Couples to be Prized Apart on BBC One

UK terrestrial BBC One has commissioned a Saturday night series that combines “heart-stopping location adventure and high studio drama”.

Prized Apart (WT) will see 10 men and women leave their friends and family to undertake challenges such as river rapid riding and jumps from snow-capped mountains.

Each week, the worst performing contestant will be flown back to Britain, where their stay-at-home partners will then attempt to keep them in the competition by going head-to-head with other friends and partners in a questions round. If they succeed, the player is flown back for the next challenge.

Former BBC entertainment commissioner Karl Warner’s prodco Electric Ray will produce, with its managing directors Warner and Meredith Chambers will executive produce.

An airdate of 2015 has been set as BBC One continues its search for a returning Saturday night entertainment series. Its latest effort, celebrity gymnastic format Tumble, took a 20.2% share (3.3 million viewers) on Saturday (August 16), according to overnight ratings.

“I’ve been looking for an entertainment format that feels genuinely game-changing and Prized Apart delivers to the max,” said BBC One controller Charlotte Moore, who commissioned the series. “Jeopardy, heart and high emotion come together inside the studio and out.”

Warner launched Electric Ray earlier this year as a joint venture with Sony Pictures Television.

Moore has also commissioned Capital, a drama series about a London street transformed by soaring house prices in the English capital city. Screenwriter Peter Bowker is adapting a best-selling novel from John Lanchaster as a three-part miniseries.

Shine Group-owned Kudos Film & Television is producing, with Derek Wax executive producing for Kudos and Lucy Richer for the BBC.

A further new strand for BBC One will be titled The Truth About…, with the first two shows titled The Truth About Calories and The Truth About Over-The-Counter Medicine. BBC Scotland’s Science Unit will produce the former, with FremantleMedia UK-owned Boundless attached to the latter.

Hit drama Happy Valley has also been recommissioned, while a new version of BBC format The Generation Game has been greenlit. The latter is set to be hosted by sitcom star Miranda Hart, though she has thrown cold water on the announcement by claiming on Twitter it is still at a brainstorming stage.