X-Man (TV series)

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X-Man
Genre	Variety, Comedy, Psychological
Starring	Yu Jae-seok Park Kyung-lim Kang Ho-dong Lee Hyuk-jae
Country of origin	South Korea
Language(s)	Korean
No. of seasons	90
No. of episodes	178
Production
Running time	60-80 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	SBS
Original run	November 8, 2003 – April 8, 2007
External links
Official website

X-Man (Hangul: X맨) was a popular South Korean game show which ran from November 8, 2003 to April 8, 2007 on SBS. Its popularity peaked in 2004, but a decline in ratings led to its cancellation. It was hosted by Yu Jae-seok (MC Yoo/MC유), Kang Ho-dong, Kim Jae-dong, Gong Hyung-jin, Park Kyung-lim, and Lee Hyuk-jae, although only the first two were on the program since its inception.

X-Man started out as a program in Real Situation Saturday (실제상황! 토요일) on November 8, 2003, and it was a huge hit. During its period in Real Situation Saturday, it was referred to as "Real Situation: Finding X-Man" (실제상황 X맨을 찾아라). Because of its unique concept and interesting games, X-Man quickly gained an audience^{[citation needed]}. X-Man contained main games and mini-games, all referred to as "Missions". Eventually, missions were reduced due to the addition of a "Couple Game" that took up 3/4 of an episode. Due to high ratings, it later moved on to Sunday on October 10, 2004, under the program Good Sunday (일요일이 좋다).

1 Format
2 Reception
3 Trivia
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Format

Each episode was divided into two parts, airing in consecutive weeks. The various celebrities were divided into two teams, with one led by Kang (Kang Team) and the second by the other main MC (initially Kim Jae Dong, then Gong Hyung Jin, then Park Kyung Rim, then finally Lee Hyuk Jae). Yu Jae Seok served as the show's mediator and main MC. At the start of each episode, one celebrity would be chosen by the producer to be the X-Man, whose main mission was to disrupt his or her team and purposely throw challenges while keeping his or her identity a secret. Winning teams of each mission would be awarded ₩1 million^{[citation needed]}.

Missions consisted of various physical and mental games, including wrestling, "Rock, Paper, Scissors", "Dangyeonhajee" (Of Course, a game in which one side forced the other to agree with whatever they said), dodgeball, and the like. The missions changed every few months.

After the missions, the guests then voted on who they think is the X-Man. The celebrity participant who was chosen was then digitally "fingerprinted" to see if the others chose correctly. If the others chose correctly, any money earned by the teams was donated to charity, under the names of the various guests. If they failed to find the X-Man, the X-Man was considered to have "won" and the money donated to charity was given under the X-Man's name.

[edit] Reception

During the last months of 2005, there was a decline in ratings. Rival shows like KBS's Happy Sunday lineup and MBC's Sunday Sunday Night ("일요일 일요일 밤애") were gaining in popularity. X-Man's previous ratings of around 19.5%^[1] had dropped to 11.8%^[2] after a year. In order to regain viewers, X-Man had many special episodes, which had contestants either going to various places (Japan, Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, China) or had special, unique guests (Michelle Wie, TVXQ).

However, ratings did not rebound to their previous levels, and the show was finally overhauled for the Fall 2006 season and dubbed New X-Man. Although the hosts remained the same, the concept changed; instead of being the team disrupter, the X-Man became the top choice among various celebrities for a various question.

Therefore, the objective of the game was to guess who would be the #1 vote-getter and trade the X-Man over to the other side. The only time this was possible was when the team won the mission, after which they would have the chance to either retrieve someone from the other team or send someone over. At certain points in the show, the lower positions would be revealed a few at a time, with only the top few remaining before the final mission. The team who has the X-Man loses the entire "game".

Teams were chosen through a lottery system, with MC Yu serving as the "divider". The number he picked served as the dividing line between the teams (with MC Kang getting the guests with earlier numbers, and MC Lee getting the later numbers). In the event of an unfair division (for example, if the number 10 was chosen), the teams would simply be divided in half.

Although New X-Man occasionally entered the Top 20 chart, the new audience was not sustained and its final episode aired in early 2007. It was replaced first by Haja! Go!, then by Old TV, both shows hosted by Yu.

[edit] Trivia

MC Kim was the only MC on X-Man, to have his team name written in Hanja (Chinese lettering) as opposed to the traditional Hangul...this may be because the Hangul for Kang and Kim are dangerously close to one another (김 (Kim) 강 (Kang)).