Three Meals a Day

Three Meals a Day
Also known as	Three Meals Samsi Meals
Genre	Variety show cooking show reality show
Written by	Lee Woo-jung Kim Dae-joo
Directed by	Na Young-seok Park Hee-yeon Shin Hyo-jung
Starring	Lee Seo-jin Ok Taecyeon Kim Kwang-kyu (season 2)
Country of origin	South Korea
Original language(s)	Korean
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	11 (season 1) 18 (season 2)
Production
Location(s)	Jeongseon, Gangwon Province
Running time	70 minutes Fridays at 21:50 KST (season 1) Fridays at 21:45 KST (season 2)
Release
Original network	tvN
Original release	October 17, 2014 – September 11, 2015
External links
Website

Three Meals a Day (Hangul: 삼시세끼; RR: Samsi Sekki) is a South Korean reality cooking show. The first season aired on tvN from October 7 to December 26, 2014 on Friday nights at 21:50 for 11 episodes. The second season aired from May 15 to September 11, 2015 on Friday at 21:45 for 18 episodes.^[1][2]

It features Lee Seo-jin and Ok Taecyeon as they live in a little rural village in Jeongseon, Gangwon Province three days a week and use whatever food they find there to create three meals a day, while various celebrities from Seoul make guest appearances for dinner.^[3][4][5]

Cast

• Lee Seo-jin
• Ok Taecyeon
• Kim Kwang-kyu (season 2)

Production

Producer-director (or "PD") Na Young-seok previously directed the popular variety shows 2 Days & 1 Night, Grandpas Over Flowers, Sisters Over Flowers and Youth Over Flowers.

When actor Lee Seo-jin was on Grandpas Over Flowers, the crew gave him the nickname "Cooking King" due to his poor cooking skills. Their jokes about Lee starring in a fake cooking show titled Cooking King Seo-jinnie (a parody of King of Baking, Kim Takgu) eventually became the genesis for this show. Cast as his co-star was singer-actor Ok Taecyeon; the two had played brothers in the Korean drama series Wonderful Days.^[6]

The press conference for the show was held on October 15, 2014 at the 63 City Convention Center in Yeouido, and was streamed live on tvN's YouTube channel.^[7]

Kim Kwang-kyu, who had previously been a guest in the first season, became a regular cast member for the second season.^[8] In addition to cooking three meals a day from scratch, Lee, Ok and Kim were given the additional task of growing and harvesting crops from spring to early fall (grocery shopping was strictly prohibited).^[2][9]

Reception

Three Meals a Day drew a great response from Korean viewers and became a trending topic numerous times on Naver, a Korean search portal. It received viewership ratings of 6%, which is high for Korean cable television for which a 1% rating is considered a success.^[10]

Originally 8 episodes were planned for the first season, but the show was extended by two episodes. A "director's cut" epilogue also aired, for a total of 11 episodes.^[11]

