Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Music show 'Hidden Singer' returns for season 7
From left, TV personalities Song Eun-I and Jun Hyun-moo, and chief producer Cho Seung-wook pose during a press conference for JTBC's music show, “Hidden Singer 7," Friday. Courtesy of JTBC
By Lee Gyu-lee
By Lee Gyu-lee
JTBC's long-running music show, “Hidden Singer,” is back with a new season, celebrating its 10th anniversary since its premiere on the network in 2012.
The music show, hosted by TV personality Jun Hyun-moo, runs on the concept of singers competing with impersonators. For each episode, a famous singer is invited as a guest along with several imitators, who can mimic the voice of the known singer. They go through four rounds of performances behind blinds while an audience of 100 people guess and vote to eliminate the imitator in each round.
The seventh season started on Friday, inviting back season 1's first guest, Park Jung-hyun, to open up the new season after about a two-year hiatus since the most recent one in late 2020.
Competing with the imposters, Park survived through each round with close votes and became the winner of the episode. The premiering episode of the new season saw a 3.9-percent viewership rating.
The show's chief producer, Cho Seung-wook, who has led the show since the start, expressed that kicking off the 10th anniversary season with Park is meaningful as she was the show's very first guest.
“When we first started 10 years ago, JTBC was a fairly new channel to the viewers. After the first episode ― starring Park Jung-hyun ― aired as a pilot and re-aired 10 times, the viewership rating came out at 1 percent,” Cho said during a press conference of the show on Friday. “Though we had a weak start, thanks to everyone's support, we were able to come this far.”
The producer shared that the production team put extra effort into the new season's premiere to scout skilled impersonators for Park's episode.
“We have been wanting to redo Park's episode for 10 years. We were not so well-prepared at the time so we wanted a do-over,” he said. “We tried to invite her for every season but it didn't really work out. And since it's our 10th year, we felt we had to do it. So we spent about half a year looking for impersonators and prepared for the episode.”
The show's host, Jun, who also has been with the show since the start, expressed excitement about hosting its new season.
“It's been 10 years since I became a freelancer and that's how long this show has been. It feels we've grown together, and I feel honored to host the show's 10th year season,” he said.
“There are no shows that have a such huge fan base like this. Especially when there are a lot of shows to watch, it's impressive how viewers have continued to look forward to the show … 'Hidden Singer' is one of the very few shows that can survive amid this rush of different content. So I've poured my heart into this.”
“Hidden Singer” airs on JTBC every Friday at 8:50 p.m.