Catalonia’s 3Cat adapts French-Canadian singing competition series Zenith

Zenith made its debut on Ici Radio-Canada in January 2023

Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat has ordered an adaptation of the French-Canadian musical competition format Zenith, while production companies in the UK and Australia have also optioned the rights in their own markets.

Lavinia Audiovisual secured the format rights in a deal with Montreal-based KO Distribution and is set to produce the Catalan version in the fall.

The original version of Zenith launched on Ici Radio-Canada in January 2023. The format sees well-known singers from different generations competing against each other on a large, arena-style stage in a weekly singing competition.

Over the course of 13 weeks, the 24 singers perform in front of an audience made up of 100 judges who are also grouped by generation: Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z.

KO Distribution, which is the sales arm of Quebec production company KOTV, also struck format deals with Bandicoot in the UK and Eureka Productions in Australia.

“We discovered Zenith a year ago here at MipTV and it makes us very proud to announce the first adaptation of the format along with producing company Lavinia Audiovisual and distributing company KO Distribution,” said Cristian Trepat, 3Cat’s head of content.