Format

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”.
To read the other 2 articles about 2 brand-new game-show (one of them with CGI-technology) and a Brand Funded Program based on a popular franchise, go to https://cmmespresso.substack.com/p/fridaysespresso-17th-march