2 Days and 1 Night

Synopsis

Although there were multiple member line-up changes through each season, 1 Night 2 Days has mostly kept its format. The cast members take various trips throughout South Korea, including many offshore islands. While doing so, members also perform missions at a certain mealtime or point of the day to earn rewards (ex. foods that are famous in the region they visit) and to avoid punishments (ex. going into the water). Guests can be invited not only by the production team but also by the members themselves if they meet the criteria of the episode's concept (ex. ep 396-399).

History

Before 1 Night 2 Days was first aired, it was preceded by Are You Ready which featured most of the 1 Night 2 Days members — Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, and Eun Jiwon. Are You Ready was canceled due to low viewership ratings and was replaced by 1 Night 2 Days after 12 episodes.

Singer and actor Lee Ji-hoon was offered to join the cast of 1 Night 2 Days but rejected the role to take a role on MBC drama New Heart instead.

1 Night 2 Days premiered with cast members Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, Eun Jiwon, Noh Hong-chul, Ji Sang-ryul, and Sanggeun the dog mascot on August 5, 2007.

The show later experienced a number of cast member changes:

Season 1 broadcast its final episode on February 26, 2012.

Season 2 premiered on March 4, 2012 with returning members Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, and Uhm Tae-woong, who were joined by new members Kim Seung-woo, Cha Tae-hyun, Sung Si-kyung, and Joo Won. Kim Seung-woo left the show in March 2013 to re-focus on his acting career. He was replaced by fellow actor Yoo Hae-jin.

On November 24, 2013 1 Night 2 Days Season 2 officially wrapped up season two with a final goodbye from the members. Similar to the show's signature opening in which the members gather together to introduce the episode, it was fitting to see the members gather one last time to bid farewell to its audience.

Season 3 of 1 Night 2 Days premiered on December 1, 2013 that consist of returning members Cha Tae-hyun and Kim Jong-min, as well as new members Kim Joon-ho, Kim Joo-hyuk, Jung Joon-young, and Defconn. As of November 22, 2015, Kim Joo-hyuk left the cast of season 3 on their two-year anniversary, as he filmed his last episodes on November 20 and 21. Yoon Shi-yoon was then rumored to be in talks to join the show and officially became the new member in April 2016. On September 29, 2016, Jung Joon-young left the show due to his scandal (regarding a "sexual offence" charged by his former girlfriend, of which he was later cleared of), but on January 7, 2017, a production member confirmed that Joon-young will return to the show, already having recorded an episode the previous day (which will broadcast on the 15th).

Broadcast

KBS Drama, KBS Joy has often aired re-runs of 1 Night 2 Days. U-KBS HERAT, a DMB, a digital radio transmission technology developed by South Korea, channel aired the show daily from Monday to Friday at 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and recorded the show as one of the "fun to watch" re-runs. KBS World, the international broadcasting service provided by KBS, also started airing English-subtitled episodes (usually 2–4 weeks after the original broadcast) of the show starting from Episode 35 titled as 2 Days and 1 Night.

With 1 Night 2 Days being well received, KBS Joy launched a "female version" of 1 Night 2 Days called 다녀오겠습니다. The first season aired between January 12, 2009 and April 29, 2009. The first season's members were gagwoman Kim Sook, Kim E-Z (former member of Baby V.O.X.), Jeong Jung-ah, Bronwyn Mullen (Afrikaaner ethnicity and member on Global Talk Show), Polina Lipina (Russian ethnicity and member on Global Talk Show), and Kim Ji Hye (member of Korean girl group Cats). Season 2 aired from June 3 to September 16, 2009 with two members from Season 1, Kim Sook and Kim E-Z, and new members, actress and singer Yoo Chae-yeong, movie actress Seo Young, gagwoman Kwon Jin-young, and Kang Ye-bin.

