Factual entertainment programming has fared well over the past year as audiences look for upbeat and relatable content and networks seek low-risk routes back into production.

In many respects, factual entertainment has been the perfect TV genre for a world battling to keep up its spirits in the face of a global pandemic. Whether it’s the escapism of travel and adventure series, the reassurance of cooking and DIY, or the intellectual diversion of social experiments, factual entertainment has been able to hit virtually every note on the Covid-19 emotional register.

True, it has had to confront the same production challenges as other genres – but this hasn’t proved too disruptive, says All3Media International’s senior VP of non-scripted, Rachel Job.

“Last spring was a bit scary when all production stopped, and there have been a few productions, like Race Across the World, that have had to be postponed,” she says. “But, on the whole, producers have found ways to make these shows under Covid protocols. Some of our shows, like Gogglebox, have proved to be very Covid-friendly, because they are emotionally upbeat and can be made in a controlled production environment.”

Negative impact on some segments of factual entertainment has, to a large extent, been offset by the flexibility of the genre and the breadth of subjects it encompasses. “When live sport and high-end drama were struggling, buyers turned to factual entertainment to fill slots,” says Job, “either through acquisition or by upgrading shows from access primetime or secondary channels. And as things returned to normal, factual entertainment formats were a way for channels to get back into production quickly and relatively cheaply.”

While experimentation hasn’t disappeared from the market, Job’s impression is that channels and streamers have been keen to get their hands on proven franchises. “Undercover Boss wasn’t in production during 2020, but tape sales of the show were very strong,” she says. “And Channel 4 has been building on its Escape to the Chateau franchise, with a new season coming in 2021 and a spin-off series called Make Do & Mend, which taps into the DIY trend. We also secured a major deal with Discovery+ for Studio Lambert’s Naked Attraction.”

Tim Gerhartz, senior VP of global sales at Red Arrow Studios International, agrees that established franchises have fared well, with Married at First Sight having a storming year despite the production challenges it had to overcome. In terms of trends, Gerhartz says there has been interest in Red Arrow’s home-based formats House Rules and Buying Blind, as well as “guilty pleasures” like reality series Heartbreak Island.

“Probably the highest demand has been for our social experiment-based factual entertainment series, which really captured the zeitgeist of the Covid era. People have been thinking about issues like inclusion and what they stand for as a society, and that has helped drive interest in The Restaurant that Makes Mistakes, a series about a restaurant staffed by people with dementia.”

New Red Arrow launches include Secret Treasures of the Museum, a format from Denmark’s Snowman Productions in which “celebrities are invited to explore the hidden treasures in museums and build their own exhibition. They choose works that they believe are important and, in doing so, say a lot about themselves and the society they have grown up in. When Covid restrictions are lifted, the show will end with the public being invited to explore the exhibition.”

Red Arrow Studios-owned UK prodco CPL has just been commissioned by local terrestrial Channel 5 to make a six-part reboot of You Are What You Eat, with Trisha Goddard set to host. Murray Boland, CPL creative director, says the show speaks to the same self-reflective trend identified by Gerhartz: “Channel 5 really wants to do something new with You Are What You Eat that feels warm and life-affirming. The show will reflect the challenges we all face in keeping happy and healthy.”

According to Boland, the C5 commission also underlines the demand for proven formats. “There is a lot of pent-up demand from broadcasters right now, and what they all seem to be focusing on are franchises that can guarantee a certain level of return. Having big-name talent attached is also important.”

From his position on the front line, Boland is also witnessing more complex commercial negotiations. “Broadcasters are all under financial pressure so, more than ever, they are looking at whether they can retain a share of the IP and integrate brands. Firms like GroupM are increasingly part of the equation.”

Boland confirms that location-based factual entertainment proved especially tough during 2020, with A League of Their Own: Road Trip having to be scaled down in order to comply with restrictions. Like Gerhartz, he says buyers seem to be pursuing feel-good, wholesome content, as well as programming that’s a bit more indulgent.

“The desire for non-cynical, life-affirming content is definitely there, but there also seems to be an interest in mischievous, tabloid-style content. After all, a key challenge for all broadcasters is still the question of how to cut through the competition.”

C5 commissioning editor Denise Seneviratne says factual entertainment plays a key role in the Viacom-CBS owned channel’s schedule. “Whether covering lighter topics or societal issues that affect real people, the key for us is to always ensure that our content is non-judgemental, sometimes aspirational and inspiring our viewers to embrace life to the full. Bargain Loving Brits in the Sun, for example, is full of warmth and humour but there is a bigger story about people starting a new life. A more recent launch, Happy Campers, came from Britain’s obsession with caravans and focuses on characters that run the holiday camps.”

Hit series in the C5 schedule include Our Yorkshire Farm, “our highest-rated factual programme ever,” says Seneviratne. “As people grappled with the onset of Covid-19 and lockdowns gripped the UK, we stayed away from pandemic programming to offer viewers a release through heart-warming, escapist content led by loveable characters, and Our Yorkshire Farm embodied this.”

Again, however, factual entertainment is a broad church that can home in on a variety of emotional triggers. “Rich House, Poor House is at the documentary end of factual entertainment and allows us to address issues such as poverty, social mobility and the class divide in a light-hearted, uplifting manner,” Seneviratne says. “Shows such as Filthy House SOS and Dogs Behaving Badly have strong transformational angles while remaining firmly rooted in the entertainment genre.”

