Something Special, the Seoul-based international Format agency founded by Format specialists Jin Woo Hwang and InSoon Kim, announced the launch of their new Spring – MIP catalogue featuring both unscripted and scripted formats. This is the first major catalogue the company is releasing since their launch last year and includes everything from dating, cooking and crime game shows to horror anthologies and comedic love stories. Also, KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) gave Something Special two of its most popular music entertainment Formats to take out to the world, marking the very first time KBS went outside of their company for format representation. In addition, WHYNOT Media, Korea’s frontrunner for short-form web-series, also gave Something Special four formats to be represented worldwide.

The two original KBS music competition program formats that Something Special will represent are: HITSMASH (music competition) which invites musicians to take an original song and mash it with another musicians’ original song, creating the ultimate HITSMASH with the original artists performing together, breathing new life into classic hits. Sing-Along Playroom (music entertainment) is a unique spin on favorite childhood songs, bringing back memories of joyful school days. Celebrities are invited to sing-along with songs everyone learned in school: folk, kids’ and pop songs. If the artist can remember and sing the words correctly, they win money that they can donate to their own schools.

Run Out (Paper format – competition) There is only one rule — protect your phone battery from running out at all costs! 8 contestants are given the same smartphone and challenges requiring battery power. The final 2 contestants keeping their batteries alive participate in a face-to face game requiring them to charge their battery. Do they choose the life of their phone’s battery over their own?

Crime Delivery (Paper format- crime competition) 6 contestants are each delivered a box featuring a suspicious crime: key information about the incident, an investigation fund of $1000, their role and their costume. Once all the contestants accept their boxes, the investigation begins. Players will need to either ally or compete with the others to arrest the real suspect among them all to collect the prize money.

Still Alive(Paper format – game competition) 13 contestants must stay in a scary mansion for a week and try to “stay alive” by not breaking secret death rules. The last “living” contestant will win a major cash prize.

The Other I(Paper format – talent competition) Celebrities reveal 2 sides of themselves: first, they show their real lives during a talk show and then audiences get to watch them transform into their desired alter egos.

Spotted(Paper format – dating competition) Can you really SPOT your lover among others even though you can’t see or talk with the one? If you can, the money is all yours! 4 pairs of lovers are tested to see how well they know each other to win a cash prize. 

Real High Romance (high-teen romance reality) – a web entertainment series from WHYNOT media, high school seniors on a ‘graduation trip’ where they find romance and talk about their dreams, aired for 2 seasons. 

Something Special is also presenting scripted formats, including My Heart is Beating (romantic comedy/fantasy)– a vampire comedic love story and horror anthology, Fearsome (horror/anthology) based on true stories passed along in Asian countries. 

In the web-series scripted format arena, from WHYNOT Media, Something Special represents Best Mistake (high-teen romance), an ordinary school girl downloading an IG photo of the school’s gang as her boyfriend to run away from a stalker. Best Mistake was the BCWW 2020 New Media Content Winner and aired for 2 seasons. Pure Melo District (office romance) – an office romance about a woman who is secretly dating her colleague beginning a vlog project with a guy friend who is also at the same company, Real Time Love (high-teen romance), a real life 18-year-old girl’s love and growth story of dating 9 ex-boyfriends for less than 10 days and finding true love from a new transfer student, aired for 4 seasons.