Many fans are upset because they say Jungkook of BTS was mistreated during the filming of the new variety show “Flower Crew.”
Fans tuned in for the first episode of the show, which is being broadcast via the V Live app. The premise is about two teams who complete various tasks as they travel, the “flower road” team and the “dirt road” team. Depending on the results of their tasks and the subsequent formation of the groups, one group will have a definite advantage over the others as the road ahead of them will be much easier.
Fans were excited to see the entertaining and competitive Jungkook participate in this new show alongside his co-stars: comedian Jo Se Ho, “Descendants of the Sun” actor Kim Min Suk, former soccer player Ahn Jung Hwan, actor and TV personality Yoo Byung Jae, and former basketball player Seo Jang Hoon.
While Korean variety shows are famous for their “bullying” style humor (with shows like “Running Man” and “Weekly Idol” showing this type of humor each episode), many viewers felt like the treatment of Jungkook went far beyond humorous and just turned into rude and disrespectful behavior.
Things started off badly when Jungkook, the maknae of the group, excitedly bought hamburgers for the other members. However, when he offered them to his seniors, it’s said that many of them turned him down in a rude manner, particularly Jo Se Ho. In the episode, he takes the food and looks at it as Jungkook tells about the food in an animated manner. Then, without another word to Jungkook and as he mainly looks at other members, Se Ho just hands him the food back and doesn’t accept it. Jungkook looks very surprised and turns to the camera. “They didn’t accept it,” he said with a shocked face.
The real problems started later on though when they start the competition to become the leaders of each team and fans take an active part in the show by voting in realtime. At this point Jo Se Ho began to complain that Jungkook’s popularity was disadvantageous for the others. As one Twitter user and BTS fan described, “Jo Se Ho kept saying how this was pretty much ‘Jungkook’s show’ and a ‘show made for Jungkook’ and how it’s pretty much not fair because he has such a huge international fandom.” Then, as a seeming reminder to put him in his place due to the importance of age in Korea, he turned to Jungkook and said “How old are you?'”
At this point Jungkook became uncomfortable and starting motioning at the screen that he didn’t want the votes and didn’t want to win, even going so far as to ask his fans not to vote for him.
Fans noticed there was also some rude behavior to other cast members as well, such as making comments to Kim Min Suk that they were unsure if he would even have fans to vote for him, acting shocked that Yoo Byung Jae had so many votes for him (prompting him to remind them that he does have his own fan club after all!), cutting Jungkook off when he was speaking, and even telling Yoo Byung Jae to shut up when he was trying to read a comment.
The gruff Seo Jang Hoon and Jo Se Ho begin to fight and pick at one another so much that finally soccer star Ahn Jung Hwan stepped in and asked them to stop, saying that their behavior was making him uncomfortable.
Korean fans are very upset at the treatment of Jungkook and the behavior of some of the cast members. Now, as international fans become aware of what occurred, the situation is becoming worse.
Did you see the episode? Did you think Jungkook was treated badly? What about the other members?
Picture: “Flower Crew” (V Live)