TV Studio Critical Evaluation

1. Harry James Borwell TV Studio Production Critical Evaluation
Introduction
Game Shows and quiz formats are a genre of programmes that dominate our tv schedule
today. They are popular with viewers because of the elements that they have to offer. They
offer excitement as they get to see contestants compete for a chance to win potentially life
changing amounts of money and prizes. They are also entertaining and inclusive as they give
viewers the opportunity to play along and test their general knowledge from home
(Casticart, 2021). As technology has advanced over the years, it has allowed broadcasting
companies to come up with bigger ideas, which has let the game show format evolve and
adapt to suit audiences of all ages. In this essay, I am going to discuss the evolution of quiz
shows and how they have become a global phenomenon. I will also be giving an insight into
my contribution towards our studio show “Are You Smarter Than An AI?” and how it would
or would not be suitable as a global tv format.
Global TV Formats
Global Television Formats have evolved to be one of the most successful formats in
transnational television. They can be defined as “a cooking recipe that is a set of invariable
elements in a serial programme out of which the variable elements of an individual episode
are produced” (Chalaby, 2015, p. 20). For a television show to become a global format, it
requires broadcasting companies to follow a set of “rules or conventions that make up the
fixed and distinctive aspects of each program (Oren et al., 2012, p. 3). To do this, adapting
producers need to “pay an option fee to the underlying rights holder for the exclusive right
to develop an adaptation of the original series” (Pulman and Brodine, 2015). This allows
broadcasting companies to replicate and adapt a tv format to make it locally for their
country. In the early 2000s, the TV format revolution, traditionally unscripted programmes,
started circulating at an unprecedented rate and has brought in more revenue for
broadcasters than before. Programmes were being “adapted, franchised, bought, mimicked,
and stolen by production companies in many localities worldwide” (Oren et al., 2012, p. 3).
The idea of coming up with low budget broadcasting ideas became a new industrial
globalization mode, which has turned the TV format industry into a global industry worth
$243bn in 2019. After declining in 2020, the industry is expected to reach a revenue of
$231bn in 2024 after recovering from the Covid pandemic (Stoll, 2021). An example of a
global TV format is the BBC’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, where celebrities pair up with
professional dancers for a dancing competition. Since starting in May 2004, it has become
“one of the biggest shows on UK television, with 10 million people tuning in each week”
(Lewis, 2022) and is the world’s “most successful TV format” (Lewis, 2022) with the BBC
selling the format to “more than 50 countries on five continents” including the USA
(Schirmer, 2016). One of the elements that has been adapted for the USA version ‘Dancing
With The Stars’ is the dance-off element which is where each couple must perform to a song
and dance style chosen by one of the judges. The judge must then decide which couple they
think performed the best, with the winning team gaining bonus points which gets added to

2. their total score for the night (Degrushe, 2021). Whereas on the original format, the judges
scores and the public’s vote are combined. The two lowest scoring couples will then “throw
some shapes in the dance-off, where the judges will decide who stays and who goes”
(Robinson, 2018). This shows that each country that the format has been sold to will adapt
the show in accordance with their culture to make sure they remain independent from the
original format.
The game and quiz show TV format began in 1938 with ‘Spelling Bee’ broadcast live from the
BBC from Alexandra Palace. The 15-minute programme saw contestants compete against
well-known TV personalities (IMDB) by spelling a variety of words
(guinnessworldrecords.com). This launched what was to become “one of the most popular
genres on TV” (Brown and Duthie, 2015). In the early days of the format, the BBC decided
not to give away big game show prizes because it would have gone against their remit which
is “to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high
quality and distinctive output of services which inform, educate and entertain” (BBC, n).
It was in the 1950s when the quiz show format became a TV staple (Goodhart, 2015). In
1955, the launch of ITV broke the monopoly of the BBC by being the first TV network to
bring in TV advertising and prize funds, with ‘Take Your Pick’ being the first ever game show
to offer a cash prize of five shillings (twenty-five pence in modern money)
(ukgameshows.com). As the quiz show format started growing, the amount of prizes started
increasing, with ‘Double Your Money’ offering a £1,000 cash prize. As prizes increased, the
government became concerned and in the 1980s, placed a restriction of £6,000 on game
and quiz show prizes (Goodhart, 2015). In 1993, the prize restriction was lifted, and prizes
started drastically increasing with shows including ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ which
offers a big cash prize of £1,000,000. Although these shows offered lots of money, viewers
shifted away from “the lure of the lucre to a world where a quiz show isn’t made attractive
by the amount of money on offer (Goodhart, 2015).
With technology advancing, it meant that by the 1980s, broadcasting companies were able
to come up with bigger ideas such as ‘Treasure Hunt’ which was inspired by the French
format ‘La Chasse au Trésor’ (Buckley, 2012). The show saw Anneka Rice try to beat the clock
to “find directions to treasure at locations worked out by studio guests from cryptic clues”
(IMDB). Drawing in 7 million viewers (Fair, 2022), this shows that bigger ideas were possible
to make and be successful by offering more excitement and entertainment for viewers.
Today, gane shows are everywhere. An example of a popular game show which has achieved
a global format is ITV’s ‘The Chase’. The Chase is a game show which first broadcast in the
UK in 2009 on ITV1 (IMDB). The concept is four contestants who have never met before,
compete against one of the six chasers which are “a cast of eccentric and pompous know-it-
all characters” (IMDB). Each contestant must take part in a cash builder round by answering
as many questions worth £1,000 as they can in 60 seconds. They then each play against the
chaser, who gives each contestant the opportunity to play for a lower amount of money or a
higher amount of money, or they can play for what they earned in the cash builder. If they

