New show tests ethical limits of Korean divorce reality television

TV Chosun premieres its new show “X’s Private Life," Tuesday, offering an unprecedented look into the separate post-divorce lives of former spouses. Captured from YouTube

Korean broadcasters have turned broken marriages into a ratings formula. What began as an effort to break the taboo around divorce has increasingly become a race for ratings, with producers relying on provocative editing and intense conflict.

TV Chosun now attempts to broaden the genre's scope with its upcoming show. "X's Private Life" is a reality show featuring an unconventional format where divorced couples watch footage of each other's separate post-divorce lives, including their attempts to date new people.

Even the people involved recognizes the intensity of the new format. In a previously released teaser video, host Kim Gu-ra expressed his apprehension regarding the show's premise.

"I was worried that the setting was too strong," Kim said.

The premise raises questions about whether the program can deliver meaning to viewers without relying on the sensationalism that currently plagues the genre.

Broadening genre scope

The program joins a diverse roster of divorce-themed shows that have met viewers. Past iterations include divorced celebrities reuniting in "We Got Divorced," couples on the brink in "Divorce Camp" and "Oh Eun Yeong’s Report: Marriage Hell," the romance of divorced singles, or "dolsings," in "Love After Divorce," and the daily lives of divorced male stars in "Dolsing Fourmen."

"X's Private Life" adds an observational element to this established format, resurfacing unresolved conflicts as ex-spouses look into each other's new lives.

Participants in the reality show “We Got Divorced” appear in a scene from the program’s second season. Courtesy of TV Chosun

Manufacturing controversy

Initially, these programs served a clear social purpose. They showed the real struggles of couples adjusting to life after divorce and new beginnings, challenging the stigma that divorce equals failure.

However, the shows began to face complaints about the growing voyeurism. Solution-oriented programs drew criticism for manufacturing controversy and escalating conflict to boost ratings rather than resolving marital disputes. Critics argued that depicting post-divorce life in an excessively bleak, exaggerated way reinforced negative perceptions, raising concerns that the public's view of marital conflict could become distorted.

Selective staging and editing stripped the complex reality of marital relationships down to simple confrontations. Viewers are left with sensational moments rather than insight into the causes or any path to resolution.

As ratings climbed, so did the intensity of the conflict. Conflict itself became the spectacle, crowding out the genre's original messages of empathy and comfort. The genre's early social merit, which made divorce a subject of public empathy, had largely eroded.

Pop culture critic Jung Duk-hyun said the genre has lost its original purpose. Jung said that early divorce shows were seen as an attempt to challenge a society that treated divorce as taboo. However, he pointed out that the programs' rationale began to falter as they increasingly focused on sensational situations over their original intent.

Jung emphasized the specific dangers of the new observational format.

"Above all, observational reality shows can cause the problem of making it too easy to peer into the private lives of others," he said. "Although it is a reality show, it is time to consider how it should be consumed as content and what problems might arise from it."

This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.