Struggling to gain audiences’ attention, Mnet releases 9 music shows with different formats
From singing contests between boyfriends to entertainment programs that invests in singers like stock, Mnet is introducing all sort of settings to get public attention.
Music channel Mnet is taking on unique challenges one after another to target viewers who are tired of similar types of music entertainment programs.
This year alone, Mnet has released a total of 9 music variety shows. “My Boyfriend Is Better”, which aired in March, presented a fresh format in which men competed in singing and women invested prize money in participants who were likely to survive the competition.
“Tiktok’s Counterattack”, which aired in June, showed the process of learning to dance by people who are not good at dancing. Meanwhile, “Great Seoul Invasion”, which aired in August, showed the survival of the relatively lesser known K-Band compared to Kpop.
The most recently released entertainment show “Artistok Game” differentiated itself by introducing two-way communication in which viewers around the world invest in the talents of artists with various personalities.
At the press conference for “Artistok Game”, producer Choi Hyo Jin said, “Recently, viewers have become active. I wanted to create contents that can be enjoyed like a game, rather than simply voting.”
Meanwhile, PD Jung Woo Young, who is in charge of directing, expressed, “The biggest attraction of the program is that viewers around the world can directly invest and immerse themselves using the Mnet+ application by utilizing something like the stock system, which has never been attempted in the broadcasting industry.“
In the first episode, solo artists with distinct musical worlds such as YELO, YOUHA, Bernard Park, Ibada, and Adora, appeared in the first episode, and introduced videos created in their own style, hidden entertainment and charm, etc. However, viewers have been showing reactions such as “I don’t know how to invest” and “It seems cruel to actually buy and sell singers as stocks”.
Some point out that even a music entertainment program featuring a fresh setting and a talented cast will not be easy to attract the general public’s attention in today’s broadcasting environment.
Regarding this, Jung Deok Hyun, a pop culture critic, said, “In the past, music audition programs ‘Superstar K’ and ‘Kpop Star’ had high ratings across various genres, but recently, music programs are subdivided into genres such as hip-hop, trot, and ballad, so the viewer base is bound to narrow.”
Meanwhile, Kim Seong Soo, another pop culture critic, pointed out, “In order to attract public attention, we have to discover hidden needs, but bold differentiation and popularity are inevitably inversely proportional to each other.”
The critic also added, “It is a situation in which similar programs made by slightly modifying the new format of the program produce better results than the entertainment programs that challenged completely new settings and systems.”
Source: Daum
