Israeli TV shows get picked up in France, Mexico

‘Miguel’ heads to Canal Plus while ‘Yellow Peppers’ and ‘Mythological Ex’ getting Mexican Televisa remakes

By AMY SPIRO
Yellow peppers (photo credit: PINI SILUK)
Yellow peppers
(photo credit: PINI SILUK)
Israeli TV series by both HOT and Keshet have been sold in recent weeks to global TV giants.
Last week, France’s Canal Plus announced that it was picking up the Israeli show Miguel, which premiered earlier this year. And earlier this month Mexico’s Televisa picked up two more Israeli formats to complete a four-series deal.
The HOT series Miguel took home the prize for best ensemble cast at the Canneseries festival in April. The show – starring Ran Danker and Aviv Karmi – tells the story of Tom, a gay Israeli man who desperately wants to become a father. Tom travels to Guatemala – since gay men can’t easily adopt in Israel – and meets five-year-old Miguel, who he brings into his life and home.
According to Variety, which first reported the sale, Canal Plus is the first international broadcast partner for Miguel.
And over in Mexico, TV viewers are already enjoying adaptations of Israeli TV shows - and are gearing up for more.
Earlier this month, Mexican media giant Televisa completed a deal to purchase four original programs from Keshet.
Televisa already began airing Spanish-language adaptations of the first two shows it bought: Loaded and Easy Money. Loaded, which was known as Mesudarim in Israel when it aired in 2007, is about four friends who become hi-tech millionaires. The show has already been adapted in the UK and premiered there last year. Easy Money, which premiered in Israel in 2014, is about a man who wins NIS 70 million in a lottery.
And now Televisa has announced that the two additional Israeli shows it plans to adapt are Yellow Peppers and Mythological Ex.
Yellow Peppers – about a family raising a child with autism – has already seen great success globally, in particular with the BBC adaptation The A Word. The Mythological Ex, which first aired in Israel in 2007, has also already been adapted into English, as the US series The Ex-List, which aired in 2008.
Televisa said that both new series are slated to premiere in Mexico later this year.