John De Mol’s Talpa Lines Up Talent Contest ‘House Of Talent’

John De Mol has been responsible for creating many of the world’s most successful entertainment formats including Big Brother and The Voice. His company’s latest creation is music talent format House of Talent, which De Mol’s Talpa hopes can be just as globally successful.

The show, which launches on Holland’s SBS6 on August 6, is a daily format that targets young audiences by mixing music and reality television with social media.

A group of musical artists from various genres live together as they attempt to make it big in the music business. The musicians must build up a fanbase, perform throughout the country and release a new track, every six weeks. Two professional managers will guide them every step of the way and take care of bookings and promotion. If the artists don’t make enough money or generate enough engagement in each six week period, they will be nominated for elimination.

The show also has a large second screen element; the musicians must use social media to create their following and the elimination show will be broadcast exclusively online.

House of Talent launches in the same slot as Utopia, the reality series that was remade by Fox in 2014. The company has already begun talks to export the format into a number of major markets and it will likely pique the interest of networks in the U.S. and UK, who have been crying out for a breakout music format since the launch of The Voice back in 2010.

“There has been quite some interest from international broadcasters already, which is great. We are in talks with different broadcasters at this moment,” said a Talpa source.

The show was also lauded by Talpa owners ITV in its recent financial results. The British broadcaster, run by CEO Carolyn McCall, name-checked the format twice in its numbers this week. It noted that House of Talent fits in alongside a number of Talpa shows such as The Voice Senior, Dance Dance Dance and 5 Gold Rings as part of its “strong pipeline of new entertainment shows”. “Our international scale now enables ITV to make all these other formats, and in particular The Voice, in all our international production territories and therefore earn the production revenue as well as the format fee,” it said.

Can De Mol strike lucky again? We’ll find out in August.