IMPACTOS NEGATIVOS DEL TURISMO

errors. At first, Infinite Challenge started as an absurd challenge show with six or more comedians and entertainers, who look silly and sloppy. However, such a program has

transformed itself through constant communications with viewers for the last 13 years and finally became “the nation’s real-variety show.” As one of the most successful cases in the localization and transformation of reality genre, the program has not only built up its brand with diverse national events but also extended the brand with popular recurring segments. It is no

exaggeration to say that the path Infinite Challenge has trailblazed is the history of Korean real- variety shows. After the last episode aired on March 31, 2018, the program continued to broadcast three more episodes that look back and recap the history of the show. In the recap special, the chief producer and cast interviewed about what they have confronted and overcome and how they successfully managed their way. Through the analysis on the three recap special episodes, how the program has found its identity and color as the first Korean real-variety show and what implications it has in the Korean television industry is discussed.

Discovery of characters

Infinite Challenge began with the title of Rash Challenge at first from May 2005. The producers planned an outdoor game show with “not-best” entertainers who represent young generations in the age of limitless competition, often called “the 880-thousand-won generation (i.e., the $800-monthly-income generation)” (Hong K. , 2016, p. 169) As soaring performance fee made it difficult to cast popular entertainers, the producers were forced to cast unappreciated and undervalued comedians and entertainers. Led by Jae-suk Yoo, known as one of the best MC in Korea, six and more entertainers tried to complete absurd or impossible mission in outdoor locations, such as tug-of-war with a bull, running race 100 meters against a train, racing in a foot-powered paddle boat against a motor boat, and so on. Because of the ridiculous missions, the producer and cast often made fun of themselves calling the show as a 3D (Dirty, Dangerous, and Difficult) comedy in the early episodes.

The season 2 entitled as Excessive Challenge were broadcast from October 2005 to April 2006. Although the second season had similar themes and topics to the first season, the cast members started to find their characters. For example, Jun-ha Jeong, who was famous for acting as a fool in a previous comedy show, ate a bowl of hot noodles just in 12 seconds and made a strong impression of “the god of cookery” to the viewers. With the new character, he joined the season 3 of the show. The chief producer interviewed that Excessive Challenge showed the possibility of a character-oriented program and awakened him the potentials of the undervalued entertainers (Kim T. , 2018). Eventually, he decided to change the whole concept and format of the show.

From May 2006, Infinite Challenge began its third season that has included the elements of reality television and maintained its format and title to the end. In the episode of July 8, 2006,

the producer started to shoot the cast members from the moment they were arriving at the filming site. Although they were asked to come to the set on time or would be penalized, several

members were late as usual on the day. Those who were late realized that the filming was in progress, panicked and made excuses. The episode that revealed the cast’s appearances and behaviors as usual, which would not have gone out on the air before, received great acclaim from the viewers. Since then, the show has created challenges in relation to real life without a well- planned plot. Combining elements of both reality television and variety genre, the show began to be called a real-variety show by viewers and critics. The leading cast Jae-suk Yoo said, “at some point, people called Infinite Challenge the first Korea real-variety show. However, this was not what we intended from the beginning. When we showed the scene as it was, it became such a show” (Kim T. , 2018).

As the cast members began performing their missions in impromptu settings, they have acquired their persona integrating with their real-life personalities. For example, Hyeong-don Jeong was often teased by the other cast members because he was an all-rounder except being funny. In the episode of “Let’s move, Hyeong-don!” filming his moving day, Hyeong-don began to demonstrate his real personality. As the other members bothered him pretending to help him move, he told them to “get out of here” but soon ordered some food for them. This behavior showed the members as well as the viewers that he is cold outside but warm inside. The episode made his gag feel warm. Besides, Myeong-su Park’s love affair and Jae-suk Yoo’s marriage in their real life were used as a topic of the show. As the episodes mixing the cast’s real life and acting cumulated, the cast members earned their characters and nicknames. Jae-suk Yoo was nicknamed “Yoo-Chief” as a host-in-chief; Myeong-su Park, “Giant Star or Father” due to his elderly look and his position as the oldest member; Jun-ha Jeong, “the God of Cookery” with his

big body size and appetite; Haha, “Shorty” because of his short height; Hong-chul Noh, “Dol+I” meaning an extremely crazy boy in Korean; and Hyeong-don Jeong, “Tough But Nice Guy” with his personality.

