Magnify Media goes through Open Door, Nomad for political format
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Editor
| 27 March 2018

UK-based distribution and rights management specialist Magnify Media has agreed a worldwide representation deal excluding North America for new social experiment format, Political Blind Date.


In each half-hour episode, two politicians meet face to face and speak candidly about a polarising topic they disagree on. On day one, Politician A takes Politician B on a 'blind' dates to locations and/or people that best illustrate their point of view on the issue; on day two, they reverse roles. The producer believes that such an approach encourages both parties to move beyond the headlines and toxic partisan rhetoric.

An original idea from executive producer Tom Powers, co-founder of Toronto-based indie Open Door Co, Political Blind Date is a TVO Original co-produced and developed with producer Amanda Handy and series director and writer Mark Johnston of Nomad Films.

The series debuted in Canada at the end of 2017 on TVO, which commissioned a second season before the first had gone to air. It has already been optioned in Israel by Zygote Films, and Open Door is in discussions with firms based in the US.

Commenting on the commission, Powers said: "Politics had become riven by partisanship, with politicians' real personalities increasingly masked by prepared scripts and carefully spun messages. There are not many opportunities to look into the day-to-day life of a politician and see that they're human beings, like the rest of us. We wanted a distributor with the experience and intelligence to exploit Political Blind Date not just commercially, but with the care that it deserves."

Added Magnify Media founder and CEO Andrea Jackson: "Open Door's motto is 'content that matters' - and Political Blind Date stands as proof that that's more than a glib catchphrase. Nomad has been firmly in the social political factual space for more than two decades working with worldwide audiences. Political Blind Date has everything you want in a format: creatively, it's provocative, edgy and intelligent; commercially, it has clear global traction. In a world beset by fake news, seeing politicians connect as real people has never been more important."