Madelyn (00:01)
Hello, welcome to the Unscripted Files. This is our industry news episode with Emily Wilson and we're back for 2026. And there is a lot to talk about. Welcome, Emily.

Emily Wilson (00:11)
Thank so much for having me back. Happy 2026. It's been too long.

Madelyn (00:16)
I know, and it's the first couple months of the year have flown by, first of all, and now we're already in March. now we can finally talk about what I hope is maybe the last chapter in the Warner Brothers acquisition. Talk to me about the latest here and just the craziness that's gone on the past few days.

Emily Wilson (00:35)
Yeah, I mean, it was basically down to the wire, but it looks like it is Paramount which is taking Warner Brothers. Netflix has left the deal, they're not changing their offer even though they had some time to do so. So it looks like it's all done.

Madelyn (00:51)
a really wild turn of events. were pretty sure Netflix was going to move forward in this deal. You know, I was just listening to the town and Ted Sarandos was on talking about it. And so, you know, they opened it back up and in the last couple of days Paramount slid in with a superior bid. And you're right. Netflix said, okay, it's no longer that that does not that value does not align for us. So, you know, we were talking about

what this looks like for the unscripted industry in general. We know for the entertainment industry, this is going to be a massive shift and just further another chapter in the story of all the consolidation. We know that they've got 16, they've promised $16 billion in cuts. That means people's jobs. That means layoffs.

It's really going to be interesting to see how this plays out. And I can't help but feel like it's gonna hurt a lot for a while.

Emily Wilson (01:46)
I mean, we talk about unscripted here a lot, but it's the film industry as well. It's two massive legacy studios that we're talking about, plus so many networks, so many cable networks that you were talking about as well.

Madelyn (02:02)
Yes, they'll now be the number one owner of the linear cable networks. They'll still be, you know, fourth, fifth when it comes to streaming with the combination of Paramount plus and HBO Max. But yeah, they will own the majority of the cable networks and all of those legacy brands and buyers that we develop and sell to. HGTV, Food Network, Discovery. You know, know Paramount has MTV. So and then, of course, our news networks, CBS, CNN. So

It's really going be interesting to see how this plays out and ultimately what the directives for each of those brands are going to continue to look like. Will they retain their identity? Will they all become one lifestyle brand? I don't know. think there's a lot of different possibilities here, but I mean, definitely just this is going to be another huge massive shift and we're all going to have to just hang on and ride the ride, I guess.

Emily Wilson (02:54)
Yeah, it's a shift for sure, but I also think that some people might be happy that there's certainty in this now, that there is actually a deal being done rather than the months that everyone's been waiting. You know, the people at Netflix would have been working on this, waiting on it as well, thinking about, you know, how their company would be changing.

It's a lot about people but also I think some people will be glad to turn the page on this conversation and actually have a look at what changes are going to be made.

Madelyn (03:27)
Well, for sure. And there's a ton of people who, you know, didn't want Netflix to be the winner here because they wanted to have a legacy studio by a legacy studio and keep movies alive. And there's, you know, a whole different group of people who didn't want Paramount to come through and win this because of deep political ties to the current administration. So a lot of thoughts on both sides. And like I said, it's going to be interesting to see how it plays out. And I think we just continue to ride the wave.

But I do want to hear, know, some really interesting formats have been announced and unveiled lately that are just so fascinating, really interesting. Talk to me about what we can look forward to in the format world.

Emily Wilson (04:09)
So many new formats. One in particular that stood out to me at Banajay's showcase this week is one called Staying Alive. It's quite a revolutionary format. They are leaning on AI to bring past singers and celebrities back to life to sing with current famous music artists and singers. They have approval from the Elvis Presley estate.

to use his songs and his image globally, which I feel is massive from an estate like that who would hold his image and his legacy very highly. I would have loved to see what the filming of that was like rather than just the couple of minute trailer that I saw, but I'm not sure how I feel about all of this AI on our screens and it's only going to increase.

Madelyn (04:58)
Yeah, I can't say I didn't see this coming. You know, when we look at AI and entertainment and the many ways it can be used in replicating.

entertainers of the past. We kind of saw it a bit with like there was a Julia Child cooking show on Food Network and I don't know if they used AI or not, but they were sort of using past scenes and things with her to sort of integrate her posthumously into the show.

I think that AI, and I did an episode about this a couple of weeks ago, I think it can be so useful in our industry, but when it starts to replace actual people, especially moments when singing together, dancing together, cooking together, dating,

where you rely on that really human level of like chemistry and just all the all of the stars and lightning. I don't know. It'll be interesting. It'll be interesting to see. What what else did you see?

Emily Wilson (05:49)
Some very interesting, a lot of celebrity driven formats, something like bicycle race, which is a bit of a spin on something like race across the world or amazing race, but primarily on bicycles. Football Island, which they're trying to take internationally. A lot of music shows like Fremont Hall has sold.

Fremantle Assault Hipster to Canada and Germany. So that is traveling and back with something we spoke a lot about last year with different games becoming formats.

Madelyn (06:21)
I saw a new, I saw a format called Handcuff. Did you see this one? this is what's great about it, is you look at it and you look at the poster and you know exactly what it is. It looks like you are handcuffed to someone who you probably would never.

Emily Wilson (06:25)
Yes, it launches I think in the UK tomorrow

Madelyn (06:38)
interact with in real life or maybe that you have certain biases against or thoughts about and so it looks like you're handcuffed to them and my guess is you're probably going through a series of challenges or amazing race, you know, like type things. And so, you know, it's interesting because something like that is so simple, but it's really smart the way it's packaged and the way that it has been promoted. So I'm looking forward to that too.

