Next career step for Joo looks to be TV executive

Joo Chul-hwan

Joo Chul-hwan, a former star TV producer and now a journalism professor at Ewha Womans University, is expected to explore another career as a television station chief executive.
Open Broadcasting Station TV, a new cable TV station slated to begin broadcasting in November, said it would designate Joo as its first chief executive on July 20 at a board and shareholders meeting.
Joo started his TV career at MBC TV station in 1983. He became a star producer after developing a series of hit shows, earning stardom that was rare for a TV producer who works behind the scenes.
His programs, some of which lasted for more than a decade in the fast-changing Korean TV industry, became household names and helped Joo win numerous industry awards.
His big hits included Quiz Academy, in which teams of college students compete in trivia quiz challenges and win an overseas travel prize.
The show was a hit when traveling overseas was a rare privilege in the 1980s. Some participants on the show even earned brief stardom.
Joo produced other television comedy shows and even a show for young servicemen in which his TV crew visited a squad every week and held a celebrity performance. The show gave soldiers an opportunity to see their parents on TV. It was popular with Korean parents who sent their sons to the mandatory two-year military service.
Joo left MBC in 2000 to teach broadcast production at Ewha Womans University.

By Jung Yong-joon Contributing Writer [hawon@joongang.co.kr]