SEOUL, March 15 — 2 Days & 1 Night will go on indefinite hiatus, television broadcaster KBS announced today.
Disgraced entertainer Jung Joon-young was one of the popular reality-variety show’s cast members before his removal earlier this week.
Jung is under investigation over allegations that he filmed himself having sex with at least 10 women and shared the footage without the women’s knowledge or consent in online group chatrooms.
Many viewers had called for the show to halt production after Jung’s recent infraction, because he had already been suspended once before, in 2016, after his first hidden-cam controversy. He joined the cast in December 2013.
In a statement, KBS said that it had banned Jung from all its programmes, adding that it had initially wanted to edit him out of two yet-to-air episodes.
However, it was decided that the programme would be taken off the air so that its format could be tweaked instead, after the severity of the allegations came to light.
The broadcaster also expressed regret over its decision to reinstate Jung following his 2016 scandal.
“Since singer Jung Joon Young had a similar controversy three years ago, we feel a strong responsibility for simply accepting the decision of the investigative authorities to acquit him and not verifying completely before deciding on his return to the cast,” it said in the statement.
At the time, Jung was accused by an ex-girlfriend of filming their sexual encounter without her consent, although he was acquitted after she dropped the charge.
2 Days & 1 Night sees cast members, including Kim Jong-min, Cha Tae-hyun and Kim Joon-ho, along with guests visit South Korean destinations, while performing missions. It has been on the air since 2007.
