REEL SUCCESS

For founder & executive producer of Refinery Media, Karen Seah, breaking the glass ceiling as a Singapore-born Asian producer while juggling costs and coups is all in a day's work.

- Karen Seah

In the early 2000s, we had all the big boys of unscripted reality series headquartered here, all American-based or Australian-owned companies. They were behind all the popular shows — including The Amazing Race, Biggest Loser, Contender, MasterChef, and even the first version of Apprentice Asia. They are all gone now because they did not understand that there was no way to sustain the types of budgets they were spending each season. It did not matter how good the ratings of their shows were because after a few seasons, they could not afford even themselves.

When Refinery Media started in 2009, we understood that original content was the right way to go, as well as producing at a cost that was sustainable. Even though we have produced big format shows like Asia’s Next Top Model, we maximized our local formulas and sensibilities when it came to production costs. I would not say there are a handful of reality series producers in Singapore. There might be a couple, but we most certainly dominate this space.