Miami Vice in Dubai, Baywatch in Egypt! (page 1 of 3)

Baywatch on the Egyptian coast? It's coming soon. Miami Vice in Dubai? It's about to start production. Friends in Baghdad? No, not really.

But television formats made popular in the West, led by Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, continue to find audiences across the Middle East. If one judges solely by the increasing success of foreign TV formats in the Arab world, then the whole idea of a clash of civilizations looks as fictional as an episode of Ally McBeal.

Reality series that feature the making of a pop star have proved one of the great recent successes worldwide. SuperStar, a pan-Arab version of the pop-star format owned by Britain's FreemantleMedia, was by far this summer's biggest hit on Arab television.

FreemantleMedia has succeeded in selling a number of its formats in the Arab world, principally through Future Television and MBC, with successes including Arabic versions of Greed, Family Feud and Everybody's Equal.

These syndicated productions are set to be joined by two foreign-inspired action series, one a beach action drama, which has all the trappings of Baywatch, and an action adventure series called Triple I. Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone has reportedly taken an active interest in both of these new series.

In August, Lebanon's Future Television concluded the enormously successful SuperStar pop talent show. Jordan's Diana Karazoun won the contest ahead of another finalist from Syria. Victory was determined by votes taken by telephone, text message and over the Internet, with Karazoun taking 53 percent of some 4.8 million votes cast.

SuperStar is based on the award-winning Pop Idol first seen in Britain in October 2001. The format has since been commissioned in over 20 countries. The early rounds whittled down the number of contestants in SuperStar to 12 finalists from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and the UAE.

Future Television negotiated the contract for SuperStar as a pan-Arab format. "The music is Arab, the contestants are Arab, the judges are Arab, the hosts are Arab," says Isabelle Garcia, programming executive for FreemantleMedia Production. "The show is totally localized and embraces the best of the Arab world."

Garcia says that, through voting, the audience has a direct stake in the outcome of the show. The SuperStar format also appeals because it showcases ordinary people with extraordinary talent and viewers watch young people develop into stars. The whole process is transparent, she points out.

The show is also an opportunity for Arab viewers and performers to assert their own identity. "SuperStar is a positive show, and allows Arabs to feel genuinely proud of who they are, their culture and their young people," says Garcia.

The initiative to have a regional rather than one or more national versions has paid off handsomely. SuperStar inflamed nationalistic passions in ways usually reserved for the region's football terraces. According to Arab Advisors, 80 percent of the votes came from Jordan, Syria and Lebanon in the semifinal round, where the three finalists came from those countries.

Eighty-four percent of the votes coming from Jordan were in favor of Diana Karazoun, 97 percent of the votes from Syria were in favor of Rowaida Atieh, and 79 percent of the votes from Lebanon were in favor of Melhem Zein. Arab Advisors said that "the GSM operators in those countries turned it into a sort of national duty to vote for the compatriot."

Passions during the voting ran so high that the outing of Lebanon's Zein in the semifinal led to 150 fans gathering outside the television studio to protest the decision; reportedly, the disorder caused the Jordanian and Syrian contestants to faint.