Behind-the-scenes: LADbible’s Find The Fake Fan

LADbible’s new gameshow format, Find The Fake Fan, has just gone live.

Broadcast Sport was invited to the shoot in north London last month, to see how the production was put together.

Find The Fake Fan is LADbible’s version of The Traitors (whisper it, because LADbible doesn’t seem keen on the comparison) or Among Us, but with football as the focus.

There’s a group of people and a few bad eggs, and the good guys have to hunt out all the bad guys or the bad guys win out.

In this case, the good guys are Manchester United supporters, and the bad guys are Liverpool FC supporters posing as Manchester United fans.

There are a total of eight contestants, all claiming to be Manchester United fans, but among them is at least one, and maybe more, Liverpool fans.

It’s the task of those gathered around the table to uncover all the fake fans before the final round.

The show is filmed during the early afternoon in the pub, which doesn’t open to the public until later in the day.

Upstairs at the pub each contestant is blindfolded and guided down the stairs to the table where they are joined by the other contestants, also feeling their way through the dark.

LADbible wants the first time the fans look each other in the eye to be around the table.

Once seated, each of the contestants takes their blindfolds off and are immediately asked by the show’s hosts, YouTubers James Lawrence Allcott and Flav of The Fighting Cock, to say their name and who they support.

And that’s enough to see one of them get voted off.

Each contestant writes down the name of the person they suspect is the fake fan, and is then asked to explain their decision. The person with the most votes then has to reveal if they are actually a Manchester United fan or not, before they return upstairs for their post-eviction interview.

There’s a £1K prize pot, but each time a real fan is ejected from the table, the fund reduces by £100.

The contestants fail to send home a fake fan in the first round, and the questions then get increasingly more involved – question two is how did you start supporting Manchester United? The contestants mess this one up as well, eliminating another real fan.

The next question is what’s the best Manchester United vs Liverpool game you’ve seen?, which triggers a great debate. It also sadly leads to another real fan getting booted out.

The fourth question finally sees the contestants, now whittled down to just five, uncover a fake fan, after they are questioned about what they respect most about Liverpool FC. 

It’s a difficult question to answer for real Manchester United fans, but clearly even tougher for one of the Liverpool FC fans, who gets unceremoniously jeered off.

Four fans are left.

The next question is which Liverpool FC player do you hate the most? After the chat, the fans, having just found a fake fan, are given the chance to end the game or go to another vote.

The players have to be sure there’s not another fake fan around the table, as if the game ends with a fake fan still in the mix, the fake fan will take home all the £700 still in the kitty.

The decision is made through the movement or otherwise of pint glasses.

To vote to end the game, a majority of the contestants have to raise their glass.

Only one of them does, so they go to a vote.

It’s another poor choice by the real Manchester United fans as they vote out another of their own. Three fans and £600 are left in the game.

The final question is – between Liverpool and Manchester City, who would you rather win the league? – after this final debate, the remaining three players again choose whether to end the game.

Only one of the three players raises their glass, so the game continues, and the vote takes place.

It’s a good move as the final three uncover one more fake fan, leaving just two fans left.

The final two then reveal their allegiances, and, it’s good news – both are Manchester United fans, so they both share the spoils.

The spoils amount to just £300 per contestant but the battle has always been more about pride than the prize fund.

The recording was really gripping and great fun, with a brilliantly selected group of contestants.

The production has also been alloted the full works by LADbible, with the set, the type and number of cameras, lighting, mics, directing, producing and so on very much akin to a traditional TV shoot.

The multi-cam shoot takes around an hour or so before the final round and is then edited into a 20-30 minute upload to YouTube.

There is no sponsor for this first series, but LADbible has given each contestant and the presenters pints of non-alcohol beer, which are prominently on display throughout, hinting strongly that that’s where they are hoping sponsorship might come in.

The game succeeds or fails by the casting of the fans. LADbible received 300-400 applications from potential contestants and spent 2-3 weeks sifting through these to decide on who would make the cut and appear on the show.

It would have been hard to script the group of fans and fake fans in this episode any better, as the debate has been entertaining, passionate and hard fought, and the decision making set against the same kind of jeopardy that makes The Traitors (oops, I said it again) so much fun.

The episode has notched up more than 210,000 views in the first five days since going live, with 5.1k likes and 550+ comments, so is building up a good fan base already. More episodes have been made for this first series and will be uploaded to YouTube in the coming weeks.

Connor Suckling, senior creative producer, said: “We developed Find the Fake Fan with the same considerations we apply to every show on the channel - what is hooking people in at the moment, how can we put fans at the heart of it and most importantly, how do we put our own stamp on it”.

Jamie Lee, senior development producer, adds: “The simplicity of the format means that it can be shaped to all kinds of football debate, but also we see potential for different genres outside of sport, and for our partners to work with us on.

“Putting the show together was great fun and a different challenge for us as a production team. Featuring our audience within the content on-screen and seeing them putting their passions on display was perhaps the most rewarding part.”