Following its win last week at The International Format Awards in Cannes, the Rabbit Films original adventure reality format Ultimate Escape can now add another accolade under its belt: a nominations for the Best Competition Series at the 43rd Rockie Awards!

The competition in the category is stiff, as the rookie Ultimate Escape will be going up against long-running mammoth series The Great British Bake Off, RuPaul’s Drag Race, Alone and The Bachelorette. Ultimate Escape is also the only non-English language programme in the category.

“Ultimate Escape is an extremely exciting, dangerous and cinematic show that really impresses its viewers no matter where they come from. We at Rabbit Films are very humbled to be acknowledged by the Rockies as a nominee in the Best Competition Series category amongst other very impressive shows”, commented Jonathan Tuovinen, Head of International at Rabbit Films.

The Rockies will be held during the Banff World Media Festival in Canada 12-15 June 2022. The awards recognize excellence in global television and digital content. Entries from more than 55 countries compete each year, and winners are selected by an international industry jury of 150+ senior entertainment and media professionals.

Check out all of the nominees for the 2022 Banff Rockie Awards here.

We are happy to present a brand new Rabbit Films original format, Masters of the Kitchen!

In Masters of the Kitchen, the very best chefs of the country gather together to share their stories. In each episode, one chef prepares an important dish from their career for the others to enjoy. They will reminisce career highlights, give advice to aspiring chefs and most importantly, taste each other’s food.

At the same time, we follow a young chef’s journey in preparation for the biggest chef competition of the year. He will document his experience, starting from technique practice, menu planning and learning to work under pressure. It all culminates at the world championships of cooking, the prestigious Bocuse D’Or Competition.

Will he succeed, and bring glory to his country? Or go home empty handed and with an empty stomach?

Masters of the Kitchen airs on Nelonen Finland on Mondays at 7pm. The first season is 6 x 60 mins.

Watch the Trailer and Full Episode of Masters of the Kitchen here.

Finnish production and distribution company Rabbit Films today announces that TV2 Hungary has commissioned a local version of its original studio game show format City vs Country. The production of the series will begin in May 2022.

City vs Country is a primetime feel-good quiz show for the whole family. In the show two hosts take the teams through three rounds of the game to see which side dominates: city or country? What do snobby city folk know about the reality of living in the country? And do the country bumpkins have any idea what it takes to survive city life? It’s a warm-hearted competition with bucket loads of tension!

Jonathan Tuovinen, Head of International at Rabbit Films said: “Finland’s most popular game show, City vs Country will reach the Hungarians screens later this year and with several active options there’s lots more to come from this format in the future.”

The original version of City vs Country produced by Rabbit Films Finland for MTV3 with a 7^th season due in 2022. Other international adaptation of the format was on Lithuania’s TV3. In addition, the format is currently under option is Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Romania.

Following its amazing first season launch back in December 2020, Flea Market Challenge is now back for Season 2. Exactly one year after the series premiere, the second season of the hit show started on Wednesday 8th December 2021 at 9pm on MTV3 Finland.

The premiere episode was yet again a huge success, being the slot winner and the most watched entertainment series of the evening! It attracted a 17.2% share and 300,000 viewers . 
To make the news even better, the second season is now half way through, and has been able to continue the high steady ratings. The five episodes that have aired so far have averaged an 18.3% share in the Adults 10-54 demo. This is not only an increase from the season premiere, but also over 50% above the slot average! The peak so far has been Episode 3 (22.12.2021), which scored a whopping 21.6% share.

Flea Market Challenge is a fun and exciting game show, where 3 people compete against each other to see who is the best seller! Each contestant is allowed to bring a maximum of 300 personal items. They all will then have 3 hours to sell at a local flea market. In the end, whoever has made most cash from sales, gets the money from all the players!

The second season was filmed during the beautiful Finnish summer, so the locations featured in the series are all outside. This gives the show a more light, airy and sunny feel! Some episodes of the new season also feature celebrities as sellers, making the show even more compelling viewing! 

You can screen a new subtitled episode of Season 2 of Flea Market Challenge here.
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The first season of the Rabbit Films original adventure reality series Ultimate Escape has concluded its linear run on TV5 Finland (Discovery Networks)!

The full season ratings are in, and we are happy to share that the series kept up its amazing numbers throughout its entire run. The season averaged an impressive 9.3% share in the coveted Adults 10-54 demo, which is nearly a 200% increase to the TV5 primetime slot average of 3.2%. The first episode of the series scored a 9.9% share back in August, so the full season performance was extremely stable. The highest rated episode was #5 (24.11.), which featured popular heavy metal musician Eicca Toppinen, and scored a 11.4% share.

Though the main episodes of the season have now aired, we are happy to present to you an additional extra episode (#9), which recaps most impressive and agitating moments from the series. The episode also features interviews of the celebrities that are conducted after the filming has concluded and they have been able to watch their own episode. As the celebrities are locked inside the container for the whole duration of the episode, they have not seen the Host complete the extremely tough challenges and endure the severe weather conditions. Only now are they able to comprehend the consequences the decisions that they had on the Host and his journey.

