Dating shows in vogue in Korea

[waves-of-light.livejournal.com]

Lee Hyun, a chef in his late 40s, says he argued recently with his mother about a TV dating show. "My mother saw me watching the show and said I should stop looking at others dating, go outside and mind my own business. That remark set off emotional attacks on each other," he said. Lee has been single for years. "It's fun having guessing games myself of who matches with whom and seeing the changes of heart. It's almost like watching a real-time romance drama."

Dating shows are in high demand in Korea. TV stations have been belching out a hoard of similar dating shows after the success of Channel A's "Heart Signal 2" and tvN's matchmaking show "Blind Date Cafe." Although the viewership of "Heart Signal 2" finished with nearly a 3 percent viewership, the show has attracted strong responses. The show featured four men and four women living together for 30 days in the same house called "Signal House" and developing romances. Many young viewers put their noses in and left comments online about who they should be with, or which girl is two-faced, with detailed explanations of their reasoning.

Song Da-eun, an aspiring actress who appeared on the show, was cast for a web drama and a TV commercial, enjoying popularity, while Oh Young-joo, a Microsoft employee, and Jung Jae-ho, a startup CEO, the couple who were matched through the show, has been invited on a popular radio show and bagged a cosmetics commercial.

The popularity of dating shows is nothing new, starting with MBC's hit dating show "The Studio of Love," which ran for seven years beginning 1994. But since the 2014 suicide of a contestant on the SBS dating show "Jjak," dating shows nearly disappeared. They are now returning en mass, as many young people postpone or give up on courtship and marriage for economic reasons, calling themselves the "n-Po" Generation, the combination of "n" being a variable of exponential growth and "Po" tapped from a Korean word meaning "give up."

SBS show "Romance Package" has group dating during a three-night and four-day stay at a hotel. Mnet's new show "Love Catcher" combines a dating show with elements of mystery, making viewers guess which of the participating 10 men and women are the "love catchers" chasing love, and who are the "money catchers" chasing money in the guise of love. XtvN is also getting ready to debut yet another show, "One Couple," where contestants compete to find partners for marriage while having their parents participating on the panel to observe and comment on their children's dates.

"Those shows have always been popular. Like love simulation games, these shows give vicarious satisfaction to their viewers," said Kim Bong-seok, a culture critic.

What is different today is those shows feed fantasies and became fantasy dramas in the guise of reality shows, according to another critic Hwang Jin-mi.

"The contestants on the shows have been professionals with great jobs. Moreover, they are all handsome guys and pretty girls whose looks don't pale beside celebrities," she said. "Since those on these shows are ordinary people, not TV stars, viewers feel it is reality, not fiction. But watching these contestants with great backgrounds and respected jobs going on a date, viewers can only remain spectators, having a sense of deprivation that only someone like the contestants on the show are able to go on a date," she said.

"In fact, those dating shows are just another form of melodrama with a plot, in disguise of reality. Making love triangles in editing and storytelling resemble those of melodramas. Many viewers of TV audition programs are reduced to those who can only vote for the contestants who they think excel and work hard, where no other way of participating in the show is present. Likewise, dating shows discourage viewers in real love relations and make them support the contestants instead."



Do you watch these shows, Omona? I've only watched a little of Romance Package, but I found it really boring. But I don't watch dating shows in general.

source: The Korea Times

Comments

[goshipgurl.livejournal.com]

where can i watch these online? they sound different from the usual bachelor-franchise shows you have in western countries.
can you imagine korea having it's own bachelor/bachelorette show, with all the trashy peeps and cringey moments? netizens would have a field day with it.

[giriboy.livejournal.com]

watch terrace house! it's japanese, tho & isn't explicitly a dating show but has tons of it... the korean equivalent is, apparently, heart signal

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

Kshowonline had Heart Signal subs, but the links are dead. Kshow123 reposted the episodes, but they're dead too.

I wasn't able to find the others with subtitles (most of them are raw at OndemandKorea though)

[giriboy.livejournal.com]

i'm gonna start heart signal soon!! my friends are watching it rn but i'm definitely not looking to the variety show editing... i wanna see how well it holds up as korean terrace house

[sjtaazrz.livejournal.com]

I was prepared to laugh at "Since those on these shows are ordinary people, not TV stars, viewers feel it is reality, not fiction" because I just saw an article from netizenbuzz or pannatic or something saying the exact opposite. People wanted to see more real people like on Jjak. I hadn't heard of this, so it's all new to me. But, then it finishes with "But watching these contestants with great backgrounds and respected jobs going on a date, viewers can only remain spectators, having a sense of deprivation that only someone like the contestants on the show are able to go on a date" so I guess that makes more sense.

All of these sound better than whatever virtual dating show Yuri was on or the one where idols(?) were out on trips with foreign men who didn't speak their language

[sparkb.livejournal.com]

I watch blind date cafe from youtube and tbh I like it? It feels less script-y and theres no mind games a la heart signal.

[snowphone.livejournal.com]

sounds interesting!

[sparkb.livejournal.com]

Yeah and ppl who participate are from various background which makes it more interesting for me than heart signal

[annayism.livejournal.com]

I watched heart signal 2 and then the first season afterwards, and I agree that the people are just too unrelatable for the general public. They’re all extremely successful career-wise and seem well off. Also the 1st season was unlikable because of the huge age differences...the 30-something lawyer and the girl still in college (I think she might have been 21)?? Nagl.

It’s a cute concept if you think of these shows as a drama lol but for real life...just not convincing.

[snowphone.livejournal.com]

honestly this sounds #that's right my type. i'll have to look into it. i generally find things that feel obviously scripted hard to watch though, and that applies to terrace house.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

I was thinking of watching Terrace house, how is it?

[giriboy.livejournal.com]

omg, this reply is SO late but why do you think terrace house feels scripted? i agree to an extent—like, i think the host panel parts are partially scripted, as well as when ppl in the house get jobs, but terrace house feels very ~* real to me most of the time

[pineapple-soda.livejournal.com]

these actually sound pretty interesting, only dating show I really watch is Love Island lol