{"id":10766,"date":"2024-08-12T08:50:20","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T12:50:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2024-08-13T12:32:40","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T16:32:40","slug":"32-flavors-alex-baskin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/32-flavors-alex-baskin\/","title":{"rendered":"32 Flavors\u2019 Alex Baskin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Launched last summer under the leadership of producer Alex Baskin, 32 Flavors has among its production slate Bravo\u2019s Emmy-nominated juggernaut <em>Vanderpump Rules<\/em>\u00a0and its buzzy spin-off\u00a0<em>The Valley<\/em>, along with\u00a0<em>The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The Real Housewives of Orange County<\/em>. Baskin, CEO, talks to\u00a0<em>TV Formats <\/em>about what audiences are looking for in reality TV today and the approach to iterating on hit franchises.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS: <\/strong>What\u2019s cutting through right now in unscripted entertainment?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:\u00a0<\/strong>There\u2019s a great polarity: viewers are sticking with trusted series that offer up a predictably comfortable experience, and they\u2019re also sampling and, in breakthrough cases, embracing the decidedly new and different. They\u2019re still watching undeniable characters on an epic journey, whether it\u2019s one they\u2019ve seen before or it\u2019s something new. What they\u2019re not watching, though, are warmed-over offerings that don\u2019t either engage them in a way they\u2019ve come to expect or stimulate them in a fun, different fashion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>What was the drive behind setting up 32 Flavors?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:\u00a0<\/strong>I launched the company at a time in which the business was fundamentally challenged, but my hope\u2014and my bet\u2014was that a dynamic, nimble content engine could capture the marketplace shifts. The company aims to live in both the conventional business and also tap into the emerging business in alternative financing and distribution. We\u2019re consuming more content than ever, just in different forms\u2014and the exciting mission is to meet viewers and consumers where they are.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>How has 32 Flavors approached iterating on a franchise like\u00a0<em>The Real Housewives\u00a0<\/em>to make sure each version is distinct but also has its common threads?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:\u00a0<\/strong>A franchise like\u00a0<em>The Real Housewives<\/em>\u00a0might have signature elements\u2014e.g., the taglines, the chapter cards, etc.\u2014but in between those format items, each series lives on its own. As a producer, you have to respect the franchise enough to live within its confines but also value your series enough to find its own identity, most significantly through casting but also through tone, cultural nuance and other choices that wouldn\u2019t belong elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0How does 32 Flavors evolve hit IP?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:<\/strong>\u00a0Shows get harder, not easier, to make through successive seasons. There\u2019s often less juice to squeeze if you take the same approach you did previously, regardless of genre (docuseries, format, etc.). We\u2019re charged with staying in front of the audience, i.e., not responding to their input based on past seasons but in giving them a new, fresh experience each season. I don\u2019t believe in change for its own sake, but I do think you have to approach each season as though it\u2019s the first, and you have to respect that the audience might tune in because of familiarity and name recognition, but they\u2019ll tune out just as quickly unless you actively engage them.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0What are some of the biggest production challenges of a) the U.S. market and b) the reality entertainment space?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:<\/strong>\u00a0On a macro level, the fundamental challenge is the diffuseness of the viewing audience. The audience can, at any given time, watch anything ever made in the history of entertainment, play a game, interactive or otherwise.<\/p>\n<p>The contraction of conventional business, which rested on the assumption that masses of viewers would watch the same thing at a given time, is a natural function of this reality, as is the conservative approach to reboot, repackage and remake.<\/p>\n<p>In an extraordinarily crowded landscape, breaking through with something new and different\u2014especially something that needs an introduction and an explanation\u2014is ever more challenging.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0What\u2019s next for reality entertainment?<br \/>\n<strong>BASKIN:<\/strong>\u00a0I\u2019ve been reading\u00a0<em>Cue the Sun!: The Invention of Reality TV<\/em>, and if the past is prologue, then the future of reality will be, broadly, its story to date: wildly varying expressions of the human experience, both high- and lowbrow, in different and unexpected forms.<\/p>\n<p>If that sounds like a cop-out, it\u2019s because it\u2019s the truth! Those of us who make reality embrace the unexpectedness of the stories we\u2019re telling\u2014and our story as an industry is as winding and unknown as any great season arc. But I do know that as the consumer experience and our business models shift and change, interest in the content itself is as robust as ever.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The CEO talks\u00a0about what audiences are looking for in reality TV today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":10767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[3894,3895],"class_list":["post-10766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-32-flavors","tag-alex-baskin","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>32 Flavors\u2019 Alex Baskin - 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\/32-flavors-alex-baskin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"32 Flavors\u2019 Alex Baskin - 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