the board\u2014which is just enough to induce a competitive nature but silly enough to keep it fun.<\/p>\n

Still, \u201cwe were really keen to make sure that it had those same elements that we have in ours that we do every year,\u201d Duhamel says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur stunt team wouldn\u2019t even approve the shit they do to each other,\u201d Pizzi interjects, jokingly noting that several times she had to say, \u201cThat would actually hurt people. We can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

That stamp of Duhamel and his friends\u2019 games is still there, though. \u201cOne of the things that we all thought was a good idea was to add this sabotage\u201d element, Duhamel says. \u201cBob [Schwartz, longtime friend of Duhamel\u2019s and a producer of the series], I call him \u2018sa-Bob-otage.\u2019 He\u2019s the guy who is constantly fucking with you. You\u2019re always looking over your shoulder. We came up with this idea called the curveball. If you win [the first] competition, you get to sabotage one of the other teams. And it turned out that those curveballs, those sabotages, really affected the outcome and the landscape of how the whole game ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, it got really personal,\u201d Pizzi says, with Duhamel adding that some of the teams almost didn\u2019t\u00a0want<\/em>\u00a0to win the curveball because they knew it would put them in ill favor with some of the other teams and make them a target in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey actually all became pretty close, all the teams that were living in the house,\u201d Pizzi says. Duhamel describes it as \u201ca big adult summer camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

This closeness means that \u201cwhen they had to actually compete against each other or quite literally sabotage each other, it got really personal,\u201d Pizzi adds.<\/p>\n

A great aspect of the format, aside from the fun-loving atmosphere it invokes in its contestants and therefore its viewers, is that \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of room for change,\u201d Pizzi explains, making it an ideal option for broadcasters with varying budgets and different slots to fill. \u201cYou can expand and contract the format. To be honest, the show could easily be a 90-minute. We definitely had the material because we essentially have three games an episode, and a lot of the inner drama that was happening with our cast was on the cutting-room floor. I think you can even spend more time in the house. You can probably do one less game. It really has the ability to expand and contract.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the key for any potential hosts of local adaptations? \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid to get in there and get dirty,\u201d Duhamel declares. \u201cIt\u2019s really part of the fun. I would want anybody who\u2019s hosting this in whatever territory to have that same kid in them who is still alive. Because it\u2019s OK to have fun. Just because we\u2019re adults doesn\u2019t mean we always have to act that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cast felt that, too,\u201d Pizzi says. \u201cI felt like the cast really felt like Josh was on their team. He was kind of like a therapist. They truly loved him, and they felt like they knew him. The truth is,\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0knew\u00a0them<\/em>\u00a0because he had watched every single casting tape. There is something really nice about how quickly that changes the dynamic of your show. It raises the level a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFriendship, games in the backyard\u2014this is a universal thing,\u201d Duhamel adds. \u201cThis is something that will travel everywhere. The games might change a little bit, but that friendship, those bonds, don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Duhamel and Julie Pizzi talk about the new friendly competition format Buddy Games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1412,"featured_media":10055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[3340,839,3343,3456],"class_list":["post-10054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-buddy-games","tag-bunimmurray-productions","tag-josh-duhamel","tag-julie-pizzi","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nJosh Duhamel Unites Longtime Friend Groups for Buddy Games - TVFORMATS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Josh Duhamel Unites Longtime Friend Groups for Buddy Games - TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Josh Duhamel and Julie Pizzi talk about the new friendly competition format Buddy Games.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-13T13:50:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-23T19:25:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2017\/07\/BunimMurrayProductions-BuddyGames-1123.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jamie Stalcup\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/\",\"name\":\"Josh Duhamel Unites Longtime Friend Groups for Buddy Games - TVFORMATS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-13T13:50:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-23T19:25:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/josh-duhamel-unites-longtime-friend-groups-for-buddy-games\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Josh Duhamel Unites Longtime Friend Groups for Buddy Games\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/\",\"name\":\"TVFORMATS\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#\/schema\/person\/0da12602224807cc7b179b8405018deb\",\"name\":\"Jamie Stalcup\",\"description\":\"Jamie Stalcup is the executive editor of World Screen. 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