I’m sooo interested to see how many more shows I notice now that you’ve brought this Italy trend up! I remember a few months ago it was really obvious that Malta’s tourism board was arranging for coverage across various tv genres (Death & Other Details had an episode randomly set in Malta,
British tv channels did multiple tourist destination recommendation shows, and even The Bachelor went to Malta!) but Italy is such a common tourism focus that I wouldn’t have made the link. Thanks for that insight! I look forward to seeing it everywhere now lol (off the top of my head, I have watched Alan Carr and Amanda Holden’s “Italian Job”, and the Fixer to Fabulous spin-off you mention in this post.)
As you said, it's hard to determine exactly WHY these trends happen, but they're there. Also, Rachael Ray did "Rachael Ray's Italian Dream Home" as part of her new deal with A&E. And while I enjoy Ray, I don't necessarily want to watch a show where some celeb moans about how difficult it is to renovate their estate in Tuscany.
Malta is an interesting situation. They are pouring a ton of government money into encouraging foreign productions. And at the same time, they have one of the worst set of guidelines for crews and actors.
Italy has a fairly substantial rebate, which I am sure has an effect. And for a company like WBD, basing a show in Italy also allows them to have a show that feels somehow European, without actually having to produce a purely European show.
I’m sooo interested to see how many more shows I notice now that you’ve brought this Italy trend up! I remember a few months ago it was really obvious that Malta’s tourism board was arranging for coverage across various tv genres (Death & Other Details had an episode randomly set in Malta,
British tv channels did multiple tourist destination recommendation shows, and even The Bachelor went to Malta!) but Italy is such a common tourism focus that I wouldn’t have made the link. Thanks for that insight! I look forward to seeing it everywhere now lol (off the top of my head, I have watched Alan Carr and Amanda Holden’s “Italian Job”, and the Fixer to Fabulous spin-off you mention in this post.)
I wonder if the uptick for WBD content in Italy is related to them hiring for this role https://deadline.com/2023/12/warner-bros-discovery-max-italy-iberia-1235679584/
As you said, it's hard to determine exactly WHY these trends happen, but they're there. Also, Rachael Ray did "Rachael Ray's Italian Dream Home" as part of her new deal with A&E. And while I enjoy Ray, I don't necessarily want to watch a show where some celeb moans about how difficult it is to renovate their estate in Tuscany.
Malta is an interesting situation. They are pouring a ton of government money into encouraging foreign productions. And at the same time, they have one of the worst set of guidelines for crews and actors.
Italy has a fairly substantial rebate, which I am sure has an effect. And for a company like WBD, basing a show in Italy also allows them to have a show that feels somehow European, without actually having to produce a purely European show.