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Upfronts 2023: More detail on Taskmaster, Dessert Masters, Hunted, Australian Survivor.

Paramount programming exec Daniel Monaghan offers more insight on some of the key titles announced this week.

Yesterday Paramount unveiled its 2023 programming for 10, Paramount+ and more. You can read about those here.

Daniel Monaghan, SVP Content and Programming at Paramount, speaks to some of the key titles announced.

Taskmaster. Produced by Kevin & Co:

“Tom Gleeson is the Taskmaster and sets of tasks that are designed to be silly and play with humour. They are the same five contestants across the whole series, and there’s a point scoring system decide who will be the winner of the series. They do some group challenges, some individual challenges and there’s a score update at the end of every show.

“It’s quite a popular show because of the balance of physical and banter in the studio. We were approached by quite a number of people. But the Taskmaster has a specific kind of personality, and we asked Tom to do it. He’s still doing Hard Quiz, but he’ll do this as well. 10 has always been a place that will touch from people from different networks. He used to be on our network a lot, anyway.”

Location, Location, Location. Produced by Endemol Shine Australia:

“It’s home-buyers, they’re moving to the country, moving for a sea change. They might be downsizing their big house in the suburbs for something in the city. We haven’t got a host attached as yet.”

Dessert Masters.  Produced by Endemol Shine Australia:

“It’s capitalising on the very, very popular parts of MasterChef. When we have a celebrity chef come with desserts it’s always the most popular episode.

“It’s a new format of 10 known pastry chefs that come in and battle it out to become the Dessert Master. It’s only a short run of episodes at the back of next year. No hosts are attached as yet.”

Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly:

Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly will be at the back of next year. The format owner is Avalon who also did Taskmaster. It’s a very successful show in the UK. Now that you’ve got your dog, you might as well get it trained, right?

“We’ll have Graham Hall who is the same host in the UK come out. He’s called the ‘dog-father’ but he’s kind of a dog whisperer.”

North Shore. Produced by Beach Road Pictures:

“It is a really strong series. Mike Bullen’s delivered all those scripts, at least in first draft form towards the end. We’ve got Gregor Jordan directing, Joanne Froggatt starring and other cast announcements to come both Australian and British.

“It’s about Joanne Froggatt’s character coming out to Sydney after the murder of her daughter. It’s all set in Australia, but it does have 2 British actors in it.”

Paper Dolls. Produced by Helium:

“It’s the rise and fall of a popstar girl group that was formed on a reality television show. So it’s not popcorn – it’s about the pitfalls. It does have a bit of a darker edge to it. I think it’ll hit the sweet spot with our audience given we’ve grown up with reality TV shows on 10.”

Hunted. Produced by Endemol Shine Australia:

“I don’t think we do have to change all that much. We did a specific campaign, which was intrigue and cinematic the way it was put to air in terms of the promo campaign. When people got there, I think they were rewarded with a very exciting show.

“Whenever anyone talks to me about it, they talk about it in terms of how they would escape, or hide for a certain period of time. So I feel like we’ve really engaged that excitement around the show. So I don’t know that there is much. I think people know the rules a bit more. I think we can do a little bit more around that. But we don’t need to move locations. We don’t need to change up any anything significant. I think people will want to see how the next set of people will escape.”

I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here moves to April, live back in Africa produced by ITV Studios Australia:

“We will still launch out of survey, as we’ve always done. But will be a different time of year -pre MasterChef. There’s a lot of reasons for that. We’re excited about the move and also because we wanted to put Bachelors into January and inject some heat into summer, because it’s gonna rain the whole time!”

Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villains in Samoa, produced by Endemol Shine Australia.

“It’s a mix of returning and new contestants, in the heroes and villains tribe which is exciting. I know the Americans often fill it with only returnees but adding new contestants keeps it fresh. It made everyone a bit on edge to be honest. The returnees knew how to play with half but not the others, so that provides a great dynamic. The way they played is spectacular.”

