UK poker fans can look forward to a new televised poker show later this year following Channel 4’s commissioning of Good Egg Productions and Channel X Productions to put together a new series titled Celebrity Poker Home Game.
In a presser this week Channel 4 characterised the new show as “a new hybrid poker entertainment series” and outlined the format as “… a well-known poker-loving personality brings their home game to Channel 4’s Salon Privé. This show grants the viewer a privileged peek into the worlds of the host and their friends, where their enthusiasm for poker rubs off on the uninitiated, providing a huge potential new audience for the sponsor partner.
“The chip stacks are deep and the structure player-friendly to allow for plenty of action, with the emphasis as much on the game as the repartee. The players’ guards may be down but their competitive spirit is not.”
The press release goes on to explain that each Home Game episode plays out until all but the winner is eliminated. The series culminates in a Grand Final, where the victors from each heat meet across the felt to crown the Celebrity Poker Home Game champion.
Channel 4 claims it already has a healthy roster of celebrities keen to take part in the show, and is now looking for sponsors who will be provided with branding opportunities including “title rights, breaker bumps, and links from Channel 4’s website to the sponsors’ site.”
The target audience for the show is poker novices, making for good sign-up potential for new players.
The PR advises that work on the production is forging ahead, with a pilot already in editing.
Sponsors will be invited to integrate their offerings into the actual shooting schedule of the series, giving them “editorial” style credibility rather than standard advertising inserts during program breaks.