List of episodes

Season 1 Episode # Broadcast Date Guest Notes 1 October 17, 2014 Youn Yuh-jung, Choi Hwa-jeong   The beginning of the episode shows where the idea of this program originated and how Lee Seo-jin and Ok Taecyeon were cast. Before the show started, they were given seeds to grow and were told to bring them to the first filming day. They are also introduced to Mingki, the puppy that they have to take care of. The PD gives them the show's rules, that are: besides rice, all other ingredients used must come from the farm; every meal would be made according to the production team's menu; preparation for winter will be undertaken during their free time; for the sake of integration into farming life, cell phones will be taken away. The day after, Taecyeon tries to make sorghum rice for breakfast, but is unsuccessful because he missed one of the steps while making it. The guests are Seo-jin and Taecyeon's co-stars from Wonderful Days Youn Yuh-jung and Choi Hwa-jung. For the guests, Taecyeon and Seo-jin cook meat that they got from the production team. To pay their debt, they must harvest 2 kilograms of sorghum per kg of meat. 2 October 24, 2014   Jackson, a two-year-old goat, is introduced. Taecyeon milks Jackson and makes Ricotta cheese from it. Seo-jin makes caffe americano using a stone grinder. He says that he can still taste the pepper in the coffee. A few days later, Seo-jin and Taecyeon are given five hens, named Sofia, Olivia, Matilda, Elizabeth, and Grace. They try to make egg rolls from an egg that one of the hens laid. They also build a hen house for the hens. In the second segment of this episode, the guests are Seo-jin's co-stars from Grandpas Over Flowers: Shin Goo and Baek Il-seob. Seo-jin and Taecyeon have to take care of them and cooked for them. They cook meat for them, so the harvesting sorghum debt is increasing. The show also lays out the hierarchy, where at the top is the two guests, followed by Na PD, slave Seo-jin, Mingki, and maknae slave Taecyeon at the bottom. Shin Goo, Baek Il-seob 3 October 31, 2014   Seo-jin prepares oxtail soup for breakfast. A few days later, Taecyeon arrives at the house first and finds that Jackson has returned; Jackson becomes a permanent pet along with Mingki and the hens. Taecyeon upgrades the stove by adding two levels of bricks, hoping he would feel more comfortable. They make bibimbap for lunch using three eggs that were laid by the hens. They go to the market to buy jars for making kimchi. After they're done with the kimchi, they make roasted laver and store some of them in the container. Guest star Kim Kwang-kyu arrives early in the morning; Seo-jin and Taecyeon are still sleeping and weren't able to welcome him properly. Kwang-kyu and Taecyeon harvest sorghum to pay Seo-jin and Taecyeon's meat debt, while Seo-jin washes dishes. Kwang-kyu harvests seven lanes of sorghum and Taecyeon only harvests three lanes. Kim Kwang-kyu 4 November 7, 2014 Kim Ji-ho 5 November 14, 2014 Ryu Seung-soo 6 November 21, 2014 Go Ara 7 November 28, 2014 Son Ho-jun, Choi Ji-woo   Taecyeon only makes a short appearance in this episode. He couldn't join the shoot because of 2PM's world tour. 8 December 5, 2014   Taecyeon was absent because of 2PM's world tour. Lee Soon-jae, Kim Yeong-cheol 9 December 12, 2014 Lee Seung-gi, Kim Kwang-kyu 10 December 19, 2014 Youn Yuh-jung, Choi Hwa-jeong 11 December 26, 2014 —   This episode is a director's cut and the last episode of the first season. There are no guests.

Season 2 Episode # Broadcast Date Guest Notes 1 May 15, 2015 —   There is no guest. First episode Kwangkyu becomes regular cast of the show 2 May 22, 2015 Park Shin-hye 3 May 29, 2015 4 June 5, 2015 Ji Sung 5 June 12, 2015 6 June 19, 2015 BoA, Yoo Hae-jin 7 June 26, 2015 8 July 3, 2015 Kim Ha-neul 9 July 10, 2015 10 July 17, 2015 Choi Ji-woo 11 July 24, 2015 12 July 31, 2015 Son Ho-jun 13 August 7, 2015 Hong Seok-cheon 14 August 14, 2015 Lee Sun-kyun 15 August 21, 2015 16 August 28, 2015 Park Shin-hye 17 September 4, 2015 18 September 11, 2015 —

Ratings

Highest ratings for the show are in red, lowest ratings are in blue.

Season 1 Episode # Original Airdate AGB Ratings[12] Nationwide   (The average nationwide ratings shown below include TV commercials) Seoul National Capital Area Average Peak Average Peak 1 October 17, 2014 4.29% 5.6% 2 October 24, 2014 5.73% 6.9% 7.0% 8.2% 3 October 31, 2014 6.7% 8.0% 7.9% 9.3% 4 November 7, 2014 6.96% 8.3% 5 November 14, 2014 6.98% 8.3% 8.6% 10.6% 6 November 21, 2014 7.23% 8.8% 9.2% 11.2% 7 November 28, 2014 7.8% 9.7% 9.1% 11.2% 8 December 5, 2014 8.18% 9.7% 9 December 12, 2014 8.75% 10.5% 10 December 19, 2014 8.95% 10.5% 11 December 26, 2014 5.75% 7.0%

Season 2 Episode # Original Airdate AGB Ratings[12] Average Peak 1 May 15, 2015 8.2% 11.4% 2 May 22, 2015 7.5% 11.3% 3 May 29, 2015 8.7% 12.1% 4 June 5, 2015 9.1% 12.4% 5 June 12, 2015 9.1% 13.4% 6 June 19, 2015 8.8% 11.5% 7 June 26, 2015 11.0% 13.4% 8 July 3, 2015 12.0% 14.0% 9 July 10, 2015 11.3% 13.1% 10 July 17, 2015 12.4% 15.9% 11 July 24, 2015 11.4% 14.1% 12 July 31, 2015 10.8% 13.1% 13 August 7, 2015 11.5% 14.0% 14 August 14, 2015 10.7% 13.4% 15 August 21, 2015 11.4% 12.9% 16 August 28, 2015 11.4% 13.1% 17 September 4, 2015 10.6% 12.6% 18 September 11, 2015 7.4% 10.4%

Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village

A spin-off titled Three Meals a Day: Fishing Village starred Cha Seung-won, Yoo Hae-jin and Son Ho-jun (Son replaced Jang Keun-suk).^[13][14] It aired from January 23 to March 20, 2015, and became similarly popular with Korean audiences.^[15][16]

The second season aired from October 9 to December 11, 2015 on Friday at 21:45.

