Compared to “Street Woman Fighter”, the regrettable points about “Street Man Fighter”, which is about to wrap up its two-month journey, are?
“Street Man Fighter”, which has continued the heat of summer with the viral “New Thing Challenge”, is running toward its final stage. Attention is focused on which crew will win the competition.
The first episode of “Street Man Fighter” aired on August 23rd with a lineup of 8 dance crews (Bank Two Brothers, MBitious, YGX, EODDAE, 1MILLION, We Dem Boyz, Just Jerk, and Prime Kingz) representing various dancing genres, such as hip-hop, choreography, and krump. Among them, Bank Two Brothers, MBitious, We Dem Boyz, and Just Jerk survived to the TOP 4.
During its journey, “Street Man Fighter” has attracted keen public interest with various highlights, from Zico’s viral choreography to the song “New Thing” to Rain’s track “Domestic” and the “Muses of Street Man Fighter” Mission. Taking over the baton of the K-dance craze created by “Street Woman Fighter” last year, the male season this year firmly maintained its No.1 spot on the hot topic chart for non-drama broadcasts for nearly two months, from the 4th week of August to the 3rd week of October. Just Jerk’s Mega Crew Mission video has exceeded 7.09 million views. While “New Thing” video performed by the Leader Class surpassed 8.15 million Youtube views, Sub-Leader Class’s dance video of “LAW” has also gained over 3.46 million views.
Like “Street Woman Fighter”, the male version also touched the viewers by showing the scenes of dancers moving out to the center of attention after struggling to survive in the dancing world for a long time. These dancers have been in charge of creating famous choreographies for K-pop stars and promoting K-dance to world-class competitions, but they have rarely received the spotlight. Pouring their best efforts into the battles of “Street Man Fighter”, these dancers have proved that they’re going on the right path. In an interview with the media after being eliminated, Prime Kingz leader Trix shared, “After winning the world competition, my life has become even more difficult. I even doubted my job”, adding “Through ‘Street Man Fighter’, I finally got the feeling of recognitions in my career”.
Mnet increased the viewers’ immersion into the program with a lot of events. MBitious is a project dance crew consisting of eight members selected from an audition program held by Mnet before the release of “Street Man Fighter”. On September 18th, “Street Man Fighter Pop-up Class” was held to teach people who love dancing the choreographies of MBitious’s “LOW” and We Dem Boyz’s “New Thing”. The concert “Street Man Fighter: On The Stage” with the participation of all 8 crews was also scheduled to be held in Seoul on the 5th and 6th of November. However, it has been postponed to the 7th and 8th of January, 2023 to mourn the Itaewon disaster victims.
Despite those impressive performances, the popularity of “Street Man Fighter” is still behind the syndrome-level sensation caused by “Street Woman Fighter”. The ratings of “Street Man Fighter” have remained in the range of 1% since the first episode with a peak of 1.9%. Compared to “Street Woman Fighter”, which rapidly showed sharp increases in the first half of its broadcasting and stayed in the range of 2% until the end of the show, the male season couldn’t make a breakthrough in both ratings and hot topics.
Popular culture critic Jung Deok-hyun said, “Since the program has a similar format to ‘Street Woman Fighter’, the viewers feel like they’re watching the same program but with only male dancers”. He continued, “‘Street Woman Fighter’ naturally gained emotional sympathy from the viewers and made people want to support the female dancers”, adding “This time, the charms of the cast members were revealed to the viewers quite late. It is because the program only highlighted their rough and powerful sides at the beginning of the competition”, expressing regrets.
Source: Daum
