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Trending Korean Shows You Need To Be Watching Right Now
With students on holiday from school and university, and companies taking week long breaks due to the hot weather - many Korean families spend the summer in front of a screen, so it’s no wonder there are always a number of new shows being released around this time.
In previous articles we’ve already done a forecast for dramas and movies premiering this Summer that you don’t want to miss, so today we’re going to introduce you to some reality TV shows that are all the rage this Summer 2022.
It’s said that behind every strong man is a strong woman, so it’s no surprise that the mass popularity of Mnet’s Street Woman Fighter last year has paved the way for a male version of the show this year! Street Man Fighter will be airing on August 23rd at 10:20 pm KST, however a pre-released version is already available for viewing on SMF and The Choom’s YouTube channels.
There was a little controversy following the initial announcement as previous host Kang Daniel passed a supposedly misogynistic comment that had some fans upset, but for the most part the general audience are extremely excited for the new version of the show. The eight teams in the line up are all fairly well known too - 1MILLION, We Dem Boyz (WDBZ), Edo-Ddae, Bank Two Brother (BIIB), Prime Kingz, YGX, Just Jerk and Be Mbitious - so we can’t wait to see how they perform1
HYBE are a company known for keeping their name in the limelight, alongside their pre-existing roaster of big stars like BTS, SVT and TXT, this year HYBE have also debuted some powerhouse girl groups like LE SSERAFIM and New Jeans - however the audience want more, and specifically they want a boy group!
Though there are already rumours about the supposed debut of the famous ‘Trainee A’, HYBE Japan have also been working on another trainee project - their free online audition program ‘&Audition - The Howling’. This show is particularly interesting as it’s technically catered to the Japanese audience but is formatted in the typical Korean style - there are still a lot of questions in regards to whether the winning group will be a K-Pop, J-Pop or hybrid band, but the expectations for any group coming out of HYBE are bound to be high.
When it comes to the skills required to be a K-Pop idol these days, of course staples like dance and vocals are important, but in today’s industry, one’s ability to write your own music is also important. Not only are a number of idols participating in the lyric and music writing of their songs these days, but the public are also showing a huge interest in other non-Pop genres such as indie, rock and more where independent artists write their own music.
As such it was only a matter of time before someone made a survival show out of it! ‘Listen Up’ by KBS is a reality survival show that started airing at the end of July where 10 producing teams are battling it out by producing songs for popular artists. If you’re someone who loves having insight into how music is made and are looking for some new producers to follow, then you definitely need to check this out.
The last show on our list is a little different from the others in that, not only is it not music related but it’s also extremely progressive for South Korea. ‘His Man’ is a gay dating reality show airing on iQIYI (iQ.com). This comes following the popularity of NETFLIX’s reality dating show ‘Single Inferno’ last year and is likely part of an ongoing trend.
As you might expect, this show is the first of its kind in South Korea which is known for being a conservative country, but it seems the Korean media industry has been moving towards showcasing more varied ways of living. Recently we’ve also covered the popularity of BL web drama ‘Semantic Error’ and the neurodivergent representation in ‘Extraordinary Attorney Woo’, so hopefully we’ll continue to see more shows like this in future.
What are you currently looking forward to watching this summer? Let us know if there’s anything else you think should be on this list!
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Writer: Han (O.L)
Editor: Han (O.L)