The Year in Korean Programming

TV shows, movies, radio shows, and more!

Here’s a summary of 2024’s major headlines involving Korean media besides music!

In 2024, Squid Game hype remained…
The second season was a big hit, becoming Netflix’s third most-watched TV season ever in less than two weeks! 

… but it wasn’t totally unbeatable
There was massive interest in a wide range of Korean TV shows in 2024, especially on Netflix. Some of the biggest hits: Queen of Tears and Culinary Class Wars.

Also worth noting: Squid Game’s popularity is not entirely unparalleled. While its first season was watched for a total of over 87 million hours, seasons of other Korean shows have racked up hundreds of millions of hours. Physical: 100 earned around 235 million hours of views, and The Glory had a whopping 622 million hours of views (in 2023)! 

Western companies stayed interested in partnering with Korean outlets
A joint venture among Naver, JTBC, and CJ ENM called Tving increased its number of monthly active users in 2024 to over 11.5 million. Also, CJ ENM announced a new deal with Warner Brothers that involves making English-language remakes of Korean-language programs and vice versa. 

Disney+ made a lot of announcements
At a press conference in Singapore, The Walt Disney Company Asia-Pacific announced a jam-packed slate of Korean shows and movies with 2025 premiere dates: Unmasked, Low Life, Nine Puzzles, Knock-off, Hyper Knife, The Manipulated, The Murky Stream, Tempest, and more. Other interesting reveals included confirmation of Moving season two, the fact that nine of Disney+’s 15 best-performing originals of 2023 were Korean-language ones, and the Asia-Pacific region’s most-streamed shows of the year being A Shop for Killers and Are You Sure?! (in “Scripted” and “Unscripted” categories, respectively).

Concert movies grew in quantity and quality…
Some concert movies took the classic format, like BLACKPINK’s, while others opted for virtual reality! TXT performed a VR concert that was viewed in select theaters across the U.S. through special glasses, and TWS had a live performance (although not a full concert movie) in its own VR format. Jung Kook’s documentary/concert movie hybrid was re-released with more material for a sing-along version, and RIIZE live-streamed a fan-meeting in theaters. Perhaps most noteworthy, though, was Lim Young Woong’s concert film, for breaking BTS’s record. I’m Hero: The Stadium broke a record for moviegoers previously held by BTS’s “Love Yourself in Seoul” concert screening; the former had 343 thousand attendees, whereas the latter had 342 thousand.

… as did other movies and shows in which K-pop stars participated
Docuseries and documentary films varied widely, from one with a proper film festival premiere (RM’s Right Place, Wrong Person) to a six-part Amazon Prime series (j-hope’s Hope on the Street). Fiction was also explored: Eric Nam’s drama Transplant premiered at the Chicago Film Festival, and new details came out about a K-pop-inspired thriller called Unnie. 

There were LOTS of new TV shows and seasons to watch!
Here’s a non-exhaustive list!

Are You Sure?! (Disney+)
Build Up: Vocal Boy Group Survival (Mnet)
City Z in the Countryside (ENA-E)
The Magic Star (SBS)
Make Mate (KBS2)
Mom, Do You Want to Go on a Trip with Me? (JTBC)
MY ARTi FILM (Mnet)
My Sibling’s Romance (JTBC)
Planet B (CJ ENM)
Red Swan (Disney+)
ROAD TO KINGDOM : ACE OF ACE (Mnet)
Run Jin! (YouTube/Weverse)
Se Ri’s House (SBS)
Stage Fighter (Mnet)
Story About Me: From Idol to Student in My Past Life (web show produced by SK Broadband)
Synchro U (KBS2)
Universe League (SBS)

On the radio

• CHUNG HA left her role as KBS’s Volume Up DJ.
• THE BOYZ’s Sunwoo hosted Idol Radio’s fourth season.
• I.M replaced Young K on Kiss the Radio.
• DJ Lee Moon-sae announced his return to radio after 13 years.
• WENDY went back to hosting Young Street.

Musical theatre

• BAEKHO was in the Marie Antionette musical.
• Kim Sung Kyu starred in Dear Evan Hansen.
• MAX CHANGMIN made his musical theater debut in Benjamin Button.
• SHOWNU from MONSTA X made his musical theater debut in Natasha, Pierre, & The Great Comet of 1812.
• Tiffany Young performed in Chicago in Seoul (although a hand injury cut that short).

The festival circuit

• Dahyun’s You Are the Apple of My Eye premiered at the Busan International Film Festival.

• Hangyeom from OMEGA X made his Jecheon International Music & Film Festival debut, where he promoted Jazz For Two The Movie.
• Krystal won “Best New Actress” at the 2024 Buil Film Awards for her role in Cobweb.
• NCT WISH were ambassadors of the 15th Gwangju Biennale.
• SF9’s Rowoon attended the LACMA Art+Film Gala.
• Yoona attended Cannes for the premiere of Horizon: An American Saga.

More big movie and TV moments for K-pop idols 

• BLITZERS were on Britain’s Got Talent and made it to the semifinals of Series 17!
• OH MY GIRL’s Hyojung was upgraded from a special MC to a permanent MC of the KBS show Fun-staurant.
• An Yujin from IVE sang the Korean version of the OST “Wish” for the movie of the same name. (The movie is from 2023 but did not hit South Korean theaters until January of 2024.) 
• NAYEON sang a Moana 2 OST for the Korean version of the film.
• TAEYEON was cast in season two of the Netflix show Zombieverse.
• There were multiple new seasons of the show The Seasons, with Lee Hyori hosting season four, ZICO hosting season five, and Lee Young Ji hosting season six.
• The Netflix animated show Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld premiered in December, with a cast including WOOSUNG.

More “Year in Review” recaps

All of the best new music that came out in 2024!

17 big moments from SEVENTEEN’s 2024

Revisiting 2024 predictions

Revisiting 2024 predictions: “Artists to Watch” version

2024 news that you might have missed

Coming up next…

• How YOU voted when it comes to the best of 2024!
• Some exclusive new K-pop, J-pop, AND C-pop interviews!
• The best new music of January 2025
• A new and improved ranking of the K-pop artists with the best J-pop discographies
• And much more!

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View the Substack version of this piece here!