The June 2, 2026 Fundex topicality chart offers a snapshot of just how much Korea’s non-scripted formats have muscled into territory once dominated by traditional dramas: Tving’s cooking-competition series “Cooking Legend” landed at No. 2, while ENA’s long-running dating-and-relationships show “I Am Solo” took the No. 3 spot — both outranking scripted dramas from cable and streaming rivals that week.
“Cooking Legend” belongs to a competition-format boom that has reshaped Tving’s original programming strategy in recent years, following the format’s proven success with international audiences drawn to high-stakes culinary competition shows. Its strong topicality performance suggests the format continues to generate the kind of clip-friendly, shareable moments that translate into online buzz even against scripted competition.
“I Am Solo,” meanwhile, has become one of Korean television’s most durable reality franchises, running dozens of “generations” (기수) of contestants since its debut, each cycling through a small-town retreat format designed to produce dating drama over a compressed filming schedule. Its continued top-three finish, years into its run, underscores how unscripted dating content has carved out a stable, recurring audience in a market otherwise obsessed with chasing the next big scripted hit.
Industry analysts point to the pairing of these two shows in the same week’s top three as evidence that competition and reality formats are no longer a secondary genre in Korean television but a primary battleground, one that networks and streamers are investing in as heavily as scripted drama given the format’s lower production costs relative to typical topicality returns.
For scripted dramas, the implication is a tougher competitive environment: a hit show now needs to outperform not just other dramas but an increasingly sophisticated field of competition and reality programming vying for the same viewer attention and social media conversation.
Source: Fundex TV-OTT topicality rankings, June 2, 2026, Korean entertainment press coverage.
