Channel 4 has become the first UK broadcaster to commission a version of U.S. History channel hit Alone and has ordered a poverty social experiment format from The Circle producer Studio Lambert, while recommissioning heartfelt Jack Rooke comedy Big Boys.

Alone has run for nine seasons on History and will be produced in the UK by ITV Studios-backed The Garden, which is also behind the upcoming Squid Game adventure reality series with Studio Lambert.

In Alone, 10 contestants are dropped into the remote Northern Canadian Wilderness, where each must survive entirely on their own. Whoever lasts longest, battling the elements, wild animals and an extreme test of mental strength, wins £100,000 ($117,000), in the show that has already sold to a wealth of territories. Nicola Brown and Rachel Bloomfield are exec producing and A+E Networks is distributor worldwide.

Bloomfield called Alone “the most real and raw survival series on television.”

Meanwhile in Rise & Fall, which is co-produced by All3Media-backed Studio Lambert and Motion Content Group, ordinary British people will either live in opulent penthouses or a basement workplaces and, through a series of games and challenges, those in power will be responsible for making decisions which affect those who have none.

A cash prize starts at zero and only builds if challenges devised by those in power are completed by those who are not. Those at the bottom must find a way to make it to the top, as only the most powerful and influential can win the game.

“Society is made up of the haves and the have nots, those who have power and those who don’t,” said Alf Lawrie, Channel 4 Head of Factual Entertainment.

“In this fascinating new reality format, we’re going to see how power is gained, what happens when power is lost and how the quest for power can bring out the best or worst in people.”

Big Boys

On the comedy side, the critically-acclaimed Big Boys from first-time writer Jack Rooke has been handed a second series.

Starring Derry Girls’ Dylan Llewellyn, the heartfelt biographical show about a young gay man who starts university comes from Stath Lets Flats indie Roughcut TV.

“This is one of my first commissions as Head of Comedy at Channel 4 and it fits squarely into what I think makes the greatest comedy,” said new Channel 4 Comedy Head Charlie Perkins.