Creators have already made their mark in movie theaters and on Broadway stages. Now, they’re taking over another medium: Unscripted TV. The Paris-based media company Banijay, which produces hit reality competition franchises like Survivor and MasterChef, is picking up Stop The Train, a game show format developed for YouTube by the French creator Squeezie.
Banijay will handle international distribution for Stop The Train, which consists of a series of challenges set aboard a moving train. The plan is to produce a bigger version of the show that can be sold to TV networks and streaming services.
“We have a lot of ideas that aren’t realistically doable on YouTube because they’re too expensive to produce,” Squeezie told The Ankler. “But we’d rather wait until they become possible with the creator economy rising, so we can stay independent and do it exactly as we imagine.”
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This isn’t the first time Banijay has built a bridge between the game show world and the creator economy. In Brazil, a creator-led version of MasterChef premiered last year. Then, during Banijay’s 1H 2025 earnings call, CEO Marco Bassetti discussed his company’s plan to bring more of its proprietary formats to platforms like YouTube.
We’ve already seen what that effort looks like. The Sidemen, for example, adapted FremantleMedia’s cable TV favorite Supermarket Sweep, turning it into a long-form YouTube video.
Then, at the MIPCOM conference in October 2025, Banijay and its competitors ramped up efforts to bring game shows to YouTube. By establishing an Entertainment Creators Lab, Banijay built a pipeline it can use to pair its properties with the creator partners who can best reenergize those formats.
What’s interesting about the Squeezie deal is that it moves in the opposite direction. After getting millions of views online, Stop The Train will expand to a global audience thanks to Banijay’s assistance.
Creators may be able to breathe new life into dusty, old game show formats, but they can also come up with ideas that traditional TV producers would never put on air. Fans of a specific Banijay property — Survivor — learned that lesson when MrBeast popped up on the show’s 50th season. His unique contribution was a “Super Beware Advantage” that offered an unprecedented reward: The chance to double the end-of-season prize to $2 million. Even MrBeast’s haters had to admit he had brought a new wrinkle to Survivor gameplay.
Squeezie, like MrBeast, is not afraid of big ideas. His GP Explorer event is a bold production that requires Squeezie and his team to coordinate creator teams, race vehicles, and musical performers. His audience of 20 million YouTube subscribers may have drawn Banijay’s attention in the first place, but his sprawling vision will be the attribute that turns Stop The Train into an international hit.
