Variety Review- Running Man Episode 548

Guests: Jessi (rapper/singer) and Jang Wooyoung (of boy group 2PM *a comeback is on the horizon now that they’re all out of the military! YAY!)


My Entertainment Score: 5 out 10 laughs


There were flashes of amusement, but for the most part the episode felt..either super slow or super rushed to me. I’m not sure if they were trying to avoid the concept lasting for more than one episode or if the games truly came out without any funny moments, but a LOT was skipped or glossed over this week. What was in the show, was hmmmmm only funny in bits and pieces for me. I could have passed on this episode, which shocked me because I usually eat up everything that the two guests do.


What Happened


Theme: Catch the Stars Among the Free Agents


Opening (start of episode- 3:10)


Race Explanation (start of episode- 3:10)


Four members are ‘starting’ talent agencies. They will have to recruit artists to their agency. The artists can negotiate to keep a certain percent of their earnings from the games. After each game, the artists can renegotiate their contracts or move to a different agency if they are unsatisfied with their current agency.


The 2 CEOs and 2 artists with least R money at the end of the day will get a penalty.



First Contract Negotiation (3:10- 15:19)


The members arrive in a staggered fashion, so that they can go into the agencies one at a time and make their negotiations without issues. Some members go scout out several agencies, but many sign with the first agency that they go into. 


**I thought about putting the teams into the spoilers, but it doesn’t make much of a difference. You can skip the lists in the contract negotiation sections of my review if you would like.**

Seokjin recruits Jongkook and Jihyo.

Kwangsoo recruits Sechan (his condition was cutting the mullet part of his hair off! Good job Sechan!)

Somin recruits Wooyoung.

Haha recruits Jaesuk (99.5% profits go to Jaesuk!) and Jessi (80-20).


We didn’t see all the profit ratios, but 60-40, 70-30 seemed a pretty common theme other than with Haha CEO.



First Mission (15:19- 46:00)


Explanation (15:19- 16:30)


The agencies will have a ‘press conference’ to introduce their new artists. The CEO’s will have to give a presentation about their agency and the artists will have to show their talents. Each person will be given a score by all the other agencies as well as by 2 staff members. Based on the scores, each person will be paid from $1000 down to $100 (in $100 increments). *Keep in mind that the artists have to give a portion of their earnings to the CEO of their agency depending on the contracts they negotiated*

Planning (16:30- 21:35)


Some of this was hilarious. I would have enjoyed more of this. 


Presentations (21:35- 44:33)


Other than Jessi’s performance of Dance Monkey and Jongkook and Jihyo’s talents, this didn’t really do it for me. 


Results (44:33- 46:00)



Contract Negotiations (46:00- 51:45)


I probably got the most entertainment out of this segment. Some artists demanded bonuses, some walked out, some showed loyalty, and some were pushed out by their CEOs. 


Kwangsoo recruits Jaesuk and Jessi (99.5-0.5)

Haha recruits Jongkook and Jihyo at (90-10)

Somin recruits Wooyoung (stayed with higher profit margin) and Sechan.

Seokjin’s agency fails to recruit anyone and he joins Kwangsoo’s agency (80-20) He pays a $300 fee to shut down the agency.


Second Game (51:45- 1:05:24)


Explanation (51:45- 53:25)

They will play a last man standing round of “Informal Talk Golden Bell”. Golden Bell, for those who don’t know, was a quiz show where celebrities would be asked questions on many subjects, whittling down the group until just one person would get a final question. In the Running Man version, members will be allowed to ask any question (They must know the answer.) to a team. Each member of the team will give an answer. Anyone who is incorrect is out. The other major hurdle in this version is that everyone must use the informal language with everyone else (including staff). This means that younger members will be allowed to talk to older members as if they are the same age, something that just doesn’t happen outside of games. Any use of formal language will be an automatic out.


Informal Talk Golden Bell Game (53:25- 1:05:24)


The informal language twist was the best part of this game. They only needed a few questions to end the game entirely. I’m guessing the PD was expecting the game to go a little differently than it did.


Final Mission (1:05:24- end of episode)


Explanation (1:05:24- 1:06:48)

Running Arcade is the name of the game, and I don’t know why! Feel free to comment if you do. The members draw lots to see who they will be playing against. Two members will face eachother. They will have a word attached to their backs. The PD will call out a number and the members must do that many spins. Whomever guesses the word correctly first, wins. The twist here is that the floor they are on is covered in something extremely slippery.


The rounds will be:

Jongkook vs. Wooyoung

Seokjin vs. Jihyo

Kwangsoo vs. Sechan

Somin vs. Jessi

Jaesuk vs. Haha.


Running Arcade Game (1:06:48- 1:17:34)


For me, this was easily the best part of the episode, but the completely edited out the last two rounds!


1:12:24- Sechan vs. Kwangsoo...I...These guys...Why are they like this? hahahaha.


Results/Punishment (1:17:34- end of episode)


The punishment was to make 100 signature cards for fans.


Preview: Idol Star Project with Brave Girls! They didn’t give much of an indication about the game theme, but there was a conveyor belt, paint, and feathers, so I’m on board.


















!!!Spoilers!!!


Press Conference Results

1st- Jessi $1000

2nd- Wooyoung $900

3rd- Jihyo $800

4th- Sechan $700

5th- Somin CEO $600

6th- Seokjin CEO $500

7th- Jongkook $400

8th- Haha CEO $300

9th- Kwangsoo CEO $200

Last- Jaesuk $100



Informal Talk Golden Bell Game Results

9th-  Kwangsoo and Jessi (out from 1st question from Sechan) $200

8th-  Seokjin (formal language to Jongkook) $300

7th- Jongkook (formal language in complaint) $400

4th- Team elimination- Somin CEO, Wooyoung, and Sechan (out from 2nd question from Jaesuk) $700

3rd-  Jaesuk (out from 3rd question from Jihyo) $800

1st- Haha CEO and Jihyo $1000. They were on the same team, so they didn’t have to battle for a winner.


Running Arcade Game Results


Round 1- Wooyoung beats Jongkook in a good game.

Round 2- Jihyo beats Seokjin due to Seokjin thoughtlessly bending over to fix his pants.

Round 3-  Kwangsoo beats Sechan after a prolonged physical battle. Neither of them knew the word they were trying to guess, so it turned into a brawl in order to see the back clearly enough to read the word out loud.

Round 4- Somin beats Jessi, but the battle isn’t shown.

Round 5- Jaesuk beats Haha, but again, the battle isn’t shown.


All the winners get $500 and all the losers get $100


Final Results


**Note: Because Seokjin’s agency closed, only one CEO will get the punishment and 3 artists will get the punishment as opposed to the original 2:2 plan.**


CEO Results:

1st- Somin with $1,961

2nd- Kwangsoo with $986

3rd- Haha with $620  **Will get the punishment**

--Side note: If Haha had beaten Jaesuk in the arcade game, he would have beaten Kwangsoo and avoided punishment. That makes me even sadder that they didn’t show his battle.--


Artist Results:

1st- Jihyo $2,355

2nd- Jongkook $1,485

3rd- Jaesuk $1,405

4th- Sechan $1,280

5th-7th Jessi, Seokjin, Wooyoung **Will get the punishment**


**Everyone that did not get the punishment, got a prize box of hallabong from Jeju Island. Hallabong is a particular hybrid breed of orange that tastes similar to a Mandarin orange.**

Top 17 Kpop Songs of 2021 Quarter 1

Album Review: WJSN- Unnatural