Crack Them Up heads East

Producers in Australia and Vietnam have licensed Ukrainian entertainment format Crack Them Up from Eccho Rights.

Essential Media in Australia and Dien Quan in Vietnam will aim to secure local broadcasters for their versions of the format.

The show takes contestants and challenges them to make two professional comedians laugh in order to win cash prizes.

It was created by Studio Kvartal 95 in Ukraine and has also been optioned by Electus in the US, after local versions were made in China, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus.

“The show peels back the layers of gloss that have characterised primetime shows of recent years to take entertainment back to a purer form where the idea is just to make everyone – the comedians, the studio audience and viewers at home – laugh,” said Gary Pudney, head of Asia Pacific at Eccho Rights.

Chinese broadcaster Jiangxi acquired the show, its first foreign format, from Eccho last November.