Watch the subtitled Ultimate Escape season recap episode here.

Following its release on the Discovery+ VOD platform two weeks ago, Rabbit’s new original series ‘Ultimate Escape’ aired its first episode last night (Wed 27 October) at 9pm on Discovery Finland’s flagship linear channel TV5. The results have just come in, and not only was it Discovery’s most-watched programme of the evening, the show over tripled the share in the time slot from the previous week!

Last night’s episode scored an impressive 9.9% Share in the Adults 10-54 demo, giving the Discovery group its best result on all of its channels on the day. Furthermore, last week in the same time slot, TV5 had a 3.2% share, meaning that Ultimate Escape was able to bring in over +200% viewers! The programme scored especially well with the young male audiences.

Ultimate Escape is a Rabbit Films original format that was successfully launched at the MIPCOM 2021 TV Festival. It has already been optioned in several international territories prior to its original version’s premiere. The first season consists of 8 x 60 min episodes, each featuring a different celebrity locked in the container, including chef Jyrki Sukula, TV-host Veronica Verho and actor Minka Kuustonen.

Watch the subtitled version of last night’s Ultimate Escape episode here.
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The New Zealand version of hit factual entertainment format is set to premiere on TVNZ in 2022

Finnish production and distribution company Rabbit Films announces today that TVNZ in New Zealand has commissioned a local version of its original factual entertainment format The Most Endangered Species with WWF. The 6 x 60’ series entitled New Zealand’s Most Endangered Species will be produced by Warner Bros. International TV Production New Zealand with the support of NZ On Air. It is set to premiere on TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand in 2022. The format has additionally been optioned in in Canada.

The Most Endangered Species with WWF is an epic nature series, which sees a well-known comedian travel together with a scientist to the outermost corners of the world to get acquainted with the protection of endangered animals. The format offers once in a lifetime experiences, such as racing a snow leopard in the Himalayas, looking for the Svalbard polar bears and visiting Borneo to explore the shrinking areas of the orangutan.

The New Zealand version will differ from the original in that it will focus on endangered species in New Zealand only. A leading conservationist will travel together with a well-loved New Zealand comedian to incredible, remote locations across the island nation in search of some of the country’s rarest species.

The format has also been optioned in Canada by BGM Inc, a Sphere Media Company, who are currently working on local adaptations for both English and French speaking Canada.

Samantha Ferguson, Senior Sales Manager at Rabbit Films, who brokered the deals said: “We are eagerly awaiting the international roll-out of The Most Endangered Species. Warner Bros New Zealand have been incredible partners and have done an amazing job together with TVNZ, WWF and NZ On Air to create this compelling yet entertaining ‘call-to-action’ series. The series provides easy co-viewing opportunity with the comedic tones which allows audiences to engage in and learn more about environmental issues.”

Greg Heathcote, Managing Director of Warner Bros. International TV Production New Zealand, said “we are excited about bringing this important and timely new show to a New Zealand audience. The chance to showcase Aotearoa’s diverse eco system and the unique and wonderful creatures within it is a once in a generation opportunity. We look forward to working with iwi, WWF, the Department of Conservation and The Endangered Species Foundation to bring these exciting stories to life and share with the audience how we can all contribute to help protect our precious native species.”

Check out the trailer and full subititled episodes here.

Discovery Networks Finland has announced the commission of Ultimate Escape, a new original adventure reality series from Rabbit Films.

In Ultimate Escape, a fearless and strong host has 24 Hours, 24 Clues and 24 Calls to release a celebrity from a locked container at an unknown location. The celebrity has access to information, clues and tips that will help the host find them. The series will be hosted by Jukka Hildén from The Dudesons, who will have to face extreme conditions and dangerous challenges in order to successfully complete his mission. Each episode will feature a different celebrity locked in the container, including chef Jyrki Sukula, TV-host Veronica Verho and actress Minka Kuustonen.

The 8 x 60 mins series will have its premiere 6 October on the Discovery+ VOD service, and on Discovery Finland’s flagship linear channel TV5 on 27 October.

As a part of the deal, Discovery has also negotiated an option for the format for its channels in the Nordics as well as select European territories.

Ultimate Escape is distributed by Rabbit Films, and the format will be part of Rabbit’s lineup for the upcoming MIPCOM 2021 Festival in Cannes.

Jonathan Tuovinen, Head of International at Rabbit Films commented: “Here at Rabbit have been extremely happy working with Discovery on our previous adventure reality series Over the Atlantic, which they have commissioned in 5 territories so far. Ultimate Escape is an exciting and dangerous adventure reality format, with which we hope to continue that great relationship. And we can’t wait to present the format to the international market!”

Katja Santala, Content Director at Discovery Networks Finland continued: “We at Discovery Finland have great admiration for Rabbit Films’ creativity, ambition and professionalism. Over the Atlantic has proven to be such an amazing success story within the Discovery group on multiple territories. Now we are excited to give another outcome of Rabbit’s creativity a shot. We all know how in need we broadcasters are for fresh ideas and formats, so we are very happy to partner up with Rabbit on Ultimate Escape.”

Check out the brand new trailer for Ultimate Escape from here.