Seneviratne says “the more stackable, returnable potential an idea has, the better.” But she stresses there is always room for new ideas: “We don’t have experimental slots, but we tend to start with a short run of three or four episodes; a programme’s first outing on Channel 5 really needs to punch through the noise and is always a strong indicator of its long-term success for us.”

Discussing the impact of Covid-19, Seneviratne adds: “At the beginning of the pandemic, we leaned into what our audience needed at that time – escapism, nostalgia and familiarity. We met our audience appetite for travel and adventure with shows like Adrian Dunbar’s Coastal Ireland and shone the spotlight on alternative lifestyles with Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild. We know the pandemic has led people to focus more on home improvements and, as a result, have recently commissioned two Nick Knowles series.”

Alongside home-centric shows, Lineup Industries co-founder Julian Curtis says there is growing interest among buyers in family relationship formats. “People have been in isolation and unable to see their families. That has helped generate interest in one of our newer formats, Family Dinner, which is all about helping families bury the hatchet. It’s also created an additional buzz around one of our long-running formats, Long Lost Family. That originated in the Netherlands 20 years ago and has already been running for 11 seasons on ITV in the UK, but it’s an example of a show that has captured the emotion of living during Covid-19.”

Curtis agrees that broadcasters and platforms are increasingly interested in deepening their relationship with proven brands, either by acquiring multiple versions of a show or developing spin-offs. “Long Lost Family has a sister series, Born Without Trace, which uses DNA-based evidence to reunite individuals with relations who knew nothing about them – for example, people abandoned as babies. ITV airs Born Without Trace alongside the Long Lost Family brand.”

With factual entertainment capable of playing out across free TV, pay TV and streamers, Curtis says demand for shows in this genre has been intense. As a result, Netherlands-based Lineup is looking further afield for ideas. “For example, we are working with NHK in Japan on a couple of its formats that we think can travel globally,” Curtis notes.

Australia-based Flame Distribution has also benefited from this broad sweep for factual entertainment. Fiona Gilroy, its content sales and acquisitions director, says: “We’ve done extremely well with Outback Opal Hunters, which has been broadcast in over 100 countries. It went to air in late 2019 on Discovery Channel in the US, where it was so successful that they rolled straight into season two. Outback Truckers also has a global following and is in production for a ninth season.”

Like Red Arrow, Flame is also enjoying some success in the social experiment space, with Aussie format The Love Experiment being remade for RTBF in Belgium. “There’s no doubt people are craving basic human contact and that relationships are more key than ever to wellbeing,” Gilroy says. “The Love Experiment really plays to this and looks at how deep, authentic relationships between strangers can be formed by asking 36 questions followed by three minutes of uninterrupted eye contact. Versions created so far have been done during the pandemic, so the format is very Covid-friendly.”

While the range of content under the factual entertainment umbrella is extremely broad, Cineflix Rights head of acquisitions Richard Life says one trend he has identified that covers the entire gamut is the desire for factual takeaways. “Audiences want escapism, but they also like to come out of these shows with some nugget of information. That’s true across the range, from shows like Ambulance Code Red and Border Security to World’s Most Scenic Railway Journeys. The latter works for us because it has a bit of everything, including travel, science, history and culture, as well as spectacular scenery.”

Cineflix has a large slate of completed factual entertainment shows and Life says these have just as much sales potential as the formats: “Ambulance Code Red and Coastguard Mission Critical are popular with buyers because they are more action-driven than character-driven. They’re examples of more show, less tell. But character-driven shows can also do well. Our Yorkshire Farm [aka My Big Family Farm] works well because the characters are so authentic. We also have some popular long-running franchises like Property Brothers and Border Security.”

For now, Life sees linear and pay TV as the primary homes for factual entertainment, but he believes there are interesting opportunities emerging in streaming. Netflix, for example, has shown that factual entertainment can work with series like Love is Blind and Queer Eye – and the low production cost of the genre compared to drama suggests it will push further in this direction.

“And alongside Netflix, there are Discovery+, CuriosityStream, YouTube and regionally based SVoD platforms like BritBox and Salto. AVoD is still a bit of a Wild West, with deals still mainly built around revenue shares, but I can also see this emerging as an ancillary opportunity for long-running archive series.”

Factual entertainment programming has fared well over the past year as audiences look for upbeat and relatable content and networks seek low-risk routes back into production.

In many respects, factual entertainment has been the perfect TV genre for a world battling to keep up its spirits in the face of a global pandemic. Whether it’s the escapism of travel and adventure series, the reassurance of cooking and DIY, or the intellectual diversion of social experiments, factual entertainment has been able to hit virtually every note on the Covid-19 emotional register.

True, it has had to confront the same production challenges as other genres – but this hasn’t proved too disruptive, says All3Media International’s senior VP of non-scripted, Rachel Job.

“Last spring was a bit scary when all production stopped, and there have been a few productions, like Race Across the World, that have had to be postponed,” she says. “But, on the whole, producers have found ways to make these shows under Covid protocols. Some of our shows, like Gogglebox, have proved to be very Covid-friendly, because they are emotionally upbeat and can be made in a controlled production environment.”
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