Reed MIDEM And Warner Bros. International Television Production Announce Five Finalists Of The MIPFormats International Pitch Competition

PARIS, March 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Reed MIDEM, organiser of MIPTV and MIPFormats, and Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP), today announce the five MIPFormats International Pitch competition finalists who will be invited to Cannes to pitch their projects during the 5^th edition of MIPFormats (5-6 April 2014), ahead of MIPTV (7-10 April, Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France).

The MIPFormats International Pitch is the global pitching event for creators and producers around the world with original, non-scripted entertainment formats. For the third year, Warner Bros. International Television Production, the exclusive sponsor of the competition, oversaw the pre-selection and will spend up to €25,000 to develop the winning project of the MIPFormats Pitch.

The finalists will pitch their project live on Sunday 6 April in front of an international jury of formats experts: Nick Emmerson, CEO, Ricochet (UK), Taco Ketelaar, Senior Vice President, Prime Time, Entertainment Sat.1, ProsiebenSat.1 TV Deutschland (Germany), Sandra  Kleinfeld, Director of Development, Studio & Unscripted Content, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Canada), Cathrine Wiernik, Head of Development & Format Acquisitions, TV4 (Sweden).

The five finalists are:

HAVE THEM DANCE! 
Presented by Francesca Moino, TV Writer/Producer and Development, Italy and Alberto Mascia, Director and Screenwriter, Italy

Tired of your man sticking his butt cheeks to a chair all night and refusing to dance with you at every party? Women, worry no more! For all of you who have lost all hope, Niall is the answer! A skilled dancer, an amazing instigator and the king of all parties, Niall will use any means, both licit and illicit, to make your man dance: from psychological torture to physical constraint. But at the end of the training he will send you back a whole new partner, a spring John Travolta with an ever shaking booty.

STARS ON THE STREET
Presented by Xabi Zabaleta, Head of New Formats & Projects, Pausoka, Spain

In this show, the singers have to start from the beginning: singing in the street. Each day, four singers face the most demanding jury: street passersby.

Before that, the host goes to find the selected singers to their home or work. Once the singers accept the challenge, the host takes them out and offers them one hour to choose which clothes and instruments will need for the duel.

The four candidates are facing two street duels, and the winner is decided by people on the street, giving coins in the basket of the singer they liked most. The winner of each duel, disputes the final duel of the day.

THE MEANS TEST
Presented by Noleen Golding, Executive Editor, Tyrone Productions, Ireland and Patricia Moore, Producer, Tyrone Productions, UK

The Means Test is a brand new television quiz concept - with huge app potential - where it pays to be above average.  100 players are whittled using a scoring mechanism where each contestant's performance is measured against the average score of the group (collated after each round).  Fall below this average and you're out.  Stay above average and you're still in play.  In each round, questions get increasingly difficult, answer options increase and time decreases - leading to brain overload, sheer panic and more chance of dropping down the leader-board.  A nail-biting two-player final sees one contestant 'set the average' and the other 'chase the average'.

THE POWER OF LOVE
Presented by Billy McGrath, Owner / Creative Director, Sideline Productions, Ireland

For many singles, long-term happiness in this world of speed-dating-sexting-online-dating seems unreachable. But THE POWER OF LOVE aims to change that…by bringing you back to the era of old fashioned courtship when single people got to know each other personally before they stepped out as a 'couple'. THE POWER OF LOVE is the Downtown Abbey of TV dating shows driven by a brilliant cast and compelling narrative spine that will punch through the primetime TV schedule. With scope for divorcees and same-sex shows, THE POWER OF LOVE is a new global format just waiting to be asked out!

ZOMBIE BOOT CAMP
Presented by Lisa Gray, Head of Content, The Feds, Australia and Claire Marshall, Associate Producer – Development, The Feds, Australia

Zombie Boot Camp is a reality show that trains sixteen contestants for the fight of their lives - the ZombieApocalypse. Every episode contestants in two teams will compete in a survival challenge, testing their skills in everything from skull protection to improvised bullets. The winning team will be given immunity, the losing team must choose three contestants to face the Zombies. Two contestants will escape but the last to reach the escape hatch will be eaten. In the finale the final two will face 200 zombies including their old team members in the greatest zombie battle ever seen!

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About MIPTV- MIPTV - now in its 51^st year - is the world's most powerful and prestigious market and creative incubator for content on every screen. In early April, professionals from across the TV and digital entertainment spectrum gather in Cannes, France for four days of intensive networking, trading, screenings, and high-level conferences and keynotes. MIPTV is also a key venue for early-stage development and financing deals, content acquisitions and programme sales. Meanwhile, the MIPCube forum - an integral part of the MIPTV week - explores the ways in which technology and creativity are working together to enrich and reinvent the viewing experience. The weekend prior to MIPTV sees the MIPDoc and MIPFormats showcases, now recognised as among the world's most influential events for the non-fiction and unscripted programming industries. www.miptv.com

About Reed MIDEM – Founded in 1963, Reed MIDEM is a leading organiser of professional, international tradeshows. Reed MIDEM events have established themselves as key dates in professional diaries. The company hosts MIPTV, MIPDOC, MIPCOM, and MIPJUNIOR for the television and digital content industries, MIDEM for music professionals, LeWeb Paris and London for internet forward-thinkers, MIPIM, MIPIM Asia, MIPIM UK and MAPIC for the property and retail real estate sectors. www.reedmidem.com

About Reed Exhibitions - Reed Exhibitions is the world's leading events organizer, with over 500 events in 41 countries. In 2012 Reed brought together seven million active event participants from around the world generating billions of dollars in business. Today Reed events are held throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa and organized by 34 fully staffed offices. Reed Exhibitions serves 44 industry sectors with trade and consumer events and is part of the Reed Elsevier Group, a world leading provider of professional information solutions. www.reedexpo.com

About Warner Bros. International Television Production - Warner Bros. International Television Production (WBITVP) aims to establish or acquire production companies in the major television territories around the world in order to become a leading producer of local scripted and non-scripted programming. In those territories where WBITVP establishes a production base, it operates by developing and producing original programming and also producing local versions of formats owned and controlled by the group such as "The Bachelor", "The World's Strictest Parents" and "Who Do You Think You Are?"  Where WBITVP has no local production capability it licenses Warner Bros. formats to 3^rd parties. WBITVP has taken significant steps by acquiring a majority stake in both UK production group Shed Media, one of the UK's largest and most successful independent production companies which operates both in the UK and the US, and in BlazHoffski Holding B.V., a leading independent television producer in The Netherlands and Belgium.

SOURCE Reed MIDEM