1. GIRL RE:VERSE: THE MASKED SINGER GOES ON METAVERSE
After Fox’s Alter Ego and Talpa’s Avastars (see Friday’s Espresso 15th Oct 2021), another interesting “hybrid show” (i.e. with virtual and real persons mixed together) is on air.
GIRL'S RE:VERSE (also known simply as RE:VERSE) premiered January 2nd on Kako TV, a South Korean OTT. The concept might remind of the Korean hit The Masked Singer, but set in the metaverse (event though we should stop using this name for virtual spaces that have nothing to do with Meta): 30 female K-Pop performers, both current and past, compete to be part of a brand-new idol band.
The twist is that all their interactions, performances and competitions take place using anime-styled avatars, and everything is set in a virtual world called "W", where the contestants’ identities remain concealed until their elimination. They must use their voice and personality to charm audience and judges in order to be one of the 5 finalists that will form this new band. Viewers can try to guess the identity of the contestants and only those eliminated will reveal who they are. This way the appeal of the new technology is coupled with a “classic” guessing game.
Compared to similar virtual shows, there are 2 interesting new points: 1) not only the participants are represented as avatars, but also all the hosts, VIP audience members and judges panel; 2) each artist performs in her own virtual “world”, which reflects her personality (e.g. seaside, a world of lava, a magic castle etc.)
“By willfully blurring the boundaries between drama, pop music and reality show -writes Michelle Lin in her in-depth article on K7- this could be more than just a fresh twist on a trending format but could even be an early pioneer of the sort of entertainment that will become the norm once today’s kids, raised with one foot permanently in the virtual world, come of age”.
2. A COUPLE OF NEW GAME SHOWS
Society changes, technologies change but game shows continue their reassuring job of entertaining a large target of viewers, every single day, in every country of the world. In the last days 2 brand-new quizzes (the subgenre of game show with the longest tradition) have been announced.
The first one is The Finish Line, which has been commissioned from BBC One for daytime. Produced by Potato (part of ITV Studios) and Nice One Productions, it will be on on air later this year.
For now the only think we know (in addition to the logo) is that each episode sees 5 players race against each other by answering general knowledge questions. The challenge is to stay in the race by answering questions as quickly as possible. The last one standing could be in with the chance of winning thousands of pounds.
The second one is Bingo Blitz, launched on the market by Armoza Formats and produced by Israeli Gamechanger. Two participants will play across seven rounds as they answer trivia questions in 60 seconds. For every correct answer, a number is drawn from a huge bingo machine. Every number earns more money – and if you score a bingo, you get to bring home the cash. But they must first bet on how many questions they will get right and, if they miss, their road to bingo will be blocked.
Like the previous Family Piggy Bank (by the same prodco: see Friday’s Espresso 21st Jan), the main reason of interest is not actually the mechanisms and the rules themselves, but the CGI-technology, that permits to have an outstanding production value at low costs (see pic: the studio as it is and the studio as it appears).
3. BRAND FUNDED FORMATS RIDE ON HOT WHEELS
Brand Funded Programming (BFP) will have a growing importance in the audiovisual system, due to the crisis of the “traditional” forms of advertising and also thanks to the success of some of these contents, Lego Masters in the first place. We already wrote about BFP regarding pet food, beer (see Friday’s Espresso 7th Jan), Play Doh, cooking products (see FE 6th May) and many others.
The last news about this fundamental trend is that US broadcast network NBC has commissioned the car makeover competition series Hot Wheels: Ultimate Challenge, based on Mattel’s popular toy brand.
Each of the episodes will feature Hot Wheels “superfans” competing against each other as they turn a nostalgic car from their past into the life-sized Hot Wheels of their dreams. Celebrity guest judges will review the transformations and crown a winner, before a series finale with a US$50,000 cash prize and the honor of having the best design made into an official Hot Wheels die-cast car.
The show is produced by Endemol Shine America, Workerbee and Mattel Television and hosted by former Top Gear US presenter and car guy Rutledge Wood (see pic).