Oh! Boy audition reality show premieres today

by javabeans

Cable channel tvN’s new line of youth-targeted programming, which they’re calling the Oh! Boy series (which I’d first mentioned here), kicks off today with the launch of their first “flower boy” project, audition reality show Flower Boy Casting: Oh! Boy.

Jung Il-woo’s upcoming drama Flower Boy Ramyun Shop has been getting most of the attention for tvN, but it’s not the inaugural Flower Boy program. Flower Boy Casting will follow seven finalists in a competition, with the winner scoring a role in tvN’s second Oh! Boy drama series, Band Drama (a working title — the drama was previously working under the name Flower Boy Attack Band).

The Oh! Boy brand is really going after the youth market in a way that most prime-time shows don’t; the viewership for those dramas tends to skew older, where “young” might mean a 20- or 30-something audience. Not so tvN, which is aiming for teens: Their first two programs are populated by high-school pretty boys.

The contestants participating in Flower Boy Casting: Oh! Boy were culled from a pool of 200 hopefuls down to 25, who were interviewed and then cut down again to our final group. They aren’t total newbies to the industry but are rookie models and actors, which makes sense — if you’re going to cast one right away, you’d better hope he’s got some basic acting skills.

The show will cut one contestant per week and incorporates a panel of judges, an MC, and interviews with the competitors. The reality show will air for seven episodes, and presumably the winner will jump right into preparation for his drama debut in the band drama. (Reportedly, they’d wanted to cast him for the first drama series — he’s a winner one week, a drama character the next — but as scheduling would have it, that gave them too little time to actually produce the drama with the winner.) Flower Boy Ramyun Shop airs for 16 episodes beginning on October 31, and the Band Drama (which I’m betting will have another name change) plans to air early next year.

The reality show released teasers for each of the contestants, which you can watch below:

Do Sang-woo:

Dong Hyun-bae

Hwang In-deok

Jo Sung-jin:

Yoo Min-kyu:

Kim Hyun-joon:

Kim Jae-young:

Via TV Report

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