BBC reaches for Sony’s Stellify

BBC1 has ordered a primetime entertainment show from Sony Pictures Television (SPT)’s fledgling Northern Irish joint venture Stellify Media.

Can’t Touch This (working title), which has been slated for Saturday nights in 2016, is an action gameshow that requires contestants to touch prizes as they negotiate a huge assault course.

The 10-part show is being produced by Stellify, which was formed in spring last year after SPT teamed up with entertainment producers Kieran Doherty and Matt Worthy, who will executive produce the series.

Doherty said the order – which he described as “probably the biggest entertainment commission to come out of our part of the world” – was “a huge vote of confidence” from the UK pubcaster.

Belfast-based Stellify produces and develops original entertainment programming for both UK and international broadcasters, with Doherty and Worthy having previously worked on shows including Secret Fortune for BBC1 and Take the Money and Run for ABC in the US.

Stellify is also currently in production on Blind Date (working title) for Irish broadcaster TV3, which is set to air later this year.

In related news, BBC2 has ordered docuseries Hunters of the South Seas, which follows writer and explorer Will Millard as he explores three communities living on islands near Indonesia.

The 3×60′ show is being produced by Indus Films and follows Millard as he discovers how the islanders have adapted to life and how modern technology is changing their cultures. It will air later this year.