Tongue Fighters, ‘Gganbu’ Players and Demons Unite as South Korea Introduces Potential Next Big Hits at MipTV

Marta Balaga
Updated ·4 min read
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As the search for the next “Squid Game” continues, South Korea brought out the big guns at MipTV, introducing several scripted and unscripted offerings. These includes FormatEast’s intergenerational game show “Gganbu Race,” inspired by the Netflix smash hit.

“It’s a slang term meaning close friends and companions. Kids would say that when forming teams to play games,” said producer Fay Zhang during the K Formats: The Next Big Hits from Korea session, mentioning “Squid Game’s” episode where the main character joined forces with female and older contestants.

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“Everyone thought they would lose. They won, because of an unexpected synergy effect. Our main concept is to overcome prejudice and win through cooperation beyond age.”

The show will see juniors and seniors battling for prize money. They have to choose partners not knowing which games they will play, but there is a twist: the bigger the age difference, the bigger the prize.

Cooperation will also drive CJ ENM’s “The Time Hotel,” which launched in Korea only last week. In the show, contestants enter a hotel where the only currency is time. Once they run out of it, playing multiple games, they will have to check out.

“We saw many alliances and betrayals, and a lot of psychological warfare going on due to the VIP system created to reward [successful] players,” explained sales executive Jully Kim.

“Time is equal and fair to everyone, but its value is different for every player. If I don’t perform well, I am rewarded little time, which limits my access to food, beverages or clues. In ‘The Time Hotel,’ time is power.”

Fortune – and fame – also awaits for the participants of “No Money, No Art” from KBS Media, the country’s first ever art-themed entertainment show focusing on young artists who have to create their masterpieces in a studio setting and within a time limit. Later, their works are sold during a “tension-filled” auction.

Different challenge awaits contestants in “The Beatbox,” asked to recreate famous songs with household items: Shoes, coffee machines, fridge doors or even a whoopee cushion. The more items they win, the more potential instruments they will have. The show, first realized in the Netherlands, was co-developed with Fremantle.

“We want to turn it into a global IP,” observed Something Special’s Praise Shin.

In SBS’s “Shooting Stars,” female celebrities are asked to bend it like Beckham, trained by celebrity coaches. The show is currently in its fourth season, enlisting comedians, models or actors, or even wives of actual athletes.

“It’s very much a family show, loved by all genders and age groups, but our biggest audience is men in their fifties and sixties. That’s very reasonable data since it’s a football show, aired on a traditional TV channel,” said producer Yool Kwon, also noting its popularity among younger viewers and women.

“Based on the online response, many viewers were originally football fans, drawn to these superstar coaches, but others were not. For them, watching these celebrities challenge themselves in a sport they never played is really motivating.”

Audiences can be also inspired by the oratory prowess exhibited in Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation’s “MMA of the Tongues: Keep Talking & I Love It,” where “tongue fighters” share their stories. But only the winner will get to reveal the ending.

“That cliffhanger is the show’s most important segment,” said sales manager Jun Hee Koh, mentioning the cast consisting of a divorce lawyer, North Korean refugees or a transgender content creator, opening up about her traumatic past. Those who are voted out get to finish their accounts in “the room of the lonely stories,” later viewable on YouTube.

Among scripted shows, KBS’ political satire “My Fellow Citizens!” – presented by sales manager Sol Kim – focuses on a con man who marries a police detective, unintentionally of course, and ends up running for congress. Its U.S. version, “The Company You Keep,” stars Milo Ventimiglia.

Finally, the crowd was also treated to the sneak preview of “Revenant,” an anticipated drama set to launch in June and, as teased by the moderator, unfolding through a series of curses and death after its heroine (“The Handmaiden’s” Tae-Ri Kim) receives a haunted box at her father’s funeral.

Boasting a colorful tagline (“The demon doesn’t seduce us. It is us that seduces him”) and tackling several themes from youth and folklore to conflict between the poor and the rich, the show could be easily adapted to fit other country’s customs, argued Juri Kim, deputy general manager at SBS Contents Hub.

“Bong Joon-ho said that ‘Parasite’ was loved all around the world because it was very localized. I think this show is the same,” she said, praising its writer, Eun-Hee Kim, also behind Netflix’s “Kingdom.”

As mentioned during the presentation, 78 adaptations of Korean formats were broadcast around the world last year and in 2023, putting South Korea just behind the U.K., U.S. and the Netherlands.

MipTV comes as reality shows and formats are surging in Korea.

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