Kakao Entertainment’s New Survival Show To Debut A Virtual K-Pop Group With Existing Girl Group Members
Kakao Entertainment’s upcoming music survival show GIRL’S RE:VERSE is aiming to combine the appeal of K-Pop idols with the novelty of virtual performers to create a completely virtual idol group with its finalists.
The show is co-produced by Cho Wook Hyung, who was one of the directors of the popular show Infinite Challenge, and Park Jin Kyung, who has led shows like Dunia: Into a New World and My Little Television.
GIRL’S RE:VERSE will bring 30 female singers who are already active idols from different girl groups. The girls will compete against each other to reach the top 5, who will ultimately debut as a virtual girl group together. Throughout the show, the real identities of the participants will stay hidden. The vocal and dancing skills, as well as the participants’ facial expressions, will be captured using VR motion capture technology and then projected onto their respective virtual avatars in real time. When a contestant gets eliminated, their actual identity will be revealed.
Singer Bada, choreographer Aiki, and TV personalities Boom and Pengsoo will join the show as hosts. According to the producers, each contestant chose the name and created the backstory of their own avatar. The virtual characters will reflect the participants’ real personalities partially. But there would also be role-playing.
Producer Park felt that the unfamiliarity of the concept of virtual performers could be brought to a middle ground with the very well-known format of survival shows in South Korea.
Virtual avatars have been getting more attention around the world, and in countries like Japan, there are already virtual singers that perform…We wanted to bring out the synergy by integrating the excellent vocal and dance talents of K-pop artists with virtual characters.
—Park Jin Kyung
The program will premiere on November 28 at 7 p.m. KST through KakaoPage and YouTube. New episodes will be released every Monday at 9 p.m.
