The New MBC Show Turning Mountain Hikes Into Comedy Gold

Korea has produced some genuinely unusual variety show concepts over the years, but MBC's newest entry, 최우수산(山) — loosely translated as "Best Mountain" — may be one of the most unhinged in recent memory, and that is meant entirely as a compliment. The show premieres on May 3 at 6PM, and if the promotional previews are any indication, viewers are in for a mountain climbing competition that doubles as a psychological thriller about five comedians and a bowl of sushi.

The five people attempting to summit Korea's Yongmasan — passing through Achasan along the way — are Yoo Se-yoon, Jang Dong-min, Huh Kyung-hwan, Boom, and Yang Se-hyung. They are, to put it simply, some of the most competitive people in Korean entertainment. Pitting all five of them against each other on a mountain for a prize they all desperately want was always going to produce something worth watching.

The Concept: Acorns, Missions, and the Art of Betrayal

Here is how Choewoosan works: as contestants make their way up the mountain, they encounter various missions. Completing missions earns them acorns — the show's exclusive currency. At the end of each episode, whoever holds the most acorns is declared the "최우수자" (best performer), and they alone receive the episode's top prize.

That prize is what makes the concept genuinely deranged in the best possible way. Waiting at the summit of Yongmasan's highest peak, Yongmabong, is master omakase chef Kouji, who has hauled himself and his kitchen up to the top of a mountain to prepare what the show calls a "산마카세" — mountain omakase. The menu features premium ingredients including spotted squid, Japanese mackerel, pink shrimp, and sea urchin, prepared with the same care and precision you would expect from a top-tier Tokyo restaurant, but served on a Korean mountaintop to a comedian who climbed there carrying acorns.

The absurdity is total. The production value, based on what has been previewed, appears to match it.

The Stakes Are Higher Than They Appear

There is one additional element that turns the acorn economy from a playful gimmick into a genuine engine of drama: the winner does not just receive the omakase. They also receive a 10 percent pay raise for the episode. When your income is directly tied to your performance in an acorn collection challenge on a mountain, the motivation to win becomes something considerably more personal than just pride.

This detail has already generated significant discussion among fans and entertainment commentators, who note that the premise essentially makes a show about five of Korea's most competitive entertainers competing for actual financial stakes while doing physical labor in nature. The result, according to those who have seen early footage, is that the five men — who are used to performing for cameras — are putting in a level of genuine effort and genuine desperation that makes for compelling viewing.

The previews have offered specific glimpses. Boom, who was expecting the birth of his second child around the time of filming, apparently made full use of that personal circumstance to appeal for mercy from his fellow competitors. His pitch: I am about to become a father again, please give me the acorns. The effectiveness of that pitch remains to be seen, but the attempt itself speaks to how seriously the cast is taking the competition.

Five Personalities, One Summit

Understanding why Choewoosan works requires knowing a little about the five people competing in it. All five are alumni of the 2025 MBC Entertainment Awards, where they competed for the Best Excellence Award in the male category — a fact the show's concept winks at by essentially continuing that competition in a new format.

Yoo Se-yoon brings the composed, calculated presence of someone who has been in entertainment long enough to know exactly which moves to make. Jang Dong-min is described by those who have watched early footage as the show's strategist — a brain reader who anticipates what others will do before they do it. Huh Kyung-hwan, who has been on an upward trajectory in Korean variety, brings ambition and a specific kind of earnest desperation that makes him genuinely entertaining when the stakes are real.

Boom brings sentiment — the second child, the personal story — along with the experience of a veteran who knows how to work a room, or in this case, a mountain trail. Yang Se-hyung may be the most unpredictable of the five: capable of switching alliances instantly, willing to kneel and crawl if the situation demands it, and possessing a shamelessness about acts of sycophancy that the show apparently deploys to remarkable comic effect.

Together, the five create a dynamic that is less "variety show" and more "social experiment with cable cars and sea urchin."

The Mountain as Comedy Setting

It is worth pausing to appreciate how unusual the choice of a mountain setting actually is for a Korean variety show. Variety programs in Korea have used swimming pools, survival islands, abandoned buildings, and luxury apartments as their primary staging grounds. A real mountain — with actual terrain, actual physical exertion, and actual weather — is a different proposition.

The physical effort involved changes the dynamic of the show in ways that a studio setting cannot replicate. Tired people are less guarded. Shared physical difficulty creates genuine camaraderie alongside genuine competition. And the combination of real exertion with high-stakes competition for something as objectively absurd as gourmet sushi creates a tonal range that few formats can achieve naturally.

Choewoosan is also entering a competitive programming slot, squaring off against a show hosted by Yoo Jae-suk, Korean entertainment's most consistently popular and durable figure. That MBC chose to program its new mountain comedy against Yoo's show suggests either considerable confidence in the concept or a willingness to let the material prove itself — possibly both.

Why It's Worth Watching

Korean variety television has, at its best, always understood something that reality programming in other countries often misses: the best content comes from placing genuinely funny, genuinely competitive people in genuinely uncomfortable situations and letting the chemistry do the work. Choewoosan understands this. The mountain is not a backdrop. It is the point.

The mountain forces the cast to be real in ways that studio settings cannot. The sushi at the top creates stakes that are specific enough to be funny but real enough to matter. The acorns give everyone a currency to bargain with, which means there will be negotiations, betrayals, alliances, and moments of genuine moral flexibility at altitude.

For longtime fans of Korean variety, Choewoosan looks like exactly the kind of concept that rewards multiple viewings. For new viewers, the premiere episode offers five of the most recognizable comedians in Korea doing something no one has quite seen before. That combination — familiar faces, genuinely new situation — is how the best new variety shows begin.

최우수산(山) premieres Sunday, May 3, at 6PM on MBC. Find a mountain, find a snack, and consider who among your friends would most desperately want the omakase.