What to expect from Really

May 14, 2009 by Kelly Anderson

With a tagline of ‘Really. You couldn’t make it up’ and debuting on May 19, Really is UKTV’s latest move in the lifestyle television space. Clare Laycock, head of Really (formerly UKTV Gardens), takes realscreen through what to expect from the soon to be unveiled channel.

The target audience is still female, but younger – aged 18 to 35 – and Laycock makes it clear that this is not a rebranded UKTV Gardens but is instead a brand new channel with a unique focus. ‘It’s a newer genre that we noticed in our research. It’s almost a lifestyle genre that’s been invented by TV – it’s about real stories and real life,’ she says.

The channel aims to air programming categorized as fact-ent, obs-doc and shock-doc, the kind of content that gets people talking around the water cooler. Laycock explains that the channel name Really ‘can be used to exclaim, to be sad, to sympathize, whatever. This is a real life channel, it’s straight talking, [and] tells it like it is.

‘If you like, it’s the divide between factual and entertainment and that’s very much how we’re pitching it,’ says Laycock.

Laycock confirmed that the US’ Rachel Zoe Project had been picked up for the channel, and BBC Three’s The Baby Borrowers as well as shock-doc titles like Britain’s Worst Teeth and Extraordinary Breastfeeding. ‘It’s more like a whole collection of fantastic shows on Really that we’ll be promoting like mad to see what works,’ she says.

Really isn’t commissioning just yet as it figures out its place in the TV landscape, but has plans to commission in year two. The content for the new channel will come mostly from BBC and acquisitions and Laycock would love to hear from people who have the rights to existing shows that they’d like to sell.

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