'Peak Time' gives acts a second chance without the drama

Television

Published: 20 Mar. 2023, 14:08 Updated: 20 Mar. 2023, 15:21

'Peak Time' gives acts a second chance without the drama

Main poster for ″Peak Time″ [JTBC]

We live in an era where K-pop artists landing on Billboard charts and selling a million copies of their albums is no longer surprising news. But the K-pop idols that we know and recognize — performing on extravagant stages to stadiums full of fans — are just a fraction of the acts competing in the industry.

Out of the 30 or so boy bands that debut every year, only two or three survive. This is why the so-called failed idols or nugu idols have been appearing on variety shows.

Nugu, derived from the Korean word “who?” refers to slang coined by international K-pop fans, referring to idols that are lesser know or unknown to many.

“Peak Time” which premiered on Feb. 15 on cable network JTBC, is an audition program that gives these nugu idols a second chance. Twenty-four boy bands that have never reached their “peak” moment fight for the 300 million won ($230,000) total prize money, a chance to release an album and to hold a global showcase [to promote the album].

A scene from JTBC's audion program ″Peak Time″ [JTBC]

The 24 boy bands that have joined the show — all called by different times: 01:00, 02:00, 05:00 and so on, instead of their original band names — range from bands that have yet to make their debut, to bands that have re-united for the program after disbanding almost a decade ago. The fact that each band is not called by its original name is similar to the 2020 JTBC audition show “Sing Again,” where once-famous singers like Lee Mu-jin were identified by numbers.

“Peak Time” has been gaining popularity since the first couple of episodes aired, with the program’s official voting website experiencing trouble after being overwhelmed with global fans. While the viewership rating remains relatively low at 0.8 percent, compared to “Sing Again” which started off with a 3.2 percent rate and remained around 8 percent throughout the season, the show landed at No. 1 in the non-drama ranking, according to Gooddata Corp., for the third week of February and No. 2 for the fourth week of the same month.

Various clips from the show have also seen popularity on YouTube, with performance videos featuring team 23:00 flawlessly covering “Mirotic” (2018) by boy band TVXQ, known for its difficult choreography, garnering 1.2 million views across the multiple YouTube channels run by JTBC. Performance videos of team 11:00 — where all members currently have a part-time job — have reached almost 750,000 views as of Wednesday.

Team 23:00 is known to be Jay, Karam and Injun from five-member boy band DGNA which debuted in 2010 but remained inactive since 2017, whereas team 11:00 is boy band Vanner which debuted only four years ago. DGNA did receive a rookie award back in 2011 at the Seoul Music Awards, both boy bands have remained relatively unknown to most K-pop fans throughout their careers.

Other notable participants include boy band BXB and Aimers — or teams 04:00 and 06:00 — who are participating on the show before official debuting and team 24:00, consisting of four members from four different boy bands, Argon, B.A.P., Xeno-T and B.I.G.

The appealing factor of “Peak Time” is no different from any other audition program — viewers get to make the choices. The concept of your vote helping a nugu idol is leading to immersion in the show, as shown by online comments such as “I have no idea why teams with such talents never got popular" and “I started voting just for this team.”

A differentiating factor of “Peak Time” is that it omits the “evil editing” notorious on audition programs. While other audition shows might focus on some contestants and neglect others, distorting clips to make the show more dramatic and add conflict for viewership ratings, “Peak Time” calmly presents each team performance to a degree that some might describe as boring.

Cable network Mnet’s hit idol audition franchise “Produce 101” series (2016-19) was surrounded with controversy for allegedly increasing some idols’ screen time while reducing others to help boost the popularity of certain acts.

"'Peak Time' feels like a miniaturized version of Korean society focusing on the younger generation who have been caught and dragged by systematic issues" said pop-music critic Kim Yoon-ha.

“It is also similar to ‘Super Star K’ (2009) and ‘Sing Again,’ in that the show provides a second chance to those who were not able to accomplish their dreams.”