From dating, celebrity, and crime competition shows to horror and comedy programs, the Seoul-based international agency founded by format specialists Jin Woo Hwang and InSoon Kim, announced the launch of their new Spring – MIP catalog featuring both unscripted and scripted formats. Moreover, Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) has given the company two of its most popular entertainment formats, while WHYNOT Media provided four formats to distribute them worldwide.
This is the first major catalogue Something Special is releasing since its launch last year, and includes from dating, cooking and crime game shows to horror anthologies and comedic love stories. Also, it is the first time Korean broadcaster KBS went outside of its company for format representation with two outstanding titles: Hitsmash, a music competition show that invites musicians to take an original song and mash it with another musicians’ original song, creating the ultimate hitsmarch with the original artists performing together, breathing new life into classic hits. And Sing-Along Playroom, a music entertainment show that 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.
WHYNOT Media, Korea’s frontrunner for short-form web-series, also gave Something Special four formats to be represented worldwide, including Real High Romance is a high-teen web romance reality entertainment series aired for two seasons. Also, three web-series scripted formats: Best Mistake, an ordinary school girl downloading an IG photo of the school’s gang as her boyfriend to run away from a stalker: it was the BCWW 2020 New Media Content Winner and aired for 2 seasons; Pure Melo District, 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; and Real Time Love, 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.
Something Special is also presenting scripted formats, including My Heart is Beating (romantic comedy/fantasy) a vampire comedic love story and horror anthology, Fearsome based on true stories passed along in Asian countries. Other paper formats are Run Out (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; Crime Delivery, where 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; and Still Alive where 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 (talent competition) with celebrities revealing two 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 and Spotted (dating competition)
Hwang stated: ‘We’re thrilled to present our first major catalogue, featuring both unscripted and scripted formats as well as web-series, especially in time for MIPTV. We’ve cultivated great premium stories and fun, intriguing competition programs that were created both internally by our experienced Something Special team and also from our experienced global partners. We offer Something Special for everyone’.
Kim added: ‘Something Special is truly breaking the mold in Korea for original IP creation and international format distribution. We are especially proud to be the first company outside of KBS to represent their top formats and are confident the world will embrace HITSMASH and Sing-Along Playroom’.
