Show of the week: Keep Your Light Shining

Global Agency-created format Keep Your Light Shining offers a novel twist to the singing competition genre. “I was aiming to create the most fair singing competition where each song can be performed by all the contestants, allowing them to sing only 30 seconds part of it,” says the Turkish company’s CEO, Izzet Pinto. “This way, viewers can easily evaluate who is the weakest and eliminate them.”

In layman’s terms, a group of nine performers stand in a circle and are each given half a minute to sing a song when an overhead light shines on them. At the end of the song, the audience votes and the lowest four are put up for elimination. At this point, a panel of celebrity judges can choose to protect on the at-risk performers.

A singer is voted in each round until the final two face off in a duel. Each episode winner goes forwards to a finale, with the previous week’s seven non-finalists returning and joined by two new contestants.

Designed to run over 13 weeks, the weekly format sees the eventual twelve winners face off to win a prize. “From stage design to format structure, all the elements are brand new,” said Pinto. “Contestants have only thirty seconds to prove that they are the best. It’s the most eye-catching singing format in the market. Most of the existing singing formats look very close to each other but this one is completely unique.”

Channels that have already commissioned the show include ProSieben in Germany, Zhejiang TV in China, Brazil’s Globo and Channel Ukraine. Thailand’s Content LAB also bought rights, while American broadcast network CBS ordered a pilot with Idol exec Nigel Lythgoe attached.

Pinto says CBS produced “a great pilot in Las Vegas” and hopes they will take it to series in “the near future”. “The US is definitely the most competitive [market] in the world,” he adds.

For now, European deals are Global’s key target. “It is already aired in Germany and several other territories are under option. The show did great in Brazil, Thailand and Ukraine and soon will start in Georgia and Africa.”

The show: Keep You Light Shining
The producer: Global Agency
The distributor: Global Agency
The broadcaster: ProSieben (Germany), Zhejiang TV (China), Globo (Brazil), Channel Ukraine, JSL Global Media (Thailand)
The concept: Singers are given just thirty seconds to prove their talent before the spotlight moves on to the next competitor in competition format