2 Days & 1 Night - Criticism

Criticism

During the early days of 1 Night 2 Days, the show was heavily compared with MBC's Infinity Challenge and because No Hongchul had taken part in both shows – although Infinity Challenge aired on Saturdays and 1 Night 2 Days on Sundays. However, the concept of both shows are both different. 1 Night 2 Days concept of the show is traveling on a trip with families and friends, while Infinity Challenge is a challenge-based variety program.

The episode which aired on July 6, 2008 gained a lot of criticism from viewers because of a smoking scene. On their trip to Baekdusan, Korea, a scene of MC Mong smoking in the bus was not edited and was aired. In 2004, all 3 major broadcasting stations, KBS, MBC and SBS, agreed to prohibit smoking scenes being aired before midnight. The variety program's directors made an official apology on July 7 for not properly editing the scene before airing the program and it will never occur again. This also caused a craze among MC Mong's fans because he promised on another variety show a while back that he would quit smoking.

Viewers protested about the "violent scene" on episode 51, which aired July 20, 2008. The scene was a hidden prank of Kang Ho Dong and Kim C getting into an argument that was to fool the new director that had joined the show. The Production team stated that the fight was not intentional and it was to leave good memories.

On episode 53, which aired August 3, 2008, viewers noticed a caption error of a local area in Inje, Gangwondo was incorrectly titled. Under the viewers protest, the Production team posted an official apology on the Happy Sunday website.

Another controversy was made on the September 19, 2008 episode, which was filmed during the Lotte Giants & Doosan Bears baseball game. One of the issues was that the staff occupied a large section of seats (50 seats) for the six members. The other issue was not allowing other ticket holders to get to their seats. The Production team has explained that it was to protect the six members safety and they did not mean to stop people from getting to their seats. The day the game was broadcast, SBS Sports said the visit of the 1 Night 2 Days team brought a positive mood to the people in Busan. On the other hand, MBC ESPN had negative remarks of the 1 Night 2 Days team.

The next controversy was on the episode aired September 21, 2008. Scenes of Lee Su Geun smoking in the village was caught on tape and aired.

On the episode aired December 7, 2008, more drinking and smoking scenes had appeared. It was deemed unsuitable for families watching the show with their children.

More controversy surfaced after the airing of the March 15, 2009 episode. It was said that Kang Ho Dong had said profanity, "XX-bitch" in one of the scenes. But the production team denied that Kang Ho Dong had said such a thing on the show and that it was just the noises in the car ride.

Another controversy was when MC Mong's manager, Lee Heon-suk, said "육사시미", when it was more appropriate for him to say a similar saying that was of the Korean language.

On the episode aired October 4, 2009, some of the members met the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremony ring-boy, Yoon Tae Woong (윤태웅) during their hike in the mountains. Viewer's wrote on the show's message board that "it was a set-up" and things like "how can it be a coincidence".

Another controversy emerged when Lee Seung Gi was indirectly promoting beer to make his beer-can chicken he endorsed on the episode aired November 11, 2009. Although the brand name was mosaic at times, the name of the beer was still seen.

The second subtitle controversy was on the episode that aired November 15, 2009. The production team had made an apology on the message boards. As for the re-runs of this episode, the subtitles have been changed.

It was announced that on March 9, 2010, the cast and crew of 1 Night 2 Days will take a trip to Antarctica to visit the King Sejong Station. Viewer's have been making their opinions on the situations with some thinking it will be a great experience while others think they should not go. Nonetheless, the production team still had plans to leave on March 9 for the beginning of filming. Even a small group of the production team left in February for Chile to prepare for the trip. That group of production team then had no choice but to leave and return to Korea after staying in Chile for a week. The reason was due to a blizzard that did not allow them to take a flight to Antarctica from Chile. The production crew had bought brand new HD cameras, lighting equipment and microphones to film the beauty of Antarctica and bring the best resolution to viewers. However due to the 2010 Chile earthquake on February 27, the production crew had to search for alternate routes to get to Antarctica. Unfortunately, it was announced that the crew had decided to cancel their trip. The producer said they will plan for an Antarctica trip in 2011.