Endemol Wins Two Commissions From Chinese TV

COLOGNE, Germany -- Production giant Endemol has secured a pair of TV commissions for the fast-growing Chinese market, with Shanghai Media Group ordering a local-language version of obstacle-based game show XXS and Zhejiang Satellite TV signing up for two seasons of the stunt-focused format 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show.

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Both shows will be produced by Endemol Argentina at the group's production hub outside Buenos Aires. The hosts and guests for the Chinese versions will be flown in to tape the shows.

XXS, originally developed by Endemol Argentina, pits families against one another in a race through a huge obstacle course set in a giant house featuring objects 100 times their normal size. Endemol producers in the U.K. and U.S. developed 101 Ways to Leave a Game Show, in which losing contestants are physically ejected from the show via catapults, bungee cords and human cannons.

Shanghai Media Group commissioned a 10-part season of XXS for primetime broadcast on its Entertainment Channel. Production is set to start in the summer. Zhejiang has ordered two 12-episode seasons of 101 Ways, also for primetime viewing in China.

The Endemol deals are further evidence that Chinese television is still ravenous for Western fare. At the MIP-TV television market in Cannes last month, Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine Group signed a deal with Shanghai Media Group to produced a Chinese version of its format MasterChef.