TV Shows of Children and Food Shows in Korea

A couple of years ago, when I was blogging here regularly, I posted a couple times about children and television in Korea (one of which you can check out here, this should lead you to the other post as well). Back then there was an influx of shows with little children in it - mostly those of celebrities. Today, while we still have such shows such as Superman is Back (슈퍼맨이 돌아왔다), they have certainly gone down in number.

The genre of TV shows which have replaced the children shows is the genre of Food Shows. Some are cooking shows, but others are just plain food shows. You watch people eat food deliciously. Delicious food, I may add. The trend of "muck-bang" (먹방) is still around, but in a more subtle way. But it's still there. In fact, there are a couple of webtoons devoted to this trend where food is drawn and presented very appetizingly. Even shows where they teach you how to cook will often have the cooks eat their finished dish scrumptiously in front of the camera.

In fact, I doubt that viewers watch cooking shows to improve their testing skills. They most certainly can learn to cook through these plethora of shows yet it appears that the goal of these cook shows are for entertainment. My personal favorite, and really the only one I watch, is called "오늘 뭐먹지?" (translated to roughly, "What Should We Eat Today?") and you can learn how to cook by watching it but it's more entertaining with the hosts funny and witty remarks. They've jokingly complained how people watch their show for entertainment and not for the serious goal of learning to cook. I don't cook myself and I watch it!

There are more shows that involve food and cooking: "냉장고를 부탁해" ("Please Take Care of My Refrigerator" - celebrities bring in the food in their 'fridge and cook something with them), "Tasty Road" (based on what I've watched - it's two pretty girls eating pretty food), 한식대첩 ("The Grand Battle of Korean Food" - cooks from all over the nation come and compete by making only Korean food and professional judges root out the final pair of winners), and more.

The change in this trend of TV shows in Korea is very interesting. Shows featuring little children are still on television but they are few in number compared to just a couple of years ago and today, there are numerous food shows in a wide variety which have replaced shows featuring children.