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Red swimsuits at the ready – the Baywatch reboot is edging closer. “We’re in advanced talks with Fox in the U.S. about the Baywatch reboot,” said Bob McCourt from Fremantle, which distributes the classic lifeguard drama.
Fox and Fremantle have been working on the reboot for some time. The project officially landed at Fox last spring. It has been heating up for a series order, with the network bringing one of the top showrunners on its talent roster, Burn Notice creator Matt Nix, on board to do rewrites a couple of months ago.
McCourt didn’t share more on the new take on the show. He did break down how there is wind in the sails of the original Baywatch after Fremantle sunk a boatload of cash into clearing and replacing the original music, and remastering and relaunching the series. It has also launched a dedicated Baywatch FAST channel, which McCourt said is Fremantle’s second most successful FAST offering.
At a risk-averse time in traditional TV, evergreen shows like Baywatch assume huge value for distributors like Fremantle. They offer a safe-ish bet for buyers looking to populate digital channels, with in the case of Baywatch, hundreds of eps available featuring recognizable talent.
McCourt was speaking at the NEM event in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “Back in the day Baywatch was the most watched show on the planet,” he said. “In the 1990s it sold to every territory in the world, but when it was canceled it didn’t sell much for 20 years.”
The issue was clearances and getting the series ready for an HD world, he explained. “Basically, it hadn’t been cleared for streaming. The music hadn’t been cleared and it was also in standard definition. We made the decision to remaster all episodes into high definition and then clear [or replace] the music… with a big upfront investment.
“It was a big risk that actually paid off 10 times over. Baywatch has sold to every territory and around the world, including to Amazon, Hulu, RTL in Germany, and France TV in France.”
The series had about 400 songs across its 250 hours, which have mostly been replaced. The Beach Boys and the iconic theme tune were, however, deemed irreplaceable.
“As technology has evolved, obviously replacing the music is much easier and quicker, and of course, you then own that music,” McCourt said. “We obviously maintain the theme tune and there is a classic episode with The Beach Boys singing ‘California Girls’ and we had we had to keep that in, there’s no way they were going to take that out.”
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