NRK turned down “The Game”: – Just to congratulate TV 2

NRK chief Vibeke Fürst Haugen admits that NRK has had programs that have not hit as widely and functioned as well digitally as major viewer successes such as “Spillet” and “Kompani Lauritzen” on TV 2.

The new venture “The Game” now has over one million viewers on average for all episodes in the season. That is one of the reasons why TV 2 has now overtaken NRK in the streaming market.

– Are you envious of the success TV 2 has with “The Game”?

– They also visited us with the programme, but then we turned it down. I also know that TV 2 has changed the format a bit or TV 2-ified it. But we turned it down as it was, says Fürst Haugen to Kampanje.

Mastiff boss Jostein Olseng has previously told that the production company presented the format to all the Norwegian TV channelsbefore TV 2 finally chose to strike.

Among other things, TV 2 has added the celebrity element to “The Game”, which is originally a South Korean concept.

– What TV 2 has done with the format works very well. So we just have to congratulate TV 2 on that, says the NRK boss.

– Could it, in TV 2’s form, be part of NRK’s ​​offer?

– No. We are looking for something a little different. Then we could certainly have made some moves that would have made the program a little more NRK-esque. When we buy, develop and look for formats, we ask them to come up with formats that have an NRK DNA and that make the program an NRK program and not a TV 2 program.

– Will there be more celebrities in reality competitions also on NRK in the future?

– We have to find the right mix, the question is also what is a celebrity? In many of our titles, we have young and unknown profiles with us that we try to develop and work with further. The important thing is that young people get the opportunity to try themselves and get a high volume, get tested and develop. Here, NRK has an important role and a responsibility to help young talent emerge and we will continue to do so, says Fürst Haugen.

At the same time, she believes that TV 2’s success is not exclusively negative.

– It sharpens NRK and TV 2 has done that ever since 1992 and it is incredibly important for the Norwegian audience.