A major TV development deal has been announced where CBS has won a bidding war to develop Zynga’s newly-acquired “Draw Something” into an interactive game show. Variety is reporting that the show will be produced by by Sony Pictures Television, Ryan Seacrest Productions, and Embassy Row. Beyond just taking this popular social game and turning it into a game show, viewers are going to be able to interact with the celebrities on the show by playing along with them at home.
“Teams of celebrities and everyday users will test their skills in front of a studio audience to earn money and big laughs,” Variety’s Andrew Wallenstein reported. “Viewers can also play along at home for a chance to win prizes and compete with the celebrities,” he added. TechCrunch points out that this is going to be a great way for them to make money off this acquisition after traffic has been plummeting for the app.
This is the next major case of a social phenomenon getting a chance to evolve into a TV ecosystem. S*** My Dad says failed (also on CBS), and we reported in December that CBS picked up a show from Kelly Oxford who personally has an extremely influential following on Twitter and Tumblr. Watching this show’s launch is going to be extremely exciting. The network doesn’t need to come up with a new social TV strategy — they’ll just need to find ways to tap into their already passionate user-base and create scarcity. If a success, or maybe even if it’s not a success, this could set a whole new precedent for how social games are looked at by TV in the development process.
We spoke to social TV graphics expert, Never.No Director of Marketing, James Nuefeld.