EXCLUSIVE: Limitless Win, the hit British game show fronted by Ant & Dec, is potentially on its way to the U.S. with Endemol Shine North America.
The Lego Masters producer is pitching the non-scripted format, which is one of the highest rated formats to come out of the UK in a number of years, to buyers.
The ITV series features the world’s first limitless jackpot and a money ladder that never ends – contestants across the first five-part run totaled winnings of nearly £3M.
Pairs of contestants must earn some lives by facing a series of quick-fire questions against the clock with each correct answer earning them five precious lives. Then they face the limitless ladder, where the answer to every question is a number and the aim of the game is to get as close to the correct answer as possible, without going over. If they go under the correct answer, they lose lives, but if they go over, they leave with nothing. If they give a correct answer, they bank the last money amount passed in a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-style. They can leave the game with that money at any time by hitting the cash out button. But, if they crash out before they cash out they lose any money banked. The ladder also has several lifelines hidden on it, these are unlocked as they climb.
The series launched earlier this year and featured the likes of NHS workers Will and Kathryn winning £500,000.
Its premiere episode recorded over 6M viewers over its first 28 days, making it ITV’s biggest new entertainment series launch since The Masked Singer. It also drew a young audience with an average share of 48% of 16-34s tuning in.
It was created by Hello Dolly, the production company run by ex-Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? exec producer Victoria Ashbourne and her husband Stuart Shawcross. Ashbourne previously ran the Sony-backed production company Victory Television.
Hello Dolly, which has also produced Netflix series including Sing On! and Awake: The Million Dollar Game, developed the series with Mitre Studios, the production company run by hosts Ant & Dec, who are best known for fronting series Britain’s Got Talent and I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here.
It’s a slightly unusual move for Endemol Shine North America, which has dating format The Courtship launching on NBC on Sunday, to have the U.S. rights to a series that wasn’t produced by a Banijay-owned company but the European group’s distribution arm does rep the international rights to the format.