C21Media's International Format Awards in association with FRAPA were presented at a ceremony during Mipcom 2007 for a slate of international productions.
The winners were voted for by members of C21's community of more than 22,000 International Entertainment Industry executives, who screened and voted on the new portal C21Screenings.net.
More than 70 programmes made it through to the three-week online final, which saw over 8,000 votes cast and 23,000 videos streamed.
In addition to winners in seven categories, the first IFA Gold Medal was awarded posthumously to Merv Griffin, the US formats icon who passed away earlier this year. The award was accepted by Program Partners' Josh Raphaelson, who represents Griffin's format Crosswords.
A household name to several generations who watched The Merv Griffin Show, Griffin hosted 5,500 shows and interviewed more than 25,000 guests over 23 years. He also created Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! – the two most successful gameshows in television syndication history – and wrote their distinctive theme songs. For this extraordinary output, he has been honoured with 17 Emmys and 32 Emmy nominations.
Merv Griffin died on August 12, 2007.
The winners in the first year of the awards, which were supported by ICM, Deutsche Bank and Stadt Köln, with the percentage of the vote attracted in each category, were:
Best observation/factual entertainment reality show
Wasted (25%) Fumes NZ
Best entertainment reality show
Just The Two of US (25%) BBC Worldwide
Best multi-screen/FutureMedia format
40 Weeks (45%) Magyx Entertainment
Best studio-based gameshow
8 Out of 10 Cats (20%) Zeppotron
Best sketch comedy
Spoons (44%) Endemol
Best scripted format
Serial Frank (50%) Distraction Formats
Best competition reality show
Ladette to Lady (26%) RDF Rights
IFA Gold Medal – Merv Griffin
Presented for an outstanding contribution to the international formats business.
The awards launched C21's online portal C21Screenings, which will continue to host a broad range of video content and develop rapidly over the coming months.