> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.formatforward.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Rise of the Super Format - URL: https://www.formatforward.com/the-rise-of-the-super-format/ - Published: 2026-08-21T11:15:15.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-21T11:15:15.000Z - Author: Jonathan Glazier - Tags: Market Intel, Market Wall, Reports ### The Top 20 returning TV formats of the last decade, ranked on renewals rather than ratings. ## The Rise of the Super Format ### The Top 20 returning TV formats of the last decade, ranked on renewals rather than ratings. **TL;DR** Ratings are not published everywhere. Revenue is almost never disclosed. So this report measures the one thing a broadcaster cannot fake and cannot do by accident: the decision to order the format again. Twenty formats, ten annual evidence periods, five weighted tests, applied identically to every title. MasterChef and Big Brother lead on 100\. The leading group is tightly clustered, and that clustering is the finding. --- ### **Why renewals** A sale tells you a format travelled. A renewal tells you it worked. Most format analysis starts with ratings or revenue. Both matter. Neither compares well. Ratings are not publicly available across large parts of Asia and other markets. Deal structures, budgets and commercial terms are rarely disclosed anywhere. But there is one signal that is visible, comparable and expensive to produce: a buyer choosing to commission the same format again. Every recommission is a fresh decision, made with money, by someone who has already seen how the first run performed. A launch that never reaches series two is not a success. A mid-budget show that has been reordered twenty times is what a development team is actually trying to build. ### **What the index measures** The Global Return Performance Index scores five things over the decade to 15 August 2026. Recommission depth carries 40%, taken from the three deepest international local lines and weighted 70/20/10\. Active evidence periods carry 30%, three points for each of ten fixed annual periods containing a verified international return. Continuity carries 15%, rewarding formats spread across the decade rather than compressed into one boom. Durability and resilience carry 10%. International footprint carries 5%. The origin market is excluded throughout. Domestic longevity is context, not score. Junior, celebrity, All Stars and VIP editions stay separate from the parent. Daily formats are credited on verified annual production cycles, not on episode volume. ### **What the table shows** MasterChef and Big Brother tie on 100\. The Voice, Got Talent, Dancing with the Stars and Survivor share 99\. Married at First Sight, Dragons' Den and Shark Tank follow. Then the quieter results. Farmer Wants a Wife reaches 39 out of 40 for depth on Germany S21, Netherlands S14 and Hungary S7\. First Dates gets to 39 through annual production cycles in Spain and Germany. Come Dine With Me sits at 95 on Sweden S27 and Germany S25. None of those three formats generates much noise. All three are doing exactly what a super format is supposed to do. ### **What the report does not claim** It does not claim 96.5 is culturally better than 96\. The leading group is compressed because most mature super formats max out on activity, continuity and resilience. Those three tests are best read as entry conditions rather than as separators. What actually moves a title inside the group is depth. Five ranks are tied. No score was adjusted to produce a tidier table. The cut at rank 20 is a publication boundary, not a judgement. The Masked Singer, Love Island and Drag Race all have real depth. Their international return cycles simply started later in the decade. Family Feud is unranked because the public record mixes historic production, language editions and distribution reach, and a precise total would be false confidence rather than rigour. ### **Where the series goes next** This is the global view. The territory editions follow, covering the markets I have lived and worked in. The interesting question there is not which global hits arrived, but which local formats quietly outlast them. --- ### **Download the report** [The\_Rise\_of\_the\_Super\_Format\_2016-2026\_First\_Edition (1)The\_Rise\_of\_the\_Super\_Format\_2016-2026\_First\_Edition (1).pdf983 KBdownload-circle](https://www.formatforward.com/content/files/2026/08/The%5FRise%5Fof%5Fthe%5FSuper%5FFormat%5F2016-2026%5FFirst%5FEdition--1-.pdf "Download") *The Rise of the Super Format: The Top 20 Returning TV Formats of the Last Decade, 2016 to 2026.* First Edition, August 2026\. Doc ref FF-SF-GLOBAL-2026-01. --- Jonathan Glazier Format creator and executive producer alt.Media *I am dyslexic. AI helps me make my writing readable. The thoughts, criteria and opinions are my own. Nothing here is auto-generated. I read and research with rigour.*