Press Releases

[October 21, 2024] Sony Pictures Television (“SPT”) is bringing a brand new twist on the business reality competition to Cannes with The Ultimate Hustle.

Developed by the multi-award-winning Irish production company Animo TV, The Ultimate Hustle challenges budding entrepreneurs to take their side-hustle skills to the next level. 

Across 8 episodes, our 10 hustlers will live together and face a new money-making challenge each week, with the lowest earner being eliminated.  They’ll have to be inventive to stand out and make the cash roll in. But there's a twist, each participant can use the group’s earnings to pay for special treats by withdrawing money from a cash machine inside the house.  

Who will fail to get their hustle off the ground while the others thrive? Who will focus more on spending the group's hard-earned cash than earning their own? In the end, only one person will take home all the cash earned and be crowned the ultimate hustler.

The Ultimate Hustle won the Content London format pitch competition 2023, and now SPT is launching the paper format to the market at MIPCOM.

Laura St. Clair, SVP International Formats, SPT, says “At SPT we are abundantly familiar with the interest there is in the television landscape for business reality, as we have nurtured and grown the Shark Tank/Dragons’ Den franchise to become a global phenomenon. Ultimate Hustle is simply a brilliant, fresh new business reality format, perfectly attuned to contemporary social trends. This is a compulsive, entertaining competition with broad appeal that will engage and galvanize the next generation of entrepreneurs. We are very excited to partner with Animo TV and bring the hustle to the market at MIPCOM”.

Debbie Thornton, Managing Director, Animo TV, says “Animo is delighted to partner with Sony Pictures Television to bring The Ultimate Hustle to a global production partners and broadcasters. SPT have an unparalleled track record in next generation formats in the business space and they were the perfect fit for our ambitions for the format”.

About Sony Pictures Television
Sony Pictures Television (SPT) is one of the television industry’s leading content providers, producing, distributing and carrying programming worldwide in every genre and for every platform. In addition to managing one of the industry’s largest libraries of award-winning feature films, television shows and formats, SPT is home to a thriving global content business, operating a robust portfolio of wholly-owned and joint-venture production companies across the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia Pacific, as well as linear and digital channels around the world. SPT is a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.

About Animo TV
Animo TV is a Dublin-based production company making groundbreaking popular factual documentaries and entertainment formats. Run by Managing Director Debbie Thornton and Creative Director Jean Devlin, Animo is known for telling stories of transformation. Our award-winning documentaries include 'AI and You' and 'My Astonishing Self: Gabriel Byrne on George Bernard Shaw'. Our fact-ent formats are represented by global distribution companies, including 'Eating with the Enemy' (All3Media), 'The Salvage Squad', ‘The Toughest Team’ (Primitives), the 'The Great House Revival' (Red Arrow) and Ireland's most successful fact-ent format 'Ireland's Fittest Family' (RTE).