Avalon Television & Vertical Networks Shop Snapchat Format ‘Ghost Hunt’ To Linear Broadcasters
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver producer Avalon Television and Elisabeth Murdoch-backed Vertical ..
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver producer Avalon Television and Elisabeth Murdoch-backed Vertical Networks are to shop their unscripted comedy format Ghost Hunt to U.S. broadcasters after its successful launch on Snapchat.
The show, which looks at the modern dating phenomenon of “ghosting”, launched on the digital platform in November and each episode of the short-form series scored over 5M viewers.
The two companies are now set to start talks with linear broadcasters to remake it as a long-form series. In each episode, comedian Matteo Lane helps someone track down a past romantic partner who “ghosted” them, ultimately bringing the two parties together for some “ball-busting and closure”.
Ghost Hunt was the first co-pro between Avalon, which also produces British entertainment formats including Dave’s Taskmaster and BBC’s The Button, and Vertical Networks, which also produces Snapchat shows such as Brother. The original series was produced by Chloe Pisello at Avalon and Matt Harper at Vertical Networks.
Avalon USA CEO David Martin said, “Ghost Hunt has proved to be incredibly popular with a young demographic and is the perfect format for linear networks looking to cater to that hard-to-reach audience. With the show exploring the highly topical phenomenon of online dating – in all its dramatic, funny and entertaining guises – it has the potential to appeal to mass audiences.”
Tom Wright, CEO of Vertical Networks, added, “We have seen huge audiences for Ghost Hunt on Snap and fans are asking if we can create a longer version of the show for television. Watch this space”.
