Welcome to our selection of the most scorching titles headed to MIPCOM this year, The Deadline Dozen. Our editorial team has carefully researched and selected the projects we expect to drive the chatter on the Croisette and beyond.
We start with scripted. Check back tomorrow for the best of MIPCOM’s unscripted fare.
Image: BBC Studios
BBC STUDIOS
Length: 5 x 60’
Producers: BBC Studios Natural History Unit, The Open University
Networks: BBC (U.K.), BBC America (U.S.)
The BBC’s natural history output has set the global benchmark even with many more players in the field today than a decade ago. Hidden Planet is the latest in the canon, this time turning the micro-cameras on the world of insects.
The five-part series shines a spotlight on insect societies, highlighting how ants, beetles and other bugs play the roles of parents, builders and sophisticated communicators as they strike alliances with larger animals and perform incredible feats of strength and intelligence.
The BBC has equipped the BBC Studios Natural History Unit with a mountain of the latest scientific work and top-of-the-line cameras to aid the filming. In this case, the scientific theory has been combined with bespoke robotic systems and specially designed lenses to get to the heart of insect life. Worryingly, the series will show how their communities are increasingly under threat from humans.
With BBC America already on board as a co-producer and backed by research from The Open University, BBC Studios hits Cannes with the closest thing to a sure-fire documentary seller on the Croisette this year.
THE BILLION DOLLAR HASH HUNT
BLUE ANT RIGHTS
Length: 3 x 60’
Producer: Alibi Entertainment
Network:Crave (Canada)
Since completing a reverse takeover of Canadian compatriot Boat Rocker just over a year ago, Blue Ant Rights has spent time refining its sales and streaming businesses and is hoping the corporate reshuffling leaves it with a stronger distribution operation than before. MIPCOM will be a good test.
Among the highlights of its slate is The Billion Dollar Hash Hunt, the latest doc series from Canada’s Crave, the red-hot streamer behind Heated Rivalry. This one is billed as a “true-crime treasure hunt” that chronicles the story of former smuggler Billy Greer, who moved thousands of tons of hash for shadowy Dutch crime network The Octopus.
Greer’s caper came to an end when 54 tons of drugs were seized and DEA agent Rick Carter sent him down for 20 years. It’s a familiar story until the plot takes a wild twist: Years later, Greer and Carter join forces to uncover what happened to the missing drugs.
This opens the story up to startling confessional interactions, remarkable archive footage and a high-stakes present day search.
With most docs in the true-crime space focused on building a picture of the past, Blue Ant will hope bringing the narrative into the modern day gives it the edge with discerning doc buyers who need their shows to cut through. Given it was greenlit by a streamer, this one looks set to work on digital platforms as well as linear TV.
Image: Fox
Fox Entertainment Global
Length: TBC
Producer: Fox Entertainment Studios
Network: Fox (U.S.), Joyn (Germany)
The Marriage Market is coming to market. A new reality dating format, the show is for U.S. network Fox, and the finished version and the format are launching internationally at MIPCOM.
The Fox show is fronted by actress-comedian-podcaster Whitney Cummings. As well as a stand-up, she is the co-creator of CBS show 2 Broke Girls and creator of NBC’s Whitney. As a host, she fronted HBO’s Friends gameshow, Fast Friends.
Billed as an immersive matchmaking experience and a new take on the dating show, the format features singletons who are tired of swiping and first dates and are ready to get hitched. The twist is, the would-be brides and grooms must hand total control of their love lives to their families.
When two families think they have the perfect match, the couple are introduced and get engaged on the spot. Then the new pair and their families move in together and the matchmaking is put to the test.
The families are still in charge and must decide if they have found them the one, or whether it has not worked out and their loved one needs to be pitched back into the marriage market, giving them another shot at finding the love of their lives.
The show has an international pedigree. It is borne out of a formats initiative that saw Fox work with international broadcasters such as ProSiebenSat.1 in Germany and TF1 in France to jointly work up new unscripted shows. Accordingly, The Marriage Market bowed in Germany first, on ProSieben’s streaming platform Joyn. Cheerio Entertainment, part of the German broadcaster’s production and distribution division, made the German version.
Fox Entertainment Studios makes the U.S. version, which is slated for Fox’s 2026-2027 season. Alycia Rossiter, who worked on The Bachelor and The Bachelorette, is the showrunner. Fox Entertainment Global is handling distribution and will be looking for love—from buyers—in Cannes.
