FOX Entertainment and Lowe Enter First-Look Unscripted Development Deal
FOX has renewed its hit quiz series, The Floor, this season’s #1 game show, hosted and produced by Emmy Award nominee Rob Lowe (9-1-1: Lone Star), for two additional seasons that will air during the upcoming 2024-2025 season, it was announced today by Michael Thorn, President of the FOX Television Network.
Based on the fast-growing global format, The Floor premiered in the U.S. in January, when its debut marked FOX’s most-watched Tuesday unscripted debut in more than 13 years, FOX’s largest total multiplatform audience for an unscripted debut in two years and the network’s most-streamed gameshow debut ever. Its freshman season averaged 5.5 million multiplatform viewers, a lift of +114% from Live + Same Day. The Floor marks the sixth consecutive season FOX has claimed television’s #1 new unscripted series, following the success of Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test, Next Level Chef, I Can See Your Voice, LEGO Masters and The Masked Singer.
In Seasons Two and Three of The Floor, created by John de Mol’s Talpa (Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, The Voice) and produced by Eureka Productions (Farmer Wants a Wife, The Quiz With Balls), 100 contestants (up from 81 in Season One) will stand their ground on a massive, interactive LED game floor featuring 100 squares, each representing a different trivia category. The first challenger, selected at random, must choose one of his or her neighboring opponents to go head-to-head in an epic quiz duel in the opponent’s category. The winner takes over the loser’s square, gaining valuable ground as they expand their territory, while the loser exits the game. The winner must then choose – do they go on the offensive to dominate more of the board? Or do they let The Floor choose a new challenger? The contestant who gains full control over The Floor takes home a life-changing grand prize.
Additionally, FOX Entertainment has entered a first-look deal with Lowe to jointly develop unscripted series to air on FOX. Series launched under the agreement would be produced by FOX’s in-house unscripted studio, FOX Alternative Entertainment.
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“Fans loved the first season of The Floor so much that we’ve ordered two more seasons of this breakthrough game show with plans already underway to make our epic battle of the brains even bigger and bolder,” said Thorn. “It’s also been a massive win to have a huge star like Rob Lowe as our host, and both our viewers and competitors can’t wait to see him back in action.”
“I couldn’t be happier with The Floor phenomenon and the opportunity to create more unscripted projects with my partners at FOX,” added Lowe.
Talpa is the creator and owner of The Floor format. The Floor is produced by Eureka Productions, Talpa and BiggerStage. John de Mol, Mark van Achterberg, Chris Culvenor, Paul Franklin, Wes Dening, Sean O'Riordan and Shane Byrne serve as executive producers. Anthony Carbone serves as executive producer / showrunner, and Rob Lowe is producer.
About Rob Lowe
Rob Lowe’s iconic career spans four decades in film, television, and theater. He is also an acclaimed author. Rob has been nominated for two Emmys, six Golden Globes, and four Screen Actors Guild awards in which he won two. He has starred in the 1980’s classics St. Elmo’s Fire, About Last Night and The Outsiders, as well as television classics such as The West Wing and Parks and Recreation. Rob’s incredibly diverse career also includes scene stealing work in Behind the Candelabra, Austin Powers and Tommy Boy. His two memoirs, Stories I Only Tell My Friends and Love Life, are both New York Times Best Sellers. He has taken his first memoir and made it into a touring show called Stories I Only Tell My Friends: Live!, which has received rave reviews throughout the country and sold out in London. He is the host of the highly acclaimed podcast Literally! With Rob Lowe. Rob currently stars in and produces FOX’s highly acclaimed 911: Lone Star, which has been renewed for Season 5 and is scheduled to air this fall. He is also the star of one of this year’s #1 movies on Netflix, Dog Gone. Based on an incredible true story, after a young man and his beloved dog are separated on the Appalachian Trail, he and his father must begin a desperate search to find him before it’s too late. Rob’s latest release was the Netflix comedy Unstable from Victor Fresco and alongside his son, John Owen Lowe. Fresco and both Lowes co-created the show, and all serve as executive producers. Rob and John Owen both star. The series is inspired by their social media relationship where John Owen often hilariously trolls his dad. Season Two will premiere this August. Lowe has been married to jewelry designer, Sheryl Lowe, since 1991. They have two sons, Matthew and John Owen.
