HBO Max Orders Unscripted Voguing, Design Competition Shows

By Joe Otterson

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – HBO Max announced its first unscripted series orders on Thursday.

The nascent streamer has picked up both “Legendary” and “The Greatest Space” straight-to-series with a 10-episode order for each. “” will feature contestants on voguing teams called “houses,” with the chance to win a cash prize in fashion and dance challenges. Voguing is a competitive style of modern dance featuring over-the-top fashion and choreography based on poses struck by models on a catwalk. Legendary will feature 10 voguing “houses,” each comprised of five performers and a leader – the house “parent.” The teams rotate in a round-robin format, and each episode documents a themed ball from start to finish.

“Legendary” is executive produced by Scout Productions’ David Collins, Michael Williams, and Rob Eric along with Renata Lombardo and Shant Tutunjian. Voguing has come back to the forefront of pop culture thanks to the impact of the FX series “Pose,” which recently aired its second season.

“The Greatest Space” is a design competition show that will feature interior designers traveling around the world to transform an eclectic mix of empty rooms into spectacular spaces. In each one-hour episode, pairs of professional designers will head out to a new city in search of their canvas. From ballrooms to bedrooms to treehouses and everything in between, competitors battle to win the judges’ favor.

“The Greatest Space” is produced by New Media Collective (NMC) and Scout Productions with NMC’s Bertram van Munster and Elise Doganieri along with Mark Dziak and Collins, Williams, and Eric serving as executive producers.

“Unscripted programming will be an incredibly important component of our originals, and this is just the beginning of our venture into this space,” said Sarah Aubrey, head of original content for HBO Max. “These two initial shows will transport audiences to underground worlds and take them on visually stunning, exotic adventures, equaled only by the compelling stories of each contestant. We couldn’t have more accomplished teams behind both of these shows. From the innovative and award-winning storytellers at both Scout and Bertram van Munster’s New Media Collective, we are reimagining the unscripted competition genre.”