Location : Heuksando, Sinan County, Jeollanam-do

Season 1 Episode # Broadcast Date Guest AGB Ratings[12] Average Peak 1 January 23, 2015 — 9.8% 11.9% 2 January 30, 2015 Son Ho-jun 10.4% 14.2% 3 February 6, 2015 11.3% 14.1% 4 February 13, 2015 — 12.8% 14.7% 5 February 20, 2015 Jung Woo 14.2% 16.3% 6 February 27, 2015 13.5% 15.9% 7 March 6, 2015 Choo Sung-hoon 13.9% 16.8% 8 March 13, 2015 13.4% 15.2% 9 March 20, 2015 — 9.2% 10.9%

Season 2 Episode # Broadcast Date Guest AGB Ratings[12] Average Peak 1 October 9, 2015 Park Hyung-sik 13.9% 16.8% 2 October 16, 2015 13.3% 15.0% 3 October 23, 2015 12.4% 15.1% 4 October 30, 2015 — 13.6% 15.4% 5 November 6, 2015 Lee Jin-wook 12.3% 13.7% 6 November 13, 2015 12.5% 14.5% 7 November 20, 2015 — 12.8% 13.8% 8 November 27, 2015 Yoon Kye-sang 12.9% 15.0% 9 December 4, 2015 12.6% 14.6% 10 December 11, 2015 — 9.6% 13.2%

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient	Result
2015	9th Cable TV Broadcasting Awards[17]	Best Production in Creative Content	Na Young-seok	Won
	51st Baeksang Arts Awards[18]	Grand Prize (Television)	Na Young-seok	Won
		Best Entertainment Program	Three Meals a Day	Nominated

References

1. Sung, So-young (February 28, 2015). "No new season for spinoff". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
2. Kim, Jae-heun (May 15, 2015). "Three Meals a Day kicks off new season". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2015-05-20.
3. Yoon, Ji-soo (October 15, 2014). "tvN's new food variety show to launch Friday". K-pop Herald. Retrieved 2015-04-10.
4. Sung, So-young (October 16, 2014). "After Grandpas, new show presents slice of rural life". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
5. Baek, Byung-yeul (November 9, 2014). "Lights, camera, cook!". The Korea Times. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
6. Jeon, Su-mi (October 1, 2014). "Na PD Takes 2PM′s Taecyeon and Lee Seo Jin on a New Cooking Variety Show". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
7. Hong, Grace Danbi (October 15, 2014). "2PM's Taecyeon Feels Confident Cooking Rice After Three Meals". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2014-10-21.
8. Lee, Ji-young (May 6, 2015). "Three Meals in Jeongseon to Start on May 15 with Kim Kwang Kyu Added to Cast". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2015-05-06.
9. Lee, Woo-young (May 14, 2015). "Farming challenge awaits Three Meals stars". The Korea Herald. Retrieved 2015-05-15.
10. "Three Meals a Day, Meokbang, and the Korean Food Trend". Seoulbeats. November 15, 2014. Retrieved 2014-11-15.
11. Park, Ji-ryun (December 3, 2014). "Three Meals to Conclude Autumn with Lee Seung Gi as Last Guest". enewsWorld. Retrieved 2014-12-03.
12. AGB Nielsen Media Research Ratings Page (Korean)
13. Jin, Eun-soo (January 13, 2015). "Three Meals a Day spawns spinoff". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
14. Sung, So-young (January 17, 2015). "3 Meals spinoff postponed". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
15. Sung, So-young (February 9, 2015). "3 Meals spinoff hits a record". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
16. Jeong, A-ram (April 2, 2015). "Star producer Na Young-seok reveals secrets to his success". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
17. "Cable TV Awards: Incomplete Life and producer Na Young-seok sweep awards". Hancinema. 13 March 2015. Retrieved 2015-07-09.
18. Lee, Hoo-nam; Kim, Hyung-eun (28 May 2015). "Baeksang honors new, veteran stars". Korea JoongAng Daily. Retrieved 2015-07-09.

External links

• Official website (Korean)