‘3 Meals’ spinoff postponed

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‘3 Meals’ spinoff postponed

A spinoff of popular reality show “Three Meals a Day” has been delayed from being televised because of a tax evasion scandal surrounding one of its presenters.

The first episode of “Fishing Village” was to air on Friday night, but the production team sent out a press release Friday morning that said it has decided to postpone the show in order to edit out the parts Korean Wave actor Jang Keun-suk appears in.

Jang is one of the three hosts for the show set in a small fishing village.

“We asked Jang’s agency whether he evaded taxes and he confirmed that he did not do it intentionally,” the agency said.

“Since he has already paid all the omitted taxes, there seemed to be no problem having him in future episodes. But news reports [about Jang’s alleged tax evasion] keep coming out and we are well aware that many viewers are concerned about having him in the show.”

The agency added it came to the conclusion that now is not the right time to feature Jang after discussing the matter with the star and his agency.

Local news outlets reported on Wednesday that Jang has recently paid off 10 billion won ($924,000) in taxes he allegedly evaded.

Tree J Company, Jang’s agency, released a statement on the same day refuting the reports.

“It is true that Jang was investigated [by the National Tax Service],” said his agency. “But he didn’t pay additional taxes at all.”

The agency later corrected itself and said the tax problem “is not a fault of Jang but a mistake made by his agency, and all the omitted taxes have been paid.”

The first episode of the spinoff will hit screens on Jan. 23, a week from now.

The production team has no plans to substitute Jang with someone else.

“Fishing Village” is highly anticipated among people who have watched the original. “Three Meals a Day” became a huge hit as it candidly showed celebrities struggling to feed themselves in the wild.

By Sung So-young
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