3. win against the chaser, they go through to the final round where they must answer more
questions correctly than the chaser in order to win the cash prize.
Since The Chase began, it has become very popular with viewers, attracting around 100
million viewers each year, and pulls in over 3 million viewers an episode (Mellin, 2021). =
Because of its success in the UK, The Chase has expanded into a global format and is
broadcast in nine other countries including Australia (Mellin, 2021). On the Australian
format, the element that works differently to the original format is the cash builder round,
where contestants are required to answer as many questions as possible within one minute.
Each question answered correctly is worth $2,000 (autraliangameshows.fandom.com).
Our Group Project
For our group project, we produced a ten-minute pilot episode of ‘Are You Smarter Than An
AI?’. The show sees contestants compete against ChatGPT by answering a series of questions
related to their field of study (e.g., History) to see if the AI can outsmart them. Whoever has
the most points by the end of the game wins. The reason why now feels like a good time to
make a quiz show which features AI is because it will let viewers see what it is capable of
doing today and what the future might look like as the technology continues to advance
further.
Artificial Intelligence is advancing rapidly across many industries including retail, with online
supermarket Ocado using robots to complete a “50-item orders in five minutes” and check
when stock is close to its expiry date which allows the retailer to decide on what to do with
it (ocadogroup.com). This shows that AI is “becoming increasingly important for workers to
adapt and develop new skills to remain competitive in the job market” (Puri, 2023).
Individual Contribution
My two roles for the project were the production coordinator and the vision mixer. Due to
losing a member of our production crew in the early stages of the project, we decided that
the remaining crew members should take on more than one role. “Better communication
isn't only important for building trust within your team. While trust is crucial, team
communication improves project efficiency, collaboration, and workloads” (Meier, 2022).

4. The role of a production coordinator requires skills including good organisation and planning
skills, good communication and knowledge of law and health and safety (ScreenSkills, n). For
the pre-production stage, this required lots of planning and organisation. As I feel that these
are two of my biggest strengths, I felt that I was able to apply these skills by drawing up a
planning document containing which contains the filming schedule, resources needed for
filming and contingency plans for the three stages of the project (pre-production,
production, and post-production). One issue that we encountered during pre-production is
that we were unable to find a contestant or a presenter to host our show. As we did not
have a lot of time two find people to take up these roles, we decided to use two members of
our production crew to fill the roles, which followed the contingency plan put in place, which
helped us to avoid any delay in production.
I was also able to bring my planning ability to the project by drawing up a filming schedule.
For this, I decided to draw up a rough production schedule for the rehearsal day which was
useful as it helped us work out the timetable for the day of production.
As the production coordinator, my other responsibility was to write up and carry out a risk
assessment of the studio before the day of filming. On the day of filming, my responsibility
was to put health and safety measures in place before filming began as well as making sure
that the cast and crew complied with the risk assessment filming took place. E.g., One of the
risks identified was Access/egress – obstacles could have been in the way of gangways and
fire exits, which would have prevented a safe evacuation from the studio. For this measure, I
made sure that all entrances and exits to the studio were not blocked so that the cast and
crew could evacuate the studio safely if needed.
The role of a vision mixer is to “select what the viewers see at home” (ScreenSkills, n).
Therefore, they need to have acquired skills including good storytelling ability and good
visual awareness. My responsibility for this was to concentrate on the monitors in the gallery
and capture compelling moments during recording the episode. E.g., Making sure that the
camera was focused on the presenter as they read from the autocue, and capturing
moments such as the contestant answering a question and their reactions to the AI getting
an answer wrong.
Overall, I feel that I conducted myself well throughout the project. One thing that I feel went
well was that we were able to solve problems quickly by using the contingency plan put in
place. I also feel that having a timetabled filming schedule and good communication helped
filming run smoothly and efficiently. One of the things that I feel could have been better
with the final artefact is that our proposal outlined a TV show that would take place with a
host and a live audience. Although we did not manage to use a live audience, we could have
made up for this with the use of sound effects of an audience clapping and cheering in the
background when the contestant gets an answer correct. This would make our show more
like a typical game show as it would make the viewers at home feel like they are part of a live
audience. Secondly, there is no mention of a cash prize at the end of the show which is a big
element of a typical gameshow. Therefore, if this was to be broadcast on TV, an important
element for the format would be to have a cash prize. This would help to create the

5. excitement and entertainment for the audience in the studio and the viewers watching from
home by making them want to see if contestants can win it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel satisfied that the studio production has been a successful and enjoyable
learning experience as I feel that it has given me more understanding of global TV formats
and what other countries need to do to adapt a tv format to make it locally for them.
Although we had a few challenges during the production process such as taking on more
than one job role, the project has given me more confidence and knowledge of working in a
TV studio production environment which is something that I will take forward with me. I also
feel confident that I my contribution to our project contributed to making our final artefact a
success by making sure plans were in place and solutions could be found to potential
problems. I think our final artefact shows how well we worked as a team, and I feel
confident that our TV format would be a global success.
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