MIPTV Hot Pick: Game of Clones

For Luci Sanan, global formats director at new-kid-on-the-block sales house The Story Lab, picking up sales rights to the provocatively-named Game of Clones is a boon for a number of reasons.

It is the first series from Youngest Media, the UK indie that ex-Endemol Shine UK formats chiefs Lucas Church and David Flynn created last year.

Also, she says, “it brings a new twist to a tried-and-tested genre, skewing towards a millennial audience”.

Dating is that genre, and the twist is in the name. The format, which UK channel E4 stripped during its 20x30mins run, sees a singleton asked to create his or her perfect match using avatar technology, designing everything from hair colour to body shape.

The production crew then goes out and finds eight love interests, who are styled and made over to look exactly like that fantasy. The unknowing single is then introduced to the clones, living with and dumping them the way before deciding which one is his or her dream date.

“Casting was easier than you might think,” says Sanan. “You can create the hair-do, do a makeover and style the clones.”

“It’s the next level of pushing boundaries in dating, and also a completely different concept to anything else on the market,” says Sanan, who joined the TV distribution arm of ad firm Dentsu Aegis after leaving Content Media Corp. “It has been attracting a lot of interest and getting coverage all over the globe.”

The show: Game of Clones
The producer: Youngest Media
The distributor: The Story Lab
The broadcaster: E4 (UK)
The concept: Reality series in which a singleton lives in a house filled with matches that fit their perfect partner