A new gameshow format made on a minuscule budget of just £50 (US$67) has been launched on YouTube by freelance entertainment development producer Ben Justice.
Justice launched The Loop on YouTube this week, circumventing a TV commissioning model that often takes years to get new IP off the ground by self-producing and releasing the show on his channel Gameshow Guru.
The format is created, owned and hosted by Justice and sees contestants taking part remotely from their homes online, travelling around a loop trying to reveal enough information to answer a general knowledge question.
In a video titled I Made A TV Quiz Show For £50, Justice explains how he is hoping to turn the gameshow industry “upside down” with his microbudget format, having struggled to find continuous work during the UK TV industry’s recent downturn.
Justice spent three years at Scotland’s STV Studios between 2020 and 2023 and is credited with creating its BBC One quiz format Bridge of Lies, which has racked up over 100 episodes. However, Justice said he was let go from the company at the end of 2023 as the UK television industry began to contract.
“Since 2023, the industry has taken a real nosedive and as a result jobs are much scarcer than they were,” said Justice, who has over a decade’s experience working on UK gameshow formats and admitted he has considered joining the many others who have left the industry during the recent commissioning crisis.
Rather than wait for a commissioner to take a chance on making a pilot of The Loop, Justice has instead gone straight to Marvellous Machines, a UK-based provider of game control tech for the likes of BBC Studios and Lionsgate, to make a full series, with all the people involved working for free. Justice said the £50 budget was spent on editing software, graphics and music.
“We have a full series of The Loop. This is an absolute first in the gameshow industry. While loads of people have put shows up made using [software] Unity and Line, which are brilliant, this is the first time an individual has gone direct to a graphics company to make their own thing,” said Justice.
The first, 35-minute episode of The Loop launched on August 19, with a further six set to drop over the next six weeks on YouTube.
The move comes as commissioners increasingly look to YouTube as a testing ground for new IP, with Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video both striking big budget deals with creators such as The Sidemen and MrBeast to bring their shows to their streaming services.
Source: Freelancer aims to turn gameshow biz ‘upside down’ with YouTube quiz made for £50
