1. A PROJECT FOR BECOMING ICONS
In the super-crowded field of sing talent shows/music competitions it is difficult to find something new. Project Icon: The UK’s Next Music Star (on air from Sunday, 26 March at 9PM on BBC Three and iPlayer) tries to do it.
The premise is that the music world has changed, and being a real superstar, not just a flash-in-the pan, today requires a lot more than just singing. Project Icon, according to the creators (the American singer and songwriter Jason Derulo -who is also one of the 3 judges- in collaboration with MultiStory and ITV US), is the first TV show that will challenge contestants on all realistic skills an artist today should have.
The format is inspired by Derulo’s own career story, which took off when he realised that the music industry had changed and he reinvented himself to be more than just a great singer. He rebuilt his profile on social media and on films, gained a new legion of fans and his popularity soared. Now, he wants to share his formula with eight rough diamonds and give one of them the chance to follow in his footsteps.
In concrete terms we will see 8 budding recording artists - who are hungry to break into the mainstream - go head to head as they see if they can transform from bedroom singer to all-round music star in just a few weeks. At the end of the series, the winner will receive a US music deal with Jason’s label Future History, a collaboration with Jason Derulo, and a live performance at BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend in 2023.
We’ll see if this formula will really show us something new, or will only be one of the countless talents, indistinguishable from one another…
2. INDIAN GAMIFICATION
Every now and then it’s interesting taking a look at these countries usually out of the radar of unscripted, because sometimes they give surprises. One of these is #Bzinga, a game-show which premiered on Hindi television Zee Tv last 5th March and is on air every Sunday at 5 pm.
But #Bzinga is not only a game show: first of all it is a technology startup launched in 2020, specialized in games and gamification, which also coproduced the show, a combination of the big screen and a mobile application owned by themselves.
The concept of the tv game is quite simple: two families per episode celebrate their dreams and passions and compete in order to win big prizes. The interesting part is that viewers at home can also play along from their mobile application while enjoying the TV show, trying to win very high-value products like cars, electronic appliances, and exciting gadgets during multiple rounds of the game as well.
The app is active 24/7, also when the tv show is over: users can play stand-alone games and buying various products with an inverse-auction platform, that counts millions of customers. This way a technological business idea has become a successful and profitable tv program.
3. A VOICE OUTSIDE THE CHOIR
Japanese broadcaster TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System Television) will pitch a number of formats during the Talk of Tokyo showcase at next month’s MipTV event. Among the unscripted, the most curious one is Outsing the Choir, that started as segment of another primetime popular program (Banana Sand) and, due to its success, has become an autonomous format (exactly what happened with The Masked Singer in Korea).
Outsing the Choir! is a musical show featuring two teams of contestants facing in a singing competition. Each contestant must sing their chosen song perfectly without being influenced by the live, in-studio choir. The choir actually at the beginning accompanies each contestant with the same harmony, but shortly after it shifts into a specially created melody that distracts even the best singers, making it almost impossible to continue in the correct key.
Only who sings outside the choir can win this crazy challenge!