Nippon, Red Arrow make Room for gameshow

Beat the Rooms is being produced by Nippon TV

Japanese broadcaster Nippon TV and Red Arrow Studios International have teamed up to co-develop and distribute a studio gameshow format.

Beat the Rooms will launch at MipTV in April, with Nippon TV handling sales for Asia and Red Arrow Studios International distributing in the rest of the world.

The show has been commissioned straight-to-series for Nippon TV’s main channel in Japan and is produced in-house by the broadcaster, which also created the Dragons’ Den/Shark Tank format.

In each episode, two teams try to ‘beat’ rooms in which they face tests of their ability to overcome a physical or mental obstacle, with players challenged not to do certain things, such as breathing, getting nervous or falling.

Each player has their own countdown clock, which runs faster if they break the rules. At the end of each game, players with the least time remaining are eliminated by being sent crashing through a wall.

In the finale, each team’s surviving players use time saved from the rooms to help them race across a huge slippery slope without falling off.

Atsushi Sogo, president of international business development at Nippon TV, said: “We always get many inquiries asking for ‘crazy’ Japanese game shows, and we collaborated with Red Arrow Studios’ fantastic team of format experts lead by Michael Schmidt to create a modern but still extremely funny and action-packed programme.”

Bo Stehmeier, president of Red Arrow Studios International, described the format as “perfect for family viewing on linear and digital channels with its crazy challenges and hilarious games.”