Cooking out, interior design in

Poster for JTBC's new show "Old house, New House" / Courtesy of JTBC

By Kwon Ji-youn

Entertainers are finally moving out of the kitchen, but viewers are not yet welcoming the change.

With "cook TV" now losing luster, JTBC has its crew set on turning interior design into the latest wrinkle in entertainment. The broadcaster's "Old House, New House," which premiered Thursday, brings a celebrity's home to the studio, where experts and self-proclaimed connoisseurs provide ideas and advice for a home makeover.

The emcees, Jeon Hyun-moo and Kim Gu-ra, lead a star panel that includes TV personality Hong Seok-cheon, designer Hwang Jae-keun, comedian Jung Jun-ha and singer Jung Joon-young, among others. Each panelist teams up with an interior design expert in a competition of sorts.

"We have been doing a lot of thinking about what will come after the enthusiasm for cook TV subsides, and we're pretty sure it'll be interior design," producer Sung Chi-kyung told reporters, Wednesday. "Interior design has seen very little development in entertainment since Shin Dong-yeob's Love House."

JTBC, which has spearheaded new trends in broadcasting with groundbreaking programs like "Witch Hunt," "Non-Summit" and "Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," is attempting with "Old House, New House" a resuscitation of the interior design concept, which petered out with the end of "Love House," an MBC program that aired in 2000.

"Please Take Care of My Refrigerator," in particular, was the very program that stimulated the public's growing appetite for "cook TV."

The attempt was bold, new and informative. They transformed actress Ye Jung-hwa's home with a budget of one million won, which is relatively low for an interior overhaul, and provided tips on how to decorate a home without major reconstruction.

But online commentary suggests viewers were unable to identify with why the client of a home makeover had to be a celebrity, of all people, and why the home had to be replicated in a studio, wasting time and money. Others said it would have been wiser for the producers to have referenced "Shin Dong-yeob's Love House," in which houses for the needy were renovated.

The success of "cook TV" rode on a combination of the star power of celebrity chefs and the fact that cooking is a part of viewers' daily lives. Interior design, unlike cooking, isn't easy to mimic, and watching others spruce up their homes didn't provide the vicarious satisfaction that food shows did.

But Rome wasn't built in a day. A viewership of 2.6 percent signals a good start on a cable TV channel, and with other broadcasters soon to follow suit with hopes of revamping their programming blocks with new themes and people, the trend could pick up momentum.

XTM's "Macho House," which has already begun airing, puts the focus on men and their need for personal space in homes dominated by wives and children. The show features comedian Kim Joon-hyun, musical actor Jeong Sang-hun and former pro-gamer Hong Jin-ho as hosts.

Another program set to air on MBN later this month will feature a celebrity team helmed by comedian Kim Yong-man traveling to Jeju to transform a senior citizen's home there into lodging suitable for visitors of all ages.

Channel A also plans to have comedian Kim Byung-man and a star assemblage head to the countryside to patch up housing for the elderly there.

Comedian Noh Hong-chul will make a comeback with tvN's "My Room's Dignity," a show for beginners in interior design. It is set to air starting Dec. 23.

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