RUINS: RISE & FALL
BOSSANOVA MEDIA
Length:8 x 60’
Producer: Like A Shot Entertainment
Networks: Warner Bros. Discovery (EMEA), SBS (Australia), Channel 4 (U.K.), TV2 (Norway), Sky New Zealand
Every year for a decade, London-based BossaNova Media has held a pitching event dubbed Development Day, which brings together its biggest producers and clients. The idea is to fast-track greenlights and get factual projects out the door at a quicker pace. Paul Heaney’s company itself acts as the central commissioner, putting projects into production and then sells the rights to buyers who have already stated their interest.
Ruins: Rise & Fall is one such series. The eight-part show was greenlit in April, with Heaney saying at the time, “Some projects you invest in are a bit of a risk, but Ruins: Rise & Fall isn’t one of them.” The reason for that is the unquenching market need for solid factual projects that can both be popular on linear channels and drive older viewers to streaming services.
The series explores 24 sites around the world and is built on one idea: every ruin has two stories—how it rose and how it fell. Viewers are taken to ancient Sri Lankan rock fortress Sigiriya, the ruins of Ephesus in Turkey and Roman auxiliary fort Vindolanda in the U.K. and on to more modern places such as Hitler’s Wolf’s Lair in Poland and vast underground Nazi war factories.
Archaeologists and historians tell their stories from the ambition and ingenuity that made them, to the conflict and catastrophe that transformed them into the ruins of today. Digital reconstruction will show sites being stripped back to before the first stone was laid to seeing them rebuilt and then torn apart through war, disaster, abandonment and decay.
Given that several of the largest global territories are already off the market is a testament to BossaNova’s strategic foresight, so those buyers in the remaining territories should move fast.
100 COOKS
Image: WBITVP
Warner Bros. International Television Production
Length: 9 x 60’
Producer: Lando Entertainment
Network: Food Network (U.S)
“Your number could come up at any moment.” That is the logline that greets chefs daring to take on Warner’s 100 Cooks, which found its perfect American host in the shape of Terry Crews. A Food Network original, it is now being served up internationally.
There may be a few out there now, but 100 Cooks feels one of the highest-stakes (or should that be steaks?) on offer.
The 100 contestants enter the vast kitchen arena ready for a chance to call the shots. A randomized Challenge Mixer reveals the next test: From weeknight meals and party bites to holiday sweets or the best burger. The Cook Mixer then selects which competitors will step forward and take on the challenge.
Nobody knows when they will compete, what they will be asked to do, how many cooks will join them, or how many could be sent home. Everyone must be ready for anything, and as 100 becomes 50, the kitchen slowly empties and the competition intensifies until one cook eventually walks away victorious. In the case of the U.S. version, it was Bryce, an oil field worker from Montana.
100 Cooks was a big hit for Food Network and it’s no wonder Warner Bros. International Television Production is prioritizing this one in Cannes. Brooklyn Nine-Nine star Crews is a hugely recognizable name who brings a unique feel to the show, and so 100 Cooks could easily work as finished tape or be shopped as a format, for which territories would then seek a host who can similarly make a big noise. At MIPCOM, Warner is also selling TLC UK format Unacceptable, New Zealand’s Crackhead and the Buried with Michael Sheen doc about the Good Omens star’s investigation into toxic waste.
ALL HEART
BOAT ROCKER STUDIOS
Length: 4 x 40’
Producers: Boat Rocker Studios
Network: Crave (Canada)
The second Crave documentary in our Dozen, this four-parter has been selected to satisfy the hunger for sports access docs. The docuseries’ full working title is All Heart: Canada Women’s Rugby and the Quest for Rugby World Cup Glory. It was ordered last year and will stream on Bell Media’s Crave this year.
The series follows the Canadian team’s historic run to the World Cup final, where they were ultimately toppled by host country England, going down 33-13 in front of a sellout crowd of 82,000 at Twickenham Stadium in South West London.
It goes behind the scenes, showcasing the culmination of years of hard work and sacrifice, with Rugby Canada and World Rugby providing director Kathleen James behind-the-scenes access to the players and coaching staff. James is known for making 2025’s Naomi Osaka: The Second Set, a tennis access doc that was sold to Fox Corp.-owned streamer Tubi for the U.S. market.
Exec producers on All Heart include Jay Baruchel—the Canadian actor and filmmaker with credits including Knocked Up, How to Train Your Dragon and She’s Out of My League—and rock band The Tragically Hip, who are long-time supporters of women’s sports and fundraisers for the Canadian women’s rugby team.
The title is only just hitting the market now despite its 2025 order, and takes a key spot in Boat Rocker Studios’ slate this year.
