Can’t People On “I Live Alone” Live Without Alcohol? Concerns Over Drinking Scenes Are Rising
Viewers are complaining about drinking scenes that have constantly been shown on “I Live Alone” broadcasts
Worries about alcohol appearing in the daily life of MBC’s entertainment program “I Live Alone” cast members and guests have recently been raised. In particular, it started with the episode showing Ahn Jae-hyun’s single life on April 12th. That day, Ahn Jae-hyun visited a BBQ restaurant to enjoy somaek (soju & beer) and then went to a bar to drink whiskey.
Returning home, the actor mixed High Ball with peach-flavored soju, tonic water, and even wine. Watching this, Kian84 also pointed out that Ahn Jae-hyun drinks too much.
Seeing Ahn Jae-hyun’s drinking routine, many viewers mentioned the “alcohol promotion” problem and complained that drinking scenes have appeared on programs so frequently. In this situation, “I Live Alone” continued to show drinking scenes in its April 19th broadcast.
NCT’s Doyoung revealed his daily life after living independently for six months. He set the table to have breakfast, watched a dating program, drank non-alcoholic beer then enjoyed tteokbokki and beer at night.
Doyoung then shared, “I keep my body healthy with medicine, and soothe my mind with beer”, drawing positive reactions from the panelists. The show editor also emphasized Doyoung’s drinking scene and did not seem to care about alcohol promotion concerns.
Not only the guests but also the cast members, including Park Na-rae, Kian84, SHINee’s Key, announcer Kim Dae-ho, Lee Jang-woo, and Lee Joo-saeng, have mentioned drinking alcohol many times without filtering. In response to this, netizens commented, “There are only a few episodes in which they don’t drink”, “We have to fix this drinking culture”, “The program should be wary of this issue”, “Drinking scenes appear too frequently on the show”, etc.
In addition, what worries netizens even more is that “I Live Alone’ is a 15+ program so drinking scenes may encourage imitation and excessive drinking habits in adolescents and young people.
As such, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Health Promotion Institute recently added two provisions to the guidelines on alcohol scenes in media established in 2017, stating “Contents that excessively highlight or beautify drinking behaviors should restrict the accessibility of children and adolescents through age restrictions”, and “In scenes highlighting drinking behaviors, there should be a warning about the harmfulness of drinking”.
