I cover global TV and film from London. I wrote about the collapse of NATPE and Realscreen, HBO Max invading the U.K., the Iran war’s impact on Mideast deals and production and the antitrust challenges for Paramount-WB in Europe. Email me at manori@theankler.com
One hundred cameras. A high-speed freight train. A visionary realizing his wildest dream.
This isn’t the premise of Unstoppable, Snowpiercer or Train to Busan. It’s the high-octane YouTube reality format Stop the Train, the brainchild of top French creator Squeezie and long-time collaborator Théodore Bonnet.
Ten top influencers take part in physical and psychological challenges inside the containers of a fast-moving freight train, with one contestant eliminated in each round and the winner reaching the final carriage, slamming the brakes and claiming a cash prize. “The goal was imagining a completely different world in every wagon to fully immerse the contestant in an impossible reality, like being in a casino or a shooting range,” Bonnet tells me.
Bonnet, 33, and Squeezie, 30, made Stop the Train for €850,000 (close to $1 million), and it’s generated 15 million views since it was posted in September. Now, Stop the Train has been picked up for global distribution by Survivor and MasterChef producer Banijay, which is mobilizing its global network to make the format an international hit. The deal is among the first of its kind out of France for a major creator (Squeezie has 20 million YouTube subscribers).
“We have a lot of ideas that aren’t realistically doable on YouTube because they’re too expensive to produce,” says Squeezie, whose real name is Lucas Hauchard. “But we’d rather wait until they become possible with the creator economy rising, so we can stay independent and do it exactly as we imagine.”
Creator-led formats are now a lifeline future-proofing the businesses of studios like Banijay, whose slate of granddaddy formats are still sold and renewed extensively but don’t necessarily pull in young audiences. And it’s just one way that Europe and U.K. players are working around contraction in unscripted TV and in TV budgets more broadly.
Today, Bonnet and Hauchard tell me about Unfold’s new model, and why creators like Squeezie are stepping back and letting bigger, traditional media companies keen to find the next big superformat build and expand their shows.
Stop the Train’s success is also part of a wave of original unscripted formats from Europe that are hitting the market and eyeing U.S. domination.
I take a closer look at:
- Why Squeezie is handing Stop the Train to Banijay — and what he gets in return
- What makes Banijay’s bet on a YouTube format so unusual
- The new creator–studio model quietly taking shape
- Why 15M views wasn’t enough to make Stop the Train profitable (I have some of the math breakdown)
- How you turn a YouTube hit into a global format without breaking it
- The brand money — and why it still wasn’t enough to cover costs
- The rise of “super group” producers — and why networks want them
- Inside the BBC/NBCU co-prod push to reboot reality TV development powering bigger shows out of the U.K., including a Parker Posey-hosted Hulu project
Don’t stop here
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