tvN reveals first collaboration TV show with ESG
Producer Jeong Jong-yeon of “The Society Game” speaks at a press conference at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, southwestern Seoul, Wednesday. / Courtesy of CJ E&M
By Kim Jae-heun
CJ E&M’s cable TV channel tvN revealed its first show in collaboration with global entertainment content producer Endemol Shine Group (ESG) on Wednesday, the next step in realizing its goal as a global content trend leader, as its slogan says.
ESG produces well-known TV shows like “Big Brother,” “MasterChef” and “1 vs 100,” which have worldwide distribution and put the company at the top of its industry.
The collaboration project debuts in Korea on Sunday with the title “The Society Game,” on which the director Jeong Jong-yeon worked with ESG in planning the content format first and produced the show in Korea on his own.
The series is a mock society game where 22 contestants are divided into two groups and compete for 14 days in a controlled village. One group votes for a leader every morning while the other has one leader reigning until a consensus of two rebellions deposes the leader. Every day, the two teams compete in a challenge and the winner gets a prize while the losing team has to eliminate a member. The leaders of each team make decisions on budget allocation as well as who to cast out.
“The distinguishing point in this TV show is the competition between the two societies, one being democratic and the other authoritarian,” said Jeong during a press conference at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, southwestern Seoul. “I suggested various genres of TV shows but ESG strongly advised to go with this survival series. I trust ESG to know what the global audience wants to see, plus they produced the popular TV series ‘Big Brother.’”
Jeong said ESG could have considered his previous career in producing the reality show “The Genius” when they chose him to make the TV series of a similar format that adopts a survival element.
“The Genius” invites 13 contestants from various sectors to play and one is eliminated every episode.
The main difference is that the contestants in the new show are not all well-known figures and they have to live together for two weeks.
“I’ve always found it amusing when people show their real feelings in the game,” Jeong said. “While producing ‘The Genius,’ I learned that contestants contact each other to plan a strategy during a week break in between shooting days.
“I wanted to put that in the camera too and it was my first rule to put contestants under one roof throughout the whole shooting.”
Asked the reason for the late introduction of reality survival shows in Korea, the producer said TV programs with such a format are still popular around the world as he witnessed at MIPCOM, an annual trade show geared towards the television industry held in Cannes, France, and he doesn’t think it is late.
There has been several Korean TV series that adopted certain styles of survival systems, but no producers were interested in making a classical survival show as they were afraid of failure. The closest was Jeong’s “The Genius,” which aired its first season in 2013 and proved its potential by lasting four seasons.
“The Society Game” will air its first and second episodes together for 120 minutes so audiences can fully understand the rules and learn the characteristics of the participants. The contestants range from well-known comedians and Road FC fighters to low-profile singers and models, plus a student.
“I wanted to cast people who have almost no exposure in public, so that audiences won’t know what will happen next,” Jeong said. “People have certain stereotypes built about particular celebrities and when they appear on the show, it can disturb audiences from watching the show comfortably.”
CAPTION) Producer Jeong Jong-yeon of “The Society Game” speaks at a press conference at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, southwestern Seoul, Wednesday. Courtesy of CJ E&M