2 Days & 1 Night (also known as 1 Night 2 Days; abbreviated as 1N2D) is a South Korean reality-variety show that airs every Sunday at 6:25pm KST on KBS2 beginning August 5, 2007. 1 Night 2 Days used to be one of the two segments (the other segment is The Return of Superman) on Happy Sunday. The episodes are also uploaded with English subtitles weekly on YouTube through KBS World's official channel. The show's current cast members are Kim Jong-min, Moon Se-yoon, DinDin, Lee Joon, Jo Se-ho, and Yoo Seon-ho. The show's motto is "Real Wild Road Variety." Its main concept is to recommend various places of interest that viewers can visit in South Korea. Filming for every new trip is usually done 2 weeks prior to broadcast on KBS2. 1 Night 2 Days has gained much popularity and has garnered high viewer ratings. Along with The Return of Superman, the show's third season helped revive and maintain KBS2 Happy Sunday ratings, beating out competition from other major networks since its first episode.

Synopsis

Although there were multiple member line-up changes through each season, 1 Night 2 Days has mostly kept its format. The cast members take various trips throughout South Korea, including many offshore islands. While doing so, members also perform missions at a certain mealtime or point of the day to earn rewards (ex. foods that are famous in the region they visit) and to avoid punishments (ex. going into the water, sleeping outdoors). Guests can be invited not only by the production team but also by the members themselves if they meet the criteria of the episode's concept (ex. ep 396-399).

History

Before 2 Days & 1 Night was first aired, it was preceded by Are You Ready which featured four of the six 2 Days & 1 Night Season 1 members (Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, and Eun Jiwon). Are You Ready was canceled due to low viewership ratings and was replaced by 2 Days & 1 Night after 12 episodes. Singer and actor Lee Ji-hoon was offered to join the cast of 1 Night 2 Days but rejected the role to take a role on MBC drama New Heart instead. Season 1 premiered on August 5, 2007 with cast members Kang Ho-dong, Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, Eun Jiwon, Lee Seung-gi, Noh Hong-chul, Ji Sang-ryul, and Sanggeun the dog mascot. The show later experienced a number of cast member changes. Season 1 broadcast its final episode on February 26, 2012. Season 2 premiered on March 4, 2012 with returning members Lee Soo-geun, Kim Jong-min, and Uhm Tae-woong, who were joined by new members Kim Seung-woo, Cha Tae-hyun, Sung Si-kyung, and Joo Won. Kim Seung-woo left the show in March 2013 to focus on his acting career. He was replaced by fellow actor Yoo Hae-jin. Season 2 officially wrapped up on November 24, 2013. Season 3 premiered on December 1, 2013, with returning members Cha Tae-hyun and Kim Jong-min, and new members Kim Jun-ho, Kim Joo-hyuk, Jung Joon-young, and Defconn. On November 22, 2015, Kim Joo-hyuk left the cast of season 3 on their two-year anniversary. He filmed his last episodes on November 20 and 21. Yoon Shi-yoon was then rumored to be in talks to join the show and officially became the new member in April 2016. Lee Yong-jin joined the cast as 2 Days & 1 Night's first ever intern in December 2018 after appearing as a guest. Jung Joon-young left the show on September 29, 2016 due to his scandal regarding a "sexual offence" charged by his former girlfriend, of which he was later cleared. On January 7, 2017, a production member confirmed that Joon-young will return to the show, already having recorded an episode the previous day. Jung Joon-young was permanently removed on March 12, 2019 by the production team due to his involvement in the Burning Sun scandal concerning non-consensual filming during sex and covert distribution of said illegal videos. As a result, KBS announced on March 15 that they are halting the production and broadcast of 2 Days & 1 Night until further announcement is made. The chatroom exposé also affected members Cha Tae-hyun and Kim Jun-ho with allegations of golf gambling in large amounts, resulting in both of them quitting all their television programs, including 2 Days & 1 Night, with immediate effect. This marked the abrupt end of Season 3, unlike the two previous seasons having traditional farewell episodes. This also marked the end of Defconn, Yoon Shi-yoon and Lee Yong-jin's run with the show. It was revealed in April 2021 that Lee Yong-jin was set to be a permanent cast member of Season 3. An episode welcoming him as a permanent member was filmed but not aired. Season 4 was confirmed in November 2019 with Kim Jong-min returning with new members Yeon Jung-hoon, Moon Se-yoon, Kim Seon-ho, DinDin and Ravi. The new cast filmed the first episode on November 12, 2019 which had its first broadcast on December 8, 2019. On October 20, 2021, both KBS and the production team confirmed that Kim Seon-ho has been removed as a permanent cast member following controversies regarding his personal life. He was edited out of the remaining episodes that were shot prior to his removal in order to "minimize the inconvenience to viewers." Subsequent episodes featured the remaining five cast members until Na In-woo was confirmed to join the show as the sixth member on January 25, 2022, with his first episode airing on February 13, 2022. On April 21, 2022, Ravi announced his departure from the show, with his last episode broadcast on May 1. On November 28, 2022, Yoo Seon-ho was confirmed to be the newest cast member, with his first episode airing on December 11, 2022. On June 9, 2024, Yeon Jung-hoon and Na In-woo announced their departure from the show, with their last episode broadcast on July 21. The show took a 3-week break for live coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympics and underwent a re-organization. On August 2, Jo Se-ho and Lee Joon were confirmed to join the show as new members, with their first episode to air on August 18.

