Show of the week Cash Island

Having launched Guess My Age on French DTT channel C8 and gotten several local versions away, Vivendi Entertainment is hoping to repeat the trick with Cash Island.

“C8 commissioned it and we co-invested,” says Matthieu Porte, executive VP, international and development at Vivendi Entertainment.

The new show will run to 4x90mins in France and is a treasure hunt/survival format. Ten contestants arrive on a paradise island to find a €100,000 (US$108,000) treasure trove.

They compete in challenges and are given  treasure maps based on their performance. Only one, however, is correct.

The contestants seek out the treasure using the maps and return to camp. The one that has successfully localed it must then hide that fact and bluff to the rest of the group.

The group as a whole, meanwhile, tries to find out who has the treasure.

“It is a treasure hunt that transforms into a manhunt,” Porte says. “Antoine Henriquet came to us with an idea and is making it.”

C8 hasn’t announced the TX, but will probably launch Cash Island in the summer. August is thought to be pencilled in.

“This is a genre that has always worked well in France, and there is an appetite for this kind of programming,” Porte says. “There’s a good chance it will perform in France, which will be a boost for international.”

Both C8 and Vivendi Entertainment are owned by Vivendi, and the model of getting a show on French screens and then taking it to market worked well with Guess My Age.

It is into a second season in France and local versions of the format are now away in Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, with others in the offing.

The show: Cash Island
The producer: Ah Production
The distributor: Vivendi Entertainment
The broadcaster: C8 (France)
The concept: Adventure reality format out of France