{"id":14930,"date":"2025-03-10T08:50:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-10T12:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2025-03-11T10:05:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-11T14:05:38","slug":"fawesome-brings-new-formats-to-the-table","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/fawesome-brings-new-formats-to-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"Fawesome Brings New Formats to the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using its flagship AVOD technology and distribution capabilities, Future Today has been carefully curating its apps Fawesome, HappyKids and iFood.tv with general entertainment, kids\u2019 programming and culinary content, respectively. Now, the company has expanded its original programming slate with the introduction of two new formats on Fawesome: Fawesome Family Game Show<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Southern Food Truck Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The former sees two teams compete in reimagined classic games such as Etch It Out; Pictionary; Word Scramble, based on Boggle and Scrabble; and Word Feud, a\u00a0Family Feud<\/em>-style guessing game. In the latter, meanwhile, food truck chefs in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, compete for the title of Southern Food Truck Champion as they create their signature dishes and are judged on presentation, taste and execution by a panel of judges, including Jay Ducote.<\/p>\n

David Di Lorenzo, senior VP of kids and family at Future Today, tells\u00a0TV Formats Weekly<\/em>\u00a0about the move into original formats for Fawesome, and Digital Media Studios\u2019 Aaron L. Williams, creator of the formats, discusses the origins of the new shows.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0For Future Today, what prompted this move into original formats, and why was now the right time to launch\u00a0Fawesome Family Game Show<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Southern Food Truck Wars<\/em>?
\nDI LORENZO:<\/strong>\u00a0It\u2019s part of the evolution of our owned-and-operated services, both Fawesome and HappyKids. We\u2019ve put a lot of emphasis on bringing new content to our audience. At this point in time, we felt it was a good step for us to start to create originals. Fortunately, we were connected with Aaron, and he brought some really great ideas to the table for us that we decided to move forward on. It\u2019s a strategy that we\u2019re looking to improve on and grow into the future as we continue to compete in the streaming space.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0Where did the idea for\u00a0Fawesome Family Game Show<\/em>\u00a0originate?
\nWILLIAMS:<\/strong>\u00a0We were trying to find some different shows that we felt would resonate with [Fawesome\u2019s] brand of being family, of being fun. So, we felt like this would be a good opportunity to present to them something we can do in-studio and invite different families out to have a good time together. This seemed to track well on other platforms. We thought this would be a great opportunity for Fawesome to do the same.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0Game shows are a perennial hit, and there are a lot of them out there. What makes\u00a0Fawesome Family Game Show<\/em>\u00a0stand out in this crowded genre?
\nWILLIAMS:<\/strong>\u00a0We\u2019re a little unique in the fact that we have a lot of variety in the types of games that we do throughout one show. Most families get to experience multiple different games versus just playing the exact same game the entire time. You get to compete, adults get to compete. We have a mixture of both youth and adults [competing]. So, we open up that age range as well to include more of the family.
\nDI LORENZO:<\/strong>\u00a0It was a family team environment, which brings a little bit of a different element.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0How did\u00a0Southern Food Truck Wars<\/em>\u00a0come about?
\nWILLIAMS:<\/strong>\u00a0It was kind of the same way. I had worked with Jay Ducote before in the past, and we know he\u2019s a celebrity chef. So, we were like, It would be great to bring somebody who has a following to the platform. I\u2019m a fan of lifestyle-type shows. They\u2019re fun to produce, they\u2019re easy to produce, and they\u2019re very highly engaging. Bringing in different food shows would be a good way to attract that audience\u2014maybe [attract] that older mom who likes to sit down and watch different cooking techniques and learn new tricks. I thought that would be something really, really good for the family. So, [it\u2019s] some really good, wholesome, engaging, entertaining family programming.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0Like game shows, culinary competition shows are huge. They\u2019re some of the biggest formats out there. What sets this one apart?
\nWILLIAMS:<\/strong>\u00a0This one is actually a pretty comical show. We had some judges from and we shot it in the south. And these judges, this is the first opportunity for some of them\u2014outside of Jay\u2014to be on-screen. We had a lot of fun with some of the different commentaries. This is a cooking show where not only do you get to see great dishes, but you actually get some humor and entertainment, which you don\u2019t normally get to see too much inside of cooking shows. I really think that causes this one to stand out. It has its own little vibe and feel with the type of humor that it brings, along with the great dishes.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0What role do entertainment formats like these play on Fawesome, and how do these formats bolster the overall Fawesome offering?
\nDI LORENZO:<\/strong>\u00a0For us, we\u2019re looking at bringing more family entertainment. We\u2019re looking to create opportunities to bring the family together, to watch content together. So, we offer a wide variety of content, whether it\u2019s hit movies or TV series. But we also feel that bringing these types of shows into the mix is [helping us] try to create a format and opportunity for families to come together and watch things and enjoy these things together. I think that a lot of viewing habits have changed with families, and families are watching a lot more content together across multiple ages, whether it\u2019s younger children or older kids with their parents. So, both these shows and these formats are ideally brought to bring families together.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0How does Fawesome itself complement the wider Future Today portfolio?
\nDI LORENZO:<\/strong>\u00a0As a company, we operate over 300 apps across the connected TV space, and Fawesome is our owned-and-operated app for general entertainment. We have HappyKids, which is our kids and family app. Then, we have iFood.tv also, which is a food-oriented app. What we\u2019re doing [with Fawesome] is trying to cover an entertainment segment that is more heavily into movies and TV shows for primarily adult viewing, but there\u2019s also family-viewing content available there, whereas HappyKids is more heated toward kids from ages 0 to 12. Plus, we have family movies and things available there as well. iFood.tv is covering cooking enthusiasts. So, within our three owned-and-operated apps, we\u2019re just trying to address various segments of the audiences that are out there.<\/p>\n

TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0Is there anything you would like to add about either of these new formats or Fawesome in general?
\nDI LORENZO:\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019re looking to do more original programming. We\u2019ll be partnering with Aaron and his team to create more content for Fawesome in the future. We feel that it\u2019s an important step for us in our evolution to start to produce our own content and bring additional originals to our audience.
\nWILLIAMS:<\/strong>\u00a0I would like to add I really appreciate the lane that Fawesome is creating because, if you notice, you have a lot of what I would call Hollywood media and we have social media. But Fawesome has opened up a new market, where I feel they\u2019re catching that right in the middle\u2014that home independent media that\u2019s starting to resonate with a lot of new audiences. It opened up a new avenue to tell new stories, a lot of family stories, adult stories that we don\u2019t typically see in the market. So, I love the brand and the vision that they\u2019re bringing to the forefront. I\u2019m glad to be a part of that process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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