Show of the Week: My Wife Rules

Global Agency’s hybrid format My Wife Rules mixes couples relationship format beats and cooking competition to create an access prime offer that company founder and CEO Izzet Pinto says could be the Turkey-based distributor’s “best-selling formats”.

Following its launch at MIPCOM last month, nine deals are in place, including two with broadcasters. Agreements in the US, Germany and Spain are all set to close, says Pinto.

The programme, which can be stripped across the week, sees three couples face off in a cooking contest in which only the wife knows the recipe. She guides the husband through the recipe via an earpiece, and then tastes the dish and another created by a celebrity chef to decide which is best.

“Often the husband’s food is awful, which creates the humour,” says Pinto. “That’s why this is a comedy format rather than a cooking talent format.”

Pinto says the show works well in a variety of guises, especially for mid- to late-afternoon slots, as “many channels need formats for the whole week – this is perfect for that”, adding: “I want to reach 30 or 40 territories by the end of 2017.”

My Wife Rules was one of the formats singled out at The Wit’s influential Fresh TV Formats report from MIPCOM, which will help with Global Agency sales pitch – the session is always one of the busiest during the Cannes confab and generates plenty of discussion.

The format comes from Erdi Yapim, a Turkish producer that’s behind Global Agency format Shopping Monsters, and prolific French producer Hervé Hubert, who has produced formats including Deal or No Deal, Wheel of Fortune and The Price is Right for French broadcasters – meaning a deal in the territory is likely.

Hubert previously worked with Global and Erdi on the M6 adaptation of daily makeover show Shopping Monsters, which has been remade around Europe.

The show: My Wife Rules
The producer: Erdi Yapim, Hervé Hubert
The distributor: Global Agency
The concept: Comedy cooking format in which couples attempt to work together to create a better dish than a professional chef