EXCLUSIVE: Fleabag, Baby Reindeer, Saturday Night Live UK and Taskmaster are just a handful of the shows that may have never seen the light of day if it wasn’t for the Edinburgh TV Festival’s “alchemy” with the Edinburgh Fringe.

That is the impasssioned argument being shouted from the rooftops by a growing chorus of people desperate for the TV Festival to stay put in the Scottish capital.

Edinburgh TV Festival organizers invited bids to relocate its host city for the first time in 50 years late last year. Last week, it was revealed that these bids to host the fest from 2027 have been whittled down to Greater Manchester, Newcastle, or the third option of remaining in Edinburgh. The Fringe, which is widely recognized as the biggest arts festival in the world, takes place throughout August and the festival, which brings together the great and good of the industry, runs in the final week. TV commissioners and executives discover the talent of tomorrow via the Fringe when they come to the festival, the argument goes. Baby Reindeer, Fleabag and, most recently, Eat the Rich, which is in development at Netflix with creator Jade Franks and director Philip Barantini, all came from Fringe shows.

Avalon boss Jon Thoday, whose TV producer-cum-agency has a deep-rooted connection with both the Fringe and the fest, thinks relocation would be a “disaster.” Were it to move, he said “no one from Avalon” will be going to the fest “if I’ve got anything to do with it.”

“Look at the number of people who come ever year from the American industry [to Edinburgh],” he said. “Think about Phoebe Waller-Bridge, or Baby Reindeer. Those connections were made often with American executives hearing about them via the Television Festival. What would be the point of Netflix, HBO or Warner Bros sending people to Newcastle to just discuss [issues like] the funding of the BBC.”

Avalon’s hit comedy entertainment format Taskmaster, which has aired for more than 10 years and given opportunities to dozens of comics, would “very likely” not have got made had it not been for the connection between the two events, Thoday added. “More tickets get sold at the Fringe in three and a half weeks than the West End in a year,” he said. “More shows originate at the Fringe and become global successes, frankly, than originate on TV in the UK. [Relocation] would be an insane move. For me, it shows that the people running the Festival don’t respect or believe that the future of British TV is about talent.”

“Netflix will still be at the Fringe”

For Tony Lankester, who runs the Fringe, the new Saturday Night Live UK provides another neat example.

“Pretty much every cast member has at some stage moved through the Fringe,” said Lankester. “The Fringe is by design a massive marketplace and to try and tempt the industry to a different city is really odd. From where I’m sitting, the alchemy that exists between the two is so self-evident that it would be impossible to replace.”

Lankester has submitted a letter in support of Edinburgh’s bid and is following things closely. He is confident that, whatever happens to the TV Festival, thousands of talent spotters will still come to the Fringe. “Netflix may choose to send different people, but Netflix will still be here,” he said.

Lankester, Thoday and other top comedy executives aren’t the only ones passionately arguing for the TV Festival to stay put. Graham Norton, friend of Taylor Swift and one of the UK’s most recognizable faces on TV, is a Fringe Ambassador. In a YouTube video posted several weeks back, Norton, who got his big break at the Fringe, said it would be “madness” to relocate the fest. “From my point of view, [the two being at the same time] couldn’t have been more important, it got me into broadcasting,” Norton says in the vid. “Phoebe Waller-Bridge could still be doing a show above a pub in Islington waiting for someone to discover her, but Edinburgh just fast tracks all of that.”

The decision to invite bids from rival cities for the festival was driven in the main by cost of accommodation and of hiring the convention center, we are told. Renting rooms in Edinburgh in August is extremely cost prohibitive and has risen exponentially of late, turning people off from attending the fest in recent years.

Campbell Glennie, the festival’s CEO, told Deadline the review and potential relocation will make the event “affordable, accessible, inclusive and to help it thrive for many years to come.”

Lankester acknowledged Edinburgh is “an expensive city” in August but said this is the “nature of the economy,” as he urged organizers to think about the situation holistically.

“The industry comes to Edinburgh because they can come here and not go to other festivals around the world,” he added. “There’s value for money in that. They won’t have that in Manchester or Newcastle. So it’s a bit simplistic to say accommodation is expensive and that has driven people away.”

Another figure in the comedy space involved with the bids, who preferred to remain anonymous, said it is “myopic” to blame costs, as he decried any move as a “huge tactical blunder.” This person said the strong “sentiment” between the Scottish and English industries is under threat if relocation is rubberstamped.

The Edinburgh TV Fest board is more than aware of the connection between these two celebrated events, and will no doubt take it into account. The board will spend the next few months interrogating submissions from all three cities and speaking to their champions in more detail. One person with knowledge of the process said a decision could be made as early as May.

Glennie said: “The TV Festival has always been by the industry for the industry and we are undertaking this review to make it more affordable, accessible, inclusive and to help it thrive for many years to come. Part of the reason for announcing the shortlist is to be transparent about the options and therefore be able to surface opinions from all corners of the industry to inform the decision, particularly those who attend and have supported us and been part of our story. No matter the outcome, we hope people respect the process, which is still ongoing, and the reasons for it.“