NRK Norway launched this brand new genre defying celebrity reality show at the end of 2025 to a huge 35% share and 90% VOD completion rate. 5 celebrities have been cast to pass judgement in a murder trial on The Defendant. They will spend 5 days doing jury service. Every day brings new twists and turns and like all the very best crime series and reality shows each episode ends on a cliff hanger. We have rebuilt a courtroom and deliberation room where the celebrities will be isolated as they would during a real case. The case is a fiction written by acclaimed ‘nordic noir’ author and ex policeman Jorn Lier Horst (writer of multi series hit Wisting). The case itself is based on 6 real murders. Along with format rights the entire evidence and scripts are available for local adaptation.

The series features a real judge, real lawyers and real experts witnesses. The rest are all actors.