A South Korean variety show's "Running Man" Chinese version "Hurry Up Brother," bumped up the television channel ratings and topped other entertainment broadcasters in China. The variety show which centers on groups of celebrities compete to accomplish assigned missions broadcasts on Zhejiang network.
Data showed on July 14, Thursday, that Zhejiang occupied the top spot with 1.4 percent of the top 10 Chinese TV channels for entertainment programs for the second quarter while rival Hunan TV came with 1.1 percent. Upon airing "Hurry Up Brother," the network started to catch up with Hunan TV with the second quarter rankings showing clear victory over Hunan, Yonhap News reported.
The "Running Man" Chinese version is co-produced by South Korean broadcaster SBS and Zhejiang was first aired in Oct. 2014. China has over 2,000 TV channels, hence, a percent viewership is a popularity barometer, which was so easy for the variety show in its first season.
Viewership rose to 5 percent on its second season, while the fourth season averaged 3 percent viewership, which is China's highest for an entertainment program. The program generated an amount of income for the broadcasting company with its top ad spot for season 4 reaching almost 150 billion won or $131 million.
However, the Chinese government has new regulations for broadcasting in July that allows only one reality show season per network a year. Hence, Zhejiang postpones season 5 next year due to the new regulations.
Meanwhile, the original "Running Man" variety show on SBS South Korea, recently gave a birthday shout out to Lee Kwang Soo aka Giraffe. On July 14, Thursday, the show posted on Instagram a photo of its cast member holding a birthday cake and it looks like it was taken in the middle of filming the variety show considering that he was still sweating, according to Soompi.
The goofy character is among the most popular cast members of the variety show, who is loved by fans because even if he seems pitiful, he is still hilarious. Giraffe received lots of gifts and well-wishes on his birthday.
Lee was born on July 14, 1985 so his Korean age is 32 since Koreans consider a newborn to be one year old. Lee is also filming his recent project, "Entourage Korea."
Check on the Chinese TV variety show "Hurry Up Brother" below.