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Utopia & Opposite Worlds - two new BB style series

Brekkie

Brekkie

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Big Brother creators John de Mol's latest in a long time of attempts to find another hit format has landed on dutch TV screens this week - Utopia.

The show is a year long series which sees 15 people cut off from the outside world and given the opportunity to build their own "Utopia". To begin with they have a couple of large sheds, some land, two cows, some chickens and access to electricity and water, plus a small amount of cash. The show claims unlike other shows they'll be no producer interference and they will just be there to film (let's see how long that lasts), but there will be a monthly vote, with one person voted off and two joining the community, but only one of those getting to stay.

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http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140107/dutch-reality-tv-king-returns-utopia
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2014/01/big_brother_maker_has_high_hop.php
http://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/

Must admit as someone who loved the classic concept of Big Brother far more than the idea of it being a fast track to fame it's rather interesting.

Also launching this month in America is a blatant rip-off of the Big Brother: The Battle format as two teams battle it out with one living in the "luxurious future" and one in the "primitive past", separated by a glass wall.

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I love the Utopia format. I could see that one succeeding in several different countries if it is done properly.
 
insider06 said:
I love the Utopia format. I could see that one succeeding in several different countries if it is done properly.
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Just like The Golden Cage Utopia is a one-off series at best... The reason BB worked and was sold globally is because it had a specific structure built in to its story and worked to a specific outcome over a limited time... In other words the weekly tasks, nominations, and evictions gave viewers something to tune in for and ensured an evolving storyline... It wasn't just a group of people living in a house... It is also a competition and as the series progresses the structure builds excitement as the series works to crown its winner...

Utopia might have worked in the early days of Reality TV but nowadays viewers are looking for a show that is both fast paced and contains high drama elements... I don't believe it will last much longer than a year and I doubt it can be as easily reproduced successfully on a global scale... Shows like Castaway and Shipwrecked worked due to the innocence of the genre (being able to watch everyday people on TV) and the fact that there was very little competition...
 
I'm very interested in Opposite worlds. I'm pretty sure that it was just on in the us and I can't find a source to watch it, I guess I'll keep trying to find one.
 
Inigo Montoya said:
I'm very interested in Opposite worlds. I'm pretty sure that it was just on in the us and I can't find a source to watch it, I guess I'll keep trying to find one.
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It's based off a concept from Chile and for me it's certainly the most interesting of the two... And the most viable in terms of it being sold elsewhere...

I'm not a huge fan of the way it's being aired though with two back to back episodes per week and no live content other than some sort of live show in the second weekly episode... I can only assume the "live" element is a weekly elimination and from what I understand the elimination is competitive... So based on that I'll say it's a live competition...

Now all that said I think this show will most likely go the same route as other "Big Brother" knock-offs... Unan1mous and Glass House both had interesting concepts however both shows lacked elements that keep viewers watching Big Brother... I watched and enjoyed both shows in their own right so don't get me wrong it's just that both shows failed to be as engaging as the show they were trying to emulate...

As for John de Mol I really wish he'd just repackage a hybrid BBUS format and incorporate a few new elements... He obviously loves the BB concept but it seems the more he tries to recreate the further he gets from what actually made the concept so fascinating in the first place... The idea worked because it was simple and structured... Both The Golden Cage and Utopia are simple concepts but lack structure needed to engage audiences en-mass and are virtually impossible to recreate...
 
Maybe this show will work better as a World Big Brother type of thing? Each contestant is from a different country and the whole world watches, votes, etc.


Before anyone says it, there HAS been a world wide reality show before...World Idol about 10 year ago had people from all countries voting on a winner
 
From the preview, Opposite Worlds looks like a cross between American Gladiator or American Ninja Warrior, and Big Brother. I'll give it a shot and at least watch the first couple shows.
 
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Can only find the briefest of clips of Opposite Worlds, so can't really judge it. The first challenge was basically two contestant head to head on a giant podium fighting to push the other one off.
 
Brekkie said:
Can only find the briefest of clips of Opposite Worlds, so can't really judge it. The first challenge was basically two contestant head to head on a giant podium fighting to push the other one off.
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I watched the episode via the SyFy site with Hola chrome extension. Worked perfectly from here in Wales, UK :)
 
Finally got to watch it this weekend - quite underwhelming really. Not great when the first challenge of a series results in a broken leg for one contestant, and clearly through questionable challenge design rather than unfortunate accident. When the host was sending out their best wishes to him on the live show you could easily see he meant "please don't sue us!".

