New 'Star King' struggles amid low viewer rating
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Hosts of the show “Star King,” Leeteuk from K-pop group Super Junior, left, and Kang Ho-dong, pose during a press conference at SBS in Mok-dong, Seoul, on Dec. 1. / Courtesy of SBS
By Kim Jae-heun
Korean TV talent show “Star King” returned with a new on format Dec. 1. But its audience appeared to be tired of the program’s banal auditions as its viewer rating ranked below the top 20 among all entertainment shows.
“It is harder for popular brands to renew,” said series producer Shim Sung-min during a press conference at SBS in Mokdong, Seoul, Dec. 1. “We have reorganized the show in order to maximize audience participation throughout the episodes. “
The new Star King series stars two teams consisting of celebrities and audience talent reporters and matches them against each other for a 3 million won ($2,539) winning prize.
The production crew said that its new system has brought the series one step closer to the audience, as the show’s original concept is to make ordinary talented people into stars.
SBS, the host network of the TV show, also rescheduled the series to Tuesday 9 p.m. from Saturday 6:30 p.m., which is currently dominated by “Infinite Challenge,” the TV show with the highest audience share in the entertainment sector. According to Nielson Korea, Infinite Challenge’s viewer rating is 13.8 percent as of last week.
However, “Star King” is still struggling to revive its old popularity as the viewer ratings only reached 5.8 percent on the first day and 5.3 percent on the second. Star King’s highest audience rating recorded 20 percent in January 2011. Audience criticized that the new cast in the first two episodes have appeared in other TV shows and some cast members are better fitted for other shows’ concepts.
The talent show first aired in January 2007 and produced some 3,000 stars including world-class personal trainer Shawn Lee, traditional folk singer Song So-hee and popular fitness model Yoo Seung-ok.
However, “Star King” faced its greatest challenge after a scandal in 2009, when one episode starred an expert falsely hypnotizing students, in which he claimed that his hypnosis improves people’s concentration. The original host of the talent show, Kang Ho-dong, dropped out among his tax payment controversy, adding speed to the show’s downfall.
Singer Leeteuk of popular K-pop boy band Super Junior is co-emcee with Kang and he is more confident about “Star King” than ever.
“People around me are worried about the show’s future but I’m not,” said Leeteuk. “The audience is the main character on this show and people need to come out and show everything they’ve got. The show is eternal until all 50 million Koreans appear on Star King.”