{"id":12769,"date":"2017-08-11T10:02:50","date_gmt":"2017-08-11T14:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/serious-lunchs-genevieve-dexter\/"},"modified":"2017-08-14T10:19:29","modified_gmt":"2017-08-14T14:19:29","slug":"serious-lunchs-genevieve-dexter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldscreen.com\/tvkids\/serious-lunchs-genevieve-dexter\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious Lunch\u2019s Genevieve Dexter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Genevieve Dexter, the founder and CEO of Serious Lunch, speaks with <\/em>TV Kids\u00a0about the success of <\/em>Operation Ouch!,\u00a0the company\u2019s evolution and what broadcasters look for in a children\u2019s show today.<\/em><\/p>\n

London-based distributor Serious Lunch was founded six years ago by Genevieve Dexter, who also serves as CEO of animation studio Eye Present. The company\u2019s most widely sold property is Operation Ouch!<\/em>, a live-action factual series that sees twin doctors Chris and Xand help young viewers understand their bodies. The BAFTA-winning Maverick production is headed into its sixth season on CBBC in the U.K. It has been sold to a number of broadcasters worldwide, including ABC, YTV, KiKA, JCCTV and Noga, and has been adapted for DR and NOS.<\/p>\n

\"***Image***\"TV KIDS:<\/strong> How has Serious Lunch evolved since its inception in 2011?
\nDEXTER:<\/strong> It\u2019s evolved much in the same way as I developed CAKE Entertainment, in that it started off as an executive production company raising money for other people\u2019s projects, and then evolved into a distribution company. So very much the same trajectory except that our IP development and production takes place within the Eye Present animation studio in London, which is a joint venture between Squint\/Opera and myself.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What is the best-selling title in the company\u2019s catalog and why do you think it has been so successful?
\nDEXTER:<\/strong> The most widely sold property is Operation Ouch!<\/em>, partly because it\u2019s matured now. It was the first title that I took on [at Serious Lunch] and so you would hope to see that. But also it\u2019s now in production with its sixth season, so it\u2019s proved to be an ongoing brand as opposed to a single series, which is like night and day, really.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think anybody can say that there\u2019s a show like [Operation Ouch!<\/em>]. There are many that touch on the same topics\u2014the series is all about the body and how it works\u2014but it\u2019s presented by these incredibly funny and \"***Image***\"charismatic twin doctors who have a few PhDs between them and who, for example, went to Africa during the Ebola crisis and also went to work in the refugee camps in Calais to study the effects of living long-term in a refugee camp. So they\u2019re very passionate about their subject and we\u2019re just very lucky to have them presenting the show. Not only are they great at their subject, they\u2019re very good at being able to communicate it. The sibling rivalry, especially when they\u2019re experimenting on each other, is pretty funny. We will announce a deal in Germany very shortly, which is exciting.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are broadcasters looking for nowadays in a kids\u2019 show?
\nDEXTER:<\/strong> Everybody seems to still be on the gender-neutral-comedy hunt. Operation Ouch!<\/em> does fulfill that in that the balance is evenly split boy-girl, and although it\u2019s conveying STEM content, it\u2019s still very funny. I do think that the majority of broadcasters are looking for comedy animation or high-concept drama, which has a combination of live-action special effects, meaning that it can travel more effectively than homegrown drama. On the basis of the rules of supply and demand, if a particular genre is in high demand, it\u2019s usually because there isn\u2019t very much of it because it\u2019s hard to pull off creatively or economically.<\/p>\n

TV KIDS:<\/strong> What are some of the company\u2019s plans for the next year or so?
\nDEXTER:<\/strong> We\u2019d love to be able to launch something new. We\u2019ve been looking at a few things, some of the Emmy winners at MIPTV. I always find that evening great inspiration for looking for new things. We are looking to finance a second season of Horrible Science<\/em>. We\u2019re looking for partners there because ITV has dropped out of the second season; we\u2019re looking to replace them and find new partners. So there might be opportunities for some of the newer players.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve started to employ a few more people; Rick Roper has recently joined me, he was my right-hand man at CAKE since the very early days, so he\u2019s looking after operations. Especially as Eye Present grows, I\u2019m looking to hand off more of my responsibilities onto other people. I need more time for acquisitions and co-productions, so I can see us bringing in some more sales people this year, potentially.<\/p>\n

We still want to focus on a few titles and really going deep with them rather than having a large catalog, which attracts a big overhead. The distribution model is changing. We\u2019re looking at potentially launching some of the titles directly onto YouTube in territories where, for whatever reason, we haven\u2019t been able to penetrate, but where we know we get a lot of views. So we have launched a YouTube channel this year with short-form content that looks through the whole six seasons [of Operation Ouch!<\/em>] and groups them by body part\u2014short clips all to do with the knee or the throat, etc. That channel seems to be gaining traction. I think we would potentially expand that with the long-form content into territories that we haven\u2019t been able to penetrate in the English language.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The founder and CEO speaks about the company\u2019s evolution and what broadcasters look for in a kids’ show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":12782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[1581,1022,1024],"class_list":["post-12769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-interviews","category-top-stories","tag-genevieve-dexter","tag-operation-ouch","tag-serious-lunch","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nSerious Lunch\u2019s Genevieve Dexter - TVKIDS<\/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\/tvkids\/serious-lunchs-genevieve-dexter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Serious Lunch\u2019s Genevieve Dexter - 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