Derren Brown, Sunderland and cooking: Netflix announces new unscripted originals
David Farnor | On 23, Aug 2018
Netflix has announced four new unscripted original shows on the way to the streaming service this year. The announcement, which was made at the Edinburgh TV Festival by Brandon Riegg, VP of Unscripted Originals and Acquisitions for Netflix, span a diverse range of genres, from action comedy and cooking to a Sunderland-based football documentary and a new Derren brown special.
The audience were also shown an in-room clip of the new docu-series of the 2018 Formula One World Championship, which was announced earlier this year and will air in 2019. The 10-part original series will have unparalleled access to the world’s fastest drivers, team principals and owners, as well as Formula 1’s own management team. This series will be executive-produced by Academy-Award winner James Gay Rees (Senna) and Paul Martin for Box to Box Films. Sophie Todd will be the showrunner.
Here’s the line-up of what else is on the way:
The Final Table
The Final Table is a global culinary competition show featuring the world’s most renowned chefs fighting for a spot at the elite Final Table, which is made up of the greatest chefs from around the world. The series features 12 teams of two chefs from around the world cooking the national dishes of Mexico, Spain, England, Brazil, France, Japan, the US, India and Italy. Each episode focuses on a different country and its cuisine, with celebrity ambassadors, food critics and that country’s greatest chef eliminating teams until the finale. In that last episode, only one of our competing chefs will win a place at the Final Table among the world’s best, joining the nine celebrity legendary culinary icons. These are Enrique Olvera (Mexico), Andoni Aduriz (Spain), Clare Smyth (UK), Helena Rizzo (Brazil), Vineet Bhatia (India), Grant Achatz (US), Carlo Cracco (Italy), Yoshihiro Narisawa (Japan) and Anne-Sophie Pic (France).
The series will be presented by Andrew Knowlton, James Beard Award-winning Writer and Editor at Large, Bon Appétit.
Created and exec produced by Robin Ashbrook (MasterChef, MasterChef Junior) & Yasmin Shackleton (MasterChef, MasterChef Junior). The production company is theoldschool.
Death by Magic
British magician Drummond Money-Coutts, or DMC for short, is on a mission to uncover the stories of magicians who died performing the most dangerous stunts ever attempted. He travels the world to track down where the fatal performances took place and to work out exactly what went wrong, sharing his magic with the people he meets along the way. It’s a journey that spans four continents and eight cities around the world. His aim is to pay homage to the craft by creating his own updated versions of the stunts that cost these magicians their lives, from being buried alive under tons of wet concrete, to playing a game of Russian roulette, to escaping from a collision with a speeding steam train.
The series will follow DMC as he recreates the stunts where others have failed, in the most extreme magic show ever attempted. To succeed he must avoid the fate that met those who came before him and paid the ultimate price: Death by Magic.
The production company is A. Smith & Co (Hell’s Kitchen, American Ninja Warrior) Executive Producers are Arthur Smith, Toby Gorman, Martin Turner and Simon Dinsell. Drummond Money-Coutts is also an executive producer on the project.
Sunderland Till I Die
No one loves football like Sunderland. No one needs football like Sunderland. As its main industries of shipbuilding and mining have fallen by the wayside, SAFC (Sunderland Association Football Club) has become ever more important as the lifeblood of this unique city in the NorthEast of England. The fans are well known to be some of the most passionate and loyal. But what happens when they start to lose their club, too?
In the era of multi-million dollar sponsorship deals and transfers, where the stakes have never been higher or the rivalries more fierce, this brand new Netflix original series sets at its heart the unfailing passion of this UK Northern town for its beloved football club. The series will take its audience through the highs and lows of SAFC’s first season in the Championship following its painful relegation the previous year. The production company is Fulwell 73 (I am Bolt, The Class of ‘92), exec producers are Leo Pearlman and Ben Turner.
The series will premiere on Friday 14th December 2018.
Flinch
Flinch is a new all action comedy game show with one simple rule: do not flinch. The show is set on a remote farm in the hills of Ireland where brave and foolish contestants gather to test their nerve against three fiendish games. If they flinch, there are painful consequences both for them, and for our hosts, who have each chosen a player to represent them in the games.
The series is hosted by comedians Desiree Burch, Lloyd Griffith and Seann Walsh and produced by Stellify Media (Celebs in Solitary, Beauty Queen and Single)
Derren Brown: Sacrifice
Celebrated psychological illusionist Derren Brown returns with a new Netflix original special in which he attempts to radically transform, through the use of covert psychological techniques, one man’s prejudices. Spanning two continents and drawing on the expertise of actors, stunt coordinators and ballistic experts, Derren creates a scenario in which his subject has to decide whether or not to make the ultimate sacrifice: laying down his life for a complete stranger he wouldn’t normally identify with.
The production company is Vaudeville Productions (Derren Brown: The Push, Derren Brown: Miracle) showrunner is Ben Jessop and the Executive Producer is Andrew O’Connor.