Josh Duhamel: Let the Buddy Games begin

Josh Duhamel is a Hollywood A-lister - Michael Bay’s Transformers franchise, in which he stars, has grossed $5bn (£4bn) – so it’s no surprise to hear the actor and director talking excitedly about his forthcoming role. But this is no superhero or sci-fi franchise – not least because Duhamel stands in solidarity with his acting peers during the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

Instead, Duhamel is gearing up for a different type of screen test: hosting a gameshow on primetime network TV.

Duhamel is fronting CBS’s Buddy Games, a competition format pitting six teams of four close friends against each other, to compete in an assortment of amusing and absurd physical and mental challenges. Whoever comes out on top of games such as ‘Cornholio’ (an extreme version of US lawn game cornhole) and a super-charged ring toss will take home a cash prize of $200,000 (£160,700) and the Buddy Games trophy.

During the competition, the teams bunk together in a lake house, rekindling friendships, making new ones, and perhaps igniting a few rivalries.

Buddy Games is produced by Banijay-owned unscripted powerhouse Bunim/Murray Productions and CBS Studios. The series, which launched on CBS and streamer Paramount+ on 14 September, is rooted in real-life.

Duhamel and a group of his pals have been holding their own competitions for what he estimates is 25 years.

“We’ve been doing a version of this since the early nineties,” he says. “We would get together at one of our friend’s houses – this was back in high school – and make up these games. Then in college we really started getting together more.”

The get-together inspired the 2019 Buddy Games feature film, directed by and starring Duhamel, and it was through his producing partners that the idea for the gameshow was spawned. Duhamel recalls the excitement during his pitch to CBS, but even being a Hollywood star isn’t enough to secure an immediate greenlight in this day and age.

“We had a meeting with all the executives and I was thinking, ‘That went so well. They’re going to pick it up straight away’,” he says.

“A year goes by and I couldn’t understand [why they hadn’t] – they told us they loved it. But this is CBS, the home of the biggest reality shows. They’re not going to cancel Survivor for us. They’re not going to cancel The Amazing Race or Big Brother. So we just had to sit and wait and hope that what they said about the show was true.”

Two-and-a-bit years later, Buddy Games is leading an unscripted-loaded autumn schedule for the Paramount-owned network, doing some of the heavy lifting in a line-up starved of fresh scripted shows, as the impact of the strike continues.

“I wanted to get down and dirty with these people. I didn’t want to stand on the sidelines, observe and comment”

It is Duhamel’s debut unscripted show – he is exec producer on the series – and the first time he has ever presented, so he wanted his role to stay true to his real-life experiences. “I wanted to get down and dirty with these people; I didn’t want to stand on the sidelines, observe and comment.”

Buddy Games had a solid start on CBS, becoming the highest-rated broadcast network show in its 9pm timeslot outside of Fox’s coverage of the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball game.

It launched behind the baseball with 2.2 million for the first half hour but surpassed it for the second half with 1.9 million, according to Nielsen’s raw overnight ratings. It also comfortably beat ABC’s reality comedy series The Prank Panel (1.4 million), NBC’s American Ninja Warrior repeat (1.4 million) and The CW’s dating format FBoy Island (160,000).

Keeping it real

Duhamel was heavily involved with the casting for Buddy Games – again, placing a big emphasis on authenticity. “I don’t have a lot of pull over at CBS, but one thing I really pushed for was to make sure the teams had a long history together. These are ride-ordie friends who have known each other through thick and thin. I knew that if we could find those kinds of groups, it would make the show much richer,” he explains.

“The show isn’t about being deserted on an island [like Survivor] and doesn’t require you to be a super ninja. These are regular people who still have that competitive fire.”

While the driver of the format is the competition to win the money, the series derives much of its drama and intrigue from the participants’ interactions – both inter-team and between rivals.

Subsequently, the show becomes as much a social experiment-reality format as it is an adventure competition, and Duhamel says the wildly disparate teams bonded with each other, as well as reviving their own friendships.

This was helped by the producers’ decision to allow the action to unfold naturally. “We put everybody in one big cabin together for a month, and took away their phones, their TVs, their newspapers. It was fascinating. I thought they were all going to be at each other’s necks, fighting in the house or hooking up.”

Instead they generally got along, which made for enjoyable, authentic viewing.

“There had to be certain elements our guys put in to make things fun, and that’s the fuckery, the messing with each other, the sabotaging opportunities that are introduced through the challenges,” Duhamel explains. “But rather than telling them, ‘We want you guys to fight about this’, we embraced the reality of the situation. Viewers can tell when something is forced.”

Duhamel has been involving himself more in directing and exec producing in recent years, and says he could be inspired to create more unscripted TV shows if the opportunity arises to do more projects that “feel like they’re authentic to me”.

“I’m not trying to make The Real Housewives Of Dallas or something,” he says. “If it’s a good show that I think has something to say, like this one does – outside of all the absurdity – I’d consider it.”

Striker solidarity

Duhamel’s involvement in Buddy Games comes during a difficult time for the industry, given the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes crippling the Hollywood scripted arena at the time. Speaking to Broadcast before a resolution was reached between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, union rules prevented him from discussing certain aspects of the industry. But Duhamel stands in solidarity with members taking industrial action.

“I do believe that what we’re fighting for is noble,” he says. “AI is a real thing – not just in the entertainment industry but in every facet. We’ve got to really make sure that we don’t let that take over. I do agree that we need to get a handle on that.

“I just want people to get what they deserve, and I don’t want people to be taken advantage of. I just want everybody to get what’s fair.

“On the one hand, the streamers are trying to save money and cut back a little bit. And the actors and the writers feel like they’re being taken advantage of – I get that as well.

“As an actor I want to make sure that my brothers and sisters are getting what they deserve and not being sold out.”

For now, Duhamel is hoping for a positive response to Buddy Games, but is already thinking further ahead. With the title among Banijay’s flagship formats heading to Mipcom, there is a strong belief among the super-indie’s executives that it could break through on the global stage.

“Name your country. I really want to see Buddy Games Spain, Buddy Games Korea. Put it anywhere,” he laughs. “This is a universal thing. People have friends everywhere and they probably compete in some kind of way. What does that look like in Spain or the Philippines? What does it look like in the UK or Australia?”

Those unscripted buyers heading to Cannes have been primed.