At last, star shows he's got what it takes

Hwang Kwang-hee / Courtesy of Instagram

Singer-TV personality Hwang Kwang-hee, the latest addition to

MBC variety show “Infinity Challenge,” has largely earned nothing but criticism for his poor performances as an entertainer.

But he finally broke the curse on Saturday.

Hwang, from boy band ZE:A, was the most impressive in the episode, in which five members of the reality-based show played cat-and-mouse with Busan police, posing as fugitives trying to escape the port city in a helicopter.

Hwang failed to escape but outran other members of the show by being the only one to reach the helicopter, where he was eventually caught.

The catch-me-if-you-can episode was the first featuring Hwang, 27. He delivered the most thrills and fun as he astutely escaped the police and stayed low.

Since he joined the long-running variety show in April, he has been savagely criticized for being “irritating to watch” and “not good enough to replace Noh Hong-chul and Gil Seong-joon,” past members of the show, who left in 2014 after they were caught driving under the influence of alcohol.

“Saturday’s episode proved why they chose Hwang as a new member,” OSEN said Sunday.

“The program has been popular as it showed the members learning and challenging things raw.

“And Hwang was the perfect person, who needed to learn and improve himself.”