Dutch Fox orders Hounds, MTG builds production hub

The Fox channel in the Netherlands has ordered a Release the Hounds special, which will be made by local indie Tuvalu Media.

Separately, Paprika Latino, part of the MTG-owned Nice Entertainment Group, has built a Release the Hounds production hub in Lithuania to make regional versions of the format. It has already made Danish and Swedish versions of the show for MTG channels.

In the Netherlands, Fox will transmit the special and has also acquired the six-episode finished UK version, which went out on the ITV2 channel. Tuvalu is on production duty for the special. It was part of the Sony Pictures Television group, but is now independent after a management buy-out last year.

In Sweden and Denmark the local Release the Hounds have already gone out on MTG’s TV3 channel. Strix and Paprika, both part of the Nice Group, made the Danish Slip køterne løs and Swedish Swedish Jagad av hundar. Both ran to four episodes and were on the TV3 channels.

In Denmark the show went out in late August, with the launch episode securing TV3’s second summer audience. In Sweden it launched last week and doubled TV3’s slot average.

Nice’s Paprika has constructed a production hub in Lithuania that it hopes to use for other local versions of the format. MTG said it will be used for possible other versions for its own channel as well as for third-party broadcasters.

Sony-backed prodco Goggleox created Release the Hounds.The format has contestants compete over a round of suspense-filled horror-themed challenges for a cash prize. The winner ultimately has to escape from the grounds of a country house while being pursued by a pack of hounds.

Fox in the US has also ordered the show, and a US version has been produced, but amid executive changes at the network, it is not clear if and when it will be broadcast.