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About Eureka Productions
Award-winning unscripted entertainment company, Eureka Productions, was founded in 2016 by Co-CEOs Chris Culvenor and Paul Franklin. Headquartered in Los Angeles and Sydney, the company has since grown a portfolio of over 40 series for network, streaming, cable, and digital platforms in the U.S., Canada, and Australia, becoming one of the TV industry’s fastest growing international producers. Eureka’s current U.S. slate includes returning shows such as the U.S. reboot of The Mole (Netflix), the U.S. version of Fremantle’s international format Farmer Wants a Wife (FOX), as well as The Floor (FOX). Other recent productions include Stars on Mars for FOX and The Parent Test for ABC (adapted from Eureka’s Australian hit Parental Guidance). Eureka is also known for U.S. hits such as Holey Moley (ABC), Full Bloom (HBOMax), TwentySomethings Austin (Netflix), Frogger (Peacock), Name That Tune (FOX), The Real Dirty Dancing (FOX), Finding Magic Mike (HBO Max), Dating Around (Netflix) and Crikey It’s the Irwins (Discovery). In Australia, Eureka’s slate includes Million Dollar Island for Channel 7, Luxe Listings for Amazon, Byron Baes for Netflix, Amazing Race Australia for Network Ten, Parental Guidance for Nine Network, and many more. In 2022, Eureka also took on the development and production of all Fremantle’s entertainment, reality, and game show formats in Australia, including Australian Idoland Farmer Wants a Wife for Seven Network. Eureka Productions is a Fremantle company. For more information, visit eurekagroup.tv.
About Talpa
Talpa is an independent global content house for non-scripted formats based in the Netherlands and founded by John de Mol. The company empowers creativity to produce next-level content that connects people within their homes and around the world. Talpa holds exclusive access rights to premium broadcast and streaming channels in the Netherlands and Germany and has proven to be a successful breeding ground for content creation since the dawn of the industry. Many of today's evergreen entertainment brands originated at Talpa and are now blueprints for the international market.
About BiggerStage
Founded in March 2021 by Pat Kiely, former managing director of Virgin Media Television, BiggerStage is a media and entertainment company built on three pillars: producing world-class content, developing stand-out talent, and creating innovative partnerships. Headquartered in Dublin, the company develops original content for the global market and creates studio hubs in Ireland for international television production. With over 80 hours of primetime Network shows produced over the last two years, our credits include: Celebrity Name That Tune (FOX), Beat Shazam (FOX), The Big Deal (Virgin Media Television), Irish Book of the Year (RTE), Don't Forget The Lyrics (FOX).
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ABOUT FOX ENTERTAINMENT
With a legacy spanning nearly 40 years, FOX Entertainment is one of the world’s most recognizable media brands and a prolific content producer across its iconic broadcast network and both owned and third-party streaming platforms. Known for its independent, innovative spirit and provocative, groundbreaking storytelling, the company was reinvented in 2019 with the formation of FOX Entertainment. While maintaining its leadership in broadcast television (9-1-1: Lone Star, The Simpsons, The Floor, The Cleaning Lady, Hell’s Kitchen, LEGO Masters), the company is building a portfolio of businesses and library of owned original content. To date, FOX Entertainment’s long-term growth strategy has included the acquisitions of award-winning animation studio Bento Box Entertainment (Bob’s Burgers, The Great North, Krapopolis, Grimsburg), entertainment platform TMZ (TMZ Investigates), and global production studio MarVista Entertainment (The Way Home), as well as the formation of the culinary and lifestyle content venture Studio Ramsay Global (Next Level Chef, Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, Idiot Sandwich) in partnership with Gordon Ramsay. Alongside the network, the company also established FOX Entertainment Studios, which includes its in-house unscripted studio FOX Alternative Entertainment (The Masked Singer, We Are Family, America’s Most Wanted, Snake Oil, I Can See Your Voice, Name That Tune), and its studio (Animal Control) to develop scripted content; as well as worldwide content sales unit FOX Entertainment Global.
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