Studio Lambert Bosses Talk “Breaking The Conventions Of Reality TV” On ‘Squid Game: The Challenge’, Casting New Seasons Of ‘The Traitors’ & Hopes For A First Returning Drama Series

deadline.com:

Studio Lambert has introduced the world to Gogglebox, Race Across the World and The Circle but the indie has faced its greatest test in Netflix‘s Squid Game: The Challenge, and the road has been a bit of a bumpy one.

Stephen Lambert‘s 15-year-old British production house, which its founder says is having its busiest year following a strategic shift to “go big” on premium unscripted, took on its grandest undertaking when Netflix gave it the weighty reins to the Squid Game competition series.

Alongside fellow UK indie The Garden, Studio Lambert has subsequently overseen a competition with 456 contestants – about 20 times that of the average reality show – with the largest prize fund in history. “We are trying to the break the conventions of reality TV,” Lambert tells Deadline at his indie’s plush Central London office in the weeks leading up to Squid Game: The Challenge‘s launch, while Creative Director Tim Harcourt, an EP on the show, describes the undertaking at Bedford’s Cardington Studios as “like D-Day.” In The Challenge, contestants chase the mammoth $4.56M prize by playing the elimination games made famous worldwide by Netflix’s most-watched show of all time, including Red Light, Green Light and Glass Stepping Stones, along with several new games.

While the months-long audition process, building of enormous sets, lengthy filming and monstrous edit were all highly taxing, Lambert says the biggest challenge has been “getting an audience to care about a cast of 456.” “The conventional wisdom is that you can’t make an unscripted show with more than 20 because the viewer won’t know who anyone is or care about anyone,” he adds. “The logistics of making the show were hugely demanding and took an enormous effort from