Format

A new trend is emerging in the unscripted world—still relatively undeveloped, but with significant potential. It is that of ‘Educational Formats,’ whose titles blend entertainment with informative elements. When executed well, the learning aspect doesn’t weigh the format down; instead, it enriches it, making it a perfect fit for public broadcasters and beyond.

A case in point is History Hunters, a game show created by Heartland TV and distributed by Primitives, which debuted to great success on the Danish public broadcaster DR1 in November of last year and has already been recommissioned for a second season (we wrote about it here).

And now, on September 1st at 8:30 PM, another public network—this time Dutch (NPO2)—will host the debut of De Meester Gids (‘The Master Guide’), produced and distributed by Mediawan Skyhigh.

In this format, six celebrities take on the challenge and compete to guide groups of museum visitors around the museum’s showpieces as museum guides. All six celebrities are talented storytellers and have a (basic) interest in art and history. But they are not experts. And some of them rarely visit museums. They will all have to immerse themselves in the museum pieces.
Which of these celebrities is the most knowledgeable museum guide and best able to enthusiastically and expertly tell and inform their museum guests about the museum pieces they show the group? And who can best present the stories behind the museum pieces in an appealing way?

Each episode focuses on a different well-known museum. It could be an art museum or a historical museum. We visit six museums in six episodes. Every week, the celebrities are assigned a group of 10 museum guests to whom they give a guided tour. Each celebrity is assigned a different part of the museum for the tour with the group. The groups do not know in advance who their guides will be, and the celebrities do not know in advance what kind of group they will be dealing with this time.

The celebrities are judged by the group of visitors and by a jury. At the end of every episode, one celebrity has to leave the competition. The final will take place in the famous Van Gogh Museum. Which celebrity is the best museum guide and wins the title ‘Master Guide’?
In a period of great fragmentation and transformation, traditional networks — especially public ones, but not exclusively — must rethink their role in order not to lose their relevance and their audience. Educational Formats can certainly be one of the (many) paths to follow….

To read about other 2 strategies to survive the digital fragmentation, go to this link
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