Famous Variety Show Issues Explanation After Lee Yi Kyung Publicly Calls Them Out For Their Handling Of His Appearance And Departure
After Actor Lee Yi Kyung shared his personal thoughts on his private life controversy and spoke up against several variety show production teams, one has issued an apology.
Previously, actor Lee Yi Kyung issued a personal statement addressing his private life controversy that stemmed from an online netizen reportedly residing in Germany who spread unverified rumors about him. In his statement, he calls out several variety shows for how they handled the situation.
He said about “Hangout With Yoo,” “Even during the previous controversy [referring to the noodles eating clip], I clearly said I did not want to do it, but they said they borrowed the noodle restaurant because of me and asked, and my line ‘We are doing it as a variety show!’ was edited out. After the controversy broke out, the production team only gave the absurd excuse that they were in a hurry, and the controversy had to be endured entirely by me personally, and my image suffered great damage,” revealing behind-the-scenes details of filming for “Hangout With Yoo.”
Due to this, many netizens began criticizing the show for their attitude and on November 22, the show issued an apology, about the controversial noodles slurping clip, they stated,
“Hello. This is the production team of “Hangout With Yoo?”.
We are sorry for causing concern to everyone who loves “Hangout With Yoo?” due to this incident. On the afternoon of Friday the 21st, regarding the “Hangout With Yoo?” related issue included in the post that Lee Yi Kyung uploaded, we will tell you everything without hiding anything.
First, the noodle-slurping situation that Lee Yi Kyung mentioned is a fault of the production team for not being able to protect the cast member. Lee Yi Kyung, who worked hard to bring laughter to viewers, showed the noodle-slurping situation spontaneously during the Hong Kong and Japan episodes’ filming, and at that time, the production team judged that the reaction was not bad.
Afterward, wanting to give fun once again, we asked Lee Yi Kyung to do the noodle slurping, but our greed was excessive. During the production process, the “It’s for variety!” comment that Lee Yi Kyung mentioned was edited out, and not accurately understanding the viewers’ sentiment, we caused hurt to Lee Yi Kyung and discomfort to the viewers. Instead of the edited comment, we tried to deliver the message to see it as variety through the selected comment “For the sake of fun again…” and caption, but it seems it was insufficient.
After the controversy arose, we conveyed words of apology to Lee Yi Kyung, and from the opening that was originally to be aired the following week, we quickly edited only the noodle-slurping explanation part and put it into the broadcast of that week. However, acknowledging the insufficiency of the production team for not being able to completely resolve the noodle-slurping controversy, we once again convey our apologies to Lee Yi Kyung and everyone who felt discomfort.
Regarding the decision for his departure from the show,
Next, we will speak regarding the departure situation. In the situation where the private-life rumor spreading incident involving Lee Yi Kyung was being expanded through media, due to the nature of a variety program that must give laughter every week, we judged that it was difficult to continue together.
As Lee Yi Kyung mentioned, the production team first recommended departure to the agency side, and the production team expressed the stance that even if the agency chose to publish in articles that the production team recommended departure, we would follow that choice. Afterward, from Lee Yi Kyung’s agency, contact arrived saying they would choose voluntary departure due to schedule.
From the position of having recommended departure, the production team thought it was the minimum courtesy for Lee Yi Kyung and asked the cast members to mention voluntary departure due to schedule coordinated with the agency, and we conveyed this through the broadcast. The cast members only followed our request out of consideration for Lee Yi Kyung. We ask that criticism or groundless speculation toward the other cast members be refrained.
The “Hangout With Yoo?” production team will examine the entire production process more meticulously and carefully so that the efforts of the cast members for laughter do not become distorted.
Once again, we sincerely apologize to Lee Yi Kyung who was hurt and to all those who were caused concern.
What do you think of their statement?
