Princess Productions

Princess Productions
Industry Television
Genre Production company
Founded September 1996
Defunct December 2017
Headquarters London, UK
Key people
 Jon Kingston, CFO
Henrietta Conrad, managing director
Owner 21st Century Fox (50%)
Apollo Global Management (50%)
Number of employees
 150
Parent Shine Group

Princess Productions was a London based television production company started in September 1996 by Henrietta Conrad and Sebastian Scott, which produced broadcast shows and pilots for all the major British broadcasters across a variety of genres, mainly specialising in entertainment and factual entertainment programmes. Highlights included Got To Dance, Must Be the Music, T4 and The Sunday Night Project.

Based in Whiteleys in West London, Princess had its own television studio on the third floor and its own in house post production facility.

Since 2007, Princess was part of the Shine Group, one of the United Kingdom's largest television production company groups. On 4 May 2017, it was announced by its parent company that Princess would be closed at the end of the year, as it is "financially fragile", and is also losing its space in Whiteleys which is being re developed for residential use.[1]

Programming

  • Famous and Fearless – Eight celebrities compete against each other in dangerous extreme sports to win money for charity and prove that they are the most fearless. (Channel 4 2011)
  • Got to Dance – search for the United Kingdom and Ireland's best dance act, hosted by Davina McCall and judged by Ashley Banjo, Pussycat Doll Kimberley Wyatt and tap dancer Adam Garcia. (Sky 1 2010–2014)
  • Must Be the Music – Sky1 talent competition for music acts who write and perform their own songs. All proceeds from record sales went direct to the artists. Hosted by Fearne Cotton and judged by Dizzee Rascal, Sharleen Spiteri and Jamie Cullium. (Sky 1 2010)
  • T4 – long running weekend magazine show for Channel 4 aimed at young viewers between 16–24 years old. Regular hosts included Will Best, Matt Edmondson, Nick Grimshaw, Jameela Jamil and Georgie Okell. (Channel 4 1998–2012, E4 2012)
  • iTunes Festival – ITV2's coverage of the United Kingdom's biggest indoor music festival, including gigs from London's Roundhouse in Camden throughout every night of July. Presented by Fearne Cotton, Dave Berry and Matt Edmondson.
  • The Wright Stuff – British television chat show, hosted by Matthew Wright, and currently airing on Channel 5 each weekday at 9:15 am. The format is based upon the more traditional radio phone in, featuring well known guests discussing topical issues, and encouraging contributions from the studio and television audiences, text messages, e mails and a phone vote, originally produced by Anglia TV from 2000 to 2001. (Channel 5 2000–2018)
  • Something for the Weekend – weekly magazine style entertainment show, including cookery, celebrity guests and television clips. (BBC Two 2006–17 March 2012)
  • Sunday Brunch – weekly magazine style entertainment show, including cookery, celebrity guests and television clips. (Channel 4 25 March 2012 – present)
  • The Friday Night Project/The Sunday Night Project – weekly comedy-variety show where regular hosts Justin Lee Collins and Alan Carr are joined by a celebrity guest host. These guests provide an opening monologue, are interviewed by Alan and Justin and take questions from the studio audience. They also take part in comedy sketches, hidden camera stunts and a game show where someone from the audience is selected to win prizes. (Channel 4 2005–2009)
  • Eddie Stobart: Trucks & Trailers – docu soap series following the stories behind Britain's biggest haulage company and its drivers battles with the roads to get deliveries completed on time.
  • The Search – television show on Channel 4, which aired in 2007. Ten contestants with unique skills must solve a variety of ancient clues and puzzles from throughout history, with the aim in each episode of finding "The Symbol". The team which fulfils this directive wins the game and the losing team must then sacrifice a team member. The final episode saw the remaining (three) contestants compete to uncover a £50,000 hidden treasure.
  • Doctor, Doctor – live daily show which tackled a series of topical medical issues in front of a studio audience. Doctor Doctor was a one hour show, with medical experts in different fields answering viewers' questions about their physical and mental well being broadcast on Channel 5 in 2006.
  • Date My Mom (UK) – similar to the United States version of the show (Date My Mom), each episode features a different guy looking for love in the weirdest place – on dates with three different mums. He's not looking to hook up though, he's spending time with the mums to discover everything he can about their daughters. He won't be able to see a picture of the daughters on his dates, so he'll have to work hard to get the truth out of the mums. In the end, everyone meets up to hear his decision. This is the spot where he'll finally get to see what these daughters look like. Broadcast on MTV UK & Ireland in 2006–2007.
  • Danger! 50,000 Volts! – Comedy survival series in which Nick Frost met up with experts in different fields of survival and asked questions on what to do in highly unlikely situations involving danger.
  • Show Me the Money – live daily gameshow on Channel 4 pitting teams against the Stock Exchange. It had a short 2 series run. The show won the Royal Television Society Daytime Show of the Year.
  • Light Lunch – comedy daytime chat show with Sue Perkins and Mel Giedroyc.
  • Lily Allen and Friends – chat show with singer Lily Allen, with an audience of her MySpace friends. Broadcast on BBC Three.

Controversies

In October 2011, a Princess Productions employee left a message on the unofficial Army Rumour Service message boards, pitching the idea of flying British soldiers' wives and newborn babies into warzones as a surprise. The response was overwhelmingly negative.[2] Soon afterwards, the Princess Productions website went offline. The company also posted an apology on the forum.[2]

Notes

  1. ↑ "Endemol Shine prodco Princess closing". 4 May 2017.
  2. 1 2 Fricker, Martin (25 October 2011). "TV company ridiculed for planning to fly newborn babies to Afghanistan". Daily Mirror. London. Retrieved 25 October 2011.
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