Playground – with a twist: Squid Game: The Challenge Credit: Pete Dadds
What a weird idea: take a hell of a TV thriller , in which hundreds of people meet their death, and turn it into a game show. But that's what we'll get with Netflix's Squid Game: The Challenge, which will bring the brutal South Korean drama into the real world. The scale of this is very different: 456 participants from all over the world will compete for a $4.56 million (£3.55 million) prize, the biggest prize in reality TV history.
“This is unlike any game show you've ever seen before,” says Stephen Lambert, one of the masterminds behind the project, which was filmed in the UK earlier this year and will air on Netflix in the fall. “Although obviously people don't get killed. Reassuring to know.
'The Squid Game', which became the most watched Netflix show of all time in 2021, featured financially distressed characters being transported to a mysterious island where they take part in children's playground games, with a twist – “Red light, green light”, Traces of Grandmother's version, everyone who was caught on the move was immediately shot. They were driven by the lure of prize money and the fear of being killed.
How to transfer this feeling of fear and despair into a game show? It's a challenge for Lambert, 64, and Tim Harcourt, 46, who together run British production company Studio Lambert. Capturing the participants' motivation is critical: “This is not a matter of life or death, this is the giant expectation of a $4.56 million win. Of course, it's completely different, but when you turn on this desire to win, tonally it actually seems very similar, ”explains Harcourt. “People really want it. When they get knocked out, they cry or get angry.”
The conditions, recreated on six giant soundstages in Barking, east London, and an aircraft hangar in Bedford, are harsh: masked guards never break character, and participants must sleep in a windowless dormitory with five-tier bunk beds. “It's incredibly exciting,” says Harcourt. “It's more like the Stanford Prison Experiment than what we think of as a reality show.”
mayhem: Stephen Lambert (left) and Tim Harcourt, creators of Studio Lambert. Image Credit & Copyright: Rij Schroer
Some contestants have already run to the press complaining about the conditions, although their main gripe seems to have been that it was quite cold in Britain during the winter and they weren't allowed to wear coats. About 80 percent are Americans, so maybe they are used to better weather. But in general, Harcourt points out, “People love playing the Squid Game. It's a big fantasy world. No cruelty.
If Squid Game: The Challenge succeeds, it will add to Studio Lambert's already brilliant track record. Last year they brought us Traitors with Claudia Winkleman, which was a BBC hit, Bafta Award and Emmy nomination. They are also behind all the favorite games Race Across the World and Gogglebox. In his previous job at independent production company RDF, Lambert was responsible for Fake, Wife Swap and Secret Millionaire, three shows that defined actual entertainment in the 2000s and spawned countless imitators. Few people have played such a significant role in shaping the television we watch.
Insightful casting is one of the secrets of Studio Lambert. For Gogglebox, the researchers went looking for participants, not open auditions. Lambert explains: “If we need a North London Jewish family, we hang out at Waitrose in Golders Green. With June and Leon in the first episode, we went to Liverpool bridge clubs because we wanted a smart retired couple.”
And what were they looking for in Squid Game participants? Lambert smirks: “A combination of characters who weren't embarrassed by the idea of spending up to two weeks in a very large game where they don't see much sunlight.”
Racers around the world Posted by Mackenzie Walker
Nearly 110,000 couples have signed up to compete in the latest Race Across the World series, which sees two-man teams compete to cover vast land distances on a tight budget. The combination of stunning scenery, logistical challenges and the emotional journey of the people taking part has made it one of the highest rated shows on the BBC, beating The Traitors with a peak audience of 6.3 million viewers. While other programs seem to be packed full of fame-hungry Instagrammers, there's something surprisingly pure about this one. “The idea that only pretty people in their 20s should be on teen shows is a myth,” says Lambert.
Studio Lambert, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary, was founded after Lambert left RDF in 2007 over Crowngate – when the company-edited trailer for a BBC documentary about the royal family mistakenly showed Queen Elizabeth running out of photo shoot with Annie. Leibovitz. “It was not the best time,” he says now with a sad smile.
Lambert started out making documentaries for the BBC, but realized that the way to success in business was to develop entertainment formats that could be sold around the world. It used to mean series that, like Wife Swap, had single episodes. “The big change in the last 15 years is that we have moved to a show with a drama series arc where you have characters that you get to know over time and a season with a beginning, middle and end. As soon as the number of streamers grows, the need for a series that makes you think, “I should click on the next episode” becomes very strong.
Harcourt predicts the demise of property and cooking shows. “I feel like the Internet is serving [these areas] very well. I love real estate, but I can go into the app and see beautiful real estate around the world—I don't have to watch A Place in the Sun. If the younger generation want to make an Eton Mess, they'll go on YouTube, while we're like, “Oh, I think Mary Berry did it on her show, and I bought the book to accompany her, let me get it.” It's not how people under 35 approach cooking. These things don't cut mustard anymore.”
However, both men dismiss the idea that TV is getting more extreme – an argument some might use in the Squid Game – in an attempt to keep us on the hook. “Yes, it can be an emotional experience, but it's not bad to be emotional,” says Lambert, who says contestants are no more upset now than they were at Wife Swap 20 years ago.
How have browsing habits changed? “Audiences don’t want to sit through commercial breaks,” Harcourt immediately replied. “Obviously it's very hard for commercial channels to say that, but that's the point. So people have to look for new ways to pay for content.”
Lambert could imagine a two-tier BBC in a future where news is protected but entertainment and drama shows cost extra money. “We all know that licensing fees are prohibitive in the long run,” he says. “Forcing people to pay for something they may not consume that provides a news service seems more justified in the name of democracy than forcing people to pay for an entertainment service they may not be using. But in any case,” he adds, “we will have a Labor government and they will not rush to destroy the BBC.”
While Netflix prepares to launch Squid Game: Challenge, Studio Lambert will continue to work on new a series of their biggest hits: filming on the second season of Traitors is about to begin; the famous version of Race Across the World will go from Marrakesh to the edge of the Arctic Circle; and Gogglebox will continue to prove that if you have lovable characters, you don't need an all-powerful budget to make it a hit.
“This show is like renewable energy,” says Harcourt. Lambert loves it: “It shows how people watch TV,” he says. “And it's a very intimate moment.”
Lambert Studios turns 15 this year.
Squid Game: The Challenge Coming to Netflix in November
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