STV Studios strikes major US deal

STV Group PLC

02 April 2024

 

Immediate Release: Tuesday 2 April 2024

STV Studios' Bridge of Lies format set to travel stateside with bumper order from Game Show Network

Hit STV Studios quiz show format, Bridge of Lies, will soon be challenging audiences across the pond, as US broadcaster Game Show Network has placed a bumper order of 100 episodes of the show, to launch in June.

The series will air under the local title, Beat the Bridge, and will be hosted by actor and presenter, Cameron Mathison (General Hospital, Home & Family).

It will feature an enormous interactive bridge that dares players to cross by stepping on the right answers to challenging trivia questions. Each step forward puts money in the team's bank, with bonus money for each successful crossing. However, the team gets to keep the money only if it can "beat the bridge" by returning one of its players back across before time expires in an exciting end game.

Bridge of Lies, hosted by Ross Kemp, has proven popular with UK audiences since it was first commissioned by BBC Daytime in 2021 as part of a competitive initiative to find new quiz formats made in Scotland. It has since been recommissioned twice, with two primetime series featuring celebrity contestants also commissioned for BBC One.

The programme currently airs in 16 territories, and a local version in Spain - El peunte de las mentiras - was a hit for public broadcaster La 1 in 2023.

Beat the Bridge is a Game Show Enterprises Studios production with Ed Egan as executive producer and Sabrina Hybel Snow as co-executive producer. Josephine Brassey, Gary Chippington and David Mortimer serve as executive producers for STV Studios.

The US deal was brokered by STV Studios, which retained the rights to format sales in the US and Australia. International format sales elsewhere are handled by BBC Studios Distribution.

David Mortimer, Managing Director of STV Studios and executive producer of Beat the Bridge, said: "We're so excited that our much-loved UK quiz format has found a home across the pond, and delighted that Game Show Network has such faith in the show to place an order of this size.

"Beat the Bridge has all the ingredients that have made the format so popular in other territories: nail-biting gameplay, enthusiastic contestants, and a brilliant host in Cameron Mathison. Bringing Bridge of Lies to America is just the latest step in the format's international success story, and I'm looking forward to seeing the response to Beat the Bridge from US audiences when it launches in June."

ENDS

Media Contact

Stephen Innes, STV Studios - [e-mail]

About STV Studios

STV Studios is one of the UK's leading producers of scripted and unscripted content and Scotland's biggest production group. Led by David Mortimer, the group has an impressive track record of success across drama, entertainment and factual, working with the world's biggest broadcasters and streamers including Apple TV+, BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITV, Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery. STV Studios was named Production Group of the Year at the prestigious Edinburgh TV Awards in 2023.

In July 2023, STV acquired Greenbird Media's expansive network of independent production companies, significantly increasing the number of creative labels in the STV Studios family.

STV Studios' in-house drama, entertainment and factual teams have produced hundreds of hours of critically-acclaimed, conversation-starting television, including Apple TV+ thriller Criminal Record (a co-production with Tod Productions); BAFTA and International Emmy award-winning TV film Elizabeth Is Missing (BBC One); nail-biting quiz format Bridge of Lies for the BBC in the UK and sold internationally; iconic Saturday night gameshow Catchphrase (ITV); and a number of much-loved auction-based series including The Yorkshire Auction House for Warner Bros. Discovery and long-running BBC daytime hit, Antiques Road Trip. 

Recent successes for labels within the STV Studios family include Two Cities TV's gripping police drama Blue Lights for BBC One; headline-making Channel 4 comedy chat show Late Night Lycett (Rumpus Media); hit international format LEGO Masters (Tuesday's Child), which has aired in 20 territories across the globe; and Primal Media reality series The Underdog: Josh Must Win for E4, which is also being adapted for US audiences as part of a development deal with NBCUniversal. A number of exciting new productions are coming soon, including Tuesday's Child entertainment event The Fortune Hotel for ITV.

 

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