FTVS Shops New Game Show
By Ben Grossman -- Broadcasting & Cable, 6/16/2008
Fox Television Studios (FTVS) is prepping to shop to the networks a new family game show called Family Trust, and recently shot a pilot in Santiago, Chile.
The format features families of five advanced a $1 million trust that they can keep or lose by working together to choose subject categories from which they must answer questions. Wrong answers mean money gets subtracted from their account. But they get a chance to double what they have left at the end of the show.
The pilot was hosted by noted comedian and writer Greg Fitzsimmons, who has written for shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Lucky Louie.
“It's almost like an interview show where there is a game going on,” Fitzsimmons says. “The interaction within the family is really the story. The money and the game are almost secondary to getting to know the family and watching me needle them about themselves and each other.”
The show was produced in conjunction with Chilean-based EFE3 (Efetres), which is co-owned by actor Cristian de la Fuente, who appears on USA Network's new drama In Plain Sight and was a contestant on Dancing With the Stars.
It was co-created by Tom Brunelle and Matt Gaven, who also executive-produced under Gaven's development deal with the studio.
FTVS was originally going to shoot the pilot in Argentina, but moved it to Chile for economic reasons. The studio continues to pursue other co-productions in South America to be sold internationally as well as in the U.S.
