“More Than Friends,” a game show for Trojan Vision, is centered around one simple question: “Can you tell the difference between platonic love and romantic love?”

Trojan Vision is USC’s student-run campus television station. In the “Trojan Vision, Live Television Production” and “Practicum in Podcast Production” courses students plan, produce and crew a television show; in one section, they make a game show.

Through a series of challenges and questions, participants will demonstrate how well they work together, while a relationship expert attempts to determine who are romantic partners and who are just friends. Tia Vinay, a sophomore majoring in global health and one of the show’s executive producers, explained that the format puts the expert’s abilities to the test.

“We wanted something that played around with the idea of, ‘Is there a difference between platonic love and romantic love, and how do we test that?’” Vinay said. “What really makes a couple stand out versus a pair of best friends? So that’s sort of how we came up with the idea for the show, and the concept built up from there.”

The game show section of the course is taught by J.D. Roth, a television producer and adjunct professor of cinematic film and television production, who said the class mimics the process of the professional entertainment industry.

At the beginning of each semester, students form groups and develop ideas for potential game shows. The concepts are then pitched and voted on anonymously in the class. For this fall semester, the idea of “More Than Friends” stood out.

Roth has taught this class multiple times over the course of 11 semesters, but he said the production of “More Than Friends” has stood out because of how much enjoyment the students got from it.

“They had a lot of fun when they were doing it. They were laughing. They were enjoying it. They didn’t get hung up in trying to make something perfect; they got hung up with trying to make something that they enjoyed,” Roth said. “When you feel that enjoyment when you’re watching as a viewer, then that’s the show that you want to end up being part of.”

Each department, such as camera, audio, casting and marketing, serves an important role, Roth said. The executive producers can guide and drive the team within the work they are producing.

“If they have good leaders who understand how to motivate and excite people and reward hard work, then typically you get something amazing,” Roth said.

Kelly Meagher, a senior majoring in psychology and the show’s other executive producer, talked about the original inspiration for the show revolving around deception. As the students developed the premise of “More Than Friends,” they started brainstorming activities for contestants.

“We really just wanted to focus on deception. … That was a really big theme,” Meagher said. “[Vinay], the other executive producer, came with a bunch of ideas, and … she was like, ‘I really like this whole ‘More Than Friends [idea].’”

Each episode of the game show will consist of a theme, a physical challenge and a question-and-answer portion. For the expert who succeeds in guessing the “real” and “fake” couples, or those who succeed in tricking the expert, a Dulce gift card worth $100 will be offered as a reward.

For Laila Hamdalla, a marketing team member of the show and a senior majoring in cinema and media studies, having an incentive that speaks directly to USC students helps the show gain relevance.

“I feel like what resonates more with the youth of today is social media and anything on new media platforms,” Hamdalla said. “I’m glad that we’re able to play around with that.”

The “More Than Friends” Instagram page displays both the concept of the show and the team behind it. Their highest-performing post is the casting announcement posted Oct. 11, currently standing at over 800,000 views.

Although there is no official release date for the first episode, viewers and interested participants are able to visit the “More Than Friends” Instagram page for more information regarding the show.

“I hope that people watch our show and find the joy in it, and I want them to be able to play … the role of love expert, even if they’re watching at home, just so that they can experience it with us,” Hamdalla said. “I’m really excited for this show to air and I’m excited to see the future of it.”