It seemed thin on content and so focused on the fairly limited competition aspect that you just couldn't get to know the participants (even BBUSA isn't that bad). To sum up the basic format:

- two sides - Future and Past. 12 contestants were split originally and lived in the two halves - no explanation as to why they were split in the way they were.
- They took part in their first "Worldly Challenge" (all challenges take place in the "present" - aka outside). A series of one to one battles on a podium armed with a taser - first to fall loses the point (or breaks their leg!). First team to win 4 bouts get to choose where to live (at the moment there is no clear reason why they wouldn't choose future)
- Contestants in both world then have to name one person in their team to be "protected". They are immune and compete in a viewers vote to be the "decider" - the person who'll choose one person from each side to compete in an elimination duel. Annoying catchphrases here like "the winner has a future in the game, the loser is history" - though it did make me quip when after giving out text and online voting info they said people still living in the past could vote by phone.
- The "duel of destiny" then takes place in the live show
- In addition they've created a "Twitter popularity index", based on which each week the most popular HM is rewards and the least popular is punished. Viewers can also vote on these rewards and punishments.


As I said it was rather underwhelming - the set looks good but apart from that I'm not sure it has much going for it.
 
Brekkie said:
Finally got to watch it this weekend - quite underwhelming really. Not great when the first challenge of a series results in a broken leg for one contestant, and clearly through questionable challenge design rather than unfortunate accident. When the host was sending out their best wishes to him on the live show you could easily see he meant "please don't sue us!".

It seemed thin on content and so focused on the fairly limited competition aspect that you just couldn't get to know the participants (even BBUSA isn't that bad). To sum up the basic format:

- two sides - Future and Past. 12 contestants were split originally and lived in the two halves - no explanation as to why they were split in the way they were.
- They took part in their first "Worldly Challenge" (all challenges take place in the "present" - aka outside). A series of one to one battles on a podium armed with a taser - first to fall loses the point (or breaks their leg!). First team to win 4 bouts get to choose where to live (at the moment there is no clear reason why they wouldn't choose future)
- Contestants in both world then have to name one person in their team to be "protected". They are immune and compete in a viewers vote to be the "decider" - the person who'll choose one person from each side to compete in an elimination duel. Annoying catchphrases here like "the winner has a future in the game, the loser is history" - though it did make me quip when after giving out text and online voting info they said people still living in the past could vote by phone.
- The "duel of destiny" then takes place in the live show
- In addition they've created a "Twitter popularity index", based on which each week the most popular HM is rewards and the least popular is punished. Viewers can also vote on these rewards and punishments.


As I said it was rather underwhelming - the set looks good but apart from that I'm not sure it has much going for it.
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100% agreed with pretty much everything... They focused way too much on the separation between the two worlds... The little "game" we did see really gave no indication of how strategy plays in to things other than winning the challenges and how a single person will eventually win... Overall I thought the show seemed very scripted... I don't see it lasting long at all...
 
According to RealityBlurred Fox has bought Utopia... Lets hope they work the show in to more of a Survivor/BB hybrid...
 
The American version of Utopia is starting in 6 days time.
There a feeds, one version of the feeds are free and there are also feeds that you can pay for.
So the show is set to go for a year, but I think that if the ratings are not any good it won't last that long. I'll be giving it a go.
 
The elimination process of one going out, two coming in, but only one of those gets to stay sounds a lot like Paradise Hotel. And because of that concept the show went on for ages. The problem i see with this is the length of the show, viewers may get disinterested after a while if the show doesn't mix it up frequently.
 
I'll be amazed if it's still on air by Christmas. These type of reality shows which focus more on social experiment and less on competition just don't go down well in America.

Apparently though one of the Utopians(?) is secretly pregnant, so they'll probably hold out long enough for her to give birth. Or she'll be evicted first.
 
The free live feeds have begun for the USA Utopia. The Pioneers are bedding down for the night. A lot of drama for day 1. Meetings, skinny dipping, drunkeness, and a fight, kinda. One Pioneer has been removed by security, but may be returning.
 
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I'm interested in seeing if this works out so I'll give the shows a go as the feed refuses to work for me which is annoying.
 
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