Netflix has picked up its first reality show: an athletic competition series with a title that's likely donned several bad fantasy novels — Ultimate Beastmaster. According to Variety, the series will have athletes from across the globe running through a "demanding" obstacle course that changes with every episode. Eventually, the best performers will come together to compete for the title of "Ultimate Beastmaster." Try putting that on your Tinder profile and seeing what happens!
The show is being produced by Sylvester Stallone and the executive producer of The Biggest Loser. Stallone won't actually be appearing in the series, however. Instead, Netflix is planning something a little more interesting: it's going to rework the series with different hosts across six different countries: the US, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Germany, and Japan, according to Variety. Each region will have two hosts. The US gets Terry Crews and Charissa Thompson.
The Beast, the Beastmaster, and the Ultimate Beastmaster
Ultimate Beastmaster will run 10 episodes in total. It'll have 108 contestants, evenly split among the six hosting countries. The final episode will bring together the winners of the first nine episodes. To clarify some of this naming madness: the obstacle course is called "The Beast;" an individual episode's winner is a "Beastmaster;" and the finale's winner is the "Ultimate Beastmaster," which sounds like something from He-Man. The episodes will all launch simultaneously worldwide, but it looks like there isn't a release date yet.
Reality TV could be Netflix's next focus for original content. This week, it's branching out into regular programming for the first time with Chelsea Handler's show. And stepping into reality TV seems like a natural progression. Reality shows are typically cheaper to produce and often attract a wide audience. The Ultimate Beastmaster format has been done several times over, so Netflix knows well that it should be able to find an audience, too. By putting in a bit of extra work and customizing the series for different locations, Netflix has an even greater chance of getting viewers to click play.