History talk show grows in popularity

• Published Oct 29, 2014 4:55 PM KST
• Updated Oct 29, 2014 4:55 PM KST

By Baek Byung-yeul

Learning about history may sound boring and less appealing subject for television show, but a television history program is gaining popularity with a new approach — the talk-show format.

“History Journal,” which began airing October of last year through state-run KBS TV every Saturday night, sheds light on critical moments of Korean history.

Though the biggest public broadcaster has been beaming history programs for over decades, it was hard for viewers, especially young ones, to find interest as previous contents were delivered in an conventional documentary style, reciting historical facts.

In order to inject fresh air into the new program, KBS chose to strengthen the fun by inviting guests who are not only historians but also poet, film director, comedian and more, and let them talk freely for 50 minutes.

“We wanted to get a consensus from viewers by focusing on historical character’s inward mentality rather than just giving information,” Yoo Hee-won, one of the producer of “History Journal” said.

“While other TV stations have broadcasted soap drama or entertainment shows, we put the history show at the same time, and it worked well as there are many who don’t prefer to watch drama or variety show,” an official of the show added.

Starting from first episode, which sheds light on Jeongjo, the 22nd king of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910), the last kingdom of the Korean Peninsula, “History Journal” broadcasted 48 episodes so far and recorded average viewers’ rate of more than six percent, which is surprising number in non-entertainment sectors.

In particular, the history talk show could witness huge responses when it talked about the Japanese invasion of Korea from 1592 to 1598 for four consecutive weeks last June.

Thanks to the explosive popularity of a history film, “Roaring Currents,” which portrays Admiral Yi Sun-sin’s dramatic victory over Japanese naval forces during the invasion, KBS repeatedly aired the series of episodes. The film, which was released in last July, became the highest-grossing film of all time here, garnering more than 17 million audiences.

“I became aware that ‘History Journal’ also covered the Japanese invasion after I watched the ‘Roaring Currents,’ and paid for downloading those four episodes,” Kim Chan-young, 29-year-old Seoulite, who claims himself “an avid the history talk show fan.”

“The four episodes were really meaningful to watch because there are lots of moments that I didn’t know about. I especially got frustrated and angry when I learned that Seonjo, the Joseon’s king of that time did seek asylum in China, throwing away his people who suffer from the invasion.”

Kim chose the four episodes were his best among a total of 48 because the talk show invited Japanese professor Akiko Sajima, known for her study of the Japan’s invasion of Korea to show how the present generation of Japanese look at the invasion.

“I was frightened when I saw Japanese professor talking about the Japan’s invasion of Korea because I thought Japanese don’t want to make mention of that,” Kim said.” “The professor told how the Japanese scholars think of the cause of the invasion’s outbreak. It was very fresh attempt I thought,” he added.

However, another fan also pointed out the history talk show are “too much focused on the Joseon kingdom.”

“I have watched every episode of the show, but the funny thing is the show covered only about events happened in the Joseon period,” Lee Joon-sang, a fan of the “History Journal” said. “We have plenty of history records other than Joseon period. I hope I can watch more episodes dealing with different periods.”