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LONDON – Sony Pictures Television‘s plan to combine the horror and game-show genres with new format Release the Hounds has paid off, as U.K. commercial broadcaster ITV inked a deal for a six-episode season following its pilot show commission.
Sony presented the format at MIPCOM in October last year.
Sony’s U.K. joint venture Gogglebox Entertainment created and produced the one-hour format, which whipped up high levels of U.K. social media interest when its pilot episode repeat aired as a Halloween special on British commercial network’s ITV 2.
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The deal marks the first show order for the horror/game show format, which sees three unsuspecting contestants enter a forest at dusk responding to an advertisement offering a chance to win chests full of prize money.
What they don’t know is that to retrieve the keys needed to unlock the chests, they must endure a night of horror-filled challenges, including outrunning a pack of hounds trained to guard the cash.
Sony said it is currently in discussions with other territories, while the U.K. show is executive produced by Gogglebox founders Adam Wood and Mat Steiner.
Kate Maddigan, ITV’s commissioning editor for entertainment, and Angela Jain, ITV’s director of digital channels and acquisitions, ordered the show.
Gogglebox created the series with Sony Pictures Television distributing the format internationally.
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