{"id":15069,"date":"2025-05-19T08:50:22","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T12:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/worldscreen.com\/"},"modified":"2025-05-20T22:21:58","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T02:21:58","slug":"foxs-michael-thorn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/foxs-michael-thorn\/","title":{"rendered":"FOX\u2019s Michael Thorn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The competition series <em>Extracted<\/em>, which combines elements of reality and gaming, debuted in February on FOX in the U.S. and was recently greenlit for a second season. Filmed in the Canadian wilderness, the format sees competitors face extreme conditions while their families watch via a feed and decide their fate. Michael Thorn, president of FOX Television Network, talks to\u00a0<em>TV Formats <\/em>about\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u2019s unique concept.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>How did\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0come about?<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0was one of the first pitches Yasmin Rawji [executive VP of unscripted at the network] and her team presented when I started last year. It just stood out as original and exciting. It\u2019s a marketplace filled with legacy shows, so you better stand out.\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0presented an opportunity to do exactly that.<\/p>\n<p>It started with a simple question: What if survival wasn\u2019t just about endurance, but strategy, deception\u2014and trusting your family to keep you alive? This is a high-stakes, cinematic survival competition set in the unforgiving Canadian wilderness. But the real twist? Contestants\u2019 fates lie in the hands of their loved ones, miles away at a secret HQ. That unique dual layer of physical and psychological gameplay is what made this format stand out for us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>Tell us about the partners involved and what each brings to the table.<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0is the result of an incredible collaboration in which we partnered with B17 Entertainment, part of Sony Pictures. They are fearless format innovators with cinematic storytelling, and these are the types of partners that we like to work with. We\u2019re looking for risk-taking partners, which is a top priority for us\u2014whether that\u2019s in the U.S., the U.K., Australia or the Netherlands.\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0is proof of what\u2019s possible when those partnerships align.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>How does\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0put a new spin on the traditional survival competition?<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0We\u2019re always looking to reinvent a genre or find a twist on a concept that makes it stand out in this crowded marketplace. It brings this unique family element to the survival competition that we haven\u2019t seen. Most survival shows focus on who can tough it out the longest.\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0flips that on its head, asking a simple but compelling question: What if survival wasn\u2019t just about battling the elements but was about putting your fate in your family\u2019s hands? And, in turn, for the families: How far would you let your loved ones go for $250,000? It\u2019s about strategy, deception and trusting your family to keep you alive. That psychological tension\u2014combined with the physical danger\u2014creates a survival show like no other. It\u2019s as much about emotional endurance and conflict in the headquarters as it is about wilderness skills.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>Is this purely a big-budget, prime-time play?<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0has all the ingredients of a bold, noisemaking, prime-time event, but the format is modular. Future international broadcast partners could opt for a stripped-down, grittier version of the format shot in a controlled environment or scale up with massive outdoor set pieces. The HQ portion of the show (where most of the gameplay and conflict happens) allows for budget variation while retaining the core drama and strategy that define the format.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>How does this fit what commissioners and buyers are looking for right now?<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0Finding compelling original formats that break through the clutter is a priority for us at FOX. This is not just another survival series. It\u2019s event television with a fresh angle, built-in social buzz and true global potential. We aspire to pierce popular culture with our programming. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve bet big on\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0and are seeing that pay off. We are always looking for appointment television, and, between linear and streaming, we are very encouraged with season one of\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>. The nature of the format makes every episode unpredictable, and you have to come back the following week to see the fallout.<\/p>\n<p><strong>TV FORMATS:\u00a0<\/strong>What\u2019s working in the global entertainment marketplace right now?<br \/>\n<strong>THORN:<\/strong>\u00a0Audiences want bold, original breakthrough formats and are responding to big swings with fresh concepts and authentic, emotional stakes. We would like to think\u00a0<em>Extracted<\/em>\u00a0is just that: a unique, original high-concept format with real heart, family, high production values and global scalability.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The president of FOX Television Network discusses\u00a0Extracted\u2019s unique concept.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":350,"featured_media":15070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,69],"tags":[4314,4118,4079],"class_list":["post-15069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-extracted","tag-fox-television-network","tag-michael-thorn","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FOX\u2019s Michael Thorn - 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\/foxs-michael-thorn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FOX\u2019s Michael Thorn - 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