Korean Variety TV Shows

Have you ever watched any Korean TV program? I don’t watch a lot of TV, but sometimes watching an entertainment TV show makes me laugh and feel at ease. It could be a fun way to learn Korean culture and language. I’d like to introduce some Korean TV shows in this post. When you watch those TV programs, you would find it intriguing and helpful.

Welcome, First Time in Korea (어서와 한국은 처음이지)

Its official English name is ‘Yo! Welcome to Korea!’, but I think ‘Welcome, First Time in Korea’ is better representing its original Korean title. The format of the program is based on a first travel experience of non-Koreans in Korea. A popular foreign panel who is living in Korea invites hometown friends to Korea. They had never been in Korea before.

The style of travel differs depending on where they are from. The interesting point of the program is that Korean culture might look different in the viewpoint of each visitor. Guests choose how to enter Seoul from the airport in different ways or which Korean culture to experience at a different aspect. The style of travelling could be varying with the visitors’ cultural base. From the standpoint of Korean viewer, it is interesting to get to know the non-Korean’s perspective or to learn a new territory of Seoul.

This TV show would be more helpful if you are planning to visit to Korea. You can get good ideas from the guest panel’s travel experience. It could be much more interesting and helpful when you watch the episode of the guest who comes from a similar culture area to you.

The highly popular episode is the one where the guests from Finland made an appearance on the show. It was so popular that they were re-invited on the same TV program, Welcome, First Time in Korea, twice. I think viewers liked the fact that the Finnish guests very much enjoyed eating Korean food. Korean people love it when a foreign visitor eats Korean food well. That is a reason why the Finnish friends has been welcomed by Korean viewers.

Korean Food War (한식대첩)

The Korean Food War, also known as The Grand Battle of Korean Food, is a competitive cooking reality TV show. It ran for 4 seasons. Most recent show was the spin-off where a foreign chef teamed up with a Korean master chef who was a winner or a runners-up of the previous seasons and competed to win.

Many survival TV programs and culinary shows have been popular. Famous American TV show ‘MasterChef’ also came to Korea as name of ‘the MasterChef Korea’. ‘Korean Food War’ is one of those kinds of shows, I love this cooking competition show.

10 teams, each consists of 2 chefs, represent each province of Korea and compete for 100 million won in prize money and the pride. The Chefs are called ‘Gosu’, which means a person who has significant experience and highly skilled in a particular field. So the chef participant is respected by being addressed as ‘Gosu’. No judge ignores a participant.

10 teams of chefs compete and share their long culinary experience. I am glad that I do not have to see a desperate participant. I just enjoy seeing rare and invaluable food items that the chefs are showing off. (It is an uncommon food item so that it is surprising for Koreans, too).

My personal favorites are season 2 and 3. I like the MC, Kim Seong-joo, and the three Judges of the seasons, Baek Jong-won, Choi Hyun-seok and Sim Yeong-soon. 10 teams of chefs show off the special regional features of their provinces. Surprisingly, a North Korean team is also included in competition. It is another interesting point to watch cooking dishes of Pyeongyang-style by the chefs from North Korea.

I Live Alone (나 혼자 산다)

There are many real variety shows in Korea. Many Korean are fond of watching entertainments programs on Friday. It is a nice way to reduce stress. A few TV programs become very popular abroad. Some Korean variety shows like Running Man, 2 Days & 1 Night and Infinite Challenge are famous in Asia. If you know of those Korean TV shows, then you would like ‘I Live Alone’ too.

I Live Alone is a new booming variety show. It has recently become very popular in Korean television. The format of the show is to observe the daily life of an entertainer who is single. As the number of single-person households increased, so does the interest about a single life. I Live Alone shows an entertainer’s house and how he or she spends the day.

There are two or three episodes of main cast members and a special guest. It would be more fun to watch the episode featuring your favorite star guest. For me, I liked the episode of Taeyang, the member of Big Bang. However, he got married after that, so we never see him on ‘I Live Alone’ again.