ITV today became the largest producer of reality television shows in the US with a deal to buy the maker of The Real Housewives of New Jersey and Pawn Stars worth up to $800 million (£472 million).
Production firm Leftfield Entertainment is behind Real Housewives, one of TV channel Bravo’s biggest hits and a forerunner of the UK’s The Only Way Is Essex. Other successes include Pawn Stars, which features the goings-on of a Las Vegas pawnbroker.
The deal is by far the biggest under the broadcaster’s plans to build up its ITV Studios production arm on both sides of the Atlantic. It has spent more than £100 million in the past two years on US production companies including Gurney Productions and High Noon Entertainment as well as comedian Graham Norton’s So Television in the UK.
ITV will pay an initial $360 million for 80% of Leftfield with further payments dependent on “significant” profit growth. ITV boss Adam Crozier said: “Leftfield is a fantastic success story.”
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