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ISAC, aka Idol Star Athletics Championship, has revealed more information on the beloved sports variety program. This year’s Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving) Special event will have three hosts. Prominent TV personality Jun Hyun-moo will host the event alongside K-pop idols FTISLAND’s Lee Hong-ki and TWICE’s Dahyun as the main MCs.
All three MCs have previously hosted the sporting event. Jun Hyun-moo has been a core part of ISAC since joining as an MC in 2013. Lee Hong-ki, on the other hand, hosted only the esports category. As for TWICE’s Dahyun, the idol joined the event as the main host in 2019.
This year’s Chuseok special will see multiple idol groups competing in five major categories, including classics such as archery and relay run.
MBC introduces new category for ISAC 2022 called Dance Sports, announces hosts
On July 19, MBC revealed additional information on their idol multi-sport event ISAC. The excitement for the show has been at an all-time high since the announcement of the show’s return after two long years.
MBC also introduced a new category, keeping up with current trends and giving viewers something refreshing to look forward to in this year’s program. The five main categories include track-and-field (including relay run and short distance), futsal, archery, esports and dance sports.
Dance sports will be hosted by Lee Hong-ki along with Aiki, a choreographer, and Park Ji-eun, a former dance sports athlete. The category will be treated similarly to other categories which will also have judges and commentators from their respective fields making decisions.
While these were the main categories, previous years have seen idols compete in numerous sports activities, showcasing their strength and reflexes. These include rhythmic gymnastics, bowling, basketball, baseball pitching, fencing, table tennis, aerobic gymnastics, and more. Viewers can expect some of these sports to make a comeback.
Meanwhile, MBC announced the filming venues and dates for this year’s ISAC over a week ago. The program will be filmed over two days, i.e., July 30 and August 1, at two separate venues. The MBC Open Hall in Sangam will be the first day's venue, while Goyang Gymnasium will be the second location of filming.
To keep the buzz going, MBC usually only reveals the official lineup close to the broadcast date. However, thanks to the media surrounding the ISAC filming area, fans get a glimpse of the groups that participate beforehand.
This year, Chuseok will fall on September 10, which makes the broadcasting date for the multi-sport event fall somewhere around that date.
Since the show will be returning after a long wait, fans are excited to see the idol groups get a chance to showcase their talents on national television for the first time. Since 2019, when the show last aired up until now, multiple K-pop idol groups have debuted, while others have seen exponential success.
It will be interesting to see who emerges as winners and take over social media when the large-scale multi-sport event finally returns.
