Sky preps superfan show based on Thai format

UK pay TV operator BSkyB is set to air The Fanatic, a new entertainment show in which superfans compete to prove their credentials, TBI has learned.

The hour-long series will be produced by Victory Television, the UK production company run by Victoria Ashbourne as a joint venture with Sony Pictures Television.

In the show, superfans attempt to prove they are the most fanatical by competing over question and answer rounds as well as facing fun, physical challenges. The fans can be fanatics about TV shows, films, sports or hobbies.

The Fanatic is based on an international format that hails from Thailand. It was created by Thailand’s Work Point Entertainment, which has made over 500 episodes of the show. Small World IFT distributes it internationally and has shopped it into Sweden where commercial broadcaster TV4’s version, The Fan, bowed last April.

Sky1’s eight-part series has not yet entered production and is not expected to go out on the satcaster until 2015.

The Fanatic will sit in the coveted 8pm slot, which channel controller Adam MacDonald (pictured) has made a priority since joining from A+E last year. New shows for the primetime slot include Welcome to My Garden, kids debating show The Kings and Queens Speech and Flintoff: Lord of the Fries, featuring well-known cricketer Andrew Flintoff.

Sky is expected to announce new 8pm shows next week.

Content Television is a backer of Small World IFT and is expected to take the rights to the finished UK version.

A Sony spokesman decline to comment on the Victory show. A Sky1 spokesman said that the channel was looking to make Sky a destination for viewers at 8pm and was commissioning as such, but would not confirm The Fanatic launch.