Broadcast

KBS Drama, KBS Joy has often aired re-runs of 1 Night 2 Days. U-KBS HERAT, a DMB, a digital radio transmission technology developed by South Korea, channel aired the show daily from Monday to Friday at 8:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. and recorded the show as one of the "fun to watch" re-runs. KBS World, the international broadcasting service provided by KBS, also started airing English-subtitled episodes (usually one week after the original broadcast) of the show starting from Episode 35 titled as 2 Days and 1 Night. With 1 Night 2 Days being well received, KBS Joy launched a "female version" of 1 Night 2 Days called 다녀오겠습니다. The first season aired between January 12, 2009 and April 29, 2009. The first season's members were gagwoman Kim Sook, Kim E-Z (former member of Baby Vox), Jeong Jung-ah, Bronwyn Mullen (Afrikaaner ethnicity and member on Global Talk Show), Polina Lipina (Russian ethnicity and member on Global Talk Show), and Kim Ji Hye (member of Korean girl group Cats). Season 2 aired from June 3 to September 16, 2009 with two members from Season 1, Kim Sook and Kim E-Z, and new members, actress and singer Yoo Chae-yeong, movie actress Seo Young, gagwoman Kwon Jin-young, and Kang Ye-bin.

Episodes, Guest appearances & Ratings

Cast and character

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Timeline

Current

Former

Criticism of Season 1

Concept

During the early days of 1 Night 2 Days, the show was heavily compared with SBS's Good Sunday's Family Outing and MBC's Infinite Challenge, particularly because Noh Hong-chul was part of both 1 Night 2 Days and Infinite Challenge (which aired on Sundays and Saturdays, respectively). However, the concept of the three shows is different. The concept of 1 Night 2 Days is traveling on a trip with families and friends, while Infinite Challenge is a challenge-based variety program with 7 men competing in games.

Smoking and profanity

The episode which aired on July 6, 2008 gained a lot of criticism from viewers because of a smoking scene. On their trip to Baekdusan, Korea, a scene of MC Mong smoking in the bus was not edited and was aired. In 2004, all 3 major broadcasting stations, KBS, MBC and SBS, agreed to prohibit smoking scenes being aired before midnight. The variety program's directors made an official apology on July 7 for not properly editing the scene before airing the program and it will never occur again. Viewers protested about the "violent scene" on episode 51, which aired July 20, 2008. The scene was a hidden prank of Kang Ho-dong and Kim C getting into an argument to fool the new director who had joined the show. The production team stated that the fight was not intentional and it left good memories. On the episode aired September 21, 2008, scenes of Lee Soo-geun smoking in the village were caught on tape and aired. On the episode aired December 7, 2008, more drinking and smoking scenes appeared. It was deemed unsuitable for families watching the show with their children. In the March 15, 2009 episode, it was said that Kang Ho-dong had uttered the profanity "XX-bitch" in one of the scenes. But the production team denied that Kang Ho-dong had said such a thing on the show and that it was just noises during the car ride.

