SEOUL – CJ ENM and two of their titles have made the shortlist for the annual Content Innovation Awards. 16-episode scripted black comedy drama Prison Playbook is on the list for Series Launch of the Year, while hybrid music and dating format Love at First Song is listed for Best Musical Format.

 

Winners for each category are to be announced during MIPCOM 2018. The Content Innovation Awards ceremony will take place on 14 October, at the Carlton Hotel’s Grand Salon in Cannes, France.

 

Prison Playbook was on tvN for 8 weeks earlier this year, while for the entire period on air the series ranked #1 target ratings during its time slot. The final episode reached 2 million household viewers recording 10.8% ratings, while ranking the highest among 3049 females. On average, the show had outperformed same-time programs by more than 250%.

 

Starring Park Hae-soo, Jung Kyung-ho and Krystal Jung, Prison Playbook explores the stories of both inmates and employees in prison. All-star baseball player Kim Je-hyuk is about to join the Boston Red Sox, when on one night he meets an assailant who had planned to harass his sister. After forcefully putting the assailant down, Je-hyuk gets abruptly imprisoned for his actions.

 

Will Je-hyuk be able to survive the suffocating place? Prison Playbook is a black comedy following the baseball star, living with the people in prison, an environment where there are no names, titles, age, and even freedom. The series focuses on the sometimes violent, sometimes touching stories of the inmates and workers who regularly go to prison for work.

 

Music and dating show format Love at First Song previously premiered on VTV3, a Vietnamese entertainment channel, with strong ratings. The first episode recorded 7.6% and remained #1 throughout the show in the Hanoi meter. It was a 117% increase compared to the previous show. The popularity continued online, garnering more than 20M views in total.

 

Love at First Song is a hybrid music dating show that matches people looking for their soulmates through musical taste. Without seeing one another, the matched pair practice together and on the day of the duet, get to see one another’s appearance and decide whether to continue the duet and become a couple. If they do, the couple spends a week at Camp Love Song where they go on dates, compete with other couples and prepare for the final Duet Competition.