As I mentioned in my previous TV show posts dedicated to RuPaul’s Drag Race and K-Dramas, I probably spent more time than necessary over the last year watching TV…but I guess that’s kind of what 2020 was about! And since I dove into K-Dramas and K-Pop pretty hard, where do you think I went next?? You guessed it – K-Variety shows!
Now, you may have seen the section of K-Dramas on Netflix, but did you know there are also a TON of Korean variety and reality shows on Netflix? And once you watch one, you may NEVER go back to regular variety shows. The formats of these shows, insane games they plan and crazy editing (including putting cartoon outfits on people) is ENTERTAINING!
So, if you need a dose of humor and don’t want to think too hard (but are ok with reading subtitles) here are some super entertaining Korean variety shows to get you started!
Men on a Mission (or Knowing Bros) – Netflix
With hosts from a a variety of entertainment areas (former sports pros, singers, comics, actors) Men on a Mission has a new set of guests ever week ranging from boy bands to girl groups, actors and professional athletes. The entertainment comes from how much the hosts tease and give the guests a hard time. Guests have to “enter the classroom” by demonstrating a special talent – which is usually hilarious – and then the guests go head to head with the MOAM hosts in games for the rest of the episode. Now, I haven’t watched all 5 seasons of episodes, but some of my highlights are Episode 94 with BTS, Episode 252 with Seventeen, Episode 50 with Shinee, Episode 200 with Super Junior, and my all time favorite, Episode 239 with the queen of volleyball, Kim Yeon-koung!
Weekly Idol – YouTube
This show is focused on “idols” and more often than not, features many of the girl and boy K-pop groups that we all know and love! And this show is filled with silly-ness, games and DANCE CHALLENGES!! Some of the most memorable segments are having groups do the choreography to their songs 2x faster than normal, doing random choreography challenge, or having boy groups dance to girl group choreo and vice versa! There are several complications of these dance challenges on YouTube to give you a flavor, but of course my favorite episodes centre around my favorite idol groups; TomorrowXTogether, BIGBANG, Seventeen, BlackPink
Idol reality shows – VLIVE and Weverse
Many K-pop bands have their own variety shows. Yes, they often appear on the mainstream shows like the two mentioned above, but they usually have there own variety shows dedicated to showing behind the scenes footage and and more member dynamics via games and activities. I’m not sure how great this is for the band members, but fans eat it up! Some of my favorite specific band reality shows to watch are SJ Returns (Super Junior), TXT and Enhypen Playground, and of course Run BTS.
The Chatty Enthusiast 