X-Man () was a popular South Korean game show which ran from November 8, 2003 to April 8, 2007 on SBS. Its popularity peaked in 2004, but a decline in ratings led to its cancellation. It was hosted by Yu Jae-seok (MC Yu/MC?), Kang Ho-dong, Kim Jae-dong, who was later replaced by Gong Hyung-jin, Park Kyung-lim, and Lee Hyuk-jae; only the first two were on the program since its inception.

X-Man started out as a program in Real Situation Saturday on November 8, 2003, and it was a huge hit. During its period in Real Situation Saturday, it was referred to as "Real Situation: Finding X-Man" (???? X?? ???). Because of its unique concept and interesting games, X-Man quickly gained an audience. X-Man contained main games and mini-games, all referred to as "Missions". Eventually, missions were reduced due to the addition of a "Couple Event" that took up 3/4 of the 2nd episode in a season. Due to high ratings, it later moved on to Sunday on October 10, 2004, under the program Good Sunday, in an attempt to revive the sinking show. X-Man is loosely based on The Mole.

Format

Each episode was divided into two parts, airing in consecutive weeks. The various celebrities were divided into two teams, with one led by Kang (Kang Team) and the second by the other main MC (initially Kim Jae Dong, then Gong Hyung Jin, then Park Kyung Rim, then finally Lee Hyuk Jae). Yu Jae Seok served as the show's mediator and main MC. At the start of each episode, one celebrity would be chosen by the producer to be the X-Man, whose main mission was to disrupt teamwork in his or her team and purposely throw challenges while keeping his or her identity a secret. Winning teams of each mission would be awarded ?1 million ^[1].

After all the missions, the guests then voted on who they think is the X-Man. The celebrity participant who was chosen was then digitally "fingerprinted" to see if the others chose correctly. If the others chose correctly, any money earned by the teams was donated to charity, under the names of the various guests. If they failed to find the X-Man, the X-Man was considered to have succeeded and the money donated to charity was given under the X-Man's name.

Missions

X-Man has featured many missions that have become very popular with the general audience. Missions consisted of various physical and mental games, including wrestling, "Horse Riding" (??! ???)^[2], "Of Course!" (????!) ^[3], dodgeball (???X), and the "Couple Event"(???? ???). The missions changed every few months.

Reception

During the last months of 2005, there was a decline in ratings. Rival shows like KBS's Happy Sunday lineup and MBC's Sunday Sunday Night were gaining in popularity. X-Mans previous ratings of around 19.5%^[4] had dropped to 11.8%^[5] after a year. In order to regain viewers, X-Man had many special episodes, which had contestants either going to various places (Japan, Germany for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, China) or had special, unique guests (Michelle Wie, TVXQ). However, ratings did not rebound to their previous levels, and the show was finally overhauled for the Fall 2006 season and dubbed New X-Man.

New X-Man

Due to low ratings, the shows format changed. Although the hosts remained the same, the concept changed; instead of being the team disrupter, the X-Man became the top choice among various celebrities for a various topic.

Therefore, the objective of the game was to guess who would be the #1 vote-getter and trade the X-Man over to the other side. The only time this was possible was when the team won the mission, after which they would have the chance to either retrieve someone from the other team or send someone over. At certain points in the show, the lower positions would be revealed a few at a time, with only the top few remaining before the final mission. The team who has the X-Man loses the entire "game".

Teams were chosen through a lottery system, with MC Yu serving as the "divider". The number he picked served as the dividing line between the teams (with MC Kang getting the guests with earlier numbers, and MC Lee getting the later numbers). In the event of an unfair division (for example, if the number 10 was chosen), the teams would simply be divided in half.

Although New X-Man occasionally entered the Top 20 chart, the new audience was not sustained and its final episode aired on April 8, 2007. It was replaced first by Haja! Go! (??!?), then by Old TV (??TV), both shows hosted by Yu, but neither shows could garner ratings and Good Sunday was revamped once again.

