Yoo Jae-suk was born as the eldest child out of three (he has two younger sisters) on August 14, 1972 in Seoul,South Korea. Yoo Jae-suk attended the Seoul Institute of the Arts, but was unable to graduate due to his busy schedule as an up-and-coming comedian.
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His television debut was on the KBS-Comedian Festival (for college students) in 1991, where he performed a parody of a commercial with Choi Seung-gyung (Hangul: 최승경). Him dancing to a cover of the song "Step by Step" by New Kids on the Block is also one of his early memorable moments.[1]In 2002, after nine hard years as a relatively unknown comedian, thanks to a recommendation by Choi Jin-sil, he hosted a program called Live and Enjoy Together (Dong-guh-dong-lak). The program became instantly popular and since then Yoo began to host many other variety programs. His potential was fully realized when he co-hosted a program called The Crash of MCs (MC 대격돌 - 공포의 쿵쿵따) with Kang Ho-dong, Lee Hwi-jae and Kim Han-seok.
His first Grand Prize award was for a popular program called Happy Together Friends. The show's concept was for TV personalities to try to find their school friends (five of them) out of many (false friends) who are sitting behind a desk. The show was intended to bring back nostalgic memories about one's days in school. This Grand Prize was especially memorable, not just because it was Yoo's first, but because it was from the broadcasting station where he made his debut.
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He later went on to host the show X-Man, which soon grew to be one of the most popular and most viewed shows in Korea. During that time, he became increasingly popular and many programs began to nickname Yoo as the "MC of the Nation." However, after a few years, the program was canceled due to falling ratings as well as an absence of new and innovative ideas. Yoo went on to host various replacement shows, New X-Man, Old TV(in which guests would re-enact classic TV serials), and Haja! Go! (Let's Do It) for SBS, which were all shortly canceled due to low ratings on Sunday evenings. However, X-Man has found success in international syndication.
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