Facebook’s ‘Red Table Talk’ format to be localised internationally

Facebook’s hit talk show format Red Table Talk is to be reversioned outside of the US, according to creator Jada Pinkett Smith.

Smith, who hosts the show with her mother Adrienne Banfield-Jones and daughter Willow, has said Red Table Talk “is going to start expanding internationally” following a successful year-long run on the social media platform, where the format garnered Facebook’s first Daytime Emmy nomination as well as a Streamy Award nod for Best Non-Fiction Series.

“We’re going to do Red Table Talk Latin and hopefully come to the UK,” she said, speaking at London’s Ham Yard Hotel.

Smith’s appearance marked the first major UK event held by Facebook for one of its Watch titles, which officially launched in the region last autumn.

TBI understands that Facebook has not yet officially greenlit global versions of the show.

While scripted Watch Originals such as Skam Austin and Sorry For Your Loss have struggled to gain traction on the platform, unscripted formats such as Red Table Talk, in which Smith and her family discuss hot-topic issues such as blended families and host topical guests, have managed to garner a dedicated following.

Clara Amfo and Jada Pinkett Smith (Photo: Dave Bennett)

The show currently has 6.4m global subscribers, compared to Sorry For Your Loss’s 409,000 and Skam Austin’s 348,000.

“When I first started this project, it wasn’t my day job – it was my passion project. And then it turned into my day job,” said Smith, highlighting a network of online communities that have formed in support of the show.

The actor-producer originally conceived of the format as a one-off Mother’s Day project in 2011, but was encouraged to both pursue and expand the format by Oprah Winfrey Show co-creator and producer Ellen Rakieten in 2017, with the TV veteran eventually coming on as an executive producer.

Smith said she chose to partner with Facebook over broadcast and cable partners because of the platform’s loyalty to the original format, which is simple in style and centres around conversations held around a red table.

“When I went in and pitched the show, they got it. There was no ‘Oh we can add a dancing bear!’ Everybody [at networks] wanted to add their dancing bears, and that’s not what this is about,” she explained.

“Also, I had already been having these conversations on my personal Facebook and knew there was an audience that wanted to talk about blended families and alternative relating.”

New episodes of Red Table Talk are set to launch this autumn.

Recent guests on the show include Smith’s husband Will, actors Kristin Davis and Leah Remini and model Jordyn Woods, who famously used Red Table Talk to tell her side of the story following a scandal with Khloe Kardashian’s ex-partner Tristan Thompson.