Gurin options another UK format

Stateside producer Phil Gurin has optioned rights to an interactive gameshow from the UK that currently airs on Flextech-owned gameshow channel Challenge TV.

Devised and produced by Mast Media, the outfit behind Montreux Silver Rose winning format Oblivious, Defectors is a studio quizshow in which contestants must persuade the home viewers that they know the answers to questions.

The contestants get points according to the share of the home audience they manage to persuade, with home viewers able to switch allegiance, or defect, during the course of the game.

Mast Media has produced 60 half-hours of the show for Challenge TV, with the series recently going fully interactive for Sky Digital subscribers. The format, which is distributed by Fremantle Media, has also been optioned by Channel 7 in Australia.

Defectors is one of several UK formats that The Gurin Company has optioned to pitch to US networks and cable channels. Gurin, who produced the US version of Weakest Link, recently picked up US rights to Action Time's It's a Love Thing, as well as Chatterbox's Stake Out and Espionage. The US outfit has also taken an option on Dutch format Crowbar from The Storm Factory.