The process by which they acquire nicknames and characters demonstrates the characteristics of television. As Fiske (1987) asserts with his notion of intertextuality, it is possible for an entertainer to form a character in a television entertainment program because a television program is regularly scheduled and broadcast as a series or serial. Television creates regularly predictable viewing habits to viewers, in which leading characters are built up and strengthened by the continuation of a story and characteristic figures that the viewers share.

The growth and variation of the characters in Infinite Challenge made it possible to create a new story and segment. Once the members’ characters and their relationship are established, it is not difficult to develop another narrative and laughter even if the plot of the story is a little loose (Kim Y. , 2013). “Infinite Corporation” is one of the best recurring segments using the characters established in the show. The segment satirizes the contemporary people’s working lives. In the segment, the members have their own titles. These titles are based on the actual personalities and relationships of the members, which have been built up and developed in the show. The segment adopts a form of sitcom. However, the viewers can easily understand and empathize with the characters of the sitcom because they are already familiar with the characters of the members. Young-sung Kim (2013) points out that the narrative strategy of “Infinite Corporation,” which condenses the long-established characters of the members into each role in the sitcom, makes the entire narrative of Infinite Challenge rich and enables it to escape from the repetition as a limitation of television aesthetics. Since television entertainment is very sensitive to the fast-changing trends of the society, its life span is inevitably short. Nevertheless, Infinite

Challenge had a long run of 13 years because the characters of the cast were settled well and continued to evolve in accordance with the social trends.

Challenges as a process of assimilation

As the title suggests, Infinite Challenge basically portrays competition and compensation through challenges that are seemingly impossible for the members to achieve. Critics point out that the system of competition and compensation, which is the main fun-inducing mechanism of reality television, strongly implies the characteristics of neo-liberalism that demands infinite competition and justifies the survival of the fittest (Kim S. J., 2011; Lee & Cho, 2010; Moon- Kang, 2007). However, Infinite Challenge does not simply follow the logic of neoliberalism. Rather, it gives viewers a fresh stimulation and pleasure through the competition and challenge. This is because the program focuses on the process and progress of the members’ challenge, rather than emphasizing on the competition and accomplishment itself (Kim Y. , 2013; Lee H. , 2011).

The program has implemented a wide range of challenges including professional catwalk, dance sports, bobsleigh, professional wrestling, rowing, and so on. In the process of the

challenges, the cast members experience various failures, such as falling behind, getting injured, and receiving a punishment. By sharing such experience of failure, the members feel

homogeneity, comfort each other, and secure teamwork, friendship and loyalty. Particularly, sports challenges are frequently used as an event for the cast members to experience such a process and progress. For the episodes of professional wrestling, the members practiced high- level wrestling skills for over a year. The process of the members in their 30s and 40s showing successful performance on the professional wrestling stage with a great deal of efforts gave a big impression to viewers.

In an analysis on the local viewers’ reception of Infinite Challenge, Hee-seung Lee (2011) uncovers that Korean viewers tend to identify themselves with the cast members and feel vicarious satisfaction through the members’ experience. Unlike a standard variety show

conducted under strict planning and scripts, the program puts a certain amount of contingency and unpredictability in the challenge missions. Combining silly and odd characters, the cast members demonstrate a complex dynamic system that maximizes creativity in the self-

organizing process. The viewers sympathize with the stars maintaining the characters given in the show, and at the same time have fun with the active interactions of the stars with high

freedom and interdependence in the challenge events. Thus, the viewers are able to be immersed in the various missions, games and challenges of the members, even though they fully

understand that these situations are a fictional reality different from their real life.

The assimilation of the local viewers with the performers is maximized through big events such as the Olympic games, general elections, the strike of MBC, etc. The Olympic games were favorite subjects of the show. In the episodes of Beijing Olympics, the members were dispatched to the matches that Korean mass media didn’t pay attention to. Showing the athletes who had been out of the spotlights, the program drew the public attention to the players of minor sports. In the episodes for the PyeongChang Olympics, the cast members further tried to challenge the bobsleigh to induce viewers’ interest in the unpopular sport. Through the performance of the members, the local viewers are sympathetic to the compassion, efforts, and will of the players that represent their nation. In the episodes called “Decision 2014” as a parody of the general election in 2014, the cast members entered an election to select a new leader of the program, asking the viewers to vote at the 11 voting booths over the nation. The total number of votes were over 450,000. This number is similar to a big city’s number of voters in the

nationwide local elections. The voting campaign of the show was praised for contributing to increasing the turnout of the 2014 general election by 10 percent from the previous election.

