U.K. TV channel BBC Two will premiere a new six-episode competition series centered on art dealing this week.
Titled The Big Deal with Steph McGovern, the show will air on Thursday, August 13th. The premise pits 14 contestants with little to no art-market experience against one another as they try to turn a profit dealing contemporary art. Presented by broadcaster Steph McGovern, the series airs at 8 pm on BBC Two and the streaming platform iPlayer, with an earlier premiere on BBC Northern Ireland on August 12.
Artsy features prominently in the fourth episode, in which contestants source artworks from two emerging artists in Berlin—Argentine painter Celeste Najt and duo 44flavours—and sell them via an Artsy Auction. Artsy vice president of marketing Ani Petrov is a judge on the episode.
The Artsy auction is one of six real-world sales challenges contestants face in the series. Other episodes send contestants to auction off work by Royal College of Art graduates, furnish two luxury homes to a client brief, and sell prints and limited editions in Margate alongside artist Margo McDaid. They are also tasked with curating a collection for the cabaret bar aboard the cruise ship Queen Anne, pitching a high-end sculpture to industry insiders at Frieze London, and selling at the Affordable Art Fair.
The winning pair will take home some £50,000 ($67,520) worth of art. Other judges throughout the series judging contestants’ efforts are series expert Cordelia de Freitas, alongside guest specialists including gallerist and curator Matt Carey-Williams, McDaid, and Petrov.
McGovern, a business journalist known for hosting daytime talk show Steph’s Packed Lunch and news program BBC Breakfast, has described the format as “The Apprentice for the art world, but the deals are all real, and it’s as much about the hustle as it is about art.” She has a personal connection to the subject: her father is an artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Art. “My dad was the first person I called when I got this job,” she said.
BBC Arts head Suzy Klein said the series aims to “pull back the curtain” on the art market, offering “a fresh insight into how art is discovered, bought, and sold.”
The show is produced by Stellify Media, the Belfast-based company behind the project since it was first announced under the working title The Art Game at the 2023 Belfast Media Festival. It was co-commissioned by BBC Arts and BBC Northern Ireland as part of the Hot House initiative, with support from Northern Ireland Screen.