Image: James Stack/NBC
NBCUniversal Formats
Length: TBC
Producers: Universal Television Alternative Studio, Electric Hot Dog, The New York Times
Network: NBC (U.S.)
The New York Times daily word puzzle game Wordle is coming to U.S. TV, and the format is coming to the international market.
The game is a phenomenon. Developed by Josh Wardle, a Welsh software engineer at Reddit, players have to find a five-letter word. They have six attempts, with colored tiles offering feedback on the correct and redundant letters, and their placement in that day’s word.
The New York Times paid a reported $3 million to buy Wordle and it has become a cornerstone of its digital and games offering. The game has racked up billions of users. Getting a word with a small number of guesses is a source of pride for players.
The Wordle TV game show will bow on U.S. broadcast network NBC. Broadcaster, journalist, Today anchor and avid Wordle player Savannah Guthrie is set to host. She has form with the game, previously playing a huge version of the game in Times Square, New York.
Universal Television Alternative Studio is producing with Jimmy Fallon’s Electric Hot Dog and The New York Times. Fallon, who has increasingly moved into producing, is an exec-producer on the show. He is a Wordle fan, even having a segment on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in which he and the team played the game live on air.
The TV game show has been a few years in the making. It will take place over three super-sized rounds with two teams solving the Wordle puzzles in each half-hour episode. NYT execs have promised the show will stay true to the spirit of the game.
The Wordle game show is on trend with several TV adaptations of games in the cards. There are TV versions of Monopoly, Cluedo and The Settlers of Catan being developed. Historically, the likes of Scrabble, Boggle, Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary have all been adapted for TV.
In terms of Wordle, NBCUniversal Formats, a division of Universal Studio Group, is across distribution and selling the format.
CAPTCHA
SEVEN.ONE STUDIOS INTERNATIONAL
Length: 10 x 50’
Producer: Thinketers
Network: LA 2 (Spain)
Spain is known in the unscripted world for the likes of Operación Triunfo and El Conquistador, but it has primarily been an importer of formats, rather than an exporter.
Germany’s Seven.One Studios International is hoping to add another name to the canon with Captcha. The game show is based around those ubiquitous internet verification tests that check if the visitor to a website is human or a bot.
The format tests the statement ‘I’m not a robot’ by putting four contestants through a series of visual puzzles, logic games and AI-powered, web-inspired challenges to prove their human credentials.
Celebrity guests accompany the contestants, ideally helping and not hindering them, to an all-or-nothing final, where one test decides everything, including the true identity of the player.
A final verification proves if they are human or not, and if they keep the cash that they have been accruing.
The format has been already produced for Spanish broadcaster La 2, where it was a success across its first season.
Seven.One Studios International, now part of the expanding MediaForEurope empire, will be looking to captcha interest with the show in a cluttered market for attention- grabbing formats.
HISTORY’S STRANGE FORTUNES WITH KEVIN BACON
A+E GLOBAL MEDIA
Length: 10 x 60’
Producers: A+E Factual Studios, VaynerWatt
Network: The History Channel (U.S.)
History is filled with stories of the strange ways people won and lost their fortunes. In A+E Global Media’s latest talent-led unscripted series, the aim is to tell as many of those stories as possible.
History’s Strange Fortunes with Kevin Bacon will see the Footloose, X: Men First Class and Crazy, Stupid, Love actor examine wild tales such as Elvis dropping $50,000 on a midnight sandwich one evening to million-dollar scams and gold rush windfalls. Expect greed, luck, obsession and the old adage that fortune really does favor the brave (and the strange, according to A+E).
The talent-led model has dominated commissioning at The History Channel for some time, with numerous slates pairing well-known faces with lesser-known cases. Indeed, Bacon is just one of four star-fronted series in a March 2026 slate—the others being Extraordinary Origins with Ted Danson, Crime and Justice with Tom Selleck and History’s Greatest Machines with Dolph Lundgren.
“Talent-led formats succeed on History because they unite inimitable personalities with amazing storytelling,” says Patrick Vien, Group MD for International at A+E Global Media. “Kevin Bacon’s global fan base paired with our universal fascination with money gives History’s Strange Fortunes broad international appeal.”
At MIPCOM this year, both Bacon and Danson’s shows will take center stage for A+E, alongside the likes of Lifetime movie Buried in Barstow and miniseries The Bible Revealed.
TERRAIN: BATTLE OF THE FLAGS
PRIMITIVES
Length: 10 x 25’
Producer: Roses Are Blue
Network: ZDF (Germany), YouTube
Germany has been the progenitor of some of Europe’s most creative entertainment formats and release windows in recent years with shows such as 7 Vs. Wild and Terrain. Battle of the Flags is now hoping to be its latest success story.
