Banijay’s James Townley Interview on Reality, Sportainment, Next Hit

Big Brother, Survivor, Deal or No Deal, MasterChef, Temptation Island – those are just some of the non-scripted hit shows of independent production powerhouse Banijay Entertainment.

As Banijay‘s chief content officer, development James Townley is responsible for not resting on those laurels and instead driving the development and creation of original non-scripted intellectual property (IP), format acquisitions and documentaries across the company’s 23 territories and its network of production banners. Co-leading the firm’s unscripted unit Creative Networks, “he supports and champions a strong pipeline of new formats with international appeal,” Banijay says. “He also manages group-level investment in non-scripted via the company’s Creative Fund and internal creative incentivization schemes.”

Townley, who previously served as global head of Creative Networks at Endemol Shine Group, as Endemol Shine U.K.’s director of operations and held roles at Princess Productions and Sky, has a particularly busy week ahead. On Monday afternoon, he will be part of a MIP London panel entitled “Disruption in Formats Acquisitions and Sales,” and on Wednesday, Banijay’s London TV Screenings events take place.

Ahead of London’s big annual TV week, THR talked to Townley about the state of unscripted content, cross-collaboration across Banijay, the company’s London TV Screenings lineup, including sport adventure reality format Football Island, culinary competition 100 Knives, quiz show How Old Is Your Brain?, and psychological reality game The Dinner.

How do you approach your role, given the size and reach of Banijay across its various territories?

It is a significant footprint, and the beautiful thing about having around 130 production companies is that it’s about that creative community. They’ve all got their own identity. But in that creative community, what we’re fully focused on now is creation. It’s about taking advantage of opportunities, because we’re still working in a very risk-averse market. So we are working on the development and creation of big new shows to launch globally to complement our current catalog, and in the industry’s current catalog of big shows.

So, we’re looking for what’s our next MasterChef, what’s our next Big Brother, our next Survivor. They all sit at the top of their genres, whether it is competitive reality, whether it is adventure, whether it’s romantic reality, or the world of social experiment. Reality feels like it is still absolutely king.

What are the key opportunities you see in this risk-averse market you mentioned?

I think there are opportunities because we’re able to do co-development, collaborations, partnerships, and these have been really, really successful. And when we spot a new embryonic creation, we’re really lucky in that we have an internal investment creative fund with which we can supercharge those new ideas and try and get them launched with a partner somewhere in the world.

Absolutely, that big new IP that can sit alongside current super brands. And whether it is reality and all those sub-sections of reality, or whether it is the next big quiz, game or talent show, there’s opportunity.

Coming into the [soccer] World Cup, you will probably hear everyone talking about how expensive sports rights are. But we also know that it’s not just about those. Those channels need more than sports to complement those live events.

Your team at Banijay has talked about finding new hits in that space where sports and entertainment meet, right?

The infamous “where sport meets entertainment” – I present to you: sportainment! We’ve got a big show coming out of Holland called Football Island, a collaboration between SimpelZodiak and Southfields for Videoland. The clue is in the title. Yes, it absolutely is under the banner of football [aka soccer]. I think football fans, certainly Dutch football fans, will watch that show. There’s fantastic talent. What we want to do, though, is to bring in that family viewing audience. We want them to watch it for other layers that are in that format. The show has that survival element, with 13 Dutch ex-footballers stuck on the island, and they talk about a lot of stories from when they were players on the field, but also off the field.

I guess it’s a special twist on Survivor and the like. Any other new twists you are presenting to the market?

As the home of MasterChef, we’re always looking for ideas under this banner of big, competitive reality food shows. And we’ve got one from Mastiff Sweden, Bunim/Murray Productions and Smart Dog Media [for TV4] called 100 Knives, which has just shot in Sweden. It really looks fantastic.

The twist is essentially that it’s not about individuals at all. It’s about teams. They’re actually called brigades in the format. So, there’s that competitive element. But what I love about it is the camaraderie of bringing people together. Audiences are incredibly savvy, and I think we have to bring that positive tone, that tone of where you are stronger together and people wanting other people to succeed. We’ve seen lots of reality shows where everyone’s competitive, and there’s the evil contributor on the side – absolutely, there still is that element when you have a competition. But what I love about 100 Knives is brigades all working together, and the bond that they develop.

What’s also fantastic is that it’s got real scale, but we have the ability to produce it as a huge scale show, a medium scale show, or a slightly smaller show. So we can fit these formats to various global needs, because each territory is slightly different.

Any other new themes or trends you are seeing?

In the vein of entertaining audiences, comedy entertainment is something we’re really keen on. It’s no secret that Amazon has had huge success with LOL, and we’re lucky to produce that in 11 territories. We’re keen to work on comedy entertainment inside the studio, comedy entertainment outside the studio, and hybrid formats that have a comedy entertainment edge. There’s a big show coming from Metronome in Denmark called Who’s Guilty?, which is filming as we speak. That is using comedians and celebrities who have to guess who the guilty comedian is. [In each episode, a group of comedians is thrown into a fictional crime and interrogated in a courtroom in front of a celebrity jury. One comedian is secretly assigned to play the guilty party; the others are innocent, but they all work together to convince the jury to convict one of them of the crime.]

So, how do you balance the familiar and popular, in this case, maybe a dash of The Traitors, with the new?

There are some big psychological reality shows in our industry, such as The Traitors. And when we are creating these big shows, you have to make sure they’ve got their own DNA. You have to make sure that they stand on their own. You have to [look for] what’s the new unique element. They’ve got to have this element.

