It’s literally Christmas in July on the Just Like Mom and Dad set in Toronto.

The date is July 25 – exactly five months till Christmas – and the first day of production on season “1B” of the competition series is underway. The holiday special is kicking things off and despite the fact it’s a sweltering 36C outside, the all-ages audience is decked out in festive sweaters while contestants on set madly glue doughnuts to gingerbread houses using green marshmallow glue.

It is, however, reliably freezing in the control room, and assembled inside it is the proud team that brought the ’80s game show revival to life: Mark Bishop, co-CEO, marblemedia; Jim Bell, a producer with U.S. non-profit broadcaster BYUtv; and Heather Lovegrove and David Fardell from Burlington, Ontario’s YES TV. The start of the second order of episodes (22 x 30 minutes) represents a win for all involved – it’s not easy finding and producing shows that connect with audiences, nor is it easy to get them financed. And the producers say Just Like Mom and Dad has come through on all points.

Toronto-based marblemedia has made a specialty out of co-viewing television and kids game shows, but this is its first effort to bring together both in the primetime space. Although ratings data were not available as of press time, Marblemedia said in a May press release the series was the highest rated of its genre in Canada during its first run (YES TV broadcasts via three stations: GTA, Edmonton and Calgary), and BYUtv, which reaches over 60 million cable/satellite subscribers in the U.S., similarly reports being happy with its numbers.

The series IP is owned by Bell Media (which retains the rights from its original 1980-1985 run on CTV) with Marblemedia producing and holding international format and tape sales rights through its D360 distribution division. Both BYU and Yes are the commissioning broadcasters, representing an interesting (and for marblemedia, fortuitous) alignment of brand and target demographic, as both have a religion-based mandate and focus on family-friendly programming. “There’s a shared sense of values,” Jim Bell notes of the three partners.

Marblemedia had been sitting on the idea of reviving JLMD for awhile, says Bishop, but needed the right coalition of partners to bring it to life. Originally a daytime series, marblemedia’s vision for the revival was a primetime-quality shiny-floor show with the matching budget. So when BYU entered marble’s MIPCOM booth in 2016 looking for the exact same thing, it was TV-market kismet.

Producing the show in Canada with a Canadian company gave BYU a financial edge and YES’ agreement to board the series was another bonus. It also allowed BYU to extend its brand reach into Canada, Bell notes, which the company had been trying to do through terrestrial carriage into Canada for many years. (BYU operates a broadcast-focused website with international rights for available programming.)

Creating an environment that fosters authentic family interactions is a core goal of JLMD, and the second order of episodes feature a few tweaks to better meet it. The decision was made to open it up to older kids (eight to 15 years old, versus six to eight), a move Bell says he was “a little nervous” about, wondering how the older kids would interact, but says they create a more complex dynamic with the parents. And previously, only the child would spin the giant prize wheel, but now the show is formatted so that the child and parents participate together, which Yes’s Lovegrove says “helps showcase the family in its broadest sense.”

Prizing remains a focus from a business standpoint as well. Adam Ivers’ Highway Entertainment is a production partner and in addition to financing, helps with prizes and sponsorship, and both Baskin Robbins and Dave and Busters have been secured as product partners for the second run of episodes.

The new season will also see the series’ partnership with Segal Licensing brought to life, with apparel, aprons, mugs and branded cookware used in the show on offer, promoted through on-air, digital and audience postcards. The digital execution, which includes a branded game app, has new support this year, with Shaw Rocket Fund added as a financial partner, replacing the Bell Fund from the previous year.

Lovegrove says the broadcaster is “very happy with the series and it’s done very well for us,” and has moved it to Saturday nights at 8 p.m. in order to create a full-day family programming block for the weekend, with Jeopardy as its lead-in. BYU airs it two days later, on Mondays, at both 6 and 8 p.m. to catch both coasts.

The extended order of 22 episodes will return to both broadcasters in October.