‘Man vs machine’ TV3 game show hot pick at Cannes

TV3 Group's forthcoming "man versus machine" game show the Algorithm has been selected as one of the "hot pick" formats at this week's Mipcom entertainment marketplace by UK industry magazine Broadcast.

The Cannes event, which together with April's MIPTV festival, is the place to be for broadcasters and production firms in the business of selling or acquiring programmes and formats.

Amid strong competition for buyers' attention, Algorithm has been pitched to Cannes attendees by All3Media International, the part-funder and distributor of the game show. All3Media is a UK-based conglomerate of production companies that was acquired earlier this year by US giants Discovery and Liberty Global.

Broadcasters from Europe and Australia have previously expressed “keen interest” in the format while visiting the set during filming in August, according to All3Media International’s vice-president of format sales Nick Smith.

The original Irish version of the game show, hosted by 98FM presenter Ray Foley, will debut on TV3 in spring of next year, with the one-hour episodes destined to go out in a peak-time weekend slot.

It is a co-production between Canadian independent production firm Soshefeigh and TV3's in-house production division 3Studios, with the filming of the first series having recently completed at TV3's Sony HD Studio in Dublin.

Under the format, a group of contestants climb a prize-money ladder if they can correctly predict the answers that are given by one member of the team, who is locked in a backstage soundproof cube (an element of the show that may seem familiar to viewers of Mr and Mrs and its spin-offs).

The twist is that the team must beat the predicted answers given by a computer that has been pre-loaded with the preferences of the isolated contestant and the collated results of a national consumer survey. “Who knows you best – your nearest and dearest, or a computer?” is the question posed by the show.

TV3 group head of development and formats Andrew Byrne says the "fun and clever" format is consistent with its ambition to work with "some of the best global producers and co-development partners", while Soshefeigh's René Brar, Algorithm's executive producer, has described Ireland as "the perfect launch pad" for the show.