K-Pop Is Truly Going Global With the BBC’s ‘Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience’

If you didn’t already believe K-pop was going truly global, then this is your sign it most definitely is.

Global girl groups adopting the K-pop system is nothing new. In June, American girl group KATSEYE entered the music scene with “Debut.” They are notably housed under HYBE Labels, home to BTS and SEVENTEEN. In the Philippines, SB19 debuted in 2018 after going through a rigorous South Korean-inspired training system.

Now, the K-pop system will hit the United Kingdom, with the show Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience.

What is Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience?

On July 11, 2024, it was announced the BBC had acquired a new entertainment series titled Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience. The show is done in collaboration with SM Entertainment, one of the biggest entertainment companies in South Korea. The company houses K-pop powerhouses Girls’ Generation, EXO, aespa, NCT, and more. The show is also produced in collaboration with Kakao Entertainment America.

Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience will be a six-part series that follows five U.K. contestants as they land in South Korea and are put through 100 days of the rigorous K-pop training system. All of this will be done in the hopes of debuting as the world’s next biggest boy band.

This will be the first time SM Entertainment’s training system will be documented to this extent, and it will show the boys working with some of the industry’s greatest choreographers and songwriters. They will be tutored by some of the biggest experts in the K-pop world. Will they be able to make it through the grueling choreography, vocal, and performance lessons?

Besides the training aspect, viewers will also see the boys learning more about K-pop and Korean life. The contestants will also be given life coaching techniques.

Each week, the group’s progress will be graded by Hee Jun Yoon, a K-pop expert and creative mind behind some of the biggest K-pop groups of the last 20 years. This boot camp will train the members to achieve stardom … But will they succeed?

If they do succeed, the boys will debut as SM Entertainment’s first U.K.-based boy group. Currently, the identities of the contestants have yet to be revealed.

When is Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience airing?

Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience will launch on BBC One and iPlayer this summer 2024. For international viewers, ITV Studios is in charge of international distribution.

Currently, there is no specific date for when the show will be released.