Country of origin South Korea No. of seasons 2 Producer(s) Jang Hyuk-jae Final episode date 8 April 2007 Number of seasons 2 Genres Game show, Comedian | Original language(s) Korean No. of episodes 178 (list of episodes) First episode date 8 November 2003 Number of episodes 178 Original network SBS | |
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Starring Yoo Jae-suk
Kang Ho-dong
Kim Je-dong (S.1-23)
Gong Hyung-jin (S.24-34)
Park Kyung-lim (S.35-59)
Lee Hyuk-jae (S.60-90) Similar Family Outing, Running Man, Good Sunday, Heroes, Strong Heart | ||
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 from 2004 to 2006. It was hosted by Yoo Jae-suk, Kang Ho-dong, Kim Je-dong, with Kim being successively replaced by Gong Hyung-jin, Park Kyung-lim, and Lee Hyuk-jae; only the first two were on the program since its inception.
Contents
- History
- Real Situation Saturday era
- Good Sunday era
- X man Good Sunday era
- Format
- Missions
- Hosts
- Trivia
- References
X-man was loosely based on The Mole.
History
The program first aired on November 8, 2003 as a "Genuine Psychological Reasoning Variety", Real Situation: Finding X-man (실제상황 X맨을 찾아라), a corner program of Real Situation Saturday. On October 10, 2004, the program was moved to Good Sunday and simply known as X-man. On November 5, 2006, the program became the sole program airing in Good Sunday and was officially known as X-man Good Sunday airing until April 8, 2007.
Real Situation Saturday era
In the first season of the program, the main host was Kim Je-dong, with team leaders Kang Ho-dong and Yoo Jae-suk of Kang and Yoo Team respectively. Beginning with Season 2, Yoo Jae-suk replaced Kim Je-dong as main host, with Kim Je-dong becoming the leader of Kim Team (Yoo Team in Season 2). During this early stages of the program, popular games which became staples of the show were Team! Horse Riding, Tongue Twisters Relay, and Fly! Fryingpan with the biggest hit Of Course! created in May 2004.
Good Sunday era
Following high ratings in the Saturday evening timeslot, X-man was moved to Good Sunday in October 2004, which was the lowest rated program of the Sunday evening timeslot. After the move, Good Sunday became the top rated program of the Sunday evening timeslot, beating incumbent MBC's Sunday Sunday Night by 2006. As the program aired under Good Sunday, a line up of changes occurred to the opposing team of Kang Team. The team leaders changed from Kim Je-dong to Gong Hyung-jin, Park Kyung-lim, and finally Lee Hyuk-jae. Popular mission Team! Horse Riding was abolished in April 2005 following the injury of comedian Kim Ki-wook during the game. Team! Chicken Fight and Team! "Go" Fighting later replaced it. Also in 2005, popular mission Couples and Warriors Forever became a hot topic following the fabulous performances by guests, which were intended to form couples to play couple games.
X-man Good Sunday era
With the Autumn Program Restructuring of 2006, the second corner program of Good Sunday was cancelled, with X-man reformatted and airing as a stand-alone program. Airing in X-man Good Sunday was New X-man, abandoning the psychological game format and finding the team disruptor, the X-man became the top choice among various celebrities of surveys. 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 team. The only time this was possible was when the team won a mission, after which they would have the chance to either retrieve someone from the other team or send someone over. Teams were chosen through a lottery system, with MC Yoo serving as the "divider". The number he picked served as the dividing line between the teams (with Kang Ho-dong getting the guests with earlier numbers, and Lee Hyuk-jae getting the later numbers). The team who has the X-man at the end loses the entire "game". Unfortunately, the new format did not prove to be popular and was cancelled following the Spring Program Restructuring of 2007. It was replaced by Haja! Go! (하자!고), which was also hosted by Yoo Jae-suk, with Kang Ho-dong moving to KBS's Happy Sunday. X-man became the last program South Korea's top MCs Yoo Jae-suk and Kang Ho-dong worked together.
Format
Each season was divided into two episodes, airing in consecutive weeks. The first season was divided into six episodes, with three chances to find the X-man. The second and third season was divided into four episodes, with two chances. As of the fourth season, challengers only had one chance (two episodes) to find the X-man. The various celebrities were divided into two teams, with one led by Kang Ho-dong (Kang Team) and the second by the other main MC. Yoo Jae-suk 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 teamwork in 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. Actual amounts were undisclosed after earlier seasons.
After all 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 succeeded and the money donated to charity was given under the X-man's name.
Missions
X-man has featured many missions that have become very popular with the general audience. Missions consisted of various physical and mental games that changed every few months.