Such nationwide events often encourage national sentiments among viewers. The episode called “Delivery of Infinite Challenge” is one of the representative examples to promote national sentiments and communal spirits to the local viewers. The members visited and served some Korean food to several Korean immigrants who have stayed foreign countries for a long time. The guests include a Korean guard of the Gabonese President, Korean adoptees in America, Korean nurses dispatched to Germany in the 1960s, and ethnic Koreans in Japan’s Utoro village, who have been fighting for a plot of Japanese land their parents cultivated out of wild trees. The list of the guests shows what the program seeks for. Showing the poverty, separation, and discrimination that the guests suffered from, the program tried to arouse the viewers’ sympathy and goodwill as a family and citizen of the same nation.

The increasing sense of kinship and solidarity that the cast members shared with the local viewers often redefined and constrained the nature and identity of the program. For example, Infinite Challenge started “calendar project” from winter, 2007 to make and distribute the brand’s calendar to the viewers. All proceeds from the calendar sales would be donated to the disadvantaged. Like some other recurring segments in the show, the calendar project became an annual national event as it led to a large purchase of the local viewers by broadcasting the calendar making process and shooting scenes into an episode. However, there was a controversy that the photos of Hong-chul Noh and Gil, who got off the program by their drinking-driving issue, were included in the calendar of 2015 (Son J. , 2014). This dispute clearly shows that as viewers’ expectations for the program grew, so did the members’ and staffs’ burden of social responsibility and morality.

The assimilation process in which the cast and viewers converge into “the same” is rarely seen in western reality television programs that differentiate “the others” from the viewers through the process of difference, exclusion and elimination. The mechanism of assimilation of Infinite Challenge makes games and missions a sort of play in which the cast and viewers share an amusement and pleasure. Through the play, they also share communal values and national identity rather than individual achievement, thereby internalizing and enhancing the public interest ideology in the real-variety show. The development process of Infinite Challenge as a nation’s real-variety show reminds us that proliferation of a particular television genre relies more on social recognition, network’s strategic investment and cultural discourse on the genre rather than the text of the genre itself. The social perception of a television genre can be always changed by contextual and historical situations.

7 GOING REGIONAL: EXPORTS TO AND CO-PRODUCTION WITH CHINA

Thanks to the booming production of real-variety shows, Korean producers have

accumulated the know-how of reality television formats. Applying the multiple team production system and advanced production technologies to the weekend primetime show production, the local producers have developed a Koreanized reality television optimized to the local television programming and scheduling system. In this process, the public interest ideology and national identity has been internalized in the real-variety shows. As the Korean real-variety programs featuring Korean idol stars and entertainers have reached foreign fans on the Korean Wave, the demands of Korean formats have increased particularly in Asian countries. Accordingly, Korean producers have started to develop a new format to enter the regional and global television

This chapter traces the development of Korean reality television through format trades and collaboration with the regional industries, particularly Chinese television industry. Since China has already begun actively adapting global television formats, particularly talent formats, the Korean formats exported to China largely follow the legacy of documenting a living situation of the cast within the framework of competition. The advanced techniques of television music show production and the popularity of the Korean Wave gave the Korean formats distinct advantages over other foreign formats in Chinese markets. In addition, the celebrity-centered real-variety shows containing family-friendly entertainment were greatly welcomed by the Chinese opinion leaders who have sought for social integration as well as by the Chinese audiences who have formed a huge fan base consuming Korean television programs via online streaming sites in real time. Accordingly, the direct legacies of the Korean reality formats became adjusted to the local surroundings of Chinese television industry through intensive and wide-ranging co-production projects, and thereby serving as another form of nationalistic culture for the Chinese market.

This chapter describes the exportation processes of the Korean reality shows to China and the increased co-production projects with the Chinese producers in two subchapters. In the first subchapter, how Korean reality formats were explosively exported to China, what efforts the Korean producers and broadcasters made to carve out the big market, and how the Korean reality formats have been leading content in the regional market is discussed. The second subchapter focuses on the Korea-China joint production projects as a new adaptation strategy towards the Chinese market. It pays attention to how the joint production with China has affected the Korean television industry and the contents. As the examples of the two stages, I Am a Singer which is

the first full-package Korean format exported to China and Super Idol which is the first joint- production audition show with China is analyzed.