Korean Show

SBS’s “Running Man” made a major decision without notice due to sluggish ratings 

SBS made an unexpected decision to change the airtime of its representative variety show “Running Man”.

SBS recently decided to organize “Master in the House Season 2” at 5:00 pm KST, the current time slot of “Running Man”. The airtime of the long-running entertainment program “Running Man” has been moved to 6:20 pm KST.

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This decision was revealed by surprise on the latest episode of “Running Man”, which aired on December 11th. On this day’s broadcast, Jeon Somin introduced “‘Running Man’ at 6:30 on Sundays” to a taxi driver who asked, “What program is it?” The production team then added the subtitle “‘Running Man’ scheduled at 6:20 from January 1”.

SBS reportedly made this decision to achieve the highest efficiency in viewership ratings by shifting time slots. However, some viewers have complained about the frequent change of airtime. 

Previously, “Running Man” changed its airtime several times since its first broadcast in 2010. “Running Man” was moved to the 6:20 time slot with the reorganization in 2012. After that, for various reasons, the time slot was moved once in 2015 and 2016.  In 2017, the broadcast time was changed again as new members Yang Sechan and Jeon Somin were recruited. With this schedule change, “Running Man” will be broadcast again in a different time for the first time in five years.

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“Running Man” is currently experiencing a crisis due to sluggish ratings.  According to Nielsen Korea, “Running Man” has been staying in the 3-4% range of nationwide ratings for the past 6 months. KBS2’s “Boss in the Mirror”, which is broadcasting at the same time, has maintained a rating of 5-6%. In addition, MBC’s “Around the World at Birth”, which was first broadcast at 4:30 pm KST on December 11th, recorded a rating of 4.6% and ranked first in the same time slot. Meanwhile, the viewership rating of “Running Man” on this day was only 3.9%.

After changing its airtime, “Running Man” will go head-to-head with KBS2’s “2 Days & 1 Night Season 4” from 2023. Attention is focusing on the results of the competition between two long-lived variety shows.

Source: Wikitree

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