Super Deluxe is shaping the future of TV

LOS ANGELES - It started as a goofy experiment: a low-budget Spanish-language soap opera packed with the usual tropes - a pretty young maid in distress, a vengeful wife, a handsome hero, even a horse.

But in this telenovela, the audience is invited to play along by choosing plot twists in real time. The show streams on Facebook Live, and, in a recent episode, the action paused for 30 seconds so viewers could decide whether the wife should disguise herself as a gorilla, a giant lobster, or a clown.

As viewers around the world voted, their preferences flashed on the screen. "It's going to be the lobster," the production manager shouted on the set. The actress then slipped behind a partition to scramble into a red shellfish costume.

This may be the future of television.

"We're telling the audience: You can choose your own adventure," said Wolfgang Hammer, president of Super Deluxe, the eclectic Los Angeles entertainment company behind the live telenovela.

Super Deluxe, which launched early last year, is testing different forms of storytelling to engage young viewers. It has sought out unconventional characters to develop scripted programs for television, screwball contests for the internet, political spoofs, and other videos, including the over-the-top telenovela, for Facebook Live, the platform that enables users to share live videos with their friends. The videos have generated eye-popping traffic numbers and high levels of viewer engagement.

The start-up studio represents a bold step by Turner - the cable television giant that has such prominent channels as TBS, TNT, CNN, the Cartoon Network, and Turner Classic Movies - to address a fundamental problem vexing the television industry.

Millennials - those 18 to 35 - don't watch television like their parents. They are less inclined to sign up for pricey pay-TV packages, opting instead for video on demand so they can choose what and when they watch. They spend a huge chunk of their free time on social media and on their smartphones.

The plan is to produce a variety of content - television shows and offbeat videos - so viewers recognize the Super Deluxe brand and, perhaps, eventually pay to subscribe to its content. For now, the content is free.

Early efforts have been promising. On election night in November, as CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox News anchors focused on high-tech maps of the United States while votes were tallied, Super Deluxe published its own map of the U.S. It was engulfed in flames, and there was audio of a crackling fire, similar to the low-tech holiday Yule log video. The "Super Deluxe Election Map" has been viewed more than 23 million times and was one of the year's top videos on Facebook.

This month, Super Deluxe served up its own irreverent version of the live testimony of former FBI director James Comey before a U.S. Senate committee. Viewers were encouraged to suggest comical alterations to a live stream of the hearing. Super Deluxe producers then mixed in special effects, including laugh tracks and audio distortions so senators' voices sounded like those on Alvin & the Chipmunks. They drew cat whiskers on Comey's face, and superimposed someone else's arms onto his body to make it appear the fired FBI chief was playing bongos.

The Comey video generated 483,000 live views, nearly 40 percent higher traffic than ABC News' stream of the hearing, according to video analytics firm Delmondo. A remix of Attorney General Jeff Sessions' testimony received 714,000 views.

Super Deluxe produces more than screwball comedy. Last year, a channel manager discovered on Kickstarter a drama-comedy about two young adults who are deaf. Super Deluxe picked up the project and then helped the producers/stars, Shoshannah Stern and Josh Feldman, turn their story, The Chances, into a series of short episodes that debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival.

AMC Networks in April ordered The Chances as a six-part series for its new Sundance Now streaming service.