By Woo Jae-yeon
“We really try not to miss a single opinion that’s shared and make a great effort to capture what the majority’s viewpoints are,” Kim Jae-won, one of the three producers of the hit show, said at an interview with local reporters Friday.
“For example, one of the things that came up for Season 4 was the screen time was too concentrated on just a few people,” he said, explaining why the fifth season featured 15 participants — the show’s largest cast to date.
“We thought by increasing the number, various love lines would naturally form and the focus would be distributed among more people,” he said. “Fortunately, the new season presented diverse relationships and characters, just as we predicted.”
Earlier this week, Netflix announced production of a sixth season, making “Single’s Inferno” the first Korean series to be renewed six times.
The show follows attractive young singles seeking romance on a secluded island, where finding a match is their only ticket to “Paradise” — a luxury getaway for couples.
The 12-part fifth season, which was released Jan. 20, followed in the footsteps of previous seasons by sparking widespread online reaction and engagement. It rose to No. 2 on Netflix’s weekly non-English shows chart with 3.1 million views for the week ending Feb. 8.
The first season, released in December 2021, became the first Korean unscripted show to enter Netflix’s Global Top 10 Non-English Series chart. Season 2 remained on the chart for four weeks, while Season 3 extended its run to five consecutive weeks. Season 4 recorded a first-week viewership of 4.8 million, the highest in the franchise.
In Season 5, Australia-born Choi Mina Sue, the 2022 Miss Earth winner, quickly became one of the most-talked-about participants due to her dating style, which some viewers and panelists described as wavering and indecisive. But producer Kim said he praised her for displaying a level of “honesty” that is difficult to find in dating reality shows.
“She is a very sociable and lively person, and she can also be quite shy. She is definitely very attractive,” he said. “We are grateful that the show is getting extra attention because of viewers’ interest in her.”
Kim said the latest season had “more interesting participants than any other season,” adding that he sometimes felt like he was indulging in a hobby rather than working in the editing room.
He also attributed the show’s focus on authenticity to Korean culture, despite its global popularity, to its success.
“It is Korean content made from a Korean perspective,” he said. “Since we have no way of knowing how foreign audiences will view this show, I think it is pointless to worry about it.”
“What we’ve always aimed for is to create a show with uniquely Korean sensibilities,” he said.
