Interview: Chris O'Dell Talks Irish 'Take Me Out' | The Irish Film & Television Network

Freemantle Media has production operations in over 22 countries worldwide, with programmes distributed to more than 150 different markets. The group’s main production companies include talkbackTHAMES in the UK; FremantleMedia North America; UFA in Germany; FremantleMedia Italia and FremantleMedia España; Blu in Denmark; Blue Circle in the Netherlands and Original Productions in the US.

Chris O’Dell is an Executive Producer for Fremantlemedia's Worldwide Entertainment. Since 2007 he has overseen the international productions of the group’s bigger formats including ‘The X Factor’, ‘Got Talent’, the ‘Idol’ series, ‘Hole in the Wall’ and ‘Take Me Out’. He was recently involved with bringing ‘Take Me Out’ to Ireland. With the series starting its broadcast here on October 15th we spoke with Chris to see what his job actually entails, what makes the Irish version of ‘Take Me Out’ very unusual and the stringent housekeeping rules on ‘X Factor’.

In the way of background information Chris’ previous roles include that of Creative Executive for TWI Entertainment from 2004 to 2007 prior to which he was series producer, exec producer and Head of Format Entertainment at LWT (latterly Granada) for 14 years where he worked with several well know shows such as ‘Blind Date’, ‘Surprise Surprise’, ‘Barrymore’ and ‘Audience with...’ programmes.

IFTN: Chris, ‘formatting’ would always have struck me as a feature of the recent phenomenon of globalisation but it would appear to have been around for a long time in fact.

Chris O’Dell (CoD): Yes, formatting has been around for a long, long time. I started with shows like ‘Surprise, Surprise’ in the early 80s which was a huge hit in Italy and of course ‘Blind Date’ which was an amalgamation of an Australian and an American format that was brought to us. I would say that since the success of ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire?’ and shows of that kind our business has become headline news.

IFTN: And what does your job actually entail?

CoD: My job essentially comes down to myself and my team travelling around and helping local producers and broadcasters to set up various programmes. We teach them the dos and don’ts. We are there so the producers and broadcasters will have a good show and so that we can oversee proceedings and make sure the original high quality of the format remains intact.

IFTN: Will the production guidelines be the exact same in every country?

CoD: They vary depending on the programme we are introducing and the country in which it is to be broadcast. The shows stay mostly the same though – with ‘Take Me Out’ you have 30 girls, one single man at a time and he has three opportunities to see if they like him. We don’t see it as a serious dating service. Like ‘Blind Date’ before it, it’s just a fun and funny, upbeat show.

IFTN: Which countries have you had ‘Take Me Out’ produced in so far?

CoD: ‘Take Me Out’ has been brought so far to the UK, South Korea, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Spain, Indonesia, Japan, China, Australia and Belgium. And, of course, Ireland now.

IFTN: And you are very strict that the number of participants remains the same in every country?

CoD: Yes, there are certain ‘nuts and bolts’ that we do insist on producers adhering to when they make ‘Take Me Out’. They must use 30 girls – no more and no less and the three voting opportunities must be maintained. And then there are other formatting rules which producers much stick with that the audience may not even be aware of. That all said sometimes there have to be differences allowed for in different versions on shows. There are certain differences between ‘Take Me Out’ in Holland and Indonesia for instance – there is a huge cultural difference in how dating is perceived in the two countries, what can and cannot be talked about etc. I mean, it is a dating show so it will touch on sex in one way or another and some of the risqué stuff we do on Holland couldn’t be done in Indonesia. But the basic premise of the show being fun, upbeat and positive stays intact.

IFTN: Are there other specific elements you have to keep intact with other shows?

CoD: Yes, with shows like ‘X Factor’ and ‘Pop Idol’ we have quite stringent housekeeping rules about the use of music and graphics. If you look at any ‘X Factor’ from anywhere it’s made around the world you’ll see the exact same title sequence with the same music. The ‘X’ may be the other way around, the word ‘The’ may be missing and the meteor (or whatever that is!) at the start will shoot into a different city depending on the country in which the series is made. Otherwise the series are essentially identical.

IFTN: Have you ever had a case where a certain format just doesn’t work in a country?

CoD: Absolutely, it happens quite often that a programme just won’t take. We’ve had it happen with ‘Take Me Out’ and other formats. Unfortunately, television is not an exact science – you may think you have a massive hit on your hands that everyone’s going to love but sometimes it just doesn’t work. And that can be down to the audience not being receptive to a format or problems with the local production. Or important things like the host not being right. My job is to minimise that risk and if it does happen it’s vital that I learn from it.

IFTN: Coming back to the Irish version of ‘Take Me Out’, how do you set up this series in particular?

Ray Foley at the Dutch 'Take Me Out'

CoD: Well, I would be in frequent contact with the producer so I’ve been talking with Billy McGrath on a regular basis. Where ‘Take Me Out’ is concerned, once the contract has been signed – with the broadcaster, in this case – we release the production bible to either the broadcaster or the producer. So we gave this to Billy and his team and they have had it now for a few weeks. We also sent them on a DVD of existing shows using the format. We look at this DVD with the production companies and talk about the aspects and approaches that they like or don’t like.

I also took Billy and Ray Foley [Irish host] to Holland to watch the Dutch recording of ‘Take Me Out’. The Dutch show is very successful and very well made so I suggested to Billy and Ray that we should head over and watch it and meet the directors and producers and the Dutch host. Then I came back from Holland to Dublin and we had a sort of workshop – we all sat down and chatted about the show and watched some more of the other versions of the show. And after that I was at the end of the phone all the time and constantly checking my e-mails for queries that would come up. Then I came over again for the dry run of the show and I’ll be there for the recording of the actual show also. And I’m available to Billy and his team when they need me after that.

IFTN: Do you just have to be present for the first recording of all series or are you ever asked back to help?

CoD: It depends, for certain formats we’ll visit the recordings once or twice during the series and for programmes like ‘Got Talent’, where there are several phases like the auditions and then the live shows, we’d be over and back several times.

IFTN: You’ve seen the rehearsals for ‘Take Me Out’ here, does it have a very Irish feel?

CoD: Automatically shows have very different feels – obviously with Irish participants and with Ray as the host the ‘Take me Out’ here will be unmistakably Irish. In South Korea there are people bowing to each other whereas that would never happen in the UK or Spain. The show always takes on the guise of its host country.

With the Irish version it will be interesting because it will be the first time that we’ll be launching a show in a country that’s already familiar with another format of the show – in this case the UK format. Irish audiences will be already familiar with the set-up of the game and will know the style and catch phrase that the British host, Paddy McGuiness uses. So I know Billy and his team have been debating internally as to what elements of the ITV version to keep and which to create afresh to give it its own identity. The UK audience may have been somewhat familiar with ‘America’s Got Talent’ but this is still quite an unusual case.

As already reported on IFTN a recent dry run of ‘Take Me Out’ was attended by Chris, director Simon Staffurth (Over the Rainbow, Hole in the Wall) and TV3’s Head of Programming Ben Frow. The event led to a second series of ‘Take Me Out’ being commissioned by TV3 before the transmission of the first series which begins on October 15th. Don’t miss it!

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