TV Audience

The highly anticipated first international adaptation of adventure reality hit format ‘Destination X’ launched in France on December 28th on M6 and lived up to all expectations. Following a remarkable publicity campaign that had Parisians wondering about the mysterious giant ‘X’ markings projected on various landmarks in town, the first episode drew in an amazing 25% market share in the key commercial demo (FRDA-50) after 7 days, comfortably securing the slot leadership for M6. The second episode came in at 26% market share in the overnight figures last Thursday.

First reactions in the press have been overwhelmingly positive; “A format that pushes back the boundaries of adventure games” was just one of the comments in the French press after the launch.

M6 was the first to commission the format upon the start of the initial broadcast in home territory Belgium on VTM last year. Under the existing production partnership with Be-Entertainment, ITV Studios France was responsible for the French production.

In ‘Destination X’, 10 contestants embark on the road trip of a lifetime. They board the innovative Destination X Bus, where nothing is what it seems. Not only do the windows on the bus have black-out blinds, reality is regularly tweaked to mislead the contestants as well as the viewers at home. Every bit of information always comes with a clue designed to help the contestants and viewers decide if they can trust what they see. They need to be on top of their game at all times because at the end of each episode, every contestant needs to mark where they think they are. The contestant who places their X furthest away from the actual location has to leave the game and, alas, loses their chance to win a cash prize. Only the last surviving participants get to search for the location of the host, who communicates with them using state-of-the-art drones and other smart technical devices, all from his secret command post somewhere in Europe.

Says Be-Entertainment MD Gepke Nederlof: “Congratulations to M6 for committing to this big and bold adventure with such great results. We can’t wait to continue our journey with ‘Destination X’ in the new year.”

‘Destination X’ was created and produced by Geronimo, the award-winning team behind ‘The Big Job Switch’ and ‘Doctor Davy’.