Mike Darnell on His Ambitious New Competition Series, CBS' "The World's Best"

Hosted by James Cordenamp160and featuring an American judging panel consisting of Drew Barrymore RuPaul Charles and Faith Hill along with an additional global panel of celebrities and entertainment experts from 50 other countries perched upstage Worldamp8217s is a talent competition Darnell ensures is like nothing anyone has seen before amp160He should know as this time he built from the ground up amp160amp8220Thereamp8217s been like 50 or 60 singing shows and the only really successful one to come along and hurt American Idol at the right moment was The Voiceamp8221 he explained in a recent exclusive interview with MediaVillage amp160amp8220What they smartly did was take a singing show and add a game show elementamp160 So I thought in the variety space what is our game show elementamp8220I first thought global as technically Americaamp8217s Got Talent was just America although they now have a global feelamp8221 he continued amp160amp8220Then I wondered how can we change the judging system so it feels completely new and different amp160We ended with something superdramatic and with every score thereamp8217s tension that you just donamp8217t get from a amp8216yesamp8217 amp160The gameshow element is this big wall of lightsamp160 The original concept was about how do we give it a twist and spin that feels like a game show meets talent showamp8221Like AGT contestants of all varieties perform for the judgesamp160 The US panel of three gives them scores but in order to advanceamp160a combined global score of 75 is required amp160And while the US judges may be enamored by a performance whether it translates globally could be another storyamp160 Asked what the criteria were for selecting the global judges Darnell replied amp8220It was either having expertise in something so if we have dancers we have choreographers judging or some kind of superior judging talentamp8220Some are judges from others television shows around the worldquot he continuedamp160 quotI wanted to make sure they could be verbal because to be really frank we are paying them a lot amp160Financially the three US judges cost enoughamp160 There was a moment maybe 10 months ago when designing this when we thought maybe they wouldamp160just be scoring but their personalities were evident and ended up being way beyond my expectationsamp8221Darnell also admitted to hitting hosting gold when Corden came aboard amp160amp8220James elevates the showamp8221 he ravedamp160 amp8220He helped make the global wall judges shine and it ended up feeling completely new and differentamp160 It feels like what The Voice felt like at the startamp8220The Masked Singer will probably do well around the world but the places to mine have changedamp8221 he addedamp160 amp8220It was England then Holland then Israel and now itamp8217s Asia so of course we looked everywhere amp160Iamp8217m not a buyer Iamp8217m a selleramp160 In my time at Fox I created Joe Millionaire Temptation Island and The Simple Lifeamp160 Youamp8217re welcome amp160Itamp8217s just a matter of taking a lane that no one else has takenamp8221In addition to The Worldamp8217s Best he is already hard at work on his next big thingamp160 amp8220I have Mental Samurai hosted by Rob Lowe and premiering on Fox onamp160March 5 whichamp160I call an obstacle course for the mind amp160Weamp8217re not doing much with romanceamp160as Warner Bros has The Bacheloramp160and there are like eight of those although there are some competitors coming with Love Island on CBS and Fox bringing back Paradise Hotel which I love and hate that Iamp8217m not doing amp160I donamp8217t own itamp160 I was a buyer thenamp8221The Worldamp8217s Best premieres Sunday Feb 3 immediately following Super Bowl LIII on CBS before moving to its regular Wednesday night timeslotClick on the social media tiles above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively those of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated bloggersamp160

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

Mike Darnell on His Ambitious New Competition Series, CBS' "The World's Best"

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Steve Gidlow

APPLY FOR JOBS | SUBMIT YOUR RESUME | REGISTER FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT

Mike Darnell on His Ambitious New Competition Series, CBS' "The World's Best"

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Steve Gidlow

Cookies