Comedy Big League celebrates 5th anniversary

Popular comedians, from left, Lee Se-young, Lee Sang-jun, Lee Guk-joo, Jang Do-yeon, Yang Se-chan, Yang Se-hyung, Park Na-rae, Hwang Je-sung, Lee Jin-ho and Lee Yong-jin of tvN’s Comedy Big League pose during the press conference at Times Square in Yeoungdeungpo, western Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of CJ E&M

By Kim Jae-heun

Chief producer Kim Sock-hyun

“Comedy Big League” on tvN recently celebrated its 5th anniversary.

At the center of the series’ success is chief producer Kim Sock-hyun, a former producer at the Korea Broadcasting System (KBS) who directed Korea’s oldest TV comedy program “Gag Concert.”

Gag Concert once ruled the small screen in the early 2000s followed by its competitor “Smile People” on SBS throughout the latter half of the decade. However, both shows lost popularity due to mundane and repetitive content overused by the same comedians.

For the past few years, comedy shows on television have disappeared with dropping viewer ratings, leaving only Gag Concert to continue.

After joining tvN in 2011, Kim decided to take a risk in producing a new comedy show.

“When I first started Comedy Big League, the company told me to try 10 episodes first, giving it a title of Season One,” said Kim during a press conference at Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, western Seoul, Tuesday. “We were in a difficult situation and I felt great pressure that I had to make this show a success in 10 episodes. If I failed, there would be no more chances to do another comedy show and I was desperate.”

Kim adopted a competition system for the comedy show for the first time. After every episode, the audience votes for their favorite team. The show also nominates the best team every quarter and as a result, Kim has successfully produced 237 different episodes and spotlighted 146 comedians including Park Na-rae, Lee Guk-joo, Yang Se-hyung and Yang Se-chan.

Kim proved that he had made the right decision to change jobs when he left the national public broadcaster, knowing that his old team had fallen into repetition.

Another successful factor to bring Comedy Big League this far is the variety of comedic styles. Unlike the major broadcasters that only use comedians they hire through open recruitment and are trained for a certain type of comedy, the cable network features comedians from various broadcasters.

“The open recruitment has its strength in that you can collect comedians and educate them through an elite system under talented senior comedians,” said Kim.

“However, I’ve seen many of them falling out of the league and only two or, if many, five make it to the top out of 20. When comedians are hired, their job becomes an official comedian, but they are not seen on TV,” Kim said.

A TV personality Yang Se-hyung, who stars in a popular TV show “Infinite Challenge” now, said Comedy Big League helped him reach stardom although he had gone through difficult times as well.

“I am lucky that I am appearing in many TV shows now. There are many comedians who rose to stardom through the entertainment shows. I think it is a matter of chance and you need to undergo trial and error,” Yang said.