EXCLUSIVE: With Million Dollar Secret riding high in the charts, Brent Montgomery‘s Wheelhouse is looking to lean into the creator economy and YouTube talent in a big way.
Glenn Hugill, the newly-promoted Chief Content Officer and President of the international Wheelhouse Studios, said the indie is in the process of signing off on a “massive project that involves creator-led talent” and was the subject of a bidding war. “It’s got huge creators and a structure that involves live, structured and reality,” he explained. “It feels like the kind of show that would never have existed three years ago and right now feels inevitable.”
Further to this project, Hugill revealed Wheelhouse is deep in the weeds striking a string of talent deals with digital creatives that will be unveiled in the coming weeks. This, he said, somewhat offsets the loss of Jimmy Kimmel, whose outfit Kimmelot recently split off from Wheelhouse after Alignment Growth invested in Wheelhouse, although the pair could still work together on future projects. Prior to his interview with Deadline, Hugill said he had been on the phone with Kimmelot President Scott Lonker.
Hugill said the pipeline of upcoming deals demonstrates that Wheelhouse is embracing the creator economy, which has been altered forever by Mr Beast and his Beast Games Amazon series.
“Creators aren’t just influencers anymore, they’re media empires,” said Hugill, pointing to the recent sale of the Hot Ones studio for $82.5M. “We know how to scale creator-led IP without losing the voice of that creator. And we have already signed some deals and have some deals in the pipeline that we’re hoping to close.”
Hugill said Wheelhouse has been playing in this game for a number of years, pointing to older tie-ups with YouTubers like Mark Roeber and David Dodrik, along with a recent investment in the Good Good Golf YouTube channel. The company has also teamed with The Rest is History podcast studio Goalhanger to make TV versions of its IP.
More than ever, Hugill added, the barriers between YouTube creators and traditional TV are breaking down.
“The creator economy was Brooklyn, and the legacy media was Manhattan, and nobody crossed the Brooklyn bridge,” he said. “And now everybody’s going back and forth across that bridge. Mr Beast didn’t have to come over the bridge but he did.”
Expanding the metaphor further, the former voice of The Banker in the UK’s Deal or No Deal added: “The tectonic plates of New York are eventually going to move together, and Brooklyn and Manhattan could become an autonomous collective.”
While YouTube creators don’t necessarily have to play in the traditional TV world, Hugill posited “there is a desire for cultural validation.” “You have a massive show on Netflix or Amazon or Hulu that feels real in a way that a viral video just doesn’t,” he added. “It gets reviewed, you’re on IMDb, you could win awards. Your mother has probably seen it. And that really matters.”
Banijay creative exec Lucas Green recently raised concerns that YouTubers aping traditional formats are bad for business but Hugill disagreed. “This is the direction of travel,” he added. “To fight it is to be King Cnut railing against the incoming tide.”
Hugill, a force in UK formats for years having worked on the likes of Deal or No Deal and The Mole, now works across the London, L.A. and New York Wheelhouse teams alongside the likes of Montgomery, ex-Food Network President Courtney White and Nick Mather, the former creative chief of Hugill’s old British company Possessed.
The idea is to produce transatlantic hits, shows that can reach across both sides of the pond at a time when geographical divides are breaking down more than ever. “The U.S. and UK are two nations divided by a common language and to be fair some genres never seem to translate,” said Hugill. “But platforms are commissioning globally. My [British] kids speak in perfect American accents because they watch so much American entertainment.”
The formats industry has entered a “phase of international collaboration,” he added. “You’ve got shows that are co-productions between giant American and giant UK networks. That’s what Wheelhouse is built for. If I’ve got a food idea I can call Courtney White, who ran the Food Network. That exchange of ideas means we’re not guessing.”
‘Million Dollar Secret’: “The greatest achievement of my life”
‘Million Dollar Secret’
Netflix
Hugill’s team is riding high off the success of Million Dollar Secret, the Traitors-esque Netflix format that reached as high as third in the streamer’s global top 10 (it was seventh last week), comfortably topping the unscripted charts. “I don’t think there’s any shame coming in behind Adolescence,” joked Hugill.
Also the subject of a bidding war according to Hugill and hosted by British comedian Peter Serafinowicz, Million Dollar Secret features 12 contestants, one of whom is secretly awarded a $1M prize at the start of the game. The objective for the millionaire is to keep their identity hidden while the other contestants attempt to uncover who holds the prize.
“Being top 10 in 50 countries feels like the greatest achievement of my life,” said Hugill. “It’s the kind of thing you can tell your mum.”
Hugill said his team, which has also just made Hulu’s Got To Get Out, has a “level of trust” and “creative shorthand” that sets it apart from others.
“We brainstorm differently from other people,” he said. “Development is less about territory these days and more about storytelling. If we get that right then it travels.”
Since moving to Wheelhouse, Hugill has also developed The Food Network’s Last Bite Hotel and quiz show Puzzling for Paramount UK network Channel 5, along with Channel 4 dating pilot Feels Like The First Time.
