Chinese reality show format preps for export

While many Chinese TV stations are busy introducing reality show formats from overseas, one domestic show is being prepared for possible export to foreign markets, including the United States.

Only You, a popular job-hunting show produced by Tianjin Satellite TV, was given the Grand Prize in the Chinese Competition of the 2013 FMM-SCTVF Format Competition in Miami.

The event was launched in September 2012 by the Sichuan TV Festival and US independent filmmakers organization Florida Media Market. The goal of the event was to find innovative show formats from emerging markets, such as China and Latin America.

The competition was intended to generate creative formats that have the potential to be highly valuable brands in the international TV market.

It included three language versions. The English and Spanish competitions began in Miami, Florida, and the Sichuan TV Festival hosted the Chinese competition in Chengdu.

"Importing formats from overseas is not the only solution for China's TV industry, because there are actually a number of excellent home-grown shows," said Liu Shuang, producer of Only You, in an interview with Tianjin local newspaper Morning Post.

Liu outlined what he called the usual pattern of TV programs going global - producers in Britain or the Netherlands have good ideas, and the programs become national hits. Then they attract attention of US broadcasters, who introduce them to the United States, repackage them and resell the copyright around the world.

"On the Chinese mainland, TV broadcasters used to get reality show formats from Taiwan," he said. "But after a decade of development, we now have surpassed Taiwan, and have started to buy copyrights directly from the US."

Only You simulates face-to-face interviews in which job applicants are quizzed by a panel of employers. Since its debut in October 2010, it has provided a stage for around 200 companies and more than 500 job seekers, more than 300 of whom having found jobs , according to the Tianjin TV website.

One of the show's features is that the job-seekers can turn off the light before a boss' seat, meaning he refuses the job the boss provides. When it was shown in the US as a Grand Prize nominee earlier this year, that feature attracted much interest among overseas broadcasters, Liu said.

He said the format would "probably be sold to the US, making it the first original Chinese show to enter an overseas market".

Tianjin TV is planning to launch another similar reality show targeting overseas Chinese students that invites Chinese entrepreneurs abroad to conduct job interviews.