Bok-bul-bok Game

"Bok Bul Bok Game" (복불복), which can be translated to "blessing-curse-blessing" or "luck or not", is the method used to determine which members will be sleeping outside as well as to decide which members will be getting food. The decision is based on the results of games such as "Kung Kung Ta" (쿵쿵따), a game where a person says a word that does not exist and the next person has to make a new word that doesn't exist with the ending letter or simple games like juggling soccer balls. The first three members who lose the game are given a punishment, such as drinking salt water or soy sauce or eating other strange foods. For example, "Kkanari Eakjeott" (까나리 액젓), "Myeolchi Eakjeott" (멸치 액젓), "Hwang-seo-geo-jeott" (황석어젓), "Buldak-sauce" (불닭 소스), "Wasabi" (고추냉이), "Vinegar" (식초), and more. If they can pass their punishment, they are able to escape sleeping outside or receive food and prizes automatically, however this rarely happens. Kim C and the rest of the cast once said, "The Bok Bul Bok system is completely unfair and crazy." ("복불복 시스템은 완전 공정하지 않으며 미친 것이다") Also, MC Mong once left a quote stating in their trip to Jeju do, "Bok Bul Bok Forever! As long as it's not me!" ("복불복이여 영원하라, 나만 아니면 돼!") Bok-bul-bok remains an important significance of the show.

Bok-bul-bok marathon

Every summer the show will conduct a Bok-bul-bok marathon. At certain points in the race, Bok-bul-bok games are placed where the runners chooses an item which can either benefit them or make them suffer. These could be fish sauce, hot or cold coffee, water, salt-water or other various items. Two of the members are omitted from the race and rides on a truck to be commentators. Their first marathon winner was Lee Seung-gi. Their second annual marathon winner was Kim C who ran the race in a full-length parka.

Autumn reading competition

Every autumn the show will conduct a reading competition. The cast will have an hour to study before the competition starts. Members who lost the competition was chosen to sleep outdoors.

Indoor, outdoor and "out-outdoor" sleeping

This concept first appeared on their trip to Andong, North Gyeongsang when the cast were split up into YB and OB teams to determine their sleeping locations through a game of Bok-bul-bok. The OB team had won the game through a relay of Jegichagi (제기차기), but the YB team had insisted the production team to give them another chance. The same game was played, but each member represented and played for themselves. With the YB team already sleeping outside, the members who took the challenge competed to sleep indoors. However, if they lose the game, they were to sleep "out-outdoors" (sleeping in a sleeping bag without a tent). Lee Seung-gi, MC Mong and Kim Jong-min attempted the challenge but failed and were chosen to sleep "out-outdoors". Kang Ho-dong decided to challenge the game to save the YB team, but failed twice and was selected to sleep "out-outdoors" as well. Kim C decided to take the challenge, but also failed and was chosen to sleep "outdoors" (with a tent). Eun Jiwon and Lee Soo-geun did not attempt the challenge and slept "outdoors" and "indoors", respectively.

Wake-up song

A wake-up song is usually selected to be played in the morning to wake the members up and start their morning mission. The trot song, "Please Endure" or "Baemida" ("It's a Snake") which is sung by Kim Hye-yeon was 1 Night 2 Days first wake-up song. "Please Endure" is a song about snakes, which drew attention with its repetitive lyrics and melody. Later on, a remix version of the song was aired on February 10, 2008 as the wake-up song. On the February 24, 2008 episode, a song titled "Wake-Up" was used. Since March 23, 2008, the show's wake-up song is a combination of the members' songs mixing various voices into the melody. For example, MC Mong's hit single, "Circus", could be heard, or the classic favorite "Words I Couldn't Say" ("하지못한말") by Lee Seung-gi was mixed with Kang Ho-dong's "Seung-Gi yah" shout. Also, the voices of the cast and crew are included in all of the wake up song, but mostly Kang Ho-dong. Kim Hye-yeon made an appearance on the show on August 31, 2008 singing "Please Endure" live to wake the cast up, which surprised the cast. In Season 3, the production team made a mission out of choosing the wake-up song, where they had Defconn and Kim Jong-min perform a showcase with their new songs for the other cast members to judge and choose which song is best to wake up too.

