Banijay Nabs Global on BBC’s ‘The Clickbait Clinic With Stacey Dooley’
As the London TV Screenings kick into high gear, Banijay Rights will launch the upcoming BBC title “The Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley”, a new six-part docuseries that exposes the truth behind some of the most hyped health claims on social media.
The series was announced by the BBC last September, but Banijay Rights’ acquisition of global distribution rights is much more recent, in time for the LTVS showcase on February 25.
The pickup also marks Banijay’s first collaboration with London and US Nutopia, founded in 2009 by Jane Root, a leading premium docuseries producer behind ‘America: The Story of Us’ and ‘Limitless With Chris Hemsworth’.
In ‘The Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley’, Dooley teams up with doctors and scientists to expose the truth, if there is any, behind what Banijay describes as the most hyped medical claims on the internet, from fitness boosters to painkillers, from youth elixirs to fat busters.
“With social media playing an increasingly important role in all our lives, the final verdict from ‘The Clickbait Clinic’ could be life-changing… or life-saving,” says Banijay Rights.
Led by Root, a former BBC Two controller (1999-2004) and president of Discovery Networks (2004-07), Nutopia’s premium docuseries about factual events, while celebrity-narrated, seeks to trace the forces shaping our world, as in “Pole to Pole With Will Smith,” currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Similarly, “The Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley” will also try to find out how a trend went viral, meeting the key influencers driving the buzz and how online trends are shaping our health choices – at a time when 1 in 3 Britons now turn to social media for health advice, Fremantle Rights noted on Tuesday.
“’The Clickbait Clinic’ is a bold, timely and hugely compelling series that takes a deep dive into some of the most extreme and obscure health claims on the internet,” said Nicola Davey, VP of acquisitions, Banijay Rights.
She added: “This program speaks directly to the digital culture that shapes our lives and unfolds the mechanics of online information in a way that feels accessible, globally relevant and entertaining.”
“’The Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley’ responds to a global shift in the way we make decisions about our health – in a world where social media and viral ‘miracle claims’ are spreading rapidly,” said Simon Willgoss, Chief Creative Officer of Nutopia. “It’s a topic that resonates everywhere, and Stacey tackles it with a mix of rigor, curiosity and humor that gives it mainstream appeal. It’s a great first collaboration with Banijay Rights in global distribution, and we can’t wait to share the series with audiences around the world.”
With a relatively short turnaround time, documentaries can tap into the cutting-edge spirit of the times much more easily than script-based fare. A report from Ampere Analysis, presented on Sunday, revealed that documentary production is down 15% from peak TV, which is not as much as scripted TV, which is down 25%. Of the document types, the only ones that registered an increase last year compared to 2024 are medical and health and biography.
The new docuseries “epitomizes the depth and range of Banijay Entertainment’s multi-genre catalog as we head into London TV screenings,” said Davey.
“The Clickbait Clinic with Stacey Dooley” joins Banijay Entertainment’s unscripted (finished tape) line-up for The London TV Screenings 2026, as revealed by Variety“America’s Toughest Prisons” for Discovery from Lucky 8; Channel 4’s “Mission To Space with Francis Bourgeois” from Shine TV; “Bear Grylls – Wild Reckoning” for BBC One, BBC Cymru Wales and iPlayer from Tŷ’r Ddraig (part of Workerbee); Emmy-winning documentary collection “Super Bowl Champions” from NFL Films and BD4; and CNN Original Series Eva Longoria: “In Search of France” from Hyphenate Media Group.
