Exero claims new format is ‘Idols meets Pawn Stars’

Australian-European indie Exero Films is launching a format it describes as “a cross between Idols and Pawn Stars” at MIPCOM.

Exero’s CEO and producer Kostas Metaxas will be in Cannes meeting with potential coproducers from Australia, Germany and the UK over new show Kiss of Art.

The format attempts to broaden the scope of interest in high-end art stories such as how auction house Sotheby’s was able to sell a tin can for £81,000 (US$131,000) “in the most entertaining way possible”.

Each episode of the show features a series of objects that are submitted via the internet. A panel of judges then judge if the wares are ‘national treasures’ or should be dismissed as ‘art hubris’.

Metaxas launched Exero in London, but moved to Melbourne in Australia in 2003, where the business is still based. However, the company films all of its programming in Europe.