Keshet Broadcasting has greenlit the second season of its lavish reality show “2025,” which pits 12 contestants against each other in a near-future city constructed from scratch in the Israeli desert.
The pilot season, which is having its finale Wednesday, had a solid rookie season. It debuted with respectable ratings, which then dropped for awhile before stabilizing. The network acknowledged that, as a new format, the show and its scheduling required some tinkering as it went along. Still, Keshet said, “2025” finished first in its slot on 17 out of its 21 primetime airings, and defeated “Big Brother VIP” in three out of four head-to-head matchups.
Keshet said the show currently ranks 4th out of the top-10 reality shows that have premiered in Israel since 2017.
The series brings together contestants from different backgrounds who are filmed by 150 cameras and have to play a game of strategy in which their status depends on their popularity and the amount of money they manage to obtain.
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“2025” is being described as a social and strategy game somewhere in between “The Truman Show” and Monopoly, said Keshet. The show has lured a raft of sponsors, including Ikea and Samsung. The show was in development for two years, and the sets took four months to be built. Keshet declined to reveal the budget of the reality show, but said it was about 20% to 25% higher than “Big Brother.”
Keshet International, the network’s global production and distribution arm, shopped the format to buyers at MipTV earlier this month, and said there was interest from platforms and producers around the world. But it’s unclear whether anyone has bought the format.
“Our belief in our creative ability and our passion to create original programming is the foundation of this organization, and is deeply embedded in our DNA as a content company,” Keshet Media Group CEO Avi Nir recently told the Israeli financial publication Globes.
Nir added that “as a content-focused company, the people at Keshet have achieved success not only by demonstrating results but by constantly challenging themselves to learn and grow.”