Format

At the Paris Unscripted Showcase (June 2-3, 2026), Virginia Mouseler, founder of The Wit, delivered one of those market presentations that does more than list new shows: it offers a sharp diagnosis of where the global unscripted business stands today. The picture is not entirely reassuring. The international format market is clearly under pressure, with fewer new travelling properties being created and a growing reliance on returning brands, established IP and platform-driven experimentation. Yet, beneath the downturn, Mouseler also identified a series of strong creative signals: crowd-based games, large-scale cooking battles, YouTube-native formats, AI-assisted dating, physical challenge shows and a renewed appetite for simple, high-concept entertainment.

The headline was stark. The format market, according to The Wit’s latest tracking, is going through what Mouseler described as a “great depression.” The number of new unscripted formats with at least one option or project in development has fallen dramatically, from 169 in 2016 to only 24 in 2025. It is a collapse that reflects a wider industry mood: broadcasters and platforms are taking fewer risks, commissioning has slowed, and the global format pipeline is becoming more selective.

The decline is also visible in adaptation volumes. The Wit recorded 1,118 unscripted format adaptations, either new or returning, launched worldwide in 2025-26. This represents a 14% drop compared with 2022-23 and a 6% decline compared with 2018-19. The split between new adaptations and returning seasons is especially revealing: returning seasons remain more resilient, while new adaptations are suffering more severely. In a market where buyers are cautious, known brands have become safer bets.

Despite this difficult environment, the UK remains the leading source of unscripted formats. After briefly losing ground to the United States in 2023, the UK is once again unchallenged as the top exporter, accounting for 21% of format adaptations worldwide. The country generated 59 different formats.The top three exporting countries remain unchanged since 2021: the UK, the USA and the Netherlands.

Europe, more broadly, continues to dominate the global format economy. Western Europe is progressing as the leading creative region, with 63% of adaptations based on formats made in Europe. France is also gaining ground, climbing to fourth place among exporting territories, ahead of Flemish Belgium, with 14 different French formats compared with 11 from Belgium. One of the more notable shifts is the rise of Japan, which has overtaken South Korea in the top ten exporter ranking, even as Asian formats overall appear to be slowing down, representing 6% of adaptations.

Japan’s creative presence was illustrated through titles such as Dual from TV Asahi, in which ten athletes compete in physical and mental challenges while carrying “life points” on their backs, and Dumb Luck from TBS, described as the “Ninja Warrior of Luck,” featuring 26 contestants competing in a game of chance, risk and endurance. These examples point to Japan’s continued ability to produce sharply defined, visually distinctive concepts with strong remake potential.

Among the most successful recent formats, Talpa Studios’ The Floor stood out as the number one adapted format over the last six months. Its success confirms the continuing appeal of simple but highly scalable game-show mechanics. The broader “crowd” trend was also visible in titles such as BBC Studios’ Wisdom of the Crowd, set for RTL Germany, a large-scale quiz built around a 1 vs 200 structure. Similarly, The Perfect Dilemma, launched in France on YouTube by Joyca / 432hz, turns social intuition into a game by asking participants to imagine dilemmas that will split people exactly 50/50.

Food competition remains another important pillar of unscripted development, but the trend is moving toward bigger, more visually immediate formats. 100 Cooks, from Warner Bros. International Television Production for Food Network and YouTube in the US, brings together 100 home cooks in a large-scale battle. Thailand’s Hidden Taste Thailand, from True CJ Creations, adapts the mass-cooking concept around a secret ingredient supplied by Lotus’s brand, showing how culinary formats can also integrate brand partnerships and local market specificity.

Dating formats are also being refreshed through scale and technology. Spain’s The Big Date, produced by Incis Films for 3Cat, brings together 100 singles, with 50 couples secretly matched by AI. The format reflects a broader attempt to modernize relationship television by combining classic dating-show emotional stakes with contemporary anxieties around algorithms, compatibility and machine-assisted matchmaking.

Spain emerged as one of the most dynamic territories in Mouseler’s analysis. It ranks as the second importing territory for the second consecutive season, with 29 new adaptations launched in 2025-26: 12 by RTVE, six by Atresmedia and six by Mediaset. The strongest imported genres include talent shows, particularly cooking and music, dating reality and game shows. Spain was also described as an “Eldorado of formats,” while the Netherlands retained its identity as the “home of formats,” thanks to its particularly dense presence of original shows and adaptations in free-to-air prime time.

On the buyer side, global streamers have become a decisive force. According to The Wit, they adapt more formats than any individual territory, with two of the top three format importers being streamers: Amazon Prime Video and Netflix, alongside Spain’s La 1. YouTube also appears in this competitive landscape, confirming the growing role of creator-led entertainment in the format conversation.

That shift toward digital-first development was one of the most striking elements of the presentation. The Wit highlighted YouTube-native titles such as Italy’s Boardingame, created by aledellagiusta, in which three YouTubers, five flights and €17,000 become the ingredients for a travel challenge. France’s Who’ll Find the Best Container?, from Unfold Production, places five YouTubers in a mystery-box competition built around five containers. Spain’s Choose the Right Door and Win, from Ibai Llanos, features three teams answering questions and opening secret doors, while Storage Auctions with YouTubers, from TheWillyrex, turns the storage auction mechanic into a creator-led competition.

These titles show that the boundary between television format and online creator challenge is becoming increasingly porous. YouTube is no longer only a promotional environment or a testing ground; it is becoming a source of original IP, with its own pacing, visual language and audience logic. The most successful concepts are often simple, instantly understandable and built around strong objects or spaces: doors, boxes, containers, floors, flights, storage units.

Distribution power remains concentrated. Banijay Rights leads among format distributors in all regions, with an especially strong position in Western Europe. The company had 43 formats with at least one adaptation, with top sellers including MasterChef, Bloody Game and Deal or No Deal. Fremantle and ITV Studios maintain second and third position, supported by classic titles such as Thank God You’re Here and Come Dine With Me. The top ten distributors accounted for 61% of new adaptations launched, while 36 distribution companies had at least one adaptation. This confirms that, even in a fragmented content ecosystem, format distribution remains a highly concentrated business.

One of the most revealing data points concerned the age of travelling formats. Among new adaptations launched worldwide over the past 12 months, 38% were based on formats under five years old, while 20% were based on formats over 20 years old. The year 2023 was the strongest creation year, with 41 adaptations based on formats created that year, representing 12% of all adaptations launched over the period. In other words, the market is split between fresh IP and durable classics. Buyers want novelty, but they also continue to rely on proven engines.