Implications of Having K-pop Idol Group Members in Variety Shows

K-pop idols groups are usually comprised of good looking performers. They have lots of fans and each member usually has his/her own trait. They come up with albums and perform their songs on different programs and live performances and they usually have signature traits or dance moves to uniquely identify them among the myriad of K-pop performers.

Another common thing in the K-pop industry is for idol group members to appear on different variety shows on television. These include game shows, talk shows, music programs, comedy programs, reality shows, etc.

On a fan's standpoint, this is really appealing since they get to see their celebrities do something different than just singing and performing. Through variety show appearances, the fans can get a glimpse of their personalities and what more they are capable of. This alleviates the interest of the fans.

However, on a management and production label's standpoint, there may be times when variety shows can get in the way of their main agendum which is to promote album sales. Promotion of album sales usually entails live performances in different venues and sometimes, they even go overseas as what we are seeing today.

For example, let's have Girls Generation or So Nyuh Shi Dae (SNSD). They are quite popular not only in South Korea but all throughout Asia and the rest of the world. Personally, I've seen them in so many South Korean variety shows and a lot of the members are mainstays in some of them.

They were planning a promotional tour and they already went to Japan for promotion of their songs and albums and they even had one of their songs, Genie, translated and performed in Japanese. And recently, they visited Los Angeles, along with some of the artists under the SM Entertainment logo, to perform and promote their albums.

In light with this, due to the hectic schedules of these performers, they have to pull out from their variety shows as they won't be able to partake in the filming of these programs. They don't have time and it's also simply because they are not able to show up at all.

Now, on a variety show production's perspective, this may implicate a hit on their ratings since a lot of the fans of these idol group members watch those variety shows only because their favorite idol is participating in a particular show. The variety show Invincible Youth, which showcases celebrities living a simple rural life, has 7 idol group members and because of international promotions, 3 of the original mainstay cast had to pull out from the program. As expected, a lot of the fans reacted to this move and sadly, some of them do not watch the show anymore. Read more about it here.

KBS Invincible Youth Introduces the New G7 Members
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5504790/kbs_invincible_youth_introduces_the.html?cat=7

This is the biggest implication of having idol group members in variety shows. It can affect the ratings of the program and could possibly dictate whether the show will continue or not. But that's reality and we can't do anything about it since their priority is to promote their work. A very good workaround here is for variety shows to show something different or more interesting to keep the viewers glued to their programs.