MBN's Music Game Show "Lotto Singer" To Get American Remake

MBN’s new music game show “Lotto Singer” has been optioned by Fox Alternative Entertainment.

On November 25, it was announced that FormatEast, a subsidiary company of SBS that is in charge of global format distribution for “Lotto Singer,” had signed a contract with Fox Alternative Entertainment (FAE), a subsidiary of the American broadcast network Fox, about optioning the format distribution and production of “Lotto Singer.”

Through this contract, FAE will be able to produce and distribute versions of “Lotto Singer” on public broadcast and cable channels in the United States and Europe.

Fox was one of the first major American networks that saw success with optioning formats of Korean music variety shows. The most notable example of this is MBC’s “The King of Mask Singer,” which has now run for four seasons in the United States. CJ ENM’s “I Can See Your Voice” was also optioned for a remake.

In charge of the “Lotto Singer” option contract is Rob Wade, the variety department head at Fox, who has produced hit music shows like “Dancing With the Stars,” “The X Factor,” and “America’s Got Talent.”

FormatEast, the company in charge of format distribution rights for “Lotto Singer,” was established by SBS in December 2018 for the purpose of researching and developing new TV show formats in South Korea. Developed with the support of the Korea Creative Content Agency, this project is called the FormatEast Creative Lab (FC Lab). In 2019, “Lotto Singer” was developed in this lab through the collaboration of Park Won Woo, a writer on “The King of Mask Singer,” and FormatEast. It was produced for MBN and began airing in October 2020. It is currently planning for a midseason finale in January 2021.

The concept of “Lotto Singer” is that 45 singers of various genres compete to see if viewers can correctly guess the six contestants who will get the highest scores from the audience judges. Viewers who guess correctly win a significant prize.

Kim Il Joong, the director of FormatEast stated, “It is a meaningful thing that Fox Group, which has led the way in bringing Korean variety to a global market, has once again optioned a new Korean music game show format. Rather than just watching a performance on TV, the unique feature of Korean music game shows in which the entire family can watch and play together is fast becoming a trend in the global market. It is a testament to our growth that it did not even take two years between the format being first developed on paper to being sold to the American market.”

FormatEast also shared their intention to produce versions of “Lotto Singer” in Asia and the Middle East in addition to the United States in Europe.

Watch “The King of Mask Singer”:

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