Foreign TV shows want to shoot in Yucatan

With its international reach through the worldwideweb, The Yucatan Times receives a variety of interesting and sometimes unusual contacts from readers around the world.

Two requests TYT received recently from television producers in the U.K. and Russia highlight the growing fascination of the international media with the Yucatan Peninsula.

From the U.K., Ruth Overend, a TV producer in London, asked TYT to help her find British expats who have relocated to the Peninsula to escape from the rigors of modern life in the “first world.” The program, “Escape to the Wild,” is featured on Britain’s Channel 4 as well as in Australia and New Zealand.

Ms. Overend told TYT in email and phone contacts that she is looking for subjects to be featured on the show. “We’re looking for pioneering Brits who’ve made the move to the Yucatan Peninsula and understand the hard work, exhilaration, and satisfaction involved in making a home in a remote place,” Ms. Overend wrote.

From Russia, Olga Avrahova, a TV producer for Russian TV Channel “Pyatnitsa” (www.friday.ru) shooting a cooking program, asked TYT to provide free publicity for a planned shoot on Yucatecan cuisine.

“Our team is scheduled to make two programs in Mexico in February, 2016, one of them to be produced on Yucatan. And we are now in search of local coordinators or co-producers for the assistance in pre-production and shooting process,” Ms. Avrahova wrote to TYT in an email.

Prominent TV personalities have been finding their way to Merida recently. Chef Rick Bayless, host of the U.S. PBS program “Mexico: One Plate at a Time,” is currently in the midst of filming a full season of shows about Yucatecan cuisine.

Bayless, also well-known as one of Bravo Network’s “Top Chefs,” arrived in Merida last summer with other U.S. chefs to announce his plans. Since then he and his film crew have been spotted around town at various restaurants, cooking schools and other foodie hotspots.

So if you’re on the streets of Merida, don’t be surprised if you bump into a video cameraman with a foreign accent in the near future. You may even find your face on a TV screen in Russia, Britain or beyond!

By Robert Adams for TYT

robert@theyucatantimes.com