CBBC transplants Ultimate Brain

MIPTV: UK children’s broadcaster CBBC will air Zig Zag Productions’ upcoming remake of hit Japanese gameshow format Ultimate Brain, C21 can reveal.

The 10×30′ science-based format encourages contestants to use their intelligence, intuition and creative thinking skills and also features a madcap, physical gameshow element.

The show originally aired in primetime on Japanese broadcaster NTV. Zig Zag acquired rights to remake the show in the UK, US and Canada from the channel last year.

The UK indie, which also has offices in New York, has had success importing into and exporting from the Japanese market, after partnering with Japanese creative agency Yoshimoto Kogyo in 2011.

It produces another NTV format, Exit, in the US for cablenet Syfy, and also had its format Time Out commissioned locally by Japanese broadcaster KTV in April last year.

“Ultimate Brain’s creative, intuitive and problem-solving challenges, coupled with the physical gameshow aspect, makes it a perfect format for kids,” said Zig Zag CEO Danny Fenton.

The format is now distributed by Eccho Rights, which has so far struck deals with Russian TV channel Rossiya, Strix in Denmark and Sputnik in Belgium to produce the show.

Nicola Soderlund, managing partner at Eccho Rights, said: “We invite producers and TV channels from all over the world to come and see the shooting of the format. Just let us know.”

Ultimate Brain was commissioned by CBBC controller Cheryl Taylor and will be exec produced by Fenton for Zig Zag Productions and Hugh Lawton for CBBC.

The deal with CBBC is Zig Zag’s second after it moved into the kids’ business, with Nickelodeon recently picking up 15 episodes of its physical game show Split/Second, which tests contestants’ reaction skills.