[Introduction] 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards - Third Times A Charm

We came, we saw and while we didn’t quite conquer, it was more than good enough to give this another go. Thanks to the interest we saw from the 2013 KBS Entertainment Awards live blog, we have decided to press forward and continue our live blog coverage of the other year-end events. This time, though, we are going for the full double whammy, going where no writing team on this site has gone before, solving a dilemma brought forth by the evils that is event schedule clashes.

Note! Click Here To Watch The 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards Live Blog At The Live Blog Site!

In the interest of  “fair” competition and all that good will stuff, most of the broadcasters have decided that the best way of taking glory away from each other was to schedule events in such a way that they clash horribly on the same day. This was a problem because the 2013 SBS Gayo Daejon happens on the same day as the 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards. Certainly we couldn’t just ignore the SBS Gayo Daejun, but we definitely didn’t want to miss out on all that juicy variety show awards. What a predicament. But why choose from one when you can just have both? 

That’s right, we have just decided to have our cake and eat it too by covering both events with our fancy new live blog system. In the red corner, you’ll have lordbordem, providing you with live coverage of 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards. Meanwhile in the blue corner, we’ll have our awesome editing team comprised of crystalcove and halves in unison providing all of you K-Pop loving fans with live coverage of 2013 SBS Gayo Daejun.  It really is the best of both worlds.

If you’re not interested in the rough and tumble of the MBC variety show world, filled with children and their dads, soldiers that do nothing but eat and a bunch of middle aged blokes doing random things for laughter, then you may direct yourselves to the 2013 SBS Gayo Daejun article here to see all the glorious details about the year-end K-Pop extravagance overload.

2013 MBC Entertainment Awards

Now lets talk very briefly about 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards. In some ways this would be the first proper MBC Entertainment Awards in three years. Previous years have been rather lukewarm affairs owing to massive strikes over at MBC Illsan Dream Center. Because of these strikes, we’ve had many months of irregular scheduling and confusion for both the viewers and the staff. In some ways, the previous awards have reflected these issues. Two years ago in 2011, MBC suddenly changed over to a “Best Program of the Year” award as their hallmark award, eliminating the customary “Grand Award.” That award went to the “I Am A Singer” team.

In 2012, MBC decided to reinstate the “Grand Award,” awarding it to comedian Park Myung Soo. 2012 also happened to be one of MBC’s worst years in terms of strikes, with the general MBC staff striking for more than six months, putting a stop to the vast majority of MBC programs in that time frame. 

Now lets come back to 2013. This year has been a great year for MBC variety shows. Shows such as “Infinity Challenge” and “Radio Star” have continued to perform strongly over the last year while shows such as the revamped “We Got Married Season 4” have been able to claw back some of the ground they had lost previously. But the star of 2013 has definitely been the completely reversal of fortunes for MBC’s flagship Sunday programs. After the end of “I Am A Singer,” MBC failed to provide viewers with compelling content during the highly competitive Sunday night time slot. At some points, MBC was trailing competitors such as “Running Man” and  “1 Night, 2 Days” by almost 15% in ratings.

However, all of that changed with the introduction of “Daddy! Where Are We Going?” and “Real Men.” The new programs were a revelation for MBC and saw them immediately shoot back up to the top of the food chain. “Daddy! Where Are We Going?” was so influential that it caused a boom in interest for children related shows, with KBS introducing shows such as “Superman Has Returned” to try and piggyback some of that success.

Suffice to say, both Sunday programs have a good chance of sweeping up the vast majority of results on Sunday. However, we must not forget about the elephant in the room and that is “Infinity Challenge.” Their 2013 Freeway Song Festival was a huge success, once again sweeping the charts and has topped the ratings on Saturdays for more than 10 months. Suffice to say, they are going to be hard to beat on the viewer voted “Best Couple” award and “Most Popular Program” awards. In the case of the “best couple” award, I don’t see anyone else beating out the behemoth that is the Jung Hyung Don & G-Dragon couple.

Whatever the case, we will find out who wins what at the 2013 MBC Entertainment Awards on December 29 starting at 8:00pm (KST). You can see what time that is in your respective time zones by going to this page. Or you can just look at the countdown below. I hope to see you all there!

More of a K-Pop fan than variety? Join us at the the SBS Gayo Daejun Live Blog, also going on tonight!