Jin Woo Hwang, President of Korea’s Something Special, Seoul-based #1 independent* international Format agency announced their new slate for MIPCOM with five hot new formats, Unforgettable Duet – a heartfelt series about the power of music, family, and memories; reality game show Penthouse Game; celebrity comedian travel show Hit-and-Miss Tour; Korea’s #1 rating dating Reality show I am Single; and the company’s first scripted drama format, Who is She! They are also highlighting fan favorite celebrity game show Battle in the Box.
-Unforgettable Duet is an original unscripted series that follows a dementia patient whose families gather mementos and a favorite song to help them recall the past. Together, they ride on a Memory Bus filled with these deeply personal mementos that reveal long forgotten life moments for each of the participants. The show then steps into the studio with an emotional Duet performance by the patient and family member, followed with a heartfelt tribute song to the participant from popular singing artists. This emotional musical series is a magical, healing experience helping the patient and their family to remember what is truly important. Created and produced by Something Special and Eun-seol Mo (creator of Netflix’s Culinary Class War), co-produced with Studio Rudolph.
– Penthouse Game; experimental reality game show featuring individuals going through financial difficulties, competing for a cash prize to determine who will occupy the ultimate power of the penthouse. The players will use gold tokens and move around using the elevator in the middle. There will be three hosts who will play different key roles in the show. Aired originally on Channel A and local streamer WAVVE.– Hit-and-Miss Tour: hilarious show that follows 5 famous comedians being friends for 20 years traveling together who play 6-8 mini-challenges per day, making the loser pay up; over 210 mini-games already done; format sponsored by multiple tourism boards (including Turkey and Greece), brand-friendly show; # 1 rated show on Channel S (SK Telecom subsidiary) and produced by Media S.
– I am Single: A hyper-realistic dating reality show where 12 singles who desperately want to be married come to stay for six days to find ‘the only one’ in their lives! The show is a top-rated dating reality show in Korea, where contestants genuinely seeking marriage participate. The participants who visit Single’s Land cannot tell their real names and stay under nicknames during the 6 days. #1 rated show on ENA and SBS Plus including 5 streaming platforms. Created and produced by Chonjang Entertainment.
– Who is She!: A scripted drama adaptation based on the film Miss Granny (a 2014 South Korean fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk (Squid Game). A woman named Oh Doo-ri in her 70s who magically finds herself in the body of her 20-year-old self (Jung Ji-so) after having her picture taken at a mysterious photo studio. Being young-again, Doo-ri decides to seek for her ultimate dream, to become a singer. Produced by Studio V+ and Idea Factory, the series will premiere in KBS2 on December 2024.
Also bringing:
Battle in the Box is a hilarious and precarious celebrity game show featuring two celebrity teams who enter an empty box divided by a movable wall and armed only with a toothbrush to live with for 24 hours. Teams earn space and luxuries by conquering physical and mental challenges. Victory expands their living area, but more room for one team means less for the other. With challenges occurring around the clock, the celebrities must be strategic to secure their space. (IP holder: Nmedia, Int’l Distribution: Something Special). In September ’24 it was announced that Interstellar, took the option for the U.S. Interstellar produced the U.K. version that aired this past summer with host-comedian Jimmy Carr on U&Dave TV (which is owned by UKTV, a subsidiary of BBC). The show was created by Nmedia and is globally represented by Something Special. It originally aired in South Korea on MBN with top ratings.
Hwang stated: “Something Special is honored to bring the very special Unforgettable Duet format which premiered in Korea last month on MBN in primetime and was the number one show on the channel that night; as well as two fun formats are The Penthouse Game, and celebrity comedian travel format Hit or Miss. We also will present our first scripted drama format Timeless Time and our popular, hilarious, and precarious celebrity format, Battle in the Box which premiered this past July in the U.K. on BBC’s U&Dave TV and is now optioned in the U.S. by Interstellar, producer of the U.K. version. Our Korean formats are ready to hit the rest of the world.”
