Nigel Lythgoe and Simon Fuller pick up US rights to BBC quiz Secret Fortune

Simon Fuller and Nigel Lythgoe’s production company Big Red 2 has picked up the US rights to primetime BBC quiz Secret Fortune. The show is distributed by DRG and produced by Irish producer Wild Rover and Big Red 2 has taken the rights to coproduce the US version.

The quiz debuts on BBC One in the UK tomorrow at 8pm. In the studio-based show pairs of contestants must eliminate envelopes, leaving one containing their ‘Secret Fortune’.

Nigel Lythgoe is a producer on American Idol and Simon Fuller is a TV and music producer and entrepreneur.

This is the second high-profile US deal for Wild Rover Productions, which is run by Phil Morrow, after its adventure gameshow Take the Money and Run was ordered by US network ABC. The US version of that show will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Amazing Race creator Bertram van Munster.

 “We’re delighted to be working with Nigel Lythgoe in the US – he’s the best studio entertainment producer in the world,” Morrow said. “Secret Fortune is the next generation of quiz show. It’s such a fun format, packed with jeopardy and emotion and it can change people’s lives forever.”

The Secret Fortune USA deal was packaged by the ICM agency and brokered for DRG by Kary McHoul, president DRG America. The UK-based distributor invested in a broadcast pilot in order to have a finished product to show potential international partners.

“This is the first show born from DRG’s formats co-funding strategy, where we’re actively investing in the co-production of broadcast quality pilots with the original commissioners,” said Andrea Jackson, managing director, acquisitions at DRG. “This enables us to take the highest quality example of the format to our international partners and immediately begin building the show into a global brand, a significant revenue stream for our producer partners.”