Wake-up mission

A wake-up mission is usually conducted every morning of their trip to determine the three members who will get to eat breakfast. Missions include but are not limited to collecting flags, finding certain objects, hide-and-seek, etc. Members are usually woken up by the snake song, songs of the members, or remixes of songs with the members voices shouting their names. Their wake-up mission for the episode aired November 16, 2009 (the "3rd Severe Winter Camp Training" trip) was canceled due to a blizzard.

Severe summer and winter camp training

During each season, a "severe" summer and winter camp training trip is held where members had to endure critical conditions—such as building their own tents and making their own food (without utensils), driving in an open-top convertible in the winter or driving with all the windows rolled-up and no air conditioner in a van in the summer. The Severe Winter Camp Training has been held 3 times and the Severe Summer Camp Training has been held twice.

Freestyle trips

The show will have "freestyle" trips where a captain is selected to be in charge and decide on the location of the trip. The captain who is chosen for freestyle trips usually feels burdened as it was their responsibility to make the trip fun and have enough filming footage. The first freestyle trip captain was Eun Jiwon. The trip was filmed after Lee Soo-geun's wedding. Eun Jiwon decided to have theirs at the Nanji Camping location, situated near the Han River in Seoul. Even though the ride should have taken only 5 minutes to get there, it took them over an hour to reach the Nanji Camping Centre. The second freestyle trip was conducted by MC Mong, who later passed the responsibility to Lee Seung-gi because it was too burdensome. Lee Soo-geun was selected to be the captain for the third freestyle trip when their flight to Jeju do were canceled due to bad weather.

For the episode aired on September 24, 2014 (ep.357-358), the members were divided into 3 teams, each appointed to freely travel and learn about a certain aspect of Gunsan and Jeollabuk-do. They were allowed to spend as much as they like and collect data on their own.

Challenging the production team

On the episode aired on May 31, 2009, the cast challenged the production team, where if the cast wins they get to have dinner and sleep inside while the production team will sleep outdoors. However, after playing three games of Bok-bul-bok, including a game of table tennis, badminton, and soccer, the cast lost and the production team got to eat their dinner. On the episode aired September 27, 2009, the production team were once challenged again by the crew. If the production team loses, all 80 staff members including the casts' managers and coordinators were to sleep outside. With some luck, the cast defeated the production team in winning two of the three Bok-bul-bok games. The games they played on their second challenge were a 3-point table tennis match, 3-point soccer game, and jumping rope. As aired on the same episode, the production team and cast agreed to have their next challenge during their first snow.

On the episode aired on July 20, 2014, the members rebelled against the production crew for the first time of season 3, escaping from their sight while on the freeway and remained in hiding until the production team agreed to adhere to their demands.

Viewer specials

There was also their first viewers' special trip on February 2009, where the production team started gathering 6 teams for a trip with the cast. Thousands of applications were sent to the team and the final teams were chosen by the casts themselves. The episode became very popular and on December 2009, the production team announced that a second viewers' special is coming on February 2010 and mentioned that they received around 100,000 applications. In August 2011, they had a third viewer's special, which had 100 people attending from ages 1–100, adding another senior, who's age is 102.

Current

Kim Jong-Min

Kim Jong-Min started off as one of the original members along with Kang Ho-Dong, Lee Soo-Geun and Eun Jiwon. Kim Jong-Min had to leave the show due to his mandatory military service. He filmed with the cast until the very last moment (episode 18) before he had to leave. Kim Jong-Min returned to the show as the seventh member after completing his military service in December 2009. He is now the only member from the original cast to continue the show. Kim Jong-Min's subtitle color is cyan.

Cha Tae-hyun

Cha Tae-Hyun has been a member since the first episode of season 2 after he had been recommended by the viewers. He has been considered as the informal leader of cast members in Season 3. His subtitle color is beige.

Kim Joon-Ho

Kim Joon-Ho is one of the four new members of season 3. His subtitle color is orange.

Defconn

Defconn is one of the four new members of season 3. He stated that it was a dream coming true being part of this show. His subtitle color is yellow.

