Genre: Game-variety show, Comedy
Starring:Yoo Jae-suk, Kim Jong-kook, Gary ,Haha, Song Ji-hyo, Lee Kwang-soo, Ji Suk-jin
Country of origin:South Korea
Original language:Korean
Production
Producer(s):Im Hyung-taek, Ahn Jae-chul
Running time:60-95 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel:SBS
Picture format: 1080i (HDTV)
Audio format:Stereo
Original run: July 11, 2010 - Present
Chronology
Preceded by: Family Outing 2
Related shows:Good Sunday, Hurry Up, Brother
Running Man (Korean: 런닝맨) is a South Korean variety show; a part of SBS's Good Sunday lineup. It was first aired on July 11, 2010, currently the longest-running program for being successful for five years on Good Sunday surpassing X-Man.
Running Man is classified as an "urban action variety"; a genre of variety shows in an urban environment. The MCs and guests complete missions in a landmark to win the race. The show has since shifted to a more familiar reality-variety show concept focused on games. It has garnered attention as being the come-back program for Yoo Jae-suk, the main MC of the program, after leaving Good Sunday's Family Outing in February 2010.
Airing at the 5 pm KST time slot for most of its run, Running Man switched to the second part of Good Sunday (which happened on May 22 and May 29, 2011 with Kim Yu-na's Kiss and Cry but was quickly switched back due to low ratings) beginning May 6, 2012, airing after Kim Byung-man's Law of the Jungle 2 at 6:10 pm and airing against KBS2 Happy Sunday's 1 Night 2 Days Season 2 and MBC Sunday Night's I Am a Singer 2.
The show has been popular in other parts of Asia as well, and gained online popularity among Hallyu fans, having been subtitled to a number of languages by volunteers, such as English, Spanish, French, Thai, Malay, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian, Arabic and Brazilian Portuguese.
On November 19, 2014, the show's head director, Cho Hyo-jin, announced his departure from the show after working with the members for four years.
MISSIONS
Current
As of episode 48, the members take part in a series of missions (see Missions below for details) to become the winner(s) at the end of the race. The format of the show moves away from the "race mission + other missions" format into strictly one long race with continuous missions during the race.
Previous
Ep 1:
The MCs and guests were locked in a landmark during closed hours and were required to leave before opening hours. In the first episode, they were divided into two teams and raced to find the codes hidden within the landmark that were required to unlock the main doors. With a total of 5 numbers, after one was found, a game was played to determine which team would start first in the next race, and the losing team received a punishment while the other team was given a head start. After all the numbers were found by either of the teams, they approached the main door and entered the code which they believed was correct. The correct team was allowed to leave the landmark while the losing team was required to complete a punishment inside the landmark.
Eps 2-5:
From the second episode to the fifth episode, both teams competed to find golden pigs filled with money that were hidden within the landmark, and participated in games in attempt to win more money. At the end of each episode, the team with the most money was declared the winner and was allowed to leave the landmark while the losing team received a punishment. The money collected by the teams was donated in the winning team's honour. Viewers could vote on the official Running Man homepage on who they believed would be the winning team, and a lucky viewer who guessed correctly was allowed to have his/her name included in the donation.
