Choi Woo Shik Tackles Running Man Ratings Challenge

MBC's new variety show 'Choeusoosan (Mountain)' will compete in the same time slot as SBS's 'Running Man' and KBS2's '1 Night 2 Days Season 4'. This program is the follow-up to 'Manitto Club', which ended last month with a viewership rating of 0.9%.

Yoo Se-yoon, Jang Dong-min, Heo Kyung-hwan, Boom, Yang Se-hyung, and PD Kim Myung-yeop attended the production presentation for 'Choeusoosan' held at the MBC Golden Mouse Hall in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul on the 28th of last month.

'Choeusoosan' is the first mountain-based variety show in Korea, with a concept of competing to win acorns and reach the summit by completing missions in the mountains. It features a combination of veteran comedians, including Yoo Se-yoon, who won the Male Excellence Award at the '2025 MBC Entertainment Awards', and Jang Dong-min, Boom, Yang Se-hyung, and Heo Kyung-hwan, who are called 'losers'. PD Kim Myung-yeop explained why he cast Heo Kyung-hwan instead of Haha, who also won an Excellence Award: "We needed someone like Dex from 'Hangout with Yoo', and since Heo Kyung-hwan is handsome and cool, we expected him to take on the 'Dex role' in our program."

Regarding the background of the program's planning, PD Kim Myung-yeop said, "It started with Yoo Se-yoon's 'loser' incident." He initially had no intention of going to the mountains, but seeing the veteran entertainers in the cast, "We searched for what they hadn't done before, the meeting went on for a long time, and the discussion eventually led to the mountains." He added, "Once we went to the mountains, it wasn't bad, so we judged it to be worth trying."

Regarding Haha's inability to participate, PD Kim explained, "Haha also wanted to join, but it was difficult for him to appear because the show airs in the same time slot as 'Running Man'." When asked about the target viewership rating, he said, "Recently, the 2049 viewership ratings for 'Running Man' and '1 Night 2 Days' are around 2%, and our goal is to surpass that, as we believe that's necessary for it to lead to regular programming."