Jung Joon-Young

Jung Joon-Young is one of the new members and the youngest of season 3. He was a contestant of Superstar K4. He usually takes a lot of pictures of the food and set of the show to be put up on his blog. He temporarily left the show in October 2016 due to the scandal with an ex-girlfriend, but returned after almost 4 months. His subtitle color is apple green.

Yoon Shi-Yoon

Yoon Shi-Yoon is the newest member of season 3; he joined the show as a replacement for Kim Joo-Hyuk during the 207th trip. His subtitle color is light sea green.

Former

Kang Ho-Dong

Kang Ho-Dong was the main MC of 1 Night 2 Days. He has won two Grand Prizes (Daesangs) from the KBS Entertainment Awards for his work on the show. He previously starred in an early incarnation of the show, Are You Ready, but it was canceled due to low viewership ratings. On September 9, 2011, Kang Ho-Dong left the show and retired from show business due to allegations of tax evasion, leaving the show with five members. Kang Ho-Dong's subtitle color was red.

Lee Soo-geun

Lee Soo-Geun was one of the original members who started off in the variety show Are You Ready. He was the main MC in season 2, taking over Kang Ho-dong's spot. On November 24, 2013, Lee Soo-Geun left the show due to being under investigation for suspicion of online illegal gambling. Lee Soo-Geun's subtitle color was grey.

Eun Jiwon

Eun Jiwon, like Kang Ho-Dong and Lee Soo-Geun, was one of the original members, who started off in the variety show Are You Ready and appeared on every episode of season 1. Eun Jiwon left the show along with Lee Seung-Gi on February 26, 2012, and later returned as a guest in an early episode of season 3. Eun Jiwon's subtitle color was orange.

Lee Seung-Gi

Lee Seung-Gi joined the cast on their trip to Pyeongchang, Gangwondo. He was the replacement for Noh Hong-chul who left the show due to medical reasons. In the show he is nicknamed Heodang by Kim C due to being often empty-headed. He along with Kim C are considered often the brains of group (in quizzes). In a poll regarding looks, he was ranked first, followed by Sanggeun. Lee Seung-gi left the show with Eun Jiwon on February 26, 2012. Lee Seung-Gi's subtitle color was sea green.

Uhm Tae-Woong

Uhm Tae-Woong's first appearance was during the 87th trip to Yangyang, which was broadcast on March 6 and 13, 2011. Uhm Tae-Woong 's subtitle color was yellow.

MC Mong

MC Mong joined the cast on episodes 19–20 as the replacement for Kim Jong-Min who left due to mandatory military service. MC Mong was the last replacement of the cast of first season. MC Mong has been put on hiatus and did not take part in the filming on September 17, 2010 due to the investigation of his mandatory military service. The producers had made an official announcement that MC Mong's appearance will be deferred until a final judgment has been made and the rest of the five members will continue filming during his absence. Taking into the account of the viewers' feelings and opinions, the episode set to be aired on September 19, 2010 will edit MC Mong's parts as much as possible. This trip will be broadcast in one episode (instead of the usual two episode). They had already started editing MC Mong's parts since the September 12, 2010 episode. It has been confirmed in December 2010 that he has been banned from KBS. MC Mong's subtitle color was brown.

Kim C

Kim C joined as a member on their sixth trip (episodes 13–14). He was the replacement member for Ji Sang-Ryul, who appeared in SBS Good Sunday's Family Outing 2. Kim C was absent on their trip to Geochang, South Gyeongsang due to the death of his father. Kim C had decided to leave the show in order to devote more time into music. According to sources, Kim C had originally intended to leave the show after filming the trip for Antarctica, however due to the trip being canceled, his leave was delayed. Kim C approached the producers of the show six months before and informed them of his leave. On the other hand, the members found out Kim C was leaving only two days before the last filming where Kim C called each member as he didn't want to interrupt the mood and bond they had for each other while filming. Kim C's subtitle color was lime green.

