ITV expands This Time Next Year franchise

ITV has greenlit two more seasons of This Time Next Year.

This Time Next Year was one of the format hits of 2016, travelling extensively before it even aired on terrestrial broadcaster ITV in the UK. The ‘time-travel’ show will go to two more runs, ITV revealed on Friday at the ITV Studios Formats Festival, held here in London at the swish Ham Yard Hotel.

The format was created by ITV-owned producer and distributor TwoFour. The studio show has participants outline life goals to the host and then ‘reappear’ twelve months later, at which point the viewers find out if they were successful.

The two-season order follows the show’s six-part run on ITV last year. Despite its international success, its UK ratings were middling.

Internationally, it has been picked up by a raft of buyers including Atresmedia in Spain, RTL in Holland and Germany, TV2 in Denmark and VRT in Belgium.

TwoFour’s Melanie Leach and Andy Mackenzie were presenting at the ITV Studios Formats Festival. They told the assembled buyers about the new UK seasons as well as plans for new shows using the time-travel idea based around property and business, titled The Home Game and Give it a Year.

Leach described the genre as “time travel television”.

ITV-owned Talpa was also on hand to present to acquisitions folk. It has a standout track record of getting formats away on ITV since being bought by the UK broadcaster, with Cannonball, which was pitched at last year’s formats day, the latest show to head from the Netherlands to the UK.

Elsewhere at the Formats Festival, Talpa Global managing director Maarten Meijs talked up new Talpa shows Around The World with 80 Year Olds and A Whole New Beginning, while former FremantleMedia Brazil CEO Daniela Busoli presented Brazilian format YouTubers, what done wonders for Canal Sony’s young adult demographic.

Michael Kelpie of ITVS-owned UK producer Potato revealed a new spin on long-running gameshow The Chase titled The Family Chase, while his stablemate Ed Taylor outlined format opportunities around Channel 5 medical series Autopsy, which has already been remade for Reelz in the US.

Jo Torgerson of ITVS Norway added some heat to the room by introducing reality competition format Best Firefighter, which pits professional firemen and women against each other to crown a winner, and Louise Ellerbaek from another ITVS prodco, Denmark’s United, was touting TV2 entertainment show Music Masters. From Reshet in Israel, Erez Ben Harosh showed off a new version of cooking competition Game of Chefs, branded Game of Chefs: On the Road.

There was also an exclusive look at new Second Act-produced stripped talk series The Nightly Show, which ITV is using to extend its primetime to 10.30pm, while Crook Productions showed off Derren Brown Presents: Twisted Tales.

Second Act is hoping segments from the show will spawn their own full formats, as has been the case with series such as Lip Sync Battle and Drop the Mic.

Waddell Media execs where on hand to push The Commute, a new fixed-rig doc format that captures people driving to work with friends and family.

Other news from the ITV Studios open day, was of new versions of hit ITV Studios-distributed format Come Dine With Me were also revealed at the Formats Festival, with the stripped dinner party competition show going into Zimbabwe and Mongolia, and passing the 40-territory mark.

Click here to read more on the ITV Studios Formats Festival and the BBC Worldwide Showcase, which began last night, in our TBI UK Screenings digital magazine