Netflix muscles into the reality TV game with 'Ultimate Beastmaster'

For someone who helped created the The Biggest Loser, producer David Broome sure knows how to be a winner when it comes to reality television.

Now, after over a decade creating and producing unscripted projects for cable and broadcast channels, Broome is hoping to make reality TV work for Netflix.

Ultimate Beastmaster, which launched on the streaming service Friday, is Broome's latest -- for lack of a better word -- beast.

The series, co-produced with Sylvester Stallone, pits 108 competitors from the U.S., Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, Germany and Japan (18 from each country) against one another. They all take their shot at running a physically demanding obstacle course called The Beast.

"Netflix has been different in the fact that there are 'no rules,'" Broome said. "The creative freedom of the platform and the support from the Netflix team to push the envelope -- for example, having every episode open completely differently, made this experience unique for me -- it allowed me to challenge myself as a producer and not have to worry about any constraints. I loved that."

No rules, however, had its fair share of challenges -- especially from a technical standpoint.

The series is shot in 4k, Broome noted, using more than 50 cameras.

"Nothing like this has ever been attempted," he said. "From the 4k media storage alone with that many cameras to the way the show was colored and treated was a groundbreaking experience. In many ways, the editing equipment needed is barely ready to handle what we attempted."

Attempts to adapt unscripted programming for various countries seems to work on linear TV. For example, the UK had the popular show Pop Idol and the U.S. of course had American Idol, which aired for a whopping 15 seasons before ending last year.

But Beastmaster marks the first reality/competition series to launch globally in the streaming service space (although Amazon last year launched Style Code Live — a "QVC for the YouTube generation" available on the Amazon Video store).

Each hour-long episode of Beastmaster features 12 competitors (two from each country). Different versions of the show feature different local celebrities as a host, and popular athletes will provide commentary throughout the competition.

"It was unbelievably challenging and rewarding to take these episodes and make six different localized country versions," Broome said. "I felt that each of the countries involved should feel that this series was made specifically for them -- and I feel that’s what we were able to achieve in each case. While the physical runs are the same across all country versions, there were many localized pieces that showcased that country’s competitors as well as their own local hosts. This allowed us to create the proper tone and vibe for each country; so for example, the tone of the series in Germany is very different than that in Mexico or Brazil. It was one of the biggest differentiating factors in any show of this type."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

In the U.S., the hosts are Terry Crews (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and Charissa Thompson (Extra TV and Fox Sports).

The global element plays into Netflix's overall strategy. Last January, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced that the popular streaming service would expand into 130 more countries as a part of an effort to spark major growth.

At a conference later in the year, Netflix's Ted Sarandos said that “unscripted television is a very interesting business,” and that the company would focus on shows that are “more likely to travel internationally.”

Given that Netflix declines to release viewership data for its shows, there's no real way to measure whether such an effort will pay off.

At least the show's got Rocky on its side.

"The world will watch in awe as amazing competitors from around the globe overcome grueling physical challenges," Stallone said in a statement. "And in the process become champions and heroes."