Toronto’s Bristow Global Media has optioned the format rights to Life On Duty from Israel-based distributor Gil Formats.

The factual series follows emergency service providers and contrasts their busy, harrowing work lives with their often neglected personal lives.

Bristow Global Media president Julie Bristow (pictured) told Playback Daily that she’d been looking for an unscripted procedural to add to the prodco’s slate and, when she saw the format at MIPCOM in the fall, she was particularly drawn to its first-person and “intensely intimate” approach to telling the stories of first responders. 

“What’s unique about this series is we go home with these brave men and women. We see how they navigate their lives and emotions as they work to keep other people safe and healthy,” she said.

The series was first launched on Israeli broadcaster Channel 10 in 2016. Spain’s Cuatro launched a local remake in 2017 and just ordered a second season of the series. Meanwhile Banijay Group’s KM Production has also picked up the rights to the format for France.

Bristow Global Media is set to premiere its new 13 x 22-minute kids series It’s My Party on TVO later this year. The Hockey Wives producer was acquired by Kew Media in February 2017.