Top 10 Korean Variety Shows of All Time

KBS's travel variety series follows a rotating cast of celebrities on overnight trips to undiscovered Korean destinations, combining genuine exploration with penalty games that punish losers with sleeping outdoors. The show is credited with transforming domestic tourism by introducing viewers to overlooked rural Korean destinations.

MBC's genre-defining variety show ran for thirteen seasons from 2006 to 2018 and is universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of Korean variety television by the country's media critics. Its unscripted challenges, music specials, and social experiments set the standard that every subsequent Korean variety show has attempted to meet.

KBS's long-running talk-variety show pioneered the late-night poolside conversation format where celebrities share embarrassing personal stories while sitting around an indoor pool. The show's format has been copied by variety programmes across Asia.

Na Young-seok's Naver web variety series sending celebrities on road trips across East Asia with memory quiz challenges became the most-watched web variety content in Korean history. The genuine friendship between cast members Song Min-ho, Eun Ji-won, Lee Soo-geun, and Kang Ho-dong makes the show's improvised chemistry impossible to manufacture.

Mnet's format — where celebrity panellists compete to identify whether a person is a talented singer or tone-deaf through clue analysis before a live reveal — has been licensed to 35 countries including the United States, making it the most successful Korean variety format export in television history.

MBC's innovative format placed celebrities in isolated rooms broadcasting live to competing online audiences before merging the most-watched streams into a traditional broadcast, anticipating the influencer era years before it arrived. The show created the template for hybrid broadcast-streaming variety that Korean channels now use routinely.

JTBC's food variety series invited celebrities to bring their actual refrigerators to the studio and challenged top chefs to create restaurant-quality dishes using only the contents in fifteen minutes. The show ran for eight seasons and is credited with launching the celebrity chef era in Korean entertainment.

KBS's documentary-variety format following celebrity fathers caring for their young children alone for 48 hours while mothers take a rest became one of the highest-rated Saturday evening programmes in Korean television history. The show transformed public discourse about paternal involvement in Korean child-rearing.

JTBC's classroom-set talk show where celebrity guests role-play as transfer students being questioned by the regular cast became the most internationally licensed Korean talk-variety format, inspiring adaptations in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The show's format rewards spontaneity and genuine comedic chemistry above scripted segments.

KBS's travel variety series follows a rotating cast of celebrities on overnight trips to undiscovered Korean destinations, combining genuine exploration with penalty games that punish losers with sleeping outdoors. The show is credited with transforming domestic tourism by introducing viewers to overlooked rural Korean destinations.

MBC's genre-defining variety show ran for thirteen seasons from 2006 to 2018 and is universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of Korean variety television by the country's media critics. Its unscripted challenges, music specials, and social experiments set the standard that every subsequent Korean variety show has attempted to meet.

KBS's long-running talk-variety show pioneered the late-night poolside conversation format where celebrities share embarrassing personal stories while sitting around an indoor pool. The show's format has been copied by variety programmes across Asia.

Na Young-seok's Naver web variety series sending celebrities on road trips across East Asia with memory quiz challenges became the most-watched web variety content in Korean history. The genuine friendship between cast members Song Min-ho, Eun Ji-won, Lee Soo-geun, and Kang Ho-dong makes the show's improvised chemistry impossible to manufacture.

Mnet's format — where celebrity panellists compete to identify whether a person is a talented singer or tone-deaf through clue analysis before a live reveal — has been licensed to 35 countries including the United States, making it the most successful Korean variety format export in television history.

MBC's innovative format placed celebrities in isolated rooms broadcasting live to competing online audiences before merging the most-watched streams into a traditional broadcast, anticipating the influencer era years before it arrived. The show created the template for hybrid broadcast-streaming variety that Korean channels now use routinely.

JTBC's food variety series invited celebrities to bring their actual refrigerators to the studio and challenged top chefs to create restaurant-quality dishes using only the contents in fifteen minutes. The show ran for eight seasons and is credited with launching the celebrity chef era in Korean entertainment.

KBS's documentary-variety format following celebrity fathers caring for their young children alone for 48 hours while mothers take a rest became one of the highest-rated Saturday evening programmes in Korean television history. The show transformed public discourse about paternal involvement in Korean child-rearing.

JTBC's classroom-set talk show where celebrity guests role-play as transfer students being questioned by the regular cast became the most internationally licensed Korean talk-variety format, inspiring adaptations in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. The show's format rewards spontaneity and genuine comedic chemistry above scripted segments.