Korean variety television has undergone a notable casting shift in 2026, with networks — tvN especially — increasingly building marquee unscripted programming around established film and drama actors rather than relying primarily on career comedians and professional entertainers, a pattern industry coverage has explicitly framed as “tvN 예능, 배우에 빠지다” (tvN variety falls for actors).
The trend spans multiple concurrent tvN productions: Na Young-seok’s revived “Youth Over Flowers: Limited Edition” cast actors Jung Yu-mi, Park Seo-joon, and Choi Woo-shik, while his newer “Kong Kong Farm Farm” farming show features Lee Kwang-soo, Kim Woo-bin, and Doh Kyung-soo — none of whom built their primary careers as variety-show personalities, illustrating just how thoroughly the actor-casting approach has spread across the network’s unscripted slate.
The strategic logic behind the shift centers on crossover appeal: established actors typically arrive with pre-existing fan bases built through film and drama work, plus a level of public curiosity about their unscripted, off-camera personalities that can drive viewership independent of the show’s core format or premise — a different value proposition than the comedic-timing-driven appeal traditional variety-show hosts and cast members have historically offered.
The approach isn’t without trade-offs: actors without extensive live, unscripted broadcast experience can require more careful format design and editing support to generate the spontaneous, entertaining moments that trained variety performers typically deliver more reliably — placing additional pressure on shows’ behind-the-scenes production and editing teams to shape compelling content from less broadcast-seasoned participants.
With multiple actor-led shows posting strong ratings in 2026, including “Kong Kong Farm Farm’s” timeslot-leading debut, the strategy appears to be paying off commercially for tvN specifically, even as it represents a meaningful departure from the comedian-centered casting model that has defined much of Korean variety television’s history.
Source: Korean broadcast-industry trend coverage, “tvN 예능, 배우에 빠지다,” June 2026.