Hosts/Guests

Season is meant by "?" in Korean

Season 1

• MC: Kim Jae-Dong
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
• ?(Yu) Team Captain: Yu Jae-Seok

Season 2

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
• ?(Yu) Team Captain: Kim Jae-Dong

Season 3-23

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
• ?(Kim) Team Captain: Kim Jae-Dong

Season 24-34

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong ^[6]
• ?(Gong) Team Captain: Gong Hyung-Jin

Season 35-59

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
  • Assistant Team Captain: Lee Jin/Hwang Bo
• ?(Park) Team Captain: Park Kyung-Lim
  • Assistant Team Captain: Yun Eun-hye/Chae Yeon

Season 60-67,69-70/1-20(New X-Man)

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
• ?(Lee) Team Captain: Lee Hyuk-Jae

Season 68

• MC: Yu Jae-Seok
• ?(Kang) Team Captain: Kang Ho-Dong
• ?(Park) Team Captain: Park Myung-Su ^[7]

Trivia

• MC Kim was the only MC on X-Man, to have his team name written in Hanja (Chinese lettering) as opposed to the traditional Hangul. This may be because the Hangul for Kang and Kim are very close to one another (? (Kim) ? (Kang)).
• The original team names, Kang (?) and Yu (?), were actually meant in Hanja for "? - ?" as in strong and "? - ?" as in tender, representing Kang Ho-Dong and Yu Jae-Seok respectively, but were disregarded once Kim Jae-Dong became team leader.
• Assistant Team Captains were introduced in response to permanent guests assisting the team captains in organization, cheering, and gags. They were not officially introduced until Park Kyung-Lim's reign as team captain, but existed as early as Gong Hyung-Jin's reign as team captain. The Assistant Team Captain would vary depending on which "permanent" guest was available for that season. Mainly Lee Jin and Hwang Bo alternated for Kang Team whereas Yun Eun-Hye and Chae Yeon alternated for Park Team. Assistant Team Captains were later abandoned due to changes in permanent guests.
• When identifying who is X-Man, if the suspect was X-Man, the screen read "Identical" (??), if the suspect was not X-Man, it would read "Discordant" (???) and carbon dioxide would be sprayed in the form of an "X" in front of the suspect. Starting in Season 65, the Couple Event took place in a different set resembling a forest, the "finger-print ceremony" took place there as well, but lacking a screen, in which "Identical" would be represented by fireworks, and "Discordant" was still represented by "X" carbon dioxide.
• Originally, suspects were identified corresponding to the number of votes received, but after earlier seasons, after incorrectly identifying X-Man, he/she was simply revealed by MC Yu in order to save time.

Notes

1. ↑ Actual amounts were undisclosed after earlier seasons.
2. ↑ A traditional Korean game.
3. ↑ Of Course is a game in which one side forced the other to agree with whatever they said, disregarding how unreal and embarrassing it was.
4. ↑ Ratings Jan. 2, 2005(Korean), TNS Media Korea, Retrieved on September 13, 2007
5. ↑ Ratings July 23, 2006(Korean), TNS Media Korea, Retrieved on September 13, 2007
6. ↑ Shin Jung-Hwan was briefly the captain of Shin(?) Team during Season 34 when Kang Ho-Dong was disregarded by teammates.
7. ↑ Lee Hyuk-Jae was unable to attend due to personal matters.

References

1. ↑ Actual amounts were undisclosed after earlier seasons.
2. ↑ A traditional Korean game.
3. ↑ Of Course is a game in which one side forced the other to agree with whatever they said, disregarding how unreal and embarrassing it was.
4. ↑ Ratings Jan. 2, 2005(Korean), TNS Media Korea, Retrieved on September 13, 2007
5. ↑ Ratings July 23, 2006(Korean), TNS Media Korea, Retrieved on September 13, 2007
6. ↑ Shin Jung-Hwan was briefly the captain of Shin(?) Team during Season 34 when Kang Ho-Dong was disregarded by teammates.
7. ↑ Lee Hyuk-Jae was unable to attend due to personal matters.

External links

• X-Man Official Homepage
• New X-Man Official Homepage

ko:X? th:X-Man ??????????????? zh:X-Man

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