Ji Sang-Ryul

Ji Sang-Ryul was the first member to leave the show after seven episodes (three trips) due to filming commitments for MBC's drama Yi San. After Ji Sang-Ryul left, Kim Young-Chul and Koyote's Shin Ji were special guests for the next couple of episodes before Kim C joined the cast in the next episode (episode 13). A year later, Ji Sang-Ryul appeared as a guest on the show's 70th episode. Ji Sang-Ryul brought a guest along with him on this episode, which was the dog Sangdon, Sanggeun's son. Ji Sang-Ryul's subtitle color was green and purple in the Yesan episode.

Noh Hong-Chul

Comedy show host Noh Hong-Chul left after fourteen episodes due to exhaustion and in order to focus on MBC's Saturday variety show Infinite Challenge. He was quickly replaced in the following episode with ballad singer Lee Seung-Gi. No Hong-Chul's subtitle color was yellow.

Sanggeun

Sanggeun, who had gained much popularity, was a Great Pyrenees bred-dog that usually accompanied the members on their trip. Sanggeun's real name was Herbie. When Sanggeun first made his appearance on the show, he was named "Sanggeun" by Ji Sang-Ryul. Sanggeun had appeared in the MBC drama Madame Ahyundong. It is known that Sanggeun received ₩400,000 for each episode on the show. On episode 16, a survey was held, where viewers who were in for a sound recording rated the members on the show by placing a sticker on the one who was the "best-looking" member. Sanggeun was placed second in the rankings, behind Lee Seung-Gi. Due to his deteriorating health, Sanggeun was absent from the show for three episodes. Ji Sang-Ryul adopted Sangdon, Sanggeun's son.

Kim Seung-Woo

Kim Seung-Woo was one of the new members and the oldest of season 2. His subtitle color was red.

Joo Won

Joo Won was one of the new four members and the youngest of season 2. His subtitle color was hot pink.

Sung Si-Kyung

Sung Si-Kyung was one of the new four members of season 2. His subtitle color was sea green.

Yoo Hae-Jin

Yoo Hae-Jin was the member who replaced Kim Seung-Woo in March 2013. His subtitle color was red.

Kim Joo-Hyuk

Kim Joo-Hyuk was one of the four new members of season 3. He left the show in December 2015 as he was getting more and more role offers and had a busy schedule. Still, he briefly appeared in many episodes after his departure. His subtitle color was red.

Teams/lines

Team/line characters are usually formed when the team is split up into two for Bok-bul-bok.

Criticism

During the early days of 1 Night 2 Days, the show was heavily compared with SBS's Good Sunday's Family Outing and MBC's Infinite Challenge, particularly because Noh Hong-chul was part of both 1 Night 2 Days and Infinite Challenge (which aired on Sundays and Saturdays, respectively). However, the concept of the three shows are different. The concept of 1 Night 2 Days is traveling on a trip with families and friends, while Infinite Challenge is a challenge-based variety program with 7 men competing in games.

The episode which aired on July 6, 2008 gained a lot of criticism from viewers because of a smoking scene. On their trip to Baekdusan, Korea, a scene of MC Mong smoking in the bus was not edited and was aired. In 2004, all 3 major broadcasting stations, KBS, MBC and SBS, agreed to prohibit smoking scenes being aired before midnight. The variety program's directors made an official apology on July 7 for not properly editing the scene before airing the program and it will never occur again. This also caused a craze among MC Mong's fans because he promised on another variety show a while back that he would quit smoking.

Viewers protested about the "violent scene" on episode 51, which aired July 20, 2008. The scene was a hidden prank of Kang Ho-dong and Kim C getting into an argument to fool the new director who had joined the show. The production team stated that the fight was not intentional and it left good memories.

On episode 53, which aired August 3, 2008, viewers noticed a caption error when a local area in Inje, Gangwondo was incorrectly titled. Under protests from viewers, the production team posted an official apology on the Happy Sunday website.

Another controversy was made on the September 19, 2008 episode, which was filmed during the Lotte Giants & Doosan Bears baseball game. One of the issues was that the staff occupied a large section of seats (50 seats) for the six members. The other issue was not allowing other ticket holders to get to their seats. The production team has explained that it was to protect the safety of the six members and they did not mean to stop people from getting to their seats. The day the game was broadcast, SBS Sports said the visit of the 1 Night 2 Days team brought a positive mood to the people in Busan. On the other hand, MBC ESPN had negative remarks regarding the 1 Night 2 Days team.

