Endemol Shine-Michael Strahan Team On ‘Money Drop’

Endemol Shine North America is teaming up with Michael Strahan’s SMAC Entertainment to develop a new U.S. version of the hit global game show The Money Drop.

Michael Strahan, the NFL Hall of Famer and current Emmy-winning co-host of Good Morning America, GMA Day and host of ABC’s The $100,000 Pyramid, will serve as an executive producer on The Money Drop.  Endemol Shine North America and SMAC are currently exploring potential primetime and daytime opportunities, including national syndication, for the series.

Created by Endemol Shine UK’s Remarkable Television, the format originally titled The Million Pound Drop Live, has been locally produced in 54 different global territories, including the U.K., where a second series currently airs as The £100K Money Drop, a five-day-a-week strip on Channel 4.

“We are thrilled to partner with Michael and the team at SMAC Entertainment to develop an all-new version of ‘The Money Drop’ for an American audience,” says Michael Weinberg, EVP, syndication, Endemol Shine North America. “This is a format that has worked successfully all over the world and the game concept itself is a lot of fun and engaging.”

“I was in London the first time I saw Money Drop and I immediately knew we had to help bring it back to the U.S.,” says Strahan. “On behalf of myself, Constance Schwartz-Morini and the rest of the team at SMAC, we’re excited to take Money Drop to market with the amazing team at Endemol Shine and make it SMAC’s third game show next to The $100,000 Pyramid and The Joker’s Wild.”

The Money Drop features a pair of contestants that are given their prize at the start of the show — bundles of real cash. All they have to do is keep hold of it. Just eight questions stand between them and their chance to take home the money.

This is played out on the Drop — a fiendish device with four trapdoors, on which the answers to each question are displayed. The contestants have 60 seconds to debate and place their money on the trapdoors. Are they confident enough to place all of their money on one answer, or will the relentless pressure cause them to play it safe and spread their money across several answers? When time’s up and they have allocated their cash, the team must step up to the drop to find out if their choices were right or wrong. Do they move on to the next question with their money still on the table, or do they lose it forever?

As the game progresses, the questions get harder and the answers become fewer but after eight questions whatever cash — if any — is left on the table is theirs to keep.