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FremantleMedia announces Dream School, Four Rooms, Zoo World.

New TV formats in development include schoolkids educated by celebrities, a high-stakes collectibles show and life at the Irwin family zoo.

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Under-achiever schoolkids educated by celebrities, a high-stakes collectibles show where people can land big cash from dealers and a new observational series set at the Irwin family’s Australia’s Zoo -they are three of the new television formats being developed by FremantleMedia Australia.

Dream School:
An Australian adaptation of the UK format Jamie’s Dream School developed by Jamie Oliver in which teenagers who have under-performed at school are inspired by lessons from celebrities and achievers in literature, science, art, politics, sport, music and more. In the UK the tutors who appeared included Simon Callow, Cherie Blair, Daley Thompson, Rolf Harris & Dr David Starkey. Australian celebrities and prominent personalities are already being approached for a local series, to be fronted by an unnamed celebrity who has overcome their own hurdles.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzC30mj4QtQ[/youtube]

Four Rooms:
Think Antiques Roadshow meets Deal or No Deal, this UK format sees people showcasing collectibles they want to sell to dealers. But each dealer sits in a separate room with the person allowed to enter each door in any order to hear what their item might be bought for -but the catch is once they decline a deal they can’t go back. Do they take the first offer or hold out for a better deal?

Making this even more believable, the dealers are all using their own money on the show.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igpmM3ZFHHE[/youtube]

Zoo World:
Set at Australia’s Zoo, operated by the Irwin family, this observational series will go behind the scenes and showcase the people and the animals at the famous tourist park. As well as the care of the animals on show the series profiles some of the thousands of animals given emergency rescue treatment. It follows a development deal between FremantleMedia Australia and the Irwins announced in 2010.

No broadcasters have been announced for the new projects, but FremantleMedia CEO Ian Hogg indicated to TV Tonight that some were already aligned with broadcasters.

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  3. I can’t see any networks picking these up.

    Both Dream School and Four Rooms performed very poorly in the UK.

    Four Rooms is too high brow and unrelatable for the Aussie market and Dream School tanked even with Jamies involvement.

    The Irwin thing sounds very dated.

  7. All of those concepts sound quite interesting. Honestly, reality programming is the gift that keeps on giving, it is impossible to run out of ideas for this genre.

    Dream School sounds like it could shape up to be very good – a simple concept but if they can get the right sort of guests, I reckon this could be rivetting. I love hearing inspiring stories about people who have achieved success, and how they did so. Fantastic that they are looking at fields like literature, art, science, medicine, etc, and not just celebrities I can think of lots of successful Aussies that could feature on this: Fr Chris Riley, Tim Winton, Dr Fiona Wood, David Williamson, John Symonds, Bruce Beresford, Kate Blanchett, Cadel Evans, Steve Waugh – there is a bottomless pit of Australian achievers.

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