Madelyn (00:05) Hey, welcome to The Unscripted Files. This is our Monday mini-sode industry news with Emily Wilson. Welcome, Emily. Emily Wilson (00:10) Thank you for having me. Madelyn (00:11) our news today is really nice. It's a lot of new shows, a lot of spinoffs, a lot of reboots, just a lot of good positive news. But I think we'll start off with kind of the biggest thing that's happening right now the sale of Warner Brothers discovery. They got a first round of bids in. from who are we looking at? Emily Wilson (00:30) We're looking at Paramount, Skydance, Comcast and Netflix and they're asking for their second round bids by Monday which is when this episode is out so today is the day that these second round bids are coming through. Madelyn (00:44) I do not envy the &A teams that had to work over Thanksgiving break, I can't imagine. I don't know, maybe by the end of the year, we will have a closer answer as to how this is all gonna shake out. Emily Wilson (00:58) Who knows? I feel like it's a topic that we've spoken about on quite a few episodes of this over the past few months. So definitely excited to see what happens next. Madelyn (01:09) Yeah, I think depending on who the buyer is, this could shake out in a lot of different ways. ⁓ And we'll certainly be covering this early next year, and I'm sure into the first and second quarter on how this is affecting our industry specifically, how it's affecting development, who you're pitching to, what these new mandates are based on who's merging and who's acquiring. So more to come here. ⁓ Netflix was one of those bidders, and we've got kind of a fun nostalgic reboot going on there. Emily Wilson (01:38) Yes, so Netflix is rebooting Star Search, which is such an iconic format just because of the incredible stars that have come out of that format. And it's really exciting to see their live voting system come back in for a new show as well. They really care about live voting with their audience and replicating that nostalgic experience of thousands of people voting. So I'm excited to see how that plays out as well. Madelyn (02:05) It's really fun. ⁓ The live voting, we're seeing record numbers on Dancing with the Stars. The finale was last week. The winner received more votes than ever in history. So this live voting and collective watching is certainly on the rise. Beyonce, Britney Spears, Adam Sandler, they were all discovered through Star Search. And it looks like comedian Anthony Anderson is going to lead the reboot and hopefully introduce viewers to the next generation of breakout performers. So this is really fun and I will absolutely be watching. Emily Wilson (02:36) lately. I'm really excited for it. Madelyn (02:39) And speaking of reboots, we have another reboot of Bridezilla's for AMC Reality. Emily Wilson (02:45) AMC is launching an all-reality streaming service and with that comes this Bridegiller revival from Jupiter Entertainment and Catalina Content. Madelyn (02:55) it looks like it joins a lineup of Love After Lockup, Mama June, the Braxtons growing up hip hop, the Graham Norton show, and a little bit of True Crime. AMC is a historically just linear network, so seeing them jump over to streaming with reality content will be interesting. And who doesn't love a wedding show, even if it's with a bridezilla? So interesting to see how they approach this reboot. Emily Wilson (03:20) and lots of other reality reboots and spinoffs coming from Bravo. So they've announced the Real Housewives of Rhode Island, the Real Housewives Road Trip, still flipping out and the Valley Persian style. Madelyn (03:35) Wow, yeah, I feel like all of this was announced at BravoCon. Not a surprise. These franchises do so well. They build stars. It's always interesting to see what new Housewives franchise pops up. I know a lot of people couldn't believe that it was in Connecticut, but Rhode Island it is, and there's actually a bachelor alumni in it. ⁓ And so I think this will be really interesting and certainly not the last. I think it's gonna be a Housewives franchise in each state by the end of it if Andy Cohen has anything to do with it, but it's fun and it works for them really, really well. Emily Wilson (03:58) Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think they're just going to keep going. It's not dying out anytime soon. Madelyn (04:13) Agreed. I love this new announcement from Apple with ⁓ Awkwafina. Emily Wilson (04:20) Yeah, so it's coming from the production company, 2Four, and they are doing a lot of talent-led docs, I mean, in general, across commissioning. And ⁓ Apple recently did that with Eugene Levy, they're continuing with the style of format that is really working for them. And I'm excited to see Aquafina in this context, like exploring her own legacy. exploring Asian-American cuisine, think it will be really fun series. Madelyn (04:52) Yeah, and I like the title to the unlikely cook with aquafina like I think we all feel like unlikely cooks and it'll be really interesting to see over eight episodes this exploration across the states and a cuisine. That's so It's such a huge cornerstone For us and our cuisine and what we have at America and I'm excited to see this and I feel like she's kind the perfect host So that's really really fun And then I mean I was just telling you this Keller Noll the creators of Chop ⁓ I mean, I feel like I see them post on LinkedIn a new game show or format at least once a quarter. And here they are with another sort of family game board format. Tell me more about Sharkbite. Emily Wilson (05:40) been talking so much about the different board games, the different toys that we're seeing made into IP. I feel like this is going to be a terrifying format for anyone taking part, but you see something like Squid Game the Challenge doing really well. ⁓ So I'm interested to see how they spin this one for sure. Madelyn (05:57) Yeah, it looks like it looks like it's kind of a big physical comedy kooky format. It's giving me kind of wipeout vibes. It looks like there's 25 20 foot animatronic sharks each have their own personality and names. Five pairs of contestants will battle for the opportunity to receive $100,000 with a chance of going into the shark's mouth if they get a question wrong. ⁓ just and apparently this game is super popular around the world. It only just came out in 2017. So it's not super, super old. ⁓ But they're really excited about this IP and it seems like it'll be a really fun sort of four quadrant family-centric game. I told you how prolific these guys are. They have sold 70 plus shows, encompassing nearly 4,600 episodes ⁓ just together as a team. They're really prolific. It's hard. You really don't see super producers anymore. These guys are absolutely super producers. And again, Chopped is kind of their calling card, but they've got a ton of other stuff. So yeah, it'll be fun to see Sharkbite. And like we said, I think next year we're going to see so much game board IP. It's going to be all that you and Emily Wilson (06:43) Wow. Madelyn (07:03) that you're talking about. Emily Wilson (07:05) Yeah, I'm amazed just at their actual volume. ⁓ So yeah, this is great for, I guess, all formats, but yeah, they are dominating right now. Madelyn (07:17) Absolutely. Well, it was so great to chat with you. We are going to be doing, we are not going to wait two weeks until I see you again. We are going to go ahead and release another episode of the biggest sort of news of the year, what shaped the industry, maybe what we're looking at for next year. So we will have you back Monday, December 8th with a 2025 wrap up and looking at 2026. So excited to see you then. Emily Wilson (07:41) Awesome, looking forward to it. Madelyn (07:43) All right, thanks so much. And you guys can make sure you follow Emily on LinkedIn. She's always posting every Friday about the latest Unscripted Industry News. You can also subscribe to her sub stack Unscripted TV News to get the latest right into your inbox. Thank you, Emily. Emily Wilson (07:55) Thank you.