[NEWS] Yoo Jae Seok, Lee Kwang Soo, and Kwon Yu Ri Team Up for New Variety Show ‘The Zone: Survival Mission’

The Zone: Survival Mission is a new Korean variety show that is premiering on Disney+. The show features top names in the industry — Yoo Jae Seok, Lee Kwang Soo, and Kwon Yu Ri. The variety show challenged the three hosts who will be the representatives of mankind, into eight unexpected situations where they will be challenged to survive for four hours and not give up, in order to complete each mission.

The production team that worked on this new variety show also worked on Family Outing, Running Man, and Busted. 

When asked about the show, Producer Cho Hyo Jin answered, “I know we’re not out of the woods yet, but when we first began developing the idea for The Zone: Survival Mission, the Covid-19 pandemic was raging on. Around that time, I encountered phrases that went along the lines of “It’s not the strongest that survive, but the survivors are the strongest. So, you must try your best to hang in there. Those who do will survive.” It occurred to me that endurance is not only about the pandemic, but our daily life is a constant struggle to endure, and I wanted to create a variety show based on that idea. As you saw in the trailer, the cast of the show are the representatives of humanity — not in the sense that they are superheroes, but they represent those who are less than the average person.” 

The show was created through the idea of Yoo Jae Seok where he thought of ‘enduring’ instead of ‘escaping,’ which was something he would always do in the variety shows that he did. Through this idea and by discussing it with the production team, the show was then created.

Yoo Jae Seok has been working with this team for quite some time through the different shows he has done before. “I have done a lot of entertainment shows about ‘escaping.’ While talking about how it would feel like to be in a situation contrary to ‘escaping,’ something we have to endure, the production team began to create the plan for the show. Production Director Cho Hyo Jin made it well with the keywords that came during our talks. I participated in making all parts of it, but what if I don’t appear in the program? Since it’s the program we created together, I had no choice but to join it.” he said.

Lee Kwang Soo, who has been in multiple variety show programmes, revealed why he decided to appear on the show. He explained, “I have seen variety shows that use the escape room concept or on the premise of escaping from a certain situation, but the premise of this show where the cast members are supposed to simply hang on to survive was very refreshing to me. Hyo Jin also said that filming was supposed to be done within four hours no matter what. On top of that, I was excited to work with the production crew I love as well as Jae Seok and Yu Ri. So, that’s why I decided to join them for this project.”

On the other hand, when asked why she joined the show, Kwon Yu Ri answered, “For starters, the scale of the show was massive. I’m a huge fan of escape rooms, and this was a real-life version with a greater scale and a wider variety of scenarios that ensured we were immersed in the mission. It was very fascinating to me. Most importantly, we all know the great duo that Jae Seok and Kwang Soo make. It was a great chance to watch in person the chemistry between the “Kwang-Jae duo,” and I thought I could add new, refreshing energy to the chemistry.”

Yoo Jae Seok recommended Kwon Yu Ri to join the show. “I really wanted her to be on a variety show. I thought she would say no because she’s busy!” he said. Kwang Soo mentioned that if they did not have Yu Ri, they would not have survived because she had to be strong for all of them since the variety show kings — Kwang Soo and Jae Seok are weak.

For the show, there is an in-game mechanic called the “Exit Button” that allows the cast to end the simulation immediately provided all three agree to exit together. Yoo Jae Seok and Lee Kwang Soo repeatedly wanted to use this when things get difficult, but Yu Ri literally shook them to their senses. “If it wasn’t for me, the show would be over!” said Kwon Yu Ri. 

Moving on to the press conference segments, the first segment was called ‘Mission Zone Talk.’ The segment showed a sneak peek of episodes 1 to 3 through Mission Zone Talk. Each picture carries a behind-the-scenes episode where they had to explain what was going on during that time. The second segment was called ‘The Chemistry Zone Talk.’  The host read out a question, and the hosts and  producers can simply point at the person that you feel is the answer to that question.

Finishing up with the event, the hosts and producers said their last few words for the audience. “The Zone: Survival Mission was my first project with Disney+, and we were all very committed to creating a great show, so I hope many viewers around the world enjoy it. A lot of Korean content like Squid Game has been loved so much by viewers around the world, but when it comes to variety shows, I don’t think we have seen anything that garnered the same level of global popularity even though I myself have worked on a few variety shows with a streaming platform. Even if this show is not perfect, we will continue to work hard to create something that can be more widely enjoyed. I hope you stay tuned to our show and watch it when it’s released. In fact, Disney+ provided a lot of support for our show including the production budget. Without Disney+, we wouldn’t have been able to create a variety show like this, so I’d like to thank Disney+ again,” Yoo Jae Seok said.

Producer Kim Dong Jin said, “We all had a great time filming the show, and despite all the difficulties, we enjoyed the entire creative process, including post-production. I hope that positive energy translates well into the show so it can bring great entertainment and laughs to the viewers. I hope you watch the show and enjoy it. Thank you.”

First three episodes of the ‘The Zone: Survival Mission’

The first three episodes of The Zone: Survival Mission premiered on September 8, KST. It was shown before the Chuseok holiday. The teamwork and chemistry of the group are worth the time spent watching the show. The different ‘zones’ of the future that we might be heading towards sets them apart from other variety shows. 

The episodes are very entertaining and it brings out more than just laughter. It is also an eye-opener for those who are watching the show. This show is definitely worth watching with your family and friends!

If this were you, would you have survived, no matter what? 

We would like to extend our greatest thanks to Disney+ for the media invite! 

Written by: Tricia
Photos by: Disney+

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