The ABC game show Lucky 13 has caused financial drama after the show was canceled last week.
What’s Happening:
- Deadline reports that game show Lucky 13’s UK producer Studio 1 owes at least $500,000 cumulative after the series’ failure to be picked up for a second season.
- In an unusual financial move, Studio 1 pre-funded Lucky 13 in return for a cut of ABC’s advertisement and product placement revenue. Unfortunately, the deal was far from lucrative for Studio 1, which has been essentially bankrupt from the show’s cancellation.
- According to the newsource, ABC is currently working to ensure hosts and executive producers Shaquille O’Neal and Gina Rodriguez receive payment for their work. ABC chose not to comment on the ongoing situation.
- In addition to the celebrity pair, several contractors are also waiting to be paid for their work.
- Affected companies include Funicular Goats, Nest Productions, Luna Remote Systems and Suite.
- The series wrapped in June. With most payments usually taking place within 30 days, many of the contractors have been reaching out for months in regards to their compensation for the project.
- One of the founders of the affected companies shared “We’ve been strung along quite a bit by the producers. They’ve told us over the past couple of months that payment was coming and they were picked up for Season 2. The story we got was that one of the financiers dropped out and they were reconnecting with a new source of financing.”
- The newsource also reports that Studio 1, which was founded by the team that created Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, may also have trouble paying Lucky 13’s contestants amid the financial issues. Those payments are not due until 120 days after recording, but, cumulatively, contestants won hundreds of thousands of dollars. ABC and Studio 1 have both affirmed that cash prizes will be honored.
- The series saw contestants take on 13 true or false questions. Afterwards, they would have to guess a range of how many they think they got right, equating to the amount of money they could potentially win. If they were correct, they would go home with the specified amount of money. If a contestant got all 13 questions right and successfully predicted it, they would leave with $1 million.
- Lucky 13 was ABC’s most-watched summer premiere with 2.7 million viewers, with the season finale also ranking number 1 during its time period.
- Studio 1 CEO Adrian Woolfe shared in a statement last week “We are in the process of taking proactive protective steps to restructure the Studio 1 business and to unlock and protect the value of the now-proven Lucky 13 IP. Rather than it being a direct commission, the unique commercial model on which the debut series was launched in the U.S. was underpinned by advertising revenues which given well-publicized market conditions regrettably, but unavoidably, fell acutely short of forecasts.”
- Woolfe is credited as showrunner and creator with Kevin Bacon, Mark Wells, Glenn Coomber, Aaron Stone, Alastair Burlingham, Gary Raskin, David Schiff, Scott Henry and GW Wright.
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