Beat Shazam’s Kauble inks Endemol deal

Endemol Shine North America has signed a production deal with Wes Kauble, co-creator of the Jamie Foxx-hosted gameshow Beat Shazam.

Wes Kauble

Under the agreement, Kauble will create and develop original unscripted series and formats, focusing on gameshows and competition series for the domestic and international markets, through his newly formed Interrobang Entertainment label.

Prior to creating Interrobang Entertainment, Kauble was senior VP of development at Apploff Entertainment, where he exec produced Fox music series Beat Shazam alongside the show’s fellow co-creator Jeff Apploff.

The format, which is also exec produced by actor and musician Foxx and produced by Mark Burnett and MGM Television alongside Apploff Entertainment, sees teams attempting to identify hit songs before music-identifying app Shazam.

Endemol Shine Group is already the show’s international distributor, having agreed an exclusive deal to take the format to the global market across all platforms outside of the US and to produce local versions of the programme. Distribution arm Endemol Shine International also sells the finished Fox show internationally.

“With Endemol Shine, I’m confident I’ve found the perfect home for the next stage of my career,” said Kauble. “We’re going to set the world on fire in 2018 with some game-changing new shows.”

Sharon Levy, president of unscripted and scripted television at Endemol Shine North America, added: “Wes is a remarkably talented producer and creator and has some great format ideas that we are already exploring for the US market and hopefully can develop to take out globally as well.”