Sacha Baron Cohen prodco making ITV pilot

Sacha Baron Cohen and Andrew Newman prodco Spelthorne Community TV is making JudgeMental, a new entertainment pilot for UK commercial broadcaster ITV.

Comedian and actor Baron Cohen and former Objective boss Newman set up Spelthorne in 2015. It will make the pilot for the ITV2 channel.

Details are thin on the ground, but in a casting call Spelthorne said it is looking for London-based Geordie (meaning from Newcastle) lads to appear in the pilot.

In related news, ITV has also ordered two daytime shows. It has greenlit another season of daytime quiz Alphabetical, which is presented by Sky Sport presenter Jeff Stelling.

The show has rounds of alphabet based rounds of questions as players compete for a cash prize. It is produced by The Cube creator Adam Adler’s Gameface Productions and based on ITV Studios’ format The Alphabet Game.

Another daytime commission is Babushka. STV Productions will make the 20-episode daytime show, in which contestants open giant Russian dolls as they chase cash prizes. The show hails from TF1 in France and was worked up with Ryan Seacrest’s Seacrest Productions and Armoza Formats. the latter distributes and struck the UK deal.