Squid Game: The Challenge

“I turned to my Line Producer and we nearly cried”: inside the logistical whirlwind of Production Management

A collage of three pictures: Squid Game soldiers watch the contestants on a vast array of screens, Betty races across a beach and an Arctic wolf stands still on Ellesmere Island

Take the Production Management category at the RTS Craft & Design Awards. The 2024 nominees were Squid Game: The Challenge, Race Across the World and Planet Earth III. How exactly do you build a set big enough for 456 people to play a game of ‘Red Light, Green Light’, and then deliver those 456 people to the start line? Or plot a racing course over 14,000km through seven different countries, while employing a crew agile enough to change course according to the whims of your contributors?

The rise and rise of subtitled TV drama, from Squid Game to Shōgun

A military general on horseback trots past his troops in a forest as they bow their heads in deference

You may not expect a piece in Television to begin with East Asian geopolitics, but trust me. Diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, two pro-American democracies in the region, were strained for a long time due to past wars and economic exploitation. Those tensions were reflected in Pachinko (Apple TV+, 2022), a saga about four generations of unhappy Korean emigrants to Japan.

How to get into TV: The RTS Futures Careers Fair 2024

More than 1,600 tickets were sold for the RTS Futures Careers Fair in Islington, London, in early February – a record number for an in-person fair. The fair welcomed close to 50 industry exhibitors, while at the CV clinic more than 350 attendees had their CVs tweaked by media professionals and 100 TV experts offered advice in the “ask me anything” area.

Netflix announces Squid Game: The Challenge reality competition series

Squid Game series 1 (credit: Noh Juhan/Netflix)

456 real players will enter the game in pursuit of the life-changing $4.56 million reward. Inspired by the hit Korean drama series Squid Game, which holds the record as Netflix’s most popular series of all time, the players will compete through a series of games derived from the original show, plus some surprising new additions.

Their strategies, alliances and character will be put to the test as competitors are eliminated around them. The stakes are high, but the worst fate for competitors in this game is going home empty-handed.