{"id":5065,"date":"2016-08-01T10:52:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-01T14:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/"},"modified":"2016-08-02T09:22:47","modified_gmt":"2016-08-02T13:22:47","slug":"mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/","title":{"rendered":"MTV\u2019s Teen Mom Crosses the Pond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Knight,\u00a0the VP of production management and business affairs at Viacom International Media Networks, talks to\u00a0<\/em>TV Formats\u00a0about the broad appeal of MTV\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Teen Mom\u00a0and how the show is being adapted for U.K. audiences.<\/em><\/p>\n

Now gearing up for its season-six premiere in August, the U.S. version of\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0(now\u00a0Teen Mom OG<\/em>) launched in 2009 as a spin-off of MTV\u2019s docuseries\u00a016 and Pregnant<\/em>, which chronicles the pregnancies of teenage mothers-to-be as they prepare to give birth. The\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0format \u201ccontinues to follow some of the girls from\u00a016 and Pregnant<\/em>\u00a0on their next journey, which is being a teen mom,\u201d says Rebecca Knight, the VP of production management and business affairs at Viacom International Media Networks.<\/p>\n

Additional iterations in the U.S. include\u00a0Teen Mom 2<\/em>, which debuted on MTV in 2011 and recently aired its seventh season, and the short-lived\u00a0Teen Mom 3<\/em>, in addition to after-shows and specials. The\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0format debuted locally in Poland in 2014, and now MTV in the U.K. is launching a local version,\u00a0Teen Mom UK<\/em>, with the eight hour-long episodes produced by True North set to premiere in November.\u00a0\"2016-08-01-Teen-Mom-OG-in-the-U.S.\"<\/p>\n

The concept originated from MTV\u2019s former head of reality programming and executive VP of series development, Lauren Dolgen. \u201cShe was doing research and realized that the U.S. had one of the highest rates of teen pregnancy and teen births in the developed world,\u201d Knight says. Teen pregnancy is an issue that impacts the demographic MTV reaches, and Knight says Dolgen felt \u201cthere was a story there, and she wanted to talk to the girls and get their viewpoints of what it is like to be a teen mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a show is good and people like it, they\u2019re going to watch it, and that\u2019s what happened with\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0across all the MTV channels globally,\u201d Knight adds. \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got a show like that, you start to think, \u2018Let\u2019s make a local U.K. version\u2019 because [teen pregnancy] is a universal truth in every territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, audiences are learning from the moms\u2019 experiences. According to Knight, a 2014 study found that MTV\u2019s\u00a016 and Pregnant<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0had significantly reduced births to teens. \u201cPeople were talking about [teen pregnancy], they were debating, and [the shows] brought the issue to the forefront,\u201d she says. \u201cYes, these moms are teens, and they are young, but they are also adults in that they know how to look after their babies, and they have got stories to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

The key to successfully adapting a U.S. show is to \u201ckeep the essence of why the format works and why it is popular,\u201d Knight explains. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to go too far away from what the U.S. format is because it\u2019s so strong and successful. We don\u2019t want to make a factual documentary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight adds: \u201cThere\u2019s warmth, there\u2019s humor, and all of the moms are on a journey. They\u2019re telling their own story, and that\u2019s something every territory can pick up. We will [simply] have a U.K. cast so it appeals to the U.K. demographic. We\u2019ll have our own humor, which is a little more sarcastic, and we\u2019ll have our own warmth from that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with finding its own humor and tone, the U.K. adaptation of\u00a0Teen Mom\u00a0<\/em>will differ from the U.S. versions in other ways. U.K. audiences will follow the lives of five young mothers, rather than four, as is the case with both\u00a0Teen Mom OG<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Teen Mom 2<\/em>. In addition, while each episode of the U.S. iterations features all four of the girls, Knight says that may not be the case in the U.K. \u201cIt depends on what they\u2019re doing that week. The show is not produced, so we stand back and watch.\u201d Though she adds that like the U.S. version, none of the episodes will focus solely on one mom: \u201cYou are following the lives of several moms as a narrative all the way through the eight episodes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another difference is the casting itself, which Knight says is \u201calways a challenge.\u201d For\u00a0Teen Mom OG<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Teen Mom 2<\/em>, MTV cast young mothers who appeared on\u00a016 and Pregnant<\/em>. \u201cWe\u2019re going straight to\u00a0Teen Mom UK<\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were inundated with people wanting to be on the show. It\u2019s one of the largest sets of casting in terms of how many people applied. That poses a challenge because you need to do due diligence.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Knight, it is important to find young mothers who have a support network of family and friends, or the child\u2019s father. \u201cYou\u2019re not just casting the teen mom, you\u2019re also casting for the ensemble,\u201d Knight notes. \u201cThere are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that need to be put together, and of course [the cast] also needs to be engaging and authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the U.K., viewers will get to know the moms even more intimately through a \u201cnew twist that we\u2019re putting on the TV format,\u201d Knight says. Each girl will receive a phone to record herself when the production crew is not around. The idea is to allow the girls to be more candid, and the footage from their phones is meant to \u201cget under the skin of their emotions, in a place that they feel safe and can express themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an uplifting series,\u201d Knight says. \u201cThe reason\u00a0Teen Mom<\/em>\u00a0is so successful is because it\u2019s so true to the moms. It gets under their skin and tells their story from their end. The script is not written; it stems from their viewpoints. Editorially, that is very important. It\u2019s the reality of their journeys. They have highs and lows, they have good days and bad days, but ultimately they have love for their children.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rebecca Knight, VIMN’s VP of production management and business affairs, talks about the broad appeal of MTV\u2019s Teen Mom and how the show is being adapted for U.K. audiences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":477,"featured_media":5066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68,69],"tags":[85,87,598,88,204],"class_list":["post-5065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-profiles","category-top-stories","tag-mtv","tag-teen-mom","tag-teen-mom-og","tag-teen-mom-uk","tag-viacom-international-media-networks","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nMTV\u2019s Teen Mom Crosses the Pond - 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\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MTV\u2019s Teen Mom Crosses the Pond - TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rebecca Knight, VIMN's VP of production management and business affairs, talks about the broad appeal of MTV\u2019s Teen Mom and how the show is being adapted for U.K. audiences.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"TVFORMATS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-08-01T14:52:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-08-02T13:22:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2016\/08\/2016-08-01-Teen-Mom-OG-in-the-U.S..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=\"Sara Alessi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sara Alessi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/\",\"name\":\"MTV\u2019s Teen Mom Crosses the Pond - TVFORMATS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-08-01T14:52:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-08-02T13:22:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/#\/schema\/person\/3a30a856ec6d9cc2372bf054d26a0418\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/mtvs-teen-mom-crosses-the-pond\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvformats\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MTV\u2019s Teen Mom Crosses the Pond\"}]},{\"@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\/3a30a856ec6d9cc2372bf054d26a0418\",\"name\":\"Sara Alessi\",\"description\":\"Sara Alessi is the associate editor of World Screen. 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