The Masked Singer’s Wonwoo Park develops music format with ABC in Japan

The Masked Singer creator Wonwoo Park’s Diturn Korea has teamed up with ABC TV in Japan and Asian content incubator Empire of Arkadia to develop a new music entertainment format, titled 100.

Wonwoo Park

The show has been developed to tap into audience demand for primetime music entertainment shows and features interactive gameplay elements, but details about the format are not yet known.

Production on the first version is already underway in South Korea and Japan, with localised versions set to air on ABC TV in Japan on November 8 and in Korea in February 2025.

The format will be distributed on the international market by Empire of Arkadia, which conceived the idea for the show.

The format was developed by Park, founder and CEO of Diturn, alongside ABC Japan’s Satoshi Shiba, the former producer of Japanese show In The Middle of Nowhere, and international format specialist Fotini Paraskakis, who co-created the recent comedy format Koso Koso.

“The format leverages and blends the strengths of Korean innovation in creatives, execution and production with the alternative thinking of Japanese gameplay,” the producers said.

Shiba said: “This is our biggest attempt at format co-development in the international arena. We have great partners in Diturn and EOA, and by taking a fresh, more strategic creative approach, we believe we have a format that has the potential to reach millions of viewers around the world.”

Park said: “Seeing an idea come to life is always exciting. We started out with an original premise from Korea, added creative strategies from Japan, plus ideas that resonate globally, building all this into a known international structure.

“We hope 100 will unite generations, transcend language barriers and serve as another breakthrough for Asian creativity on the global stage.”