The next controversy was on the episode aired September 21, 2008. Scenes of Lee Soo-geun smoking in the village was caught on tape and aired.

On the episode aired December 7, 2008, more drinking and smoking scenes appeared. It was deemed unsuitable for families watching the show with their children.

More controversy surfaced after the airing of the March 15, 2009 episode. It was said that Kang Ho-dong had uttered the profanity "XX-bitch" in one of the scenes. But the production team denied that Kang Ho-dong had said such a thing on the show and that it was just noises during the car ride.

Another controversy was when MC Mong's manager, Lee Heon-suk, said "육사시미", when it was more appropriate for him to say a similar saying that was of the Korean language.

On the episode aired October 4, 2009, some of the members met the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony ring-boy, Yoon Tae-woong during their hike in the mountains. Viewers wrote on the show's message board that "it was a set-up" and "how can it be a coincidence."

Another controversy emerged when Lee Seung-gi was indirectly promoting beer he endorsed when he made his beer-can chicken on the episode aired November 11, 2009. Although the brand name was blurred at times, the name of the beer was still seen.

The second subtitle controversy was on the episode that aired November 15, 2009. The production team made an apology on the message boards. As for the re-runs of this episode, the subtitles have been changed.

It was announced that on March 9, 2010, the cast and crew of 1 Night 2 Days will take a trip to Antarctica to visit the King Sejong Station. Viewers' opinions were mixed, with some thinking it will be a great experience while others think they should not go. Nonetheless, the production team still had plans to leave on March 9 for the beginning of filming. A small group of the production team even left in February for Chile to prepare for the trip, but they had no choice but to leave and return to Korea after staying in Chile for a week. The reason was due to a blizzard that prevented them from taking a flight to Antarctica from Chile. The production crew had bought brand new HD cameras, lighting equipment and microphones to film the beauty of Antarctica and bring the best resolution to viewers. However, due to the 2010 Chile earthquake on February 27, the production crew had to search for alternate routes to get to Antarctica. Unfortunately, it was announced that the crew had decided to cancel their trip.

Media response and reception

On December 27, 2008 at the 2008 KBS Entertainment Awards, all six cast members were present at the award show and performed "No Matter What" by Park Sang-chul. The show took home five awards – Best Newcomer (Variety), Best Variety Show Writer, Top Popularity Award, Viewer's Choice Program, and the Grand Prize (Daesang). In the Top Popularity Award category, three out of the four nominees were from 1 Night 2 Days – Eun Jiwon, MC Mong, and Lee Seung-gi, for which Lee won the award. The Viewer's Choice Program was based on viewer's votes through surveys and SMS. Happy Sunday ended up with 108.3% of the votes, and trailing behind them with 40.3% of the votes was Happy Together (Gag Concert with 33.1% of votes, A Chat with Beauties with 12.9% of the votes and Sang Sang Plus with 5.3% of the votes).

2 Days & 1 Night's third season received much positive response. The first episode of 1 Night 2 Days received very high viewer ratings of 14.3% when it first aired in December 2013. At the end of 2014, Happy Sunday segments (1 Night 2 Days and The Return of Superman) wrapped up with ratings of 17.9%, followed by SBS Good Sunday (K-pop Star 4 and Running Man) with 12.1% and MBC Sunday Night (7.8%) with Real Men and Dad, Where Are You Going? In March 2015, KBS's Happy Sunday was in first place in terms of viewer ratings with 14.7%, beating out SBS's Good Sunday (Running Man and Take Care Of My Dad) with 11.1% and MBC's Sunday Night (Animals and Real Men) with 8.4%.

Digital single

A digital single of the show's theme song was released on March 29, 2010 and was first heard on episode 135, which was aired March 28, 2010. The title of the song is called "Let's Go Paradise" and is sung by Gil Hak-mi (a contestant on Mnet's talent show Superstar K Season 1) and Han Bora (from AB Avenue).