{"id":14968,"date":"2025-03-24T08:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T12:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T13:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T17:39:18","slug":"bbc-studios-execs-on-strengthening-the-u-s-unscripted-production-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/bbc-studios-execs-on-strengthening-the-u-s-unscripted-production-business\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC Studios Execs on Bolstering the U.S. Unscripted Production Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In January, BBC Studios made a set of executive appointments to strengthen and expand its Los Angeles unscripted leadership team, a production base responsible for hits such as <em>Dancing with the Stars<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Weakest Link<\/em>,\u00a0<em>The 1% Club<\/em>\u00a0and, most recently, the survival competition series\u00a0<em>Outlast<\/em>\u00a0on Netflix, which they produce with Jason Bateman\u2019s Aggregate Films. Ryan O\u2019Dowd was promoted to president of unscripted. Jenny Groom, who previously led all unscripted competition formats at NBCUniversal, joined as executive VP of unscripted development. Krystal Whitney was elevated to executive VP of current programming for unscripted. The executives talk to\u00a0<em>TV Formats Weekly<\/em>\u00a0about how the U.S. team is collaborating with producers in the U.K. on developing and launching global formats and how they have successfully produced shows in the U.S. in nearly every unscripted genre.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>How is BBC Studios strengthening its ability to produce format adaptations in the U.S. and ramp up the creation of entertainment originals out of L.A.?<br \/>\n<strong>O\u2019DOWD:\u00a0<\/strong>We take great pride in the award-winning and critically acclaimed content produced by our Los Angeles team, as an integral part of BBC Studios\u2019 Global Entertainment network. In L.A., we\u2019ve proven to be successful at producing both original IP and format adaptations in nearly every unscripted genre. These span from studio game shows (<em>Weakest Link<\/em>\u00a0with NBC,\u00a0<em>The 1% Club<\/em>\u00a0with FOX), live competition (<em>Dancing with the Stars<\/em>\u00a0for ABC and Disney+, coming off of a breakout successful season of appointment viewing in which we also became a hit on TikTok in a time when a strong social media presence is more powerful than ever), competition survival series (<em>Outlast<\/em>\u00a0with Netflix), Alaska doc series (<em>Life Below Zero<\/em>,<em>\u00a0Life Below Zero: Port Protection Alaska<\/em>,<em>\u00a0Life Below Zero: Next Generation<\/em>,<em>\u00a0Life Below Zero: First Alaskans<\/em>, all for National Geographic), ensemble doc series (<em>Wrestlers<\/em>\u00a0for Netflix), true-crime limited documentary series (<em>Murder Among the Mormons<\/em>\u00a0for Netflix), studio dating (<em>Ex-Rated<\/em>\u00a0with Andy Cohen for Peacock) and more to come.<\/p>\n<p>BBC Studios Global Entertainment recently announced a partnership with Jolly Octopus Media, founded by Ollie Brack and James Longman, incredibly talented producers who will be a welcome addition to our L.A. network, focused on developing global entertainment formats\u2014proof of our wider commitment to bringing in creative talent and expanding our pool of innovative ideas. I\u2019m thrilled to have recently brought Jenny Groom on to lead our development out of L.A. and to draw on her decades of experience launching some of the biggest formats on broadcast and streaming during her tenure at NBCUniversal. Krystal Whitney, who leads our current programming, has worked side by side with me for nearly five years to launch major new productions and has been integral to expanding our business. All of this is to say that we\u2019re deeply committed to the growth of our L.A. unscripted business and excited about what\u2019s on the horizon for us in this next chapter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>How is the U.S. team collaborating with producers in the U.K. on developing and launching global formats?<br \/>\n<strong>O\u2019DOWD:<\/strong>\u00a0We have a robust pipeline of proven IP coming to us from our U.K. indies and our broader production teams in the U.K. that we remake and build into major hits for the U.S. market, such as\u00a0<em>Weakest Link<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Dancing with the Stars<\/em>. We work closely with U.K. producers to collaborate on their formats with the goal of preserving a show\u2019s core DNA while also making it marketable for the U.S. We \u201cAmericanize\u201d a format, which can entail everything from supersizing the scale of the show to reshaping the tone or pacing to suit our U.S. audiences to attaching the perfect talent for our market such as our Emmy-nominated outstanding game-show host Jane Lynch for\u00a0<em>Weakest Link<\/em>\u00a0and the incredibly talented and charismatic Joel McHale for\u00a0<em>The 1% Club<\/em>, set to return for its second season on FOX.