Watched a Running Man episode for the first time in quite possibly years and wow, what has happened to this show? I get that they may not have the budget anymore for the giant missions they used to do but the quality of the episode that I saw was just sad. I’ve never felt so strongly before that the cast and crew were trying to force humor into a non-entertaining concept. They have to constantly resort to redundant inside jokes/jibes about the Running Man team to make it funny and the poor guests spend most of the time standing/sitting in the background reacting to the conversations going on around them instead of participating in anything.

I feel like Running Man’s biggest draw was its heavy physical aspect, but now that they’re focusing on low-budget quiz and simple game formats instead it’s lost almost all its appeal. They really should have just cancelled the show rather than let it slowly die out like this.

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    I stopped watching after Gary left. Its just not the same. I loved all of the physical challenges.

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    The network basically gave up on “Running Man” after the cast started to go through changes (starting with Gary leaving, then with the whole “they wanted to fire Song Ji Hyo & Kim Jong Kook” but hellfire from fans happened” fiasco), which made the ratings drop, and has left the show to what it is now T….T

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      I think they were in trouble even before Gary left though. Gary’s even mentioned himself that part of the reason he left is that there was nothing more he could do with his character on the show. They should have changed up the members many years ago when the show was just starting to decline in viewers. Instead they stubbornly persisted with the status quo, even when it was becoming clear that the public was getting bored with the same-old every week, and now they’ve lost the large fan-base and hype that they needed for a reformatting of the show to be effective. I don’t have anything against the new members, but the show itself is just beyond salvaging at this point.

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        I feel like there wasn’t a need of a cast change before everything happened, and I don’t think a cast change now would benefit the show itself because the cast is what and who the viewers love about “Running Man”– that’s why there was such a fuss when Gary announced his departure, and why hellfire was raised with the whole “Firing Song Ji Hyo & Kim Jong Kook without prior notice” fiasco happened… I feel like a change of concept and games is what the show needs

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