Emily Wilson (06:52)
Yeah.

I think my favorite thing that I saw at MIP London has to be the House of Hide and Seek, which is being co-produced with Tauper and Fox for the US. It's basically a giant dollhouse in a studio with 130 hiding places and the set just looks phenomenal. So really excited to see that one come to life.

Madelyn (07:21)
What I'm liking right now is taking all of these somewhat simple game formats and really turning them up because you can imagine how many times someone has pitched to hide and seek game show, right? And it just takes kind of the right timing, the right vision, the right scope and scale to again, make it happen. So that'll be really interesting as well. Have you seen the new,

documentary about America's Next Top Model on Netflix? Yes. Okay, yes. Everyone is talking about it. It's number one on the charts. And just eating it up. And even, you I was, I religiously watched America's Next Top Model, I think all the way until probably cycle, you know, maybe 15, 16. And it was so interesting to look back on it through the lens of...

Emily Wilson (07:45)
I have. I'm obsessed.

Madelyn (08:08)
what we know now. And I think between that and Fit for TV, which was talking about the biggest loser at the time, I think this is just the beginning of a lot of these types of documentaries coming out about the entertainment that we watched in the early 2000s. I think E, right? Isn't E doing something else on Dirty Rotten Scandals where they're covering this type of thing as well?

Emily Wilson (08:31)
Yeah,

they're covering an episode on America's Next Top Model as well, which I think will be an interesting comparison. Shows like Dr. Phil and The Price is Right. There's also been a commission for an X Factor documentary, which Simon Cowell is going to be involved in, which will be interesting, I think, considering how people feel about Tyra's involvement in Reality Check. I think that always makes a more interesting story when those people are involved in telling it as well.

Madelyn (08:58)
Yeah, absolutely. And this is just...

reconfirming the fact that we are in total 2000s nostalgia right now. on the dev side, on the competitions, the formats, that nostalgia for 20, 25 years ago is alive and well. And I think it's interesting to look back on things.

and easy to look back on it now and think that it's so wrong. And it's not that those things don't deserve criticism, it, gosh, I mean, if there was something that was a victim to the time, it was reality TV and everything we were watching.

Emily Wilson (09:31)
Yeah, and it's not as documentaries, just as completely new shows like Sere Factor, as you mentioned, has this reboot, but all the contestants are living in a house. We saw something similar with Deal or No Deal Island. Just more of those shows being repurposed for a new audience and often in a new setting as well.

Madelyn (09:52)
Yes, exactly. a couple other things I noticed in the news. Looks like Netflix is bringing back Untold. Four more stories in that series, one in particular about Lamar Odom, who we know famously as a professional basketball player and also the ex of Khloe Kardashian. And then Amazon is also slating a...

dock on the iconic McDonald's All-American Games called Meal Ticket. that sports nostalgia also continues to just be all over our screens.

Emily Wilson (10:22)
more sports stocks for sure. It's a big commissioning trend and it's not slowing down at sports and true crime with the big message at Mid London.

Madelyn (10:32)
Yeah, any other news out of MIP London?

Emily Wilson (10:34)
There was a lot that was not actually unscripted. There was a lot of seminars on micro dramas, which I found interesting.

Madelyn (10:42)
Oh yes, verticals. Verticals, verticals. I'm glad you brought this up because, I don't know, it's interesting. I...

Emily Wilson (10:44)
my.

Madelyn (10:54)
I think that the way that they're shot, the way that they're budgeted for, is actually really ripe for unscripted, specifically more of our low budget docu-follow like, know, scrappy sort of programming, I think of, you know, true crime.

and things like that. I've been talking to a lot of people a bit. How do you see verticals playing in the unscripted? Is it as easy as chopping down my strange addiction into, you know, 60 pieces and calling it a day? And, you know, apparently it's really... There's much more of a science to it and how the beats are sort of written, to have you watch it for what...

a minute, two, three minutes, and then continue to scroll. And so I don't know, I'm really curious to see if unscripted and verticals, like how the Venn diagram is going to overlap and who's going to be the first to really do it. It's going to be interesting to see.

Emily Wilson (11:43)
Yeah, completely. I mean, we had Evan Shapiro talking about the fact that the full high school musical movie was uploaded in tiny chunks on TikTok and how well that actually did. So, you know, if tiny episodes of America's Next Top Model just got uploaded to TikTok tomorrow, I don't think that would do too badly for their viewership.

Madelyn (12:04)
there is actually nothing wrong with our attention span. what we're doing is we're just taking advantage of the scroll or the swipe, right? So every time we swipe, our brains go, ⁓ my attention is reset for another 90 seconds. And even though we're watching the same thing end to end, because we're swiping in between, we get the satisfaction of like,

the factory reset in our brains. And it's just interesting to see that we literally have entertainment that is long form entertainment, but is being chopped up in order to cater to the psychology of the swipe. is kind of crazy.

Emily Wilson (12:39)
It is and like long form is still doing well, especially on YouTube, especially now with the move for podcasts like the True Crime podcast in documentary pipeline is still very strong. The same as, you know, podcasts being on our big streaming platforms now.

Madelyn (12:43)
Mm-hmm.

Yes, yeah, it's like I said, I think there's plenty, we have plenty of attention, but it's all about like these little micro breaks in between. And it's interesting when you think about formatting a show, right, for that as well. Like it's interesting to think about. Well, Emily, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for bringing us all the latest news. And we will obviously continue to track this large merger deal and everything else that happens in Unscripted every other Monday here on the Unscripted Files. Thank you again, Emily.

Emily Wilson (13:26)
Thanks having me.