ITV commissions remake of Farmer Wants a Wife from Fremantle’s Naked 

The Canadian adaptation of Farming for Love

UK broadcaster ITV has ordered a new adaptation of the hit dating format Farmer Wants a Wife, with Fremantle-owned label Naked set to produce.

This latest version, titled Farming for Love, comes almost 25 years after the format first premiered on British screens.

Based on an original idea from the UK’s Country Living magazine, the format first premiered in 2001 on ITV, where it aired for a single season. Channel 5 also commissioned a Louise Redknapp-hosted version which ran for a single season in 2008.

Outside the UK, the format has enjoyed success in recent years, with Fox adapting the show in the US and Bell Media’s CTV making a Canadian version.

The format follows single farmers on a quest to find love as their potential matches experience the realities of rural life and has been remade in more than 30 territories.

Fremantle has the global distribution and production rights to the format, which the European production/distribution giant says has led to more than 250 marriages and 600 babies.

The new UK version was commissioned by ITV’s director of entertainment, reality and daytime Katie Rawcliffe; former commissioning editor Lily Wilson; and commissioning editor Iona MacKenzie. Naked’s Nicola Lloyd and Louise Quayle are executive producers.