The 10-part, half-hour format is the brainchild of German actor, comedian and YouTuber Torge Oerlich, known to his followers as Freshtorge. He began developing the adventure-reality show, which aims to generate an immersive gameplay experience, with Belgian format maker Roses Are Blue. German pubcaster ZDF quickly boarded the project.
Inspired by gaming mechanics, Terrain follows ten high-profile creators who divide into five teams and, taking a cue from The Traitors, compete in a purpose-built game environment set against a dramatic Scottish Highlands backdrop. Their mission is simply to capture the other team’s flag and defend their own. Unlike The Traitors, the gameplay does not compel them to form alliances, as the teams are fixed.
The teams self-shoot their experience and wear specially developed third-person camera systems integrated into a bespoke vest to give the aesthetic a distinct look and feel of video games.
At 25 minutes per episode, the show is designed for streaming services, and it has been given an innovative rollout in Germany this fall, when three episodes will launch on ZDF’s streaming service, with Episode 1 also available on YouTube. The following two episodes join the Google-owned service a day later, and the linear premiere on ZDFneo will follow later. Dedicated companion content will run on a standalone YouTube channel and ‘reaction programming’ will hit ZDF’s Twitch channel.
Belgium-based Primitives, has worldwide rights (excluding German-speaking Europe) and will present the show to buyers in the run-up to MIPCOM, with a full market launch also prepared.
Having the creators film the action themselves creates a level of authenticity and immediacy that is particularly exciting for younger audiences.
DIANA UNHEARD
Cineflix Rights
Length: 3 x 60’
Producer: Love Monday TV
Network: TBC
Having gained access to the audio tapes that formed the basis of Andrew Morton’s explosive book about the Princess Diana, Love Monday TV has made Diana Unheard, a documentary series that will air never-before-heard parts of the recordings.
The producers hope that hearing Diana talk about her life, loves and family will reframe people’s perception of her, moving away from seeing through a lens of vulnerability and tragedy and showing her as self-aware, determined, and actively taking control of her life.
Love Monday has made numerous shows about the British monarchy including Her Majesty the Queen: Behind Closed Doors for ITV and William and Harry: Love and Betrayal for Channel 5.
Diana can be heard in revealing form in the tapes, which were conversations recorded with her friend James Colthurst in 1991. She talks about Prince Charles and Camilla (now King Charles III and Queen Camilla), as well as the then Prince Andrew, who has since been stripped of his royal titles following scrutiny of his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
As well as hearing the audio of the Princess, the three-part doc series explains how and when they were recorded, and the extraordinary lengths Diana went to in order to ensure her story could be heard. For example, she devised a daring plan to have the tapes secretly smuggled out of Kensington Palace.
Colthurst and Morton appear in the series, as does Michael O’Mara, publisher of Morton’s book, Diana: Her True Story.
The recordings and Morton’s tome had a huge impact on the Royal Family and the whole British establishment. The timing of the new doc is appropriate, with 2027 the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death.
Cineflix Rights moved for the sales rights and will bring the doc to market at MIPCOM. Stories about the British Royal Family have enduring international appeal. Interest is heightened when royal stories cover Princess Diana, who was one of the most famous women in the world, with people fascinated by her life.
THE CHASE AROUND THE WORLD
ITV Studios
Length: 6 x 60’
Producer: Bright Entertainment
Network: ITV (U.K.)
Fancy joining the “smartest road trip in the world”?
There’s no better way to give a stalwart format a bit of global appeal than by sending its icons and contestants on a journey around the globe. The Chase Around the World does just that, taking a tried-and-tested, colossally successful format and an additional bit of jeopardy, with firm potential for international sales.
Much like splashy premium factual shows such as Race Across the World or Destination X, the show sees contestants travel across the globe, this time in a race to find all six Chasers in secret international locations, holding onto the show’s trademark general knowledge challenges but adding an adventure element.
In the U.K. version, where the format originated, contestants played for £100,000 ($133,000), although this figure is not fixed for the international remakes.
The six pairs went around Rome, haring after two iconic Chasers, the Beast and the Governess, as they journeyed towards Bradley Walsh at the finish line. The route took them through some of the Italian capital’s iconic landmarks as they answered questions that, if incorrect, could lead to serious consequences.
The Chase Around the World rated well in the U.K. and is just the latest in a line of entertainment shows that have used travel as a bedrock. It both showcased the spin-off opportunities that such a strong format can open up, and also carries potential to run and run, given that the world is The Chase’s oyster. Local buyers will be licking their lips.
