Double Dutch: The unlikely origin of a hit Australian game show

In a large studio in Amsterdam, there is a conga line of countries lined up ready to take their turn filming the game show, The Floor. There’s Greece (The Floor), Italy (The Floor – Ne rimarrà solo uno ) and France (The Floor, à la conquête du sol) among others, all filming on the same set made of giant coloured tiles and a huge LED screen.

The hosts are always male (no women here!), handsome and wearing a blue suit with either a white or black T-shirt underneath. Everything – the set, the hosts and, weirdly, the contestants – all look roughly the same, no matter the country. Shiny, happy and hypnotised by a game show that promises a big cash prize.

Also filming in Amsterdam’s Tulpa Studios is Rodger Corser – blue suit, white T-shirt, handsome – with a bunch of lively Australians, who are a mix of regular folk and the odd household name (Winter Olympian Steve Bradbury, MasterChef Australia’s Hayden Quinn). They have been either flown over from home, or are expats who live in the UK or Europe. The audience, however, is Dutch, as are the crew.

“Some of the Euro [shows] can just be, as you can imagine, a little drier,” says Corser. “You can pick the countries which probably aren’t gonna have as much fun and are just a bit more like questions. With the Greek crew, it’s just a bunch of middle-aged guys all smoking outside the OB [outside broadcast] van.”

The same formula – which was created by the Dutch TV grandmaster John de Mol, who was the brains behind the original Big Brother – is repeated in the UK and the United States (where the shows are hosted by Rob Brydon and Rob Lowe), Japan and South America. There’s even an unlicensed version broadcasting in Iran. Each one is localised somewhat (which can be down to the type of shoes the host is wearing), but they pretty much stick to the same schtick.

“Ours is definitely personality focused,” says Corser. “Yes, it’s a trivia show, it’s a game show, but it was really important for the guys at Nine that they wanted me to connect with our contestants and bring out their personalities and make them land to the people at home.

“Some other countries – we [shoot] just after Greece – and they’re shooting four [episodes] a day. We shoot two [episodes] a day, and then one of the countries only does a half-an-hour format, and they just get in, go, boom, boom, boom. It’s in and out, and they don’t really care [about the personalities].”

For the uninitiated, The Floor places its contestants on a floor divided into 81 squares – the original Dutch version has 100 – and each contestant has a special subject (season two subjects include Japanese food, Star Wars, the doctor’s office and The Block). The contestants then battle with neighbouring contestants in a duel, with the winner taking the loser’s territory. The winner – after 10 episodes – is the person who controls the most territory on the floor.

It’s a simple and hookable format, the kind that encourages yelling at the screen and communal viewing.

“We are a bit more old school, which is good,” says Corser. “Because instead of having the teenagers – you know, everyone fragments and goes and watches their own screen, puts headphones on – people are actually, like it’s the 1980s or something, sitting around a television, all together and sharing a bowl of popcorn or something, and watching the same thing.”

That widespread popularity has been reflected in the ratings. When it premiered last year, it became Nine’s biggest entertainment hit across all platforms, with the final scoping up a national reach of just under 2 million viewers, and a national average of 1.2 million viewers. It is also big on TikTok, where the “duels” are easy to clip and share around a younger audience.

“That’s what I think helped its fame initially, was that the Rob Lowe version [in the US] could throw these clips on for 90 seconds on these subjects that people would just love,” says Corser. “And it drew people into the broader show. So, like [topics such as] dog breeds and confectionery, just simple things, which also makes it really broad.”

It’s not just Nine* who have turbocharged their game show offerings. All the commercial free-to-air broadcasters have upped their game this year. Ten is running Deal or No Deal and Millionaire Hot Seat back-to-back five nights a week, Nine also has Tipping Point Australia, while Seven is adding Caught in the Middle later this year to The 1% Club and its stalwart, The Chase Australia. The ABC does good numbers with Hard Quiz, while SBS has Mastermind.

Most of the shows are filmed in Melbourne, with Mastermind produced in Sydney. Seven’s Caught in the Middle, however, is filmed in the same studios as The Floor in Amsterdam. And while it may seem odd to film a local show overseas, it’s not entirely unusual. Ten’s crack at Wheel of Fortune last year was filmed in Manchester, on the UK set, while Tipping Point Australia was also originally filmed in Bristol before building a set in Melbourne.

It’s also interesting to note that only one of these shows is hosted by a woman, Rebecca Gibney, who chairs Millionaire Hot Seat. The rest are fronted by male comedians, a former Wimbledon champ, an excitable former weatherman and actors.

Corser slots into the actor box, but the transition wasn’t smooth. Instead of learning lines, he’s now the host of, essentially, a giant party, with 81 contestants to relax. He also has a producer in one ear, an autocue to read, and multiple cameras to keep an eye on during the 2½-hour taping.

“I need to just respond to what’s going on,” he says. “It’s a skill that I probably had a little bit of a learning curve. I did make a conscious effort for this series to, in between episodes and so forth, come back down onto the floor and have a chat to people.

“There’s a few reality contestants – the usual suspects that have been on MasterChef and so forth – people who are used to the game, and when the red light comes on, kind of ham it up, or don’t sit on the fence with their opinions. They just print big [on TV]. And they’re smart that way, they know they’ll probably get air time if they do that. But other people need to be coaxed out of their shell.”

The Floor, of course, isn’t Corser’s only stint as a host. He steered the first two seasons of the Australian version of The Traitors on Ten in 2022 and 2023. The reality-TV show is making a comeback this year, with former Big Brother host Gretel Killeen at the helm. Was Corser disappointed he didn’t the callback?

“Ten rang me, and they said, ‘Just to let you know, out of courtesy, we’re going to go ahead [with a new season], with a totally different production company’,” he says. “They’re off to New Zealand [Corser’s seasons were filmed in the NSW Southern Highlands], so it’s a totally different show. There was 18 months to two years between [the seasons], I’ve got to go and get another gig.

“I think some other media sources, who remain nameless, said I was sacked. But when the show’s cancelled, you go off and get another job, and then they redo it. I sent [Killeen] a note saying, ‘Hey, I couldn’t think of anyone better to take the reins, chookas, and have a great run’.”

As for another hosting gig on Nine that could be coming up, would Corser ever have a crack at Karl Stefanovic’s gig on Today? After all, he’s filled in on Today Extra.

“I’m happy filling in on Today Extra, which is more entertainment focused,” Corser says, laughing. “Yeah, I don’t know if I wanted to interview the PM.”

The Floor premieres at 7.30pm on Sunday, April 19, on Nine and 9Now.

*Nine is the owner of this masthead.

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