“Happy Together” Returns After 6 Years With a Big Change, With Yoo Jae-suk, Jang Hang-jun and Yoon Jong-shin

After 6 years of silence, ‘Happy Together’ returns with a twist—ditches the talk format and boldly pivots to auditions

KBS 2TV’s “Happy Together”, which has long been responsible for a major pillar of South Korea’s variety scene, is set to return after an astonishing 6-year hiatus. The new season, unveiled next month on the 10th at 8:30 p.m., will not simply indulge in nostalgia. Instead, it pulls out a bold card: “team-based music auditions.” The new subtitle, “Not Alone, I Like It,” clearly runs through the identity of this season. It tears down barriers of age, genre and eligibility entirely, putting a microscope on the “special narrative” that goes beyond raw competition—spotlighting both the participants’ explosive vocal prowess and the way they are bound together as one team. This is the birth of a music contest with a story, beyond mere rivalry.

Yoo Jae-suk, Jang Hang-jun and Yoon Jong-shin form the powerful “trio troika,” shaking up the variety landscape

The lineup to lead the show is simply overwhelming. “Yoo Jae-suk”, who has shared in the rise and fall of “Happy Together” from 2003 to 2020, takes the main mic again. Joining him are “Jang Hang-jun”, who rose to the ranks of a “10 million viewers” director with the film “The Man Who Lives With a King”, and “Yoon Jong-shin”, who left behind a masterwork of audition judging through “Superstar K” and “Singer Gain”. The combination of these three goes beyond basic hosting—it promises sharp insight to weave participants’ narratives together, along with flawless “tick-tock” chemistry.

The return of a 20-year legend: Episode 0 opens the door on the 13th

Since it first hit the airwaves in 2001, “Happy Together” built the classics of Korean variety, including “Songbang Karaoke Room,” “Friends,” “Sauna Talk,” and “Night Market Store.” With its heavyweight past reputation as a foundation, attention is focused on whether the show can write another new myth on an unfamiliar battlefield called auditions. To build momentum before the broadcast, on the 13th at 8:30 p.m., the “Episode 0 video” will be pre-released through the show’s official YouTube channel. The video will be the first place to reveal the raw thoughts from the newly formed three-MC lineup and the program’s roadmap.