EBS CEO apologizes for live incident
EBS CEO Kim Myung-joong issued an apology on Wednesday for the scenes of violence and verbal abuse that were aired live on “Tok! Tok! Boni Hani,” a children’s program on EBS.“Scenes showing an act of violence and verbal abuse that were sexually inappropriate were aired on live on the program recently and we apologize deeply for the troubles we caused to viewers, including young students,” Kim said in a written statement released by the company. “EBS decided to ban the two personalities who committed the acts from the show and deleted the contents from the web.”
The scene in question involved one of the male hosts of the show, Choi Young-soo, 35, raising his fist as if he was about to hit one of the female hosts, Chae Yeon, 16. Chae appears to cringe before him, but it is unclear what happens after as another host of the show steps in front of the camera. This specific EBS program is always aired live.
The footage went viral online and netizens started to demand that EBS fire Choi from the show. Soon after, a clip of Park Dong-geun, another host of the show, hurling expletives at Chae during another episode of the program hit the internet.
Both Choi and Park have been suspended from the program.
In an exclusive report Thursday by Sports Chosun, EBS was said to have decided to suspend the program for now and switch out the show’s lead producer.
The channel has recently been in the spotlight after receiving positive reviews for the success of Pengsoo, a giant penguin character created for a new children’s program on the channel, who unexpectedly became popular among viewers in their 20s and 30s.
By Esther Chung
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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