Antarctic trip

It was announced that on March 9, 2010, the cast and crew of 1 Night 2 Days will take a trip to Antarctica to visit the King Sejong Station. Viewers' opinions were mixed, with some thinking it will be a great experience while others think they should not go. Nonetheless, the production team still had plans to leave on March 9 for the beginning of filming. A small group of the production team even left in February for Chile to prepare for the trip, but they had no choice but to leave and return to Korea after staying in Chile for a week. The reason was due to a blizzard that prevented them from taking a flight to Antarctica from Chile. The production crew had bought brand new HD cameras, lighting equipment and microphones to film the beauty of Antarctica and bring the best resolution to viewers. However, due to the 2010 Chile earthquake on February 27, the production crew had to search for alternate routes to get to Antarctica. Unfortunately, it was announced that the crew had decided to cancel their trip.

Media response and reception

On December 27, 2008 at the 2008 KBS Entertainment Awards, all six cast members were present at the award show and performed "No Matter What" by Park Sang-chul. The show took home five awards – Best Newcomer (Variety), Best Variety Show Writer, Top Popularity Award, Viewer's Choice Program, and the Grand Prize (Daesang). In the Top Popularity Award category, three out of the four nominees were from 1 Night 2 Days – Eun Jiwon, MC Mong, and Lee Seung-gi, for which Lee won the award. The Viewer's Choice Program was based on viewer's votes through surveys and SMS. Happy Sunday ended up with 108.3% of the votes, and trailing behind them with 40.3% of the votes was Happy Together (Gag Concert with 33.1% of votes, A Chat with Beauties with 12.9% of the votes and Sang Sang Plus with 5.3% of the votes). 2 Days & 1 Night 's third season received much positive response. The first episode of 1 Night 2 Days received very high viewer ratings of 14.3% when it first aired in December 2013. At the end of 2014, Happy Sunday segments (1 Night 2 Days and The Return of Superman) wrapped up with ratings of 17.9%, followed by SBS Good Sunday (K-pop Star 4 and Running Man) with 12.1% and MBC Sunday Night (7.8%) with Real Men and Dad, Where Are You Going? In March 2015, KBS's Happy Sunday was in first place in terms of viewer ratings with 14.7%, beating out SBS's Good Sunday (Running Man and Take Care of My Dad) with 11.1% and MBC's Sunday Night (Animals and Real Man) with 8.4%.

Digital single

A digital single of the show's theme song was released on March 29, 2010 and was first heard on episode 135, which was aired March 28, 2010. The title of the song is called "Let's Go Paradise" and is sung by Gil Hak-mi (a contestant on Mnet's talent show Superstar K 1) and Han Bora (from AB Avenue). On the episodes 486-488 which were aired March 5, 12, and 19, 2017, Season 3 members had been given a mission to make an OST for their 10th Anniversary. With the help of several musicians, they succeeded the mission. Producing 3 songs, namely "Remember Each Member", "Day Off", and "Kkanaricano".

In popular culture

The 2015 KBS2 television series The Producers, written by Park Ji-eun and directed by Seo Soo-min, which depicts the lives of the employees of the KBS variety department, is centered around the (fictional) production staff of 2 Days & 1 Night. Unlike the original program, however, the 2 Days & 1 Night depicted in the drama had both male and female cast members and was already in its fifth season. Cha Tae-hyun, who was then a cast member of the original program, played the role of main PD of 2 Days & 1 Night in the drama, while Kim Soo-hyun played a rookie PD and Lee Ji-eun (IU) played a cast member of the show. Several celebrities also made cameo appearances in the drama as (fictional) cast members from various seasons of the show, including Youn Yuh-jung, Geum Bo-ra, Hwang Shin-hye, Hyun Young, You Hee-yeol, Jun Hyun-moo, Yoon Jong-shin, Sandara Park, Kang Seung-yoon, Minwoo, Kim Min-jae and Jisoo.

Awards and recognitions

Being a successful long-running program, 2 Days & 1 Night has won numerous awards at various award ceremonies. At KBS Entertainment Awards, cast members of 2 Days & 1 Night won the Grand Prize in 2008, 2009, 2011, 2016 & 2021 and the show became Viewers' Choice Best Program in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2020 & 2021. In 2008, Kang Ho-dong - cast member of Season 1 received Grand Prize -Television at 44th Baeksang Arts Awards becoming the first comedian to win the award. In 2018, the show received a Presidential Commendation from the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism for the show's effort of promoting tourism since 2007.

Other accolades

International Versions