Nippon Television Network Corporation (Nippon TV) has announced that the format of Pharaoh!, the popular game show that was broadcast in Japan from July 2011 to February 2013, has been licensed abroad for the first time ever. On January 18, 2014, the Chinese remake of Pharaoh! began airing throughout mainland China on Aniworld TV, a Hunan Media Group subsidiary.
Construction began on a 3,000 square metre studio in late November 2013, after consultations with the “Pharaoh!” team that had flown in from Japan.
In addition, the Thai remake of Pharaoh! began broadcasting on January 17, 2014 on Thailand’s Channel 9, a major terrestrial broadcaster.
The Thai remake is a joint production between KANTALUCKS, a newly-established company borne out of the merger between major Thai production companies Kantana and Lucks, Yoshimoto Entertainment Thailand, a subsidiary of Yoshimoto Kogyo Co., Ltd., and Nippon TV. The project was selected and subsidised by Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, as part of its FY2012 Supplementary Budget for Research and Study on International Joint Production in Asia.
The game show will air on Thailand’s Channel 9 weekly on Fridays from 20:30 to 21:30 for an entire year. The set for the Thai remake was constructed in Kantana’s studio, located on the outskirts of Bangkok. The Japanese production team visited the set on several occasions to provide direction.
Nippon TV will continue to explore opportunities for Thailand and Japan to jointly produce programs.
