Germany’s ZDFNeo orders Israeli gender-swap series

German digital channel ZDFNeo has ordered a six-episode version of Israeli-originated sex-change series Re-Gender.

The format was originally created by Israel’s (now defunct) Buzz Television and started out on Channel 10 in Israel. It is billed as a provocative social experiment and the format sees five men and women swap gender roles to fully appreciate the challenges faced by the opposite sex.

It will start on German public broadcaster ZDF’s digital channel in April and run to 6x60mins. The format is distributed by Armoza Formats, which struck the German deal. It is the second agreement between ZDFNeo and Armoza in recent months after the channel ordered a local version of celebrity interview show How to Be.

The local version of Re-Gender will be made by German prodco SEO Entertainment. Company bosses Uwe von Grafenstein and Gillad Osterer said: “’Sexchange’ has huge appeal to all kinds of audiences, combined with the clever reality TV storytelling, which results in a TV show that both entertains the viewers and gives them a deep insight into the mechanism of a society.”

Avi Armoza, CEO of Armoza Formats, added: “Re-Gender deals with the very important and prevalent issue of gender stereotypes in our society and helps to change these preconceptions by providing the participants with the chance to see life from the opposite perspective.”