Fremantle's game show "Password" will be adapted in Greece on Alpha TV, Hungary on TV2, Israel on Channel 13, Mexico on TV Azteca and Slovakia on TV JOJ. “We were lucky enough to have Betty White on Jimmy’s ‘Late Night’ show, and we played a round of Password as a nod to Betty being a part of the original NBC version starting back in 1961,” Jim Juvonen, Executive Producer at NBC said. “We’ve played it dozens of times since, and when Fremantle decided to make 'Password' again for the U.S. market, they approached Jimmy and asked if he would bring his late night version to prime time on NBC.”
The U.K. Password is executive produced for Talkback by Jonno Richards and Laura Gibson with Juliet Morrish as the series producer. The series was commissioned by Joe Mace, commissioning editor at ITV and Katie Rawcliffe, head of entertainment commissioning at ITV. The word association game, which first launched on CBS in 1961, sees captains and contestants try to guess their teammates’ passwords with the help of one-word clues.
The most recent U.S. version, starring Keke Palmer and Jimmy Fallon, launched last year on NBC and quickly became one of the network’s most popular shows. The UK version will have its own distinct flavour, offering each contestant a chance to win a cash prize in the final round, and is fronted by three beloved British comic talents: Stephen Mangan as host, and BAFTA winners Alan Carr and Daisy May Cooper as team captains. “We do it slightly differently," Mangan, who, along with his family, is a fan of the U.S. show, told Variety. "We bring a British sense of humor to it, I think that’s the thing. And there’s a silliness, I guess, to it. Also, the sarcasm and relationship you have between Alan and Daisy is very British.”
The UK adaptation of Password is produced by our label Talkback. Chris O’Dell, Fremantle’s global head of production, says that the UK version will largely adhere to the U.S. template with “a few little bonus rules." The title is designed as a multi-season show for the UK. “The strength of Password as a format is it’s very returnable. The gameplay is is simple for the audience to understand. It’s great play along, it’s very universal. It’s very adaptable,” O’Dell says. “As a production, it’s a very efficient show, you can record more than one episode in a day. So that’s very attractive for both the producers and the broadcasters. And it’s the sort of show that can sit in a variety of places in the schedule and it’s a good, escapist, fun watch for an audience, which is what we try and do with all of our game shows and Password ticks all those boxes.”
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