<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, a studio audience gathered to watch the taping of a pilot for \u201cWordle,\u201d a new game show<\/a> based on the wildly popular New York Times puzzle.<\/p>\n The warm-up comic who came out before the start of the show explained to the crowd how \u201cWordle\u201d emcee Savannah Guthrie is the co-host of the \u201cToday\u201d show with an impressive resume that included interviewing presidents. He also advised them on how there may be unfamiliar spellings of the words used in the game.<\/p>\n While Guthrie needs no introduction in the U.S., it was required at \u201cWordle,\u201d which was shot at dock10, a TV production facility in Manchester, England. Production company Universal Television Alternative Studio and NBC had a contingent of executives, producers and question writers on hand. But the director and technical crew for the production were all Manchester locals, as was the audience. The contestants were flown in from the U.S.<\/p>\n If \u201cWordle\u201d gets added to the NBC schedule next year, it will be produced in the United Kingdom \u2014 either in Manchester or in Ireland. But the move won\u2019t break new ground. A growing number U.S. game show makers \u2014 long based in Los Angeles and New York \u2014 have headed across the ocean to take advantage of generous tax credits that can bring down the cost of production at a time when TV networks contend with shrinking audiences and profit margins.<\/p>\n Fox currently has four of its prime time game shows produced overseas, including \u201cThe Floor,\u201d \u201c99 to Beat,\u201d \u201cCelebrity Name That Tune\u201d and \u201cBeat Shazam.\u201d <\/a>(The network\u2019s \u201cThe Masked Singer,\u201d which gets a California Film Commission tax credit, and \u201cCelebrity Weakest Link\u201d are made on the Fox lot in Century City.)<\/p>\n The latest season of Fremantle North America\u2019s classic Goodson-Todman format \u201cThe Match Game\u201d was produced in Montreal for ABC with a local crew to take advantage of Canada\u2019s production tax credit. Past seasons were taped in New York.<\/p>\n Fremantle even used Canadians as contestants for \u201cThe Match Game,\u201d although viewers will notice they never identified their home towns. Producers had to police regional accents and references to make sure the show didn\u2019t sound too different for an American audience.<\/p>\n Fox did not make an executive available to discuss the trend. But Rob Lowe, host of \u201cThe Floor,\u201d has spoken bluntly about the cost savings realized from doing the program at Ardmore Studios in Bray, Ireland.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s cheaper to bring 100 Americans to Ireland than to walk across the lot at Fox,\u201d Lowe told listeners of his \u201cLiterally!\u201d podcast earlier this year. (Lowe\u2019s show does have as many as 100 contestants, all of whom are flown over from the U.S. for the production.)<\/p>\n An hour-long game show can run between $1.5 million to nearly $2 million an episode depending on the cost of a celebrity host, according to network executives familiar with the budgets. Tax credits offered in the U.K. can bring that total down to under $1 million, a significant reduction in an era when media companies are relentless about containing costs.<\/p>\n Any savings are meaningful as the traditional TV business is struggling with the massive change in consumer viewing habits. Audience migration to streaming platforms has driven TV ratings down to historically low levels over the past decade. The latest data from Nielsen shows that 45.7% of viewers are watching streaming, compared to the 45.1% tuned into broadcast and cable networks.<\/p>\n The trend has actually helped the game show business. The genre \u2014 typically contained in a four-walled studio \u2014 is cheaper than scripted programs and has taken up more network prime time real estate in recent years. In an era when consumers can watch shows on demand, the urgency and undetermined outcomes of game shows make them feel \u201clive,\u201d like sports, the last surefire ratings-grabber for traditional TV. <\/p>\n But there is an industry-wide demand to reduce costs while maintaining the quality of the on-screen product. Even the less expensive option of a game show is not exempt.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a pressure in this time that everyone \u2014 studios, production companies and network \u2014 is feeling to produce hours of television for lower price points,\u201d Kim Kleid, executive vice president of current programming for Fremantle North America said in a recent interview. \u201cThe word on the street is do more with less. We all have to look for different efficiencies.\u201d<\/p>\n On that measure, entertainment industry workers based in LA have felt the pinch<\/a> of cost-cutting \u2014 with many having lost jobs and others struggling to find new roles, in part due to runaway production<\/a>.<\/p>\n