ITV America and Blumhouse Television set exclusive overall deal for unscripted programming

ITV America and Blumhouse Television set exclusive overall deal for unscripted programming

Partners to Build New Unscripted Slate Tailored to Blumhouse Brand;

Original Horror Competition Format “Escape the Maze” (wt) Marks First Project

NEW YORK – (June 23, 2021) – Blumhouse has entered into an exclusive overall deal with ITV America (Queer Eye, Love Island) for unscripted television. Through the multi-year partnership, Blumhouse Television will double down on unscripted, creating an entirely new slate of projects that will bring its prestigious brand of provocative, disruptive and terrifying content to every corner of the non-fiction space.

As part of the overall, Blumhouse will have a dedicated team working in collaboration with ITV America to bring the loudest, most intense and unexpected genre, paranormal reality and suspense-driven creative to unscripted. Blumhouse’s non-fiction unit will also leverage opportunities to work with producers across ITV America’s six vertical labels – ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content – to develop new concepts and IP.

The first project derived from the partnership – Escape the Maze (wt) – will combine Blumhouse’s prowess in horror with the self-shot, isolating and emotionally-charged competition aesthetic perfected by Leftfield Pictures, creator of global survival hit Alone.

In a first-of-its-kind, genre-themed escape and competition format, Escape the Maze will follow individual competitors who have been locked inside a dark and mind-scrambling labyrinth (designed by the world’s most prominent and imaginative maze architect, Adrian Fisher OBE, and The Premier Mission Group) encountering a range of physical and psychological challenges devised to make the experience both frightening and frustratingly difficult.

Blumhouse and Leftfield are currently taking the project out to prospective buyers, with other series from Blumhouse and ITV America in development.

“Blumhouse is one of the most exceptional brands in the industry," said ITV America CEO David George. "They bring a virtually untapped genre to our portfolio, and we are so excited they chose ITV America to help expand their empire. Their provocative sensibilities combined with our diverse production capabilities will create a slate of big shows and formats that will be like none other in the unscripted business. This is going to be edge of your seat and wild!"

“ITV have been great partners to us already, and we’re thrilled to be expanding upon our relationship with them in unscripted,” said Jason Blum, CEO and founder of Blumhouse. “Together we have some big, wild ideas that viewers are going to have a blast watching.”

“There are no better partners to collaborate with in the unscripted space than ITV,  their prowess is unmatched,” said Chris McCumber, Blumhouse Television President. “They’ve been great, collaborative partners with us in the past, and what we’ve ideated with them already is fun, bold and certain to be an enhancement to our existing unscripted portfolio.”

The overall deal was negotiated by ITV America Executive Vice President of Business Development and Strategy Danielle Bibbo, and Executive Vice President of Business Affairs Tonko Soljan, with Marc Barson, Executive Vice President and Head of Business and Legal Affairs for Blumhouse Television.

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About ITV America

ITV America, part of ITV Studios, is one of the largest independent producers of unscripted content in the US. The company consists of six vertical production labels, including ITV Entertainment, Leftfield Pictures, Sirens Media, Thinkfactory Media, High Noon Entertainment and Good Caper Content, with series such as: Emmy-winning Queer Eye (Netflix); Love Island (CBS); The Chase (ABC); Fixer Upper (HGTV); Hell’s Kitchen (FOX); The Real Housewives of New Jersey (Bravo); and Pawn Stars, Alone and Forged in Fire (HISTORY), among many others.

About Blumhouse

Blumhouse is known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality micro-budget films and provocative television series. Regarded as the driving force in the horror renaissance, Blumhouse has produced over 150 movies and television series with theatrical grosses amounting to over $4.8 billion. The company has produced iconic, genre, film franchises like Halloween, Paranormal Activity, The Purge, and prolific films like Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man; Glass, The Visit and Split from M. NIght Shyamalan; Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman; Get Out from Jordan Peele; among several others. Blum’s television company operates in horror programming - with streaming anthology series for Epix and like Welcome to the Blumhouse for Amazon - and has also expanded beyond genre with provocative and acclaimed scripted and unscripted series and documentaries, such as The Good Lord Bird, starring Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, for Showtime; The Loudest Voice, starring Golden Globe winner Russell Crowe for Showtime; A Wilderness of Error (FX); The Jinx for HBO; A Secret Love, from executive producer Ryan Murphy, for Netflix; and lauded HBO series Sharp Objects, starring Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, among others.