<\/p>\n<p>We work very closely with the likes of Magnum Media (<em>The 1% Club<\/em>) and Mettlemouse Entertainment (which is delivering\u00a0<em>The Honesty Box\u00a0<\/em>series to Channel 4 in the U.K. right now, which we think has the potential to be a global format success). The U.K. team has also brought in\u00a0<em>Nation\u2019s Dumbest<\/em>\u00a0from Montreux Film, which is the top-rated show in Norway, and\u00a0<em>Silence is Golden<\/em>\u00a0from Yes Yes Media, Richard Bacon\u2019s production company, and everybody in the company is excited to see where these will go.<\/p>\n<p>Our BBC Studios team in L.A. is also working with Karl Warner, our new executive VP of U.K. entertainment and digital development in Global Entertainment, to strengthen the pipeline of formats from the U.K. to the U.S. We\u2019ve had some really exciting conversations with Karl and can\u2019t wait to see that pipeline come to fruition.<\/p>\n<p>Across BBC Studios\u2019 Global Entertainment network, we consistently tap into each other\u2019s creativity and collaborate with our international colleagues\u2014whether this is through international co-developments or our Creative Exchanges, which allow us to share insights and innovations, ensuring our formats come with the stamp of quality expected of the BBC.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>It has been a transformative time in the unscripted entertainment landscape. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities facing the segment in the year ahead?<br \/>\n<strong>O\u2019DOWD:<\/strong>\u00a0The challenges in the year ahead should ultimately present opportunities. It\u2019s about figuring out how to create those opportunities. In the current market, producers are consistently being asked to deliver the scope and scale of traditional U.S. entertainment formats at a budget that provides value to the broadcast network or streamer.<\/p>\n<p>Today, it\u2019s more important than ever to understand the direct impact of the budget thresholds. How much did the show cost, what rating and viewership will a format in this genre likely garner, and was that enough to create value for the network on advertising revenue or new subscribers?<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re constantly looking at the ways by which we can deliver top-notch productions at competitive budgets. Ultimately, it\u2019s always going to be about the quality of the idea. As a true global company with production infrastructure set up in many territories around the world, BBC Studios is fortunate to be uniquely well-equipped to deploy our vast network of resources to deliver in this climate.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also about being open to new business models and unconventional ways by which we can get deals over the line. That can be in the form of creating production hubs for multiple channels from multiple territories that benefit from a singular set build with shared costs. It can also be in the form of sponsorships and integrations and opportunities like the nationwide tour we put on for\u00a0<em>Dancing with the Stars<\/em>\u00a0or the apps we\u2019ve created for\u00a0<em>Weakest Link<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>The 1% Club<\/em>\u00a0that generate additional revenue streams.<\/p>\n<p>We\u2019ve just been at the center of a deal on our\u00a0<em>1% Club<\/em>\u00a0show in which Amazon\u2019s Prime Video had the streaming rights, and FOX had the broadcast rights, with each new episode being released on the same night on each respective platform. Nobody could have imagined those types of deals being brokered years ago, but we\u2019re all in this together, and the ability to be creative and nimble has been incredibly beneficial. I\u2019m seeing cable networks, broadcasters and streamers open to forgoing traditional approaches and exploring new ways by which we can all bring high-quality programs to audiences.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:<\/strong>\u00a0Tell me about your previous experience working in the unscripted entertainment space that you bring to the team.<br \/>\n<strong>GROOM:<\/strong>\u00a0I spent 20 years of my career at NBCUniversal and Peacock on the buying side. While leading the unscripted formats team at NBCU, I commissioned major global hits like\u00a0<em>The Traitors<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Love Island<\/em>. With my experience, I bring a high-level, strategic buyer\u2019s mindset to our development so that we can continue to focus our energy on the big wins. My buying experience enables me to bring a unique perspective to gauge which projects and formats are the most marketable and have the strongest potential to become long-lasting global hits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Executives from BBC Studios&#8217; Los Angeles unscripted team discuss how the U.S. team is collaborating with producers in the U.K.successfully produced shows in the U.S. in nearly every unscripted genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":14969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[1337,4115,4116,4117],"class_list":["post-14968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-bbc-studios","tag-jenny-groom","tag-krystal-whitney","tag-ryan-odowd","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - 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