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Another popular Israeli alternative series is heading to the U.S. Fox has picked up the stateside rights to Boom!, a game show format from Keshet DCP.
Part action movie and part traditional quiz show, Boom! pits four contestants racing against the clock to diffuse replica bombs by answering trivia questions. Each player cuts through colored wires that represent multiple choice answers, while viewers at home can play along with an interactive component.
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This marks the second U.S. sale for Keshet DCP, the joint venture between Israel’s Keshet and Dick Clark Productions‘ DC Media, which previously sold singing competition Rising Star to ABC. It’s also the second big order for Fox executive vp alternative entertainment Simon Andreae. The reality chief, who took longtime czar Mike Darnell‘s old job in October 2013, ordered social experiment reality series Utopia in January.
“Boom! is a perfect blend of family entertainment and Fox attitude,” said Andreae. “Never has a ticking clock been so ingeniously placed at the center of a game, and never has a game more inventively borrowed from the language of a thriller. It’s as if Jack Bauer made brain love with Jeff Foxworthy.”
The show debuted to record ratings on Israel’s Channel 2 last week, with Keshet DCP quickly following news of the 41.2 percent share and 26.7 percent household rating with the announcement that it would be shopped to an American audience at MIPTV. (France’s TF1 was the first to buy during MIPFormats.)
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“We have no doubts that Boom!‘s fresh take on the traditional game show will blow American audiences away with laughs and thrills, and we couldn’t be happier to have secured such an esteemed broadcast partner as FOX only days after announcing our plans for the show in the U.S. market,” said Keshet International CEO Alon Shtruzman.
This order marks the Big Four’s first move into game shows since the failure of NBC’s Million Second Quiz, another project that touted the increasingly popular interactive component for home audiences.
“Boom! represents a continuation of original, provocative and unique content coming out of the Keshet DCP venture,” added Dick Clark Productions CEO Allen Shapiro. “Fox is the perfect home for it.”
Dick Clark Productions and The Hollywood Reporter are both owned by affiliates of Guggenheim Partners.
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