Stephen Lambert, the influential British television producer behind The Traitors and Undercover Boss, says his company is in the early stages of developing shows for YouTube for the first time.
With YouTube viewing surging on television devices, Lambert told the Edinburgh TV Festival that his company Studio Lambert is “starting to talk” about ways of cracking the Google-owned video service.
Matthew Belloni, host of The Town podcast, asked Lambert whether the economics of YouTube are starting to make more sense for a TV producer. Lambert replied: “Mr Beast does pretty well.”
He continued: “If your energies have all been going into creating these big, expensive shows for tens of millions [of dollars], it’s quite a separate and different kind of operation to try and create something [for YouTube] … We are starting to think about those kinds of ways of moving forward [to] grow something on YouTube.”
Lambert admitted that he does not have a solution for the YouTube conundrum, but said Studio Lambert is considering how it can support creators, or would-be creators, in devising formats. “Whether the people that would take your support are the ones who are going to be successful is the big question,” he added.
Asked if the next big series can come from YouTube, Lambert said: “A good format isn’t necessarily something that’s expensive. If it’s a clever device, it can be made cheaply.”
Lambert spoke about how he has proactively focused Studio Lambert on unscripted shows with budgets worth tens of millions of dollars. To access this “club,” Lambert said producers need to convince buyers they can deliver the show. Once in the club, Lambert said it is “surprisingly not as crowded” as some think.
He recalled a conversation with Netflix unscripted chief Brandon Riegg about the risk of Squid Game: The Challenge. Riegg, who used to work with Lambert on Wife Swap, joked that if the show flops, it could “destroy both our careers.”
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