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Richard Bacon‘s Yes Yes Media has landed its debut commission, a game show hosted by Dermot O’Leary in which the audience must remain silent to keep £250,000 ($320,000). _Silence is Golden

_has been greenlit by British channel group UKTV and will air on the U&Dave channel next year. At the start of each episode, the network gives the huge prize to the studio audience and

all they need to do to keep it is remain silent. With every audience member mic’ed up, all hell breaks loose as a green room of 30 acts, led by three returning comedian captains, headed up

by Katherine Ryan, wage war on the audience, with every sound forced out of them bringing the total prize money down. The series is one of UKTV’s splashiest for some time, with former _X

Factor _host O’Leary a major coup for the network, and it is _This is My House _co-creator Bacon’s first commission under the Yes Yes banner. Yes Yes launched last year and has high-profile

backers including Courteney Cox, Snow Patrol’s guitarist, _Chernobyl _producer Sister and French group Satisfaction. Deadline revealed several months later that it had brought in a former _X

Factor _showrunner Mark Sidaway and Hidden Light production boss Lydia Arding. WATCH ON DEADLINE Bacon said he “commends U&Dave for boldly commissioning a show that will cost them a

quarter million a week — if the audience is better at playing the game than we are.” Commissioner Cherie Hall added: “This is a really original premise for a show and I wish our audience the

best of luck as they try and resist the temptation to break the silence – viewers at home will love watching the chaos unfold.” _Silence is Golden_ was commissioned for UKTV by Mark Iddon

and Jason Dawson. The series was ordered by Hall, channel director, and Hilary Rosen, director of commissioning. Bacon is EPing with Sidaway. Tim Dean (_Late Night Lycett_) is series

producer.