MIPTV: Phil Gurin’s distributor TGC Global Entertainment (TGC GE) is launching comedy social-experiment format The Swap Project on the international market this week.
The format is co-developed and co-owned by Los Angeles-based TGC GE, which launched in 2023, and Japan’s Fuji Television Network.
The Swap Project debuted on Fuji TV in February in 60-minute episodes and is being pitched to buyers at the final MipTV in Cannes this week.
The East-meets-West, fish-out-of-water format sees two people from different sides of the world but with the same occupation swap lives for a week. Not only do the participants exchange jobs and professional responsibilities, but they must also carry out each other’s domestic chores and family duties.
TGC GE and Fuji TV will share the distribution of The Swap Project, with Fuji Creative Corp, the distribution arm of Fuji TV, handling Asia and TGC GE representing the format in the rest of the world.
TGC GE parent The Gurin Company has been strengthening its creative ties in Asia over the last 12 months and has co-developed several formats with Fuji TV in recent years.
In early March, The Gurin Company announced a ground-breaking creative collaboration with Titan Content, the first US-headquartered K-pop company, which was launched in late 2023 by K-pop visionary Nikki Semin Han.
The first project to emerge from the new partnership is K-Pop Dreams (working title), which sets out to turn the world’s growing fascinating with all things ‘K’ into a 10-part talent-search format aimed at making “American K-pop dreams come true.”