Banijay is also working with third-party partners on some of their big IPs, right?

That is also a huge priority for the business. We’ve seen such success from LEGO Masters in the past in that regard. So we nurture that third-party format and are always looking for new partners. Other third-party successes include [strategic reality format] Werewolves, Ninja Warrior, and [digital-first format] All Star Hide and Seek. 

Our teams within Banijay want to work on the best formats, and our partners want to create the best formats and work with the best people. I talked about 100 Knives and the brigades. It feels like we’re creating quite a few internal brigades in that regard. We’re just trying to bring everyone together, because there’s so much that these teams learn and that they can share – on third-party and our own [IP].

Who is willing to take risks in this risk-averse market?

Probably from our pipeline’s point of view, the streamers are the ones who are taking the biggest swings. When we are launching a huge amount of new IP, actually, sometimes the hardest part is to prioritize what we feel is the biggest international hit of the future.

You can’t wait to make a format strong. You have to make it strong before it launches. If you don’t put the time and effort into it at Base Camp One, it will die, it will fizzle out in an industry and in a content market that is as competitive as it has ever been. So, we really do put a huge amount of time, effort, blood, sweat, tears, and investment into those potential opportunities that we can see traveling around the world.

In the U.K., at the moment, we have The Summit on ITV, which is a format that’s now traveled to nearly 10 territories, having originated in Australia. [The ITV version sees 14 strangers trying to summit a mountain in New Zealand, competing in a test of resilience and strategy. “Can teamwork prevail or will £200,000 ($270,000) tempt betrayal?” asks a synopsis.) The Australian team didn’t take a few weeks to come up with that format. It was in their pipeline for 18 months of rigorous development and investment stages.

What do you think is appealing to audiences about non-scripted shows?

It’s still escapism, nostalgia. Because the news is not always the most positive, that is appealing. And for others, they’re just a brand new audience that has never seen anything like this before.

But you have to keep formats fresh. One in particular that seems to be hugely successful out in the U.S. is [the Fear Factor revival] Fear Factor: House of Fear with Johnny Knoxville, which has done brilliantly in overnight numbers that apparently no one cares about anymore. And it is also incredibly successful on Hulu. And I think where you have that opportunity to drive audiences to [networks and] streaming, so you have a dual purpose, that’s great.

I heard you will also be talking about a new format called The Dinner this week. What’s that about?

The Dinner isn’t really about the dinner and what you eat. It’s a fantastic partnership of SimpelZodiak and Talpa Studios [for SBS6] that has elements of psychological and strategic reality. It’s also one of those scenarios where it’s like a mirror moment for the audience. You know, when you sit with friends around a dinner table, there are always friends who’ve got lots of different stories. But in this particular case, it’s more of a game show where money is at stake. The individuals, who in this particular case are celebrities, are telling stories, and the other diners at the table have to guess whether that story is real or fake.

There are some fantastic stories in there, and some of them you just would never, ever believe were true. It’s incredibly watchable and very bingeable as well. We’ve got a great legacy with panel shows. So we have the expertise and know how we can appeal to audiences, but now put it into a totally different environment. And if you get the cast right, it’s fantastic, so the casting is absolutely integral. And this one is very addictive. It doesn’t need to be a quiz show to play along at home, so this is a way to bring the family together.

Speaking of quizzes: any new quiz formats?

Our team at DMLS in France has created a show originally called Brain Master, which is now known as How Old Is Your Brain? What’s great about it is that you have all these different questions, so people can play along together at home. It’s a great quiz that goes across all sorts of demographics. And there is a little sidebar for the format with a scientist giving you tips and tricks on how to keep your brain fresh. So you get a little bit of science into it, as well as the game show, making it a hybrid.

You mentioned the opportunity to super-charge hot ideas with your fund. Can you tell me a bit more about that fund?

The very-well stocked Creative Fund we have is there to invest solely in creativity, because that sits absolutely at the heart of what we all do. The people who have the creativity sit at the heart. When we are looking for those big, new ideas, we set up various creative initiatives.

Last year, we launched the Genre Accelerator Fund that is really simple. We have six genres, in which we feel there is a multi-territory, multi-buyer opportunity: romantic reality, adventure reality, quiz and game shows, talent shows, sportainment, and social experiment. And we asked every single non-scripted label at Banijay to submit one big idea. They were allowed to decide which genre they wanted to submit to, and we chose a winner whose bounty was an investment in that idea. So we ended up with six winners, and we’re currently talking with all of them at the moment about the best use of that investment. Some are further down the line than others.

Banijay has talked about using AI in the development of shows. What role does AI play in some of the shows/formats Banijay is showcasing at the London TV Screenings – whether on screen or in the development and production process?

AI is increasingly part of our creative workflow, both on-screen and behind-the-scenes, and you’ll see that reflected across our London TV Screenings showcase this week. A ground-breaking example is Staying Alive, our new music entertainment format from EndemolShine Germany, where cutting-edge technology enables today’s artists to perform showstopping duets with legendary voices like Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse and Freddie Mercury. Creating a performance entertainment format like that simply wasn’t possible before. Beyond that, AI now helps our teams visualize concepts faster, streamline production, and unlock new ways to elevate storytelling and amplify creativity. 

Anything else you’d like to highlight?

You have to hook people early, and you have to give them what they want. But sometimes the premise of a format can be incredibly simple, and that’s the beauty of it. Staying Alive is an example of that.

The beautiful thing about the Banijay pipeline and the new shows is that it is not monotonous, and we’re always looking for what is different enough from everything else, not only within our catalog, but within the world.