Comedy TV shows in decline as reality shows absorb viewership
Scenes from KBS comedy show “Gag Concert” / Courtesy of KBS
By Park Jin-hai
“People don't look to TV comedy shows for laughter anymore,” said culture critic Ha Jae-keun. He believes this is behind the recent decline of small screen comedy shows. “When they want to laugh, they watch variety shows instead.”
There were times when weekend comedy shows attracted families to gather in front of the TV and laugh wholeheartedly. People watched these shows to catch up with the fad words and trendy jokes in order to stay “in” the conversation with others.
But many TV comedy shows have ended and those that have survived struggle with poor viewership. The viewership of SBS long-running comedy show “People Looking for a Laugh,” which enjoyed its heyday in the mid 2000s, hovered barely over 20 percent and made the National Institute of Korean Language worry the show's incorrect use of Korean words may have a bad influence on the Korean language. But the show struggled with a 2 percent viewership and ended last year after running for 14 years.
KBS comedy show “Gag Concert,” the last remaining show on any major TV station, which used to enjoy nearly 30 percent viewership ratings in 2011, saw its most recent episode's viewership aired Sunday crash to 4.9 percent, according to Nielsen Korea.
Although it has been years since the show has hit single digit ratings since it ran its first episode in 1999, what worries its producers is the speed at which it is losing viewers.
Last year the show tried to make a turnaround by injecting a band of veteran comedians into the cast including Kim Dae-hee and Shin Bong-sun. Their effect, though, didn't last even a year. Its ratings, which briefly rose to 7-8 percent, crashed to half of what it was within a year. The situation is no different for tvN's “Comedy Big League,” the one and only remaining cable channel comedy show.
Experts blame their far-fetched humor failing to appeal to viewers of today and the changing trends in local comedy for those shows' recent demise.
Even though joking about one's looks and merely playing with words if not controversial, cannot earn too many laughs, but, each episode of “Gag Concert” somehow still happens to contain such jokes. “Although not every gig can be successful, compared with the past, the show has lost a lot of its fun,” said Ha.
It shows a stark contrast to the rise of local variety shows. SBS “My Little Old Boy” aired during the same time slot as “Gag Concert,” and topped the chart with a 20 percent viewership on Sunday, while KBS's popular reality show “2 Days & 1 Night” hit 12.6 percent and another KBS reality show “The Return of Superman” posted 9.1 percent on the same day. The latest episode of MBC's popular Sunday afternoon music show “King of the Mask Singer” posted 9.2 percent and SBS's “Running Man” recorded 7 percent.
“There has been a shift. Now people turn to variety shows to find good jokes, no longer to comedy shows,” said Ha.
Changed formats of comedies, as seen in the recent rise of standup comedy and live comedy houses which are beginning to spring around the areas of Gangnam and Hongik University, also accelerated the downfall of the old comedy.
Comedians now work at small theaters where they can meet their younger fans and try standup comedy instead of situation comedies in order to get live reactions from their audiences at the comedy houses.
But with “Gag Concerts” failing to catch up with the changing trends and Youtube allowing people to access countless immediate, free, non-censored, raw comedic video as soon as they want, experts say viewers don't feel the need to stick to any one show.