C4 wins big at Format Awards

MIPFORMATS: The UK’s Channel 4 was the big winner at the International Format Awards in Cannes this evening on the night the pubcaster’s CEO Alex Mahon received the prestigious Gold prize.

Four C4 shows took home five prizes at the event this evening, oganised by C21, MipFormats, Frapa, and Entertainment Masterclass, while a remake of a C4 original scooped best scripted format.

Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds took home both the Best Brand Driven Format and Best Factual Entertainment Format gongs. The CPL Productions social experiment aims to improve the health and well-being of elderly people in retirement communities by introducing a group of four-year-olds into the mix.

Stephen Mangan’s turn fronting The Fake News Show earned him Best Host of a Television Format while Youngest Media’s Game of Clones and Studio Lambert’s Vlogglebox – which both air on C4’s youth-skewing sister net E4 – won Best Competition Reality Format and Best Multi-Platform Format respectively.

Meanwhile the French Canadian remake of Catastrophe, the sitcom about an accidental preganancy from a one night stand which was originally created by Avalan Television for C4, took home the Best Scripted Format award. The remake was produced by 1R2D for Bell Media-owned Super Écran.

Other winners of note included NBC’s The Wall which took The Best Studio-Based Gameshow Format and Twofour’s One Night With My Ex for Channel 5 in the UK which was named Best Reality Format.

Mahon, who took over at C4 in the autumn and gave a keynote address at MipFormats this afternoon where she pledged her channel would keep taking risks, was rewarded for her stellar career in the formats business with the International Formats Gold Award.

The full list of winners is as follows…

Best Brand-Driven Format

Old People’s Home for 4 Year-Olds
Produced by: CPL Productions
For: Channel 4
Distributed by: Red Arrow Studios International
For six weeks ten four-year olds share their classroom with pensioners – the young and older group follow the same timetable in a new nursery set within a retirement village near Bristol. . Can a situation where four-year-olds and 84-year-olds work and play together drastically improve the health and happiness of the older group?

Best Studio-Based Gameshow Format

The Wall
Produced by: Glassman Media, Springhill Entertainment, NBC Universal
For: NBC
Distributed by: Endemol Shine Group, Glassman Media, Springhill Entertainment, NBC Universal
The Wall is four stories tall, with millions of (very winnable) dollars on the line, but The Wall was built for one reason: to change people’s lives. That is the vision we always had when we created The Wall, and the game has given us moments and stories of lives changing which have exceeded our greatest hopes and expectations.

Best Scripted Format

Catastrophe
Created by: Avalon Television Ltd with Birdbath Productions and Merman
Produced by: 1R2D
For: Super Écran
Distributed by:Avalon Distribution
The French-Canadian remake of award-winning scripted comedy Catastrophe by producers 1R2D proved to be an instant hit for broadcaster Super Écran (Bell). With Julie Perreault and Rossif Sutherland in the lead roles, Catastrophe retained its captivating combination of original characterisation, unfiltered contemporary comedy and heart wrenching moments. Following immediate critical acclaim and hit ratings, Super Écran commissioned a second series.

Best Multi-Platform Format

Vlogglebox
Produced by: Studio Lambert
For: E4, UK
Distributed by: all3media international
Vlogglebox is a fast-turnaround show highlighting online viral content and how 16 to 24-year-olds consume it. The young reviewers react to the very latest viral videos and short-form content that everyone is talking about. Most of the show is shot on iPhones attached to the cast’s phones and tablets from the locations they naturally inhabit including buses, fast-food restaurants and parks.

Best Comedy Format

Did You Get The Message?
Produced by: Shelter
For: VTM
Distributed by: Be-Entertainment
DID YOU GET THE MESSAGE? takes the candid camera genre and ads the element of storytelling. Resulting in a more broad, fresh, fun and entertaining format that is appealing to a broad audience. With messages that are adaptable to many different countries and cultures. Proving its success in Belgium where it was the biggest fall launch for VTM in 2017.

Best Competition Reality Format

Game of Clones
Produced by: youngest Media
For: e4
Distributed by: The Story Lab
It’s the ultimate dating competition as eight identical clones try to win the heart of the singleton who created them. GoC is taking the world by storm with commissions in the UK, France, Germany and China in 2017. The format is flexible to schedule across day parts as both a daily and weekly format, with a celebrity version also in production.

Best Reality Format

One Night With My Ex
Produced by: Twofour
For: Channel 5
Distributed by: Twofour Rights
One Night With My Ex is the bold new format that gives former lovers a night of intense soul-searching. With original commissions by Bravo (US) and Channel 5, the format is also being produced in The Netherlands and Germany with a raft of tape sales across four continents. The ratings hit is currently in its second series in the UK.

Best Host of a Television Format

Stephen Mangan – The Fake News Show
Produced by: Channel 4
For: Channel 4
Distributed by: Hat Trick Productions
From the makers of Have I Got News for You, comes the comedy panel show that peeks behind the façade of ‘alternative facts’, as two pairs of celebrity guests must determine what’s real and what’s fake, revealing the hilarious and often unsettling news that’s been populating peoples’ Twitter feeds, and even legitimate news sources. Hosted by Stephen Mangan.

Best Factual Entertainment Format

Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds
Produced by: CPL Productions
For: Channel 4
Distributed by: Red Arrow Studios International
This revolutionary new social experiment attempts to dramatically improve the health and well-being of elderly people in retirement communities, by bringing them together with a group of four-year-old pre-school children.