Madelyn (00:05)
Hi, welcome to The Unscripted Files. My name is Madelyn Cunningham. I'm a development producer in the unscripted industry and I'm joined by Emily Wilson, who is going to give us the latest in unscripted news. Welcome, Emily.

Of course,

Emily Wilson (00:15)
Thank you for having me back.

Madelyn (00:19)
would say the biggest news right now in the unscripted industry, Emily and so many people texted me about this this past week.

RealScreen is out. Brunico Communications sent out a note that RealScreen, KidsScreen will not be coming back in 2027 where it would have had its 30th anniversary. Talk to me about your thoughts here and what signifies for our industry.

Emily Wilson (00:44)
Yeah, I feel like everyone talks about the strength in getting to come together. So much happens at these conferences, whether it's meetings with producers or commissioners, slates being unveiled. They are really significant times in our industry. The commissioning calendar is often quite shaped around them. So really sad to see this go. And I never got to attend Reel Screen, but I know that you've been quite a few times.

Madelyn (01:10)
Yes, I I started at Reelscreen back in 2022 in January and

knew nobody, legitimately knew no one. I was pivoting into this industry from the branded content space, knew no I'm not in New York, I'm not in Los Angeles, It was an incredible opportunity for me to create relationships and nurture those relationships and get FaceTime.

⁓ a chance taxi ride that has a show that's premiering in a month, all the way to, you know, as a young emerging producer securing an agent because of Real Screen and the things that I did there. So it holds a special place in my heart. Don't get me wrong. I could see and feel.

networks were not sending execs like they used to, not as many people were attending. So you could definitely feel that shift, but to have it go all together, I think was definitely a shock, but...

it does leave a gap open for a little bit of industry disruption. I'm very curious to see what the next event is going to be Is it going to be content London? Is Bloomberg screen time going to be it? Is there something else that's going to be the next event where everyone goes and gathers? Because it's still really necessary.

Emily Wilson (02:21)
100 % and when I attended MIPS London this year, so many people were telling me you must go to Reel Screen. So just as far as the opportunities for people you get to meet there, the different types of conversations and that really is unique to every single one of these conferences that we attend. So yeah, it's to see it go.

Madelyn (02:28)
Mm.

Sad to see you go, I'm sad you'll never get to go, but maybe I will pop over to Content London this year and I'll get to see you there.

Emily Wilson (02:50)
I would love

Madelyn (02:50)
we always have like a 10 minute catch up before we press record on these calls. And we were reading through all of the paramount updates going, okay, what does this all mean? Like, how do we put this in layman's terms, right?

Emily Wilson (03:06)
Yes.

Madelyn (03:07)
the latest news is that Jeff Schell is out as paramount president per deadline. This is the second time in three years that he has been ousted from a top corporate position.

now in the midst of this multi-billion dollar deal with...

Warner Brothers discovery, he is now out and also embroiled in a legal battle with a gambler. There's a lot going on here. There's a lot of allegations happening. But Paramount was able to secure some funding from the Middle East and other investors to stabilize their debt so that they can move forward with this WBD deal.

I think I got that right. We'll see if the financial people come for me, Emily. Speaking of Paramount, they just announced a new series, EP'd by Kim Kardashian. A bit of a departure for her. Talk to me about Team Moms.

Emily Wilson (03:55)
Yeah, so it's a series following youth baseball through the legendary Press Academy in Scottsdale, Arizona. It follows the coaches, the founders, and a group of families and their respective teen sons who are the starting lineup for the youth baseball program.

Madelyn (04:11)
This world is so rich. especially in this NIL era where athletes can start making money at a really young age. And it has created a trickle down effect where the parents get really serious.

families are going into debt and putting up second mortgages on their home just to put their kids on travel teams. So it's a really interesting world. I'm sure it's full of a lot of dynamic characters. And like I said, again, in this NIL era where...

Kids can make a lot more money at a lot earlier stage in their athletic career. There's a lot that these families are willing to do to get them the training and the exposure that they need in order to level up. So I think this is gonna be really interesting.

Emily Wilson (04:52)
I'm excited to see it. I hope it doesn't go full like dramedy dance mom style because these athletes are very serious about what they do despite their age and I hope we see a lot of that side of things. But yeah, ITV America and Paramount, so it should be exciting to see.

Madelyn (05:10)
there's got to be some stipulations about maintaining these athletes' reputations so that their recruitment can be protected. So it'll all be very interesting.

Some other news in the reality TV space. I was just running you through the latest Summerhouse scandal. That is everyone is calling the new Scandival, which of course was the insane love triangle that happened on Vanderpump Rules quite a few years ago that shook the reality TV world and became kind of a cultural reset. And we have another one of those that's happened on Summerhouse right as they're announcing a spinoff in the city, right? Tell us about this.

Emily Wilson (05:47)
Yeah, so Bravo is going ahead with it. It's been on series called In the City. It will follow the lives of its New York-based stars. And it's premiering in May.

Madelyn (05:59)
Interesting. It's going to follow some people right in the middle of said scandal, Amanda Batchula, Kyle Cook, Lindsay Hubbard. And it is going to see what they're up to between Labor Day and 4th of July. So when they're not quite partying every weekend in the Hamptons.

we're seeing these spinoffs a lot because they're just safer bets, right? They're safer bets. And there's another one from an iconic series

Emily Wilson (06:16)
Mm-hmm.

Madelyn (06:22)
we were talking about how this it feels like a natural evolution of Chopped, So Chopped Castaways is the new series spin-off,

Emily Wilson (06:30)
Yes, it is. So it will be on Food Network. And there's going to be some survival-driven physical challenges in this format, everything from archery to spearfishing to diving to secure ingredients. So yeah, I mean, we've seen something similar with Deal or No Deal Island having their spin-off. A lot of island-based formats seem to becoming the norm.

Madelyn (06:53)
Yes, take it out of the studio, put it on an island. Boom, there we go. Yeah, it looks like they're gonna have, ⁓ you know, if they survive intense physical challenges, they'll get a chance to earn more advantages and more signature chopped ingredient baskets, which is, like I said, just such a pillar of that show. And then the talent on the show, we have our host, Ted Allen, who is gonna come over to the island. And then we'll have judges who are familiar to Food Network, Gabe Bertaccini, Manit Swann, and Marcus Samuelson. Those are beloved Food Network faces. So listen, this'll be fun. think it's that

same, same different that we're getting with spinoffs, but having a Food Network sort of creep into this, creep into the survival space will be really interesting. And it'll premiere on Tuesday, May 12th on Food Network. ⁓

Emily Wilson (07:35)
and

as we were speaking about Paramount's guidance, which is Food Network's parent company at Warner Brothers, we could see Chopped and Survivor in the same family pretty soon. So there we go.

Madelyn (07:47)
Look at how this all comes full circle. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much again for these updates. You can follow Emily Wilson on LinkedIn. Every single Friday she posts unscripted industry news and she also has a sub stack that you should absolutely subscribe to, which is unscripted TV news where she gives all the latest so you can keep up with all the mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, firings, hirings, you name it. Thank you so much, Emily.

Emily Wilson (08:12)
Thank you.