Is The Masked Singer returning?

“It’s not confirmed for 2023 as yet. That’s just because it’s just wrapped up. We always get to this point. The Amazing Racehasn’t finished. We haven’t run Traitors or Love Boat, so we’re in that period of working through those.”

The Living Room is rested for 2023:

“We love the show, we love the talent, they’ve done an excellent job, but we’re just going to move that production team on to some other projects for 2023. Then we’ll see what we can do for subsequent years. Some of the talent are already on other shows like Chris, and we’re just working through the opportunities that we have with all of those four.

“We’ve got a good suite of shows to go into that Friday slot. We had about 30 Living Rooms this year and we’re commissioning for that slot for the whole 30 or 40 weeks. Probably 30 to be honest.”

Will NCIS: Sydney screen in 2023 or 2024?

“There’s nothing in terms of cost to share or timing to be perfectly frank. But we’ve partnered with Endemol Shine on that one. It’s written here, it will star Australians and some international flavour in terms of cast, you would think…Our intention is for it to be 2023.”

The Appleton Ladies Potato Race (on Paramount+):

“It’s a family drama set in the southern highlands of New South Wales. It hasn’t started shooting yet, we haven’t announced any cast. But it is based on a play.”

19 Responses

  1. Location Location Location. No host attached yet. Natalie Bassingthwaighte hosted Changing Rooms on 10. She’d be a nice addition to this too. Sadly, i remember Changing Rooms only aired a handful of episodes before getting “rested”. I wonder what happened to the remaining episodes that were filmed?.

  2. I dont know what Taskmaster is…but wont be watching with Tom Gleeson….he does not appeal to me….
    I hope we dont lose the awesome foursome altogether…but I do admit the new version was never as good as the old one.. I thought that had something to do with not being able to use a lot of it due to the change from WTFN??,,,

  3. I’d loved to have seen another season of The Bridge for Paramount+. But, there’s only so many ways you can sabotage 12 people building a bridge I guess….

      1. I’ll admit I slept on this one (The Bridge) but was intrigued and planned to watch it at some stage. However, Gogglebox completely spoiled the ending. I understand that aired = not a spoiler, however I think they blew it given it was a streaming exclusive. I don’t recall them doing the finale on other streaming reality series. Either way, I won’t watch it now.

        1. They have definitely done finales before from Free to Air and Subscription such as Foxtel, but I’ll admit I was surprised they included it here. I wonder if 10 folk were across that happening, it does feel a bit self-defeating.

  4. Masked Singer finished a month and a half ago, not last week. That’s a total copout answer, considering they announced another season of Real Love Boat during the upfronts even though it has only aired its premiere the night before. (Just on ratings alone you’d have to think it’s got more chance of returning than Love Boat or Amazing Race, but given the level of starpower they got for most of this season’s cast maybe the well is running dry.)

  5. I really hope The Masked Singer and The Amazing Race come back next season. And I can’t wait to see which former contestants do Australian Survivor again.

  6. I was really excited about an Australian Taskmaster until I saw Tom Gleeson is going to be hosting. Absolutely the wrong person for the role. My hope for the Taskmaster was for Gretel Killeen.
    I am happy with the comedians they’ve chosen.
    Let’s just hope that the show sticks to its UK roots and doesn’t get to ‘Aussied’ up

    1. Yes!!! Gretel was my bet too. She would have been perfect!
      Fortunately, it’s being made by the same company that makes the NZ version, which is right up there in terms of quality.

    2. I’m hoping it isn’t too bogan. It’s could be another case of ruining an original and the verdict is out on the Australian version of Would I Lie To You?

  7. Tagmaster I will give a miss. Tom Gleeson is the most smug & overrated person on Australian tv.
    Dessert Makers looks good but I hope that Kirsten Tibballs is not involved. I would like to see Jess Liemantara & Reynold Poernomo as hosts.
    An interesting range of shows all up. If only 10 could sort out its News/Project mess they might have a chance at better ratings

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