The new season of Indonesia’s Next Top Model debuts in a market hard hit by but recovering from the pandemic. Although Indonesia is nowhere near its 2019 formats highs, the market remains a staunch supporter of big-brand international formats and leads in returning seasons.   

Indonesian free TV broadcaster, PT Net Mediatama (Net TV), premieres its second season of Indonesia’s Next Top Model, in November this year, nine months after the end of season one.

Bookending a year of pandemic high-anxiety with the modelling talent reality show, the Jakarta-based national network had no second thoughts about greenlighting the big-brand format from ViacomCBS, first in 2020 and then, building on that success, again in 2021.

“The pandemic has definitely added to the challenge in succesfully completing production of this (and of any) show,” says Net TV chief executive, Deddy Sudarijanto, talking about the success of the show outweighing the extra cost and effort of implementing strict protocols and adding layers of production complexity.  

“Our cycle one production process last year had gone very well without any casualty nor meaningful disruption to the process,” he adds. The same processes have been implemented for season two.  

“We see Next Top Model as a premium world class talent show which resonates well with what our brand stands for,” Sudarijanto says.

The 40-episode season one aired from 28 November 2020 to  9 Apr 2021 at 8pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The new season, which started production this week, will air in a prime time slot at 7pm on weekdays (days to be confirmed) next month, with simulcast streaming on the network’s YouTube channel.

Season two, which ran virtual auditions in July, gathered 1,800 participants across the country. 40 were flown in to the Jakarta studio and 18 selected as finalists.

The network, which is producing the show in-house, hasn’t changed too much for season two.

The panel of judges is led by returning host/actress/model, Luna Maya. Fashion choreographer, Panca Makmun, is also back as judge/mentor, with celebrity fashion designer Iwan Gunawan and Ayu Gani, the winner of Asia’s Next Top Model season three, added to the panel of judges.

Indonesia’s Next Top Model is part of a broadcast schedule that targets family/kids and the younger demographics, offering a local and foreign programming mix, including religious programme Amanah Islam, which features conversation on modern day-to-day topics in a relaxed, youthful setting hosted by popular young, moderate and modern hosts, Habib Husen Ja’far Al Hadar and Abdel Achrian; and  reality show de Hakim hosted by Irfan Hakim that highlights life stories of everyday heroes in local society.  

Indonesia remains among Asia’s top 10 countries by volume, toggling between 5th (2019, 2020), 6th (2018) and 7th (2017) spots and now tying with Malaysia for the 8th place in the latest ContentAsia’s Formats Outlook for the first half of this year.

Indonesian acquisitions or commissions in the first half of this year were down 65% to just six. This is a dramatic fall from 17 in the first half of 2020. 2019 was a top-performance year for formats in Indonesia, with 22 titles/episodes commissioned/aired.

Singing-related formats were the largest genre by far in Indonesia in 1H 2021. Four out of the six formats were singing contest titles and one cooking competition. 

Five of the titles were aired/commissioned by MNC-branded channels. The five are MasterChef Indonesia S8 on RCTI; I Can See Your Voice Indonesia S5, from Korea’s CJ ENM on MNC TV; The Voice Kids S4 from ITV Studios for GTV; Rising Star Indonesia DangDut S4 (MNC TV) from Keshet International; and Sing for the Stars, a singing competition format from Thailand’s Workpoint Group for GTV.


Published in ContentAsia October 2021 Magazine