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# Friday Format Sweep 23 Sept
- URL: https://www.formatforward.com/friday-format-sweep-23-sept/
- Published: 2026-10-27T16:03:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T16:03:26.000Z
- Description: As broadcasters and streamers turn to proven TV formats, who is taking the risk on original ideas? Four international format deals reveal the challenge facing developers in today's unscripted television market.
- Author: Jonathan Glazier
- Tags: Friday Format Sweep, TV Formats

**The format market isn't short of ideas. But is it short of courage?**

Four developments caught my eye in last week's international format sweep. None involved a completely new format.

**Last One Laughing** is heading to the US, with Nick Kroll hosting. A format that has already demonstrated its appeal across multiple territories.

**In Other News, Today**, a Belgian celebrity news quiz, has secured a Dutch adaptation. A simple, repeatable idea built around the previous 24 hours of news.

**House of Villains** has launched its first Spanish-language adaptation on Telemundo, bringing an established reality franchise to another audience.

And **Boxing Stars** is returning in the Netherlands after eight years, this time as three live events for streaming platform Videoland.

Four different deals. Four different approaches. One common thread.

**The underlying ideas have already faced an audience.**

For commissioners, that offers reassurance. For distributors, it creates another opportunity to exploit existing IP. For producers, it provides a degree of certainty in an uncertain market.

But here's the thing.

A proven format isn't necessarily a guaranteed hit. Moving it to another territory, changing its platform or reinventing its production model still requires considerable creative judgement.

And somewhere in this process, someone originally took a risk on every one of these ideas.

That's what concerns me about a market increasingly attracted to proof of performance.

**If everyone wants to buy the next successful format, who is prepared to commission the first version?**

For format developers, perhaps the challenge is no longer simply to come up with a brilliant idea.

It's to demonstrate how that idea can become a repeatable, commercially viable piece of IP before anybody has commissioned it.

And that is a much harder pitch.

#FormatForward #TVFormats #FormatDevelopment #UnscriptedTV #TelevisionIndustry