Fremantle Launches Global Originals Label With Nick Mather

EXCLUSIVE: The co-creator of Netflix smash Million Dollar Secret and the BBC’s Pointless is heading to Fremantle to oversee a new global entertainment label.

Nick Mather is exiting Brent Montgomery’s Wheelhouse to run Fremantle Global Originals, which will act as a “standalone creative hub dedicated to the creation of original unscripted formats,” according to the Got Talent and Too Hot to Handle super-indie.

Reporting to Fremantle UK boss Amelia Brown, EVP Mather will work on original returnable formats that can be produced by other Fremantle labels such as the recently-merged TalkbackThames. At present, Mather is the sole employee at Global Originals.

Mather joins from transatlantic studio Wheelhouse, where he has spent the past two-and-a-half years as EVP, co-creating unscripted formats such as Million Dollar Secret (Netflix), Got to Get Out (Hulu/Disney), Last Bite Hotel (Food Network) and Celebrity Puzzling (Channel 5).

In previous roles at UK labels Possessed and Remarkable, he has co-created UK entertainment hits Pointless, Sitting on a Fortune and Scared of the Dark.

Brown said: “To combine the creative format leadership of Nick with the production strength of Fremantle’s labels and companies is incredibly exciting. It places format creation right at the heart of everything we do at Fremantle and with his wealth of experience across the UK, U.S. and international markets, Nick is perfectly placed to drive bold new ideas with global potential.”

Mather added: “Fremantle Global Originals is built on a simple idea; if you match motivated, forward-thinking creatives with Fremantle’s towering international infrastructure, you create a uniquely exciting space. Somewhere where creative ambition is matched by a commitment to make big, bold ideas happen.”

With Mather’s hire, Fremantle said it wants to “diversify its IP pipeline and accelerate the development of returnable formats.”

Last year, storied UK labels Talkback and Thames, which make Britain’s Got Talent, Too Hot to Handle and Blankety Blank, were merged by Fremantle for the third time under Charlie Irwin. Fremantle also owns The Apprentice producer Naked.