LINEAMIENTOS PARA EL INVOLUCRAMIENTO ACTIVO DE LAS POBLACIONES LOCALES

Centered on the three terrestrial stations, the real-variety show format has rapidly occupied the majority of weekend primetime slots. The generic versions of Infinite Challenge have demonstrated different characteristics depending on each station’s color (Cha & Park, 2012). KBS has launched 1 Night 2 Days (a real-travel show, 2007), Qualification of Men (a

real-challenge show, 2009) as a section of its Sunday evening variety show, Happy Sunday. SBS has released Family Outing (a rural life experience, 2008) and Gold Miss is Coming (a real- dating show, 2008) under the variety show Good Sunday. Starting with Infinite Challenge, MBC also has developed a number of reality formats like We Got Married (a fake marriage show, 2008) and Hot Brothers (a comic dating show, 2010) in the variety show Sunday Night. These reality formats tied together in pairs as Sunday variety shows have competed fiercely for the largest market share at the same primetime zone. Because the gap between the ratings of these shows is within 1% of the households, it has been hard to distinguish superiority among the three evening programs. The extremely fierce competition has resulted in the expansion of the

programs’ broadcasting time. While the Sunday evening variety programs were originally broadcast around from 6pm to 8pm, the start time was getting ahead to 4pm. As criticism against the excessive expansion of the showing time was raised, the three major networks eventually agreed with the broadcasting time of the variety shows from 4:50pm to 7:55pm in August 2014 (Yoon, 2014).

Although there are diverse subgenres of the Korean real-variety shows, they have several things in common. First, they do not have a fixed format. Of course, they might be grouped into a particular subgenre depending on the subject matters that each program deals with. However, because their weekly locations, events, and guests vary, the formats of the shows change in a way that fits the structures and purposes of the given situations. For example, 1 Night and 2 Days on KBS, which is a travel reality show featuring six or seven young male entertainers with special guests, goes on various trips throughout Korea biweekly. Since the happenings vary depending on the destinations and situations in each travel, the show is largely unscripted. Exceptionally, the show has only a regular game to struggle for a comfortable bed and meal, but

the game is done in a hit-and-miss manner. Instead of scripts, the producers and writers of the show deal with the various situations flexibly. Since the main producer frequently appeared in the show in order to develop the episode and story, he became a celebrity.

Next, the Korean real-variety shows are mostly celebrity-centered programs (Cha & Park, 2012; Kim & Park, 2012; Lee & Cho, 2010). From MC and panels to special guests, popular entertainers and celebrities advance through the programs. With an analysis on the primetime formats’ diversity of the Korean terrestrial networks, Jeong-seob Kim and Joo-yeun Park (2012) present that the celebrity-centered formats occupied average 69.6% of the programs of the three research years, 2000, 2005 and 2010 and the rate of casting celebrities increased as years went by. According to Kyoung-sook Lee and Kyung-jin Cho (2010), the real-variety shows’ producers prefer to use famous entertainers and celebrities as the leading cast because they more easily attract the audience’s attention than ordinary people. With the stiff competition for audience ratings, the producers have no choice but to use favorite celebrities and entertainers in terms of drawing power of audience and performing ability.

The interviewees said that the frequent casting of entertainers and celebrities in Korean real-variety shows are deeply associated with the close relationship between television producers and those big names:

Show business managers are like business partners for our television producers. Television industry and K-pop music industry are inseparable in Korea. As they trade talented entertainers as a demander and supplier, they naturally get closer to each other. From my experience, I have been able to get to know almost all managers in the local entertainment industry just in three years. Whenever a producer plans a new program, we get to know who will be appearing in the program soon. That’s as fast as it gets. Also,

since our programs are on a weekly basis, it is difficult for ordinary people to continue working full-time for the programs. But, entertainers and celebrities are familiar with such a television production environment, so it is easy for them to build their characters in the television shows and put more expressions into the characters. -KM

One of the advantages of the Korean production system is the close relationship between directors and performers. Korean directors and performers share a lot of private jokes and their intimacy, and then the close relationship is transmitted to the program as well. - SJ In addition, the Korean real-variety shows intend to make laughter through serendipitous happenings. This tendency is attributed to the unfixed and unscripted formats that most Korean real-variety shows adopt. Even though a reality show applies a survival game format, they do not focus on who is a winner, but on who makes more laughter. In the show, reality is used as a mechanism to generate diverse situations. Depending on the real situation, casts alter their characters to give viewers fun. Thus, the Korean real-variety shows are all variations on the “entertainment reality” where the casts make laughter (Lee & Cho, 2010).

In terms of narrative, the Korean real-variety shows have obviously different narratives from those of foreign reality shows. While the western reality shows, such as Survivor and Project Runway, adapt competition and survival narrative works through the selection and elimination process, the Korean reality shows seek mutual growth and development through shared team experience (Lee K. , 2010; Lee & Cho, 2010). Because of the comedic purposes, the Korean shows tend to ridicule the system legitimizing and rationalizing competitions, thus often making the competition meaningless. Although the competition for individualistic achievement is caricatured, the shared experience as a team and achievement through teamwork and

collaboration is demonstrated as the performers’ inner growth. Through the communal experience and achievement, the casts are bound by family membership (Lee K. , 2010).

The concept of family is often expanded to a broader public sphere. In the shows, the entertainers and celebrities include the audience as their family members and often involve the audience as guests in episodes of the shows. Practicing public campaigns with the public, such as building a public library, cheering at World Cup and Olympic games, or exploring national historic sites, the Korean real-variety shows arouse national identity and collective sentiment.

6.2.5 From absurd challenge to the nation’s real-variety: Infinite Challenge