Show of the week: All-Star Lifeguards

All-Star Lifeguards is a new reality format that rolled out at MIPCOM. Tim Crescenti’s Small World IFT brought the show to market and he says it is “a celebrity-reality show in the spirit of Baywatch”.

Created by Helsinki-based prodco Aito Media, Finnish broadcaster Nelonen launched the show in September.

The Finnish commercial broadcaster is using the show to broaden the audience on its digital channel, Jim.

“It’s sea, the sun and the beach,” says Crescenti. “The participants are going through real lifeguard training and certification. It’s a real learning process for them – there’s more to it than seeing a Pamela Anderson-type contestant running along the beach.” The show also follows the celebs’ daily lives from their tropical beachfront base.

The original Finnish version of All-Star Lifeguards has all female contestants, but the expectation is a mixed male/female line-up in international versions.

One of the ten celebrity contestants gets eliminated weekly in the format, which Crescenti says has the potential to work as an international show filmed from a central production hub, in this case, in Thailand.

“Options have been taken in France and Denmark,  and there is real interest from buyers,” he says. “We can turn this into a turnkey format, which will reduce some costs, but we do want to shoot for big stations with All-Star Lifeguards.”

The show: All-Star Lifeguards
The producer: Aito Media
The distributor: Small World IFT
The broadcaster: Nelonen (Finland)
The concept: Reality competition series following celebs as they undergo lifeguard training