They challenged a drain to see which one could scoop up the bathtub water faster, and they had a one to six tennis match with Maria Sharapova, they even ambushed one Infinite Challenge MC’s house without notice. These are what six members of Infinite Challenge do every Saturday on TV. What they do is absolutely different from what other programs’ MCs do on their show, and that’s why Infinite Challenge is so special and popular. Producer Kim Tae Ho is always busy coming up with all these brilliant ideas to make every episode of Infinite Challenge more unique.
“When I received notice from MBC that I was admitted, I was at the department store thinking about whether or not to buy a pair of brand-name jeans. And I was happy that I was able to use my credit card,” recollected Kim with a smile. As Kim had been quite confident of passing the MBC producer recruiting exam even before he received the phone call, he had rejected joining another journalism company which had informed him of his acceptance earlier than MBC. People questioned his behavior, but his belief turned out to be true.
“This Saturday I’m going to take an early morning flight to the Philippines to discover a desert island,” remarked Kim. Since he explores new places where he will shoot Infinite Challenge and visits art galleries to get inspired and create new ideas when he has some free time, Kim has been unable to rest for the past two years.
Despite the difficulty of producing a new episode every week, he truly enjoys and is proud of his work. To him, every member of Infinite Challenge is a most precious actor and every single episode is a work of art. “It would be much easier for me if I just made the same program like other ordinary ones. But I’m still young, and I want to make something new and fun while I’m young,” said Kim.
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When Kim sometimes appears on the program, the Infinite Challenge members often just call him “Tae Ho” like he is their friend. Not just on the show but in real life, Kim has a close relationship with all of the members. He meets them at least three times a week; Kim and six Infinite Challenge members spend one or two days together shooting the show, and Kim often visits other show programs that Infinite Challenge members host or show up on as panelists. He also cares about each member’s personal life, counsels them about their worries and checks their condition every week. “As I believe it is very important to have a pleasant shooting ambience, I try to talk to the members more and approach them as an easy going person,” said Kim. Proving this to be true, No Hong Chul, one of the six Infinite Challenge members, called Kim during our interview to congratulate him on his birthday.
Recently, some newspapers raised suspicion that some episodes of Infinite Challenge were plagiarized from parts of Japanese programs. “Some newspapers insist that putting water inside a ball is plagiarizing a Japanese program. But I think it could have been tried anywhere like in America, Japan or Angola,” said Kim. “If that makes the program plagiarized, it means that the last two years of effort by all of the Infinite Challenge staff and myself are in vain. As keeping silent is accepted as an acknowledgement, and explaining about the suspicion creates bigger controversy and tarnishes our members’ image, I’ve decided I’d rather keep quiet.”
Besides the program’s uniqueness, Infinite Challenge is also famous for its magnificent guests; world renowned celebrities like Maria Sharapova and Michelle Wie as well as many popular Korean actors who rarely show up on TV like Kim Tae Hee and Lee Young Ae have appeared on Infinite Challenge. In most cases, celebrities suggested coming out on the show first, and there were even many occasions that Kim rejected so-called top class celebrities. “What I believe is most important is whether or not the celebrities will make the program more entertaining. If I don’t think so, I just turn them down no matter how popular they are,” said Kim.
Kim offered three pieces of advice to KU students who have a dream of becoming a television producer. First of all, as there is severe competition, he believes that only one who is very lucky can pass the broadcast station producer recruiting exam and become a producer. Second, keeping up with trends and issues is very important to prepare for the recruiting exam. Third, it’s important to go half a step forward more than others to attract the audience. Doing the same thing as others is surely too banal to draw people, and going one step forward is too innovative to captivate the audience’s minds.
Although, Kim is now one of the most successful producers, he is not necessarily going to stick to this determined life path. For now, as he is very interested in fashion, he hopes to open his own fashion mall some time in the future. “When I was 29 years old, I was admitted to the Fashion Institute of Technology’s business course. At the time I contemplated upon whether I should continue my work as a producer, or quit and study abroad. I decided to hold my decision until I turn 35 years old. And now there are only two years left for me to make a decision,” said Kim.
hyozzini@korea.ac.kr
