Hidden cameras bring fun to holiday TV

From left, Lee Kyung-kyu, Noh Hong-chul and Leeteuk

With the lunar New Year holidays a week away, a once popular ‘90s “hidden camera” entertainment show returns on Feb. 9.

This “hidden camera” is not the voyeurism-seeking device prevalent with today’s smartphones, but a show plot in which a celebrity mocks a colleague in a fake outburst recorded with a “hidden camera,” only to reveal at the end that all was in good fun.

MBC’s “Hidden Camera Battle: Game of Thrones” features three celebrities ― veteran comedian Lee Kyung-kyu, TV personality Noh Hong-chul and singer Leeteuk from Super Junior ― vying to make the best hidden camera presentation.

Lee Kyung-kyu, right, led the hidden camera show on "Sunday Sunday Night" on MBC in the early 1990s and later for the second season. / Korea Times file

Lee is expected to come up with the best hidden camera piece because he was behind the popularity of the 1991 weekly show “Sunday Sunday Night.” The show put a celebrity or a public figure into a dire, nonsensical situation secretly choreographed by the program staff. Hidden cameras show how the stars react to the fake settings.

The show won rave responses for episodes in which 1990s’ popular rocker Kim Jong-seo was placed in a fake hostage situation in a hair salon; singer Noh Sa-yeon encountered a quack shaman; and actress Hwang Shin-hye received a fake panendoscopy.

Lee led the show until 1992 and its second season from 2005-2007.

Noh, an original member of top TV variety show “Infinite Challenge” on MBC, and Leeteuk, also boast years of showbiz experience, raising plenty of laughs with their characters.