London – FremantleMedia celebrates five new commissions for the highly entertaining culinary game show My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours. The format, which fuses food, comedy, competition and family clashes in a bid to win a tasty cash prize, has been picked up by El Trece (Argentina), Prima TV (Romania), TRT (Turkey) Pop TV (Slovenia) and TV Joj (Slovakia). FremantleMedia picked up the global format rights from Spanish producer Madarina in 2014.
Chris O’Dell, Head of Global Entertainment Production, FremantleMedia, said, “We are thrilled at the fantastic reception My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours has received from the international broadcasters. We’re looking forward to working with the broadcasters to bring all of the unique and brilliantly entertaining elements of the format to the new local versions. We connected with the title from the start and the new deals reinforce our belief in its universal appeal.”
The format takes a parent and their son or daughter into the kitchen studio to cook the best dish in a set amount of time against another parent/offspring duo, with the mother (or father) giving their child instructions from the sidelines on how to cook the recipe. With family relationships under the spotlight, My Mom Cooks Better Than Yours provides an insight into what really happens in family kitchens throughout the nation. As the kitchen heats up, tempers soon start to boil over with hilarious results. With the clock ticking the contestant has to listen carefully to avoid a grilling, and if things start to go wrong the parents can push a ‘panic button’ which allows them to intervene, but it also eats into the team’s time allowance by making the time wind down twice as fast.
Once the rival team has had their turn, a food critic blind tastes both dishes and judges them on taste, presentation and the use of ingredients. After giving an evaluation, the critic makes a decision and reveals which contestant’s ‘mom cooks better.’ The winning team also receives a cash prize and comes back to the next show to defend the title.
The original format, produced by Spanish producer Mandarina, first aired in March 2014 on Cuatro (Spain) and proved to be a huge hit with young adults. Its prime time launch won an audience of 1.1m viewers and 6.3% share (4+), outperforming the Cuatro prime time average by +21%. The series also won shares up to +169% higher than Cuatro’s daytime slot average for young adults (13-24).
