(Yicai Global) Nov. 12 -- Zhejiang Television has signed a deal with Los Angeles, US-based Is or Isn't Entertainment to cooperate with it and Hollow Men Productions, the partner of South Korean girl pop band I.O.I. also based in Los Angeles, to develop the international version of Zhejiang TV's original acting show I Am the Actor (provisional name).

The two signed the deal yesterday, one hour before the show's season finale.

This is the first time an original Chinese talent show has landed in North America. Beijing-headquartered Creative Artists Agency China also plans to introduce bilingual performers to the series, thereby creating opportunities for Chinese actors and actresses to break into major international markets.

The program is an acting competition show Zhejiang TV developed which invites well-known actors in China to serve as referrers and tutors and directors to provide performance tutorials. The show, which debuted Sept. 8, airs every Saturday. It is the second season follow-up to the channel's previous acting contest show The Birth of a Performer.

"Chinese talent shows have entered the stage of independent development and export overseas after nearly a decade of taking shape and amassing content. I Am the Actor is one success story," said Gu Shuhang, chief executive of CAA China.

Shanghai-based Dragon TV imported Got Talent from London, UK-based Fremantle -- formerly FremantleMedia -- in 2010 after Zhejiang TV introduced The Voice of China from Laren, the Netherlands-headquartered Talpa Media. The two achieved great success togther. Many successful talent shows, such as Running Man, have been inspired by overseas programs.

Exports abroad of Chinese TV series and movies started in 2013. Superior Chinese TV programming has begun broadcasting in South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Africa and other places.

The world's top premium video site, Los Gatos, California-based Netflix, bought the copyrights to Chinese detective dramas Day and Night and Burning Ice at the end of last year in the first such deal it has ever made in yet another instance of the successful inroads of the booming Chinese cultural sector in its ever more frequent foreign forays.

Editor: Ben Armour