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Barely a day after SBS variety show Running Man was called out for violating disabled parking rules, the production team of the popular show issued an apology. They took accountability and promised to reflect on their mistakes.
The show stars Yoo Jae-suk, Haha, Jee Seok-jin, Kim Jong-kook, Song Ji-hyo, Jeon So-min, and Yang Se-chan among others. Fans of the show were upset as they noted the cast members' violation of rules.
On the July 31 episode of the show, the cast members were shown leaving the Seoul Rock Climbing Center in Nanji Hanging Park after receiving the mission for that episode. Viewers noticed that the parking lot of the building, which Running Man's production team had rented, was fully occupied by the staff members' cars. This included the disabled parking zones as well.
The incident sparked a huge debate on the internet, with one section of fans believing that the show's creators should apologize. Meanwhile, others thought the staff was well within its rights, since they had booked the entire building, and there were no other occupants.
Despite the many sides to the argument, the show's team released an official apology.
On August 1, the Running Man team posted a formal statement on Instagram, apologizing for disregarding disabled parking rules. The letter, written in Korean, read:
"Hello, this is 'Running Man' production team. We have confirmed it was our staff's vehicle that was parked on disabled parking on the July 31st episode."
The team clarified and reiterated the fact that the whole building had been booked, and there was no one else in the building and the parking lot.
"The production team has rented out the entire building of the Seoul rock climbing center to ensure the safety of filming and we found out that one of our staff members parked in disabled parking. "
The Running Man team concluded by promising people that they'd be more careful in the future, taking accountability for their mistakes.
"This is our team's mistake without any excuses and we are apologizing to all the viewers who love and support 'Running Man'. We are taking accountability on this matter and we promise we will be more careful when producing content. Thank you."
Incidentally, a disabled parking violation in South Korea results in a hefty fine of 100,000 KRW.
This is not the first time the show has run into controversy. On April 28, 2019, the show was criticized for allegedly plagiarizing the Naver webtoon Money Game. The fans of the webtoon pointed out many similarities between one of the episode concepts from that season and the webtoon's storyline.
In another instance, during an episode aired on December 7, 2020, the SBS show depicted Taiwan and China as separate countries when playing a board game, which caused outrage and calls for boycotts in China.
