Korea has an impressive collection of reality television shows, including competition, dating, and variety-based series. By now, many of us follow at least one Korean series or pop star. For example, in my house, Squid Game is a fan-favorite show with my son, while the album ME by Jisoo (BlackPink) is a hit with my daughter, who loves trap beats. Realizing how Korean entertainment has us in a chokehold, we began researching what sorts of reality television series Korea had to offer. What we found proved that Korea also has solid wins in this genre.
If you like backstabbing, high-stakes competitions with prizes, drama, and laughs, we found five binge-worthy Korean reality television series you might wish to check out. So, break out your reading glasses. Korean to English translations come with the following must-see series below. 여기 우리의 최고 추천이 있습니다, which is Korean for “here are our top picks.”
Korean reality TV show Culinary Class Wars is a creative culinary experience
I love a culinary-themed series. This genre is almost always on air in the background of my house. So, I smiled upon finding Culinary Class Wars, a dramatic South Korean cooking competition series. This show is intense, chaotic, and exhilarating, and the challenges within are as varied as the chefs who graced the first season of this series.
The judges in Season 1 were Paik Jong-won, a veteran restaurateur and celebrity chef, and the only Michelin three-star chef in Korea, Anh Sung-jae. As for the contestants, Culinary Class Wars features one hundred chefs split into two categories: white spoons (veterans) and black spoons (newcomers). The judges wore blindfolds to avoid biases in these categories.
This series includes many cooking competitions, followed by eliminations until only one chef remains. During Season 1, Chef Kwon Seong-joon won the ₩300 million prize (equating to roughly 204,501.07 United States dollars). If this sounds like your cuppa homemade tea, you can stream Culinary Class Wars on Netflix.
Physical: 100 is a great Korean reality TV show
Physical: 100 is an appropriate title, as this Korean reality television series focuses on peek physical conditions. Like the show above, 100 competitors star on Physical: 100. These competitors are all known for having well-developed physical attributes and physiques. Many of these contestants are also well-known celebrities in South Korea, as they either played on a national team or were sports influencers with followers for days.
So, if you enjoy eye candy with a side of get-on-the-treadmill motivation, this series is for you. Either way, this series sees the competitors going head-to-head in various individual and team challenges, otherwise known as quests. Each challenge tests their strength, balance, agility, endurance, willpower, and strategic thought process, whittling the players down until one remains. Once eliminated, each player must destroy a plaster cast of their torso using a sledgehammer, which sounds morbid, but this is the nature of the game on Physical: 100.
The winner of Physical: 100 takes home a ₩300 million grand prize, similar to the series above. Seasons 1 and 2 of Physical: 100 are streaming on Netflix.
The Devil’s Plan is one of the best Korean reality TV shows
Another fantastic Korean reality television series is The Devil’s Plan. This series features 12 chaotic celebrity contestants who all desire to win, even if they have to resort to sneaky or shady practices to reach the finish line. At the start of Season 1, these 12 contestants receive one “Piece,” like a puzzle. Each Piece is vital to the game, as, without a Piece, eliminations follow.
Pieces are often traded between players or spent on in-game benefits. Additionally, Pieces are won and lost via two daily matches: the Main Match and the Prize Match. The Main Match comes first. After, the two surviving players holding the fewest Pieces are tossed into Prison until the next Main Match arrives.
If a tie-breaking vote is needed, the player (or players) with the most Pieces decides who gets sent to this Prison. Therefore, alliances often form early on, as no one wants to get locked up while playing this game. Depending on how well the players perform, the prize pot can total up to ₩500,000,000 (roughly 341,029.25 United States dollars). If you like creative games and backstabbing contestants, The Devil’s Plan is streaming on Netflix.
Korean reality TV show Are You Sure?! is a nonstop adventure ride
If you enjoy laughing and genuine friendships set in nature, the Korean reality television series Are You Sure?! is your next must-watch miniseries. This series follows Jimin and Jung Kook from BTS, a popular South Korean boy band. Since these stars lead pressure-filled lives, they created this show to help them slow down and reconnect as friends. Instead of living from stage to stage, Jimin and Jung Kook ran off to the woods in their debut season, where they cooked, camped, canoed, and road-tripped throughout New York and Connecticut, far away from their typical jaunts in South Korea.
The chemistry between Jimin and Jung Kook is endearing. Likewise, the nature of this series offers fans of BTS an authentic look at their lives. They even set up their cameras (at times), filming non-starstudded content, like getting lost in a Walmart. If you need a lighthearted series to binge, the Korean reality television series Are You Sure?! is streaming on Disney+.
Rented in Finland is another great Korean reality TV show
We end our list of excellent Korean reality television series with Rented in Finland. This series follows the lives of four city boys, Lee Je Hoon, Lee Dong Hwi, Cha Eun Woo, and Kwak Dong Yeon. These stars are well-known in Korea, where they live affluent lifestyles courtesy of their acting careers. But what happens when these luxuries are gone, forcing the stars to live as Finns in the wilderness of Lapland? Rented in Finland is the answer to this question.
The self-sufficient lifestyle of the Lapland residents is like nothing these stars have ever encountered. Instead of fancy showers, they are bathing on horseback in a river. And, instead of meal delivery services, they must chop firewood for their stove, AKA a campfire. Reindeer are also present in this series, as these beautiful creatures roam freely in Lapland. If you want a healing Korean reality television series to binge, Rented in Finland is streaming on Rakuten Viki.
TELL US – HAVE YOU WATCHED ANY OF THESE KOREAN REALITY TELEVISION SERIES? DO YOU HAVE ANY TO ADD TO OUR LIST?