The TV industry is getting very sleepy.
FremantleMedia has grabbed the global format rights — excluding French speaking territories — to Satisfaction’s “Stars Under Hypnosis,” the company announced as part of MIPCOM.
In the show, eight celebrities surrender themselves and their minds to hypnosis. The French version of “Star Under Hypnosis,” produced by Arthur Essebag, producer and founder of Satisfaction – The Television Agency, for France’s TF1, featured hypnotist Messmer (pictured above). The French version launched to 5.1 million viewers.
“Star Under Hypnosis” sees a celebrity hypnotized, transported to an unknown location and then woken to find themselves in an strange and awkward situation. In the French version, those included a presenter suddenly being able to speak Chinese and being attacked by imaginary insects, a celebrity hypnotized into thinking that he is a burglar and having the irrepressible desire to steal everything in sight, guests of the show thinking that they are naked on live television, while other guests are made to think that they are cavemen and being chased by mammoths.
Each celebrity watched videos of themselves under hypnosis for the first time during the live TV show.
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Rob Clark, director of Global Entertainment Development, FremantleMedia, said of his acquisition: “‘Stars Under Hypnosis’ is a fantastic new entertainment format which made me laugh from start to finish. The format is ideal for any network looking for a broad family entertainment show.”
Essebag added: “Satisfaction is very happy to work with FremantleMedia on ‘Stars Under Hypnosis,’ and is sure they will do an amazing job selling it all over the world.”
MIPCOM is the annual Cannes-based global marketplace for entertainment content across all platforms.