Hot Snakes format sells to Spain

US independent Hot Snakes Media has sold an original fitness coaching format to Spanish production company La Competencia, which is producing eight episodes of the show for Telecinco sister channel Cuatro.

The Osmin Method (El método Osmín) features celebrity trainer and former Cuban army recruit Osmin Hernandez, who takes contestants through a radical training programme that uses everyday locations as a gym.

The deal is the first international format sale for New York-based Hot Snakes, best known for US reality shows such as Discovery’s Amish Mafia and TLC’s Breaking Amish.

According to Hot Snakes’ founding partner and executive producer Eric Evangelista, when the Spanish show is completed the company plans to shop the format throughout Latin America and set up a US production operation geared to the Latin American market.

“Once we get the finished product we’re going to take it all around Latin America and the US,” Evangelista said.

Hot Snakes previously worked with Hernandez on Operation Osmin, a fitness show that earlier this year ended its second season on nuvoTV, the US cable channel specialising in English-language Latino entertainment.

Hot Snakes currently has more than 60 hours of programming in production for US networks, including nine hours for Discovery’s Destination America, six hours for National Geographic, 13 hours for TLC, 20 half-hours for CMT and pilots for The CW, A+E and HGTV.

The company just wrapped production on Elder Skelter, a senior citizen true crime show that will debut on Investigation Discovery in November.