Where Is My Friend's Home () is a television show on JTBC in South Korea which features the cast members of another JTBC show, Non-Summit, as they visit the home countries of the Non-Summit non-Korean members and their friends. The show is in a reality television-travel show format, in the Korean language, and first aired on February 7, 2015. Season 1 ended on April 29, 2016, after completing eleven trips to foreign countries and two trips within South Korea. The show was released on Netflix as The Homecoming.
Background
The show follows South Korean and foreign cast members of the South Korean television Non-Summit as they experience cultures of various countries through homestay, meeting the locals, and experiencing a better understanding of multiculturalism.
The show, a spin-off of Non-Summit, is less formal, with the cast from the original talkshow panel, now relaxing casually, as "friends", to visit one another's homes. The humor continues; the teaser video for the first episode, a trip to China, was entitled "Steal Things in Zhang Yuan's House". The show's posters, entitled "Global friend's house attack project", showed some of the cast's casual activities, like eating ice cream and jogging.
And although somewhat like a travel show, producers said Where is My Friend's Home trips would "not be typical." The show also candidly addresses common misperceptions and prejudices about the countries visited.
Season 1
Cast
Through the fourth trip, the cast was made up entirely of Non-Summit cast members, current and past. After that, some new cast members were added, including South Korean television personalities and K-pop idols; who, in some cases, played host in their respective countries, augmenting the list of foreign cast members and countries visited. The first instance was the fifth trip to Canada which visited Henry Lau's home in Toronto, as well as Non-Summit cast member Guillaume Patry's home in Quebec.
Chart of countries visited and cast
List of episodes
Trip backgrounds and short episode summaries
1st trip - China
The first country visited was China, the home of Zhang Yuan, a foreign representative on the Non-Summit show, including Zhang's home city of Anshan, and other tourist areas, for six days and five nights. Along for the trip were "Visitors", South Korean Non-Summit presenter Yoo Se-yoon, and Non-Summit foreign representatives Guillaume Patry from Canada, Alberto Mondi from Italy, Julian Quintart from Belgium and Tyler Rasch from the United States.
Ep. 1 - February 7, 2015 - Trip plans in Seoul, and travel to China. Ep. 2 - February 14, 2015 - Settling in at Lijiang hotel, market visit. Ep. 3 - February 21, 2015 - Leaving Lijiang, touring lake region, arrival at Zhang's Anshan home. Ep. 4 - February 28, 2015 - Visiting with Zhang's family, dinner and karaoke; overnight stay. Ep. 5 - March 7, 2015 - Final visits with Zhang's mother and family, Zhang's matchmaking date.
2nd trip - Belgium
The second trip was to Julian Quintart's home country of Belgium, with the same cast and an additional seventh member, They visited the city of Brussels and Quintart's home in Aywaille in Liège, and other tourist areas.
Ep. 6 - March 14, 2015 - Make plans, travel to Brussels, tour Grand-Place, meet Quintart's sister. Ep. 7 - March 21, 2015 - Breakfast/farewell to sister; tour Baarle-Hertog, Bruges, Binche, Brussels. Ep. 8 - March 28, 2015 - Travel to Liège and Aywaille, visit Quintart's grandmother, arrive at parents' home. Ep. 9 - April 4, 2015 - Breakfast party, riding (horses, bicycles, motorcycle), visit teacher and friends. Ep. 10 - April 11, 2015 - Last night at home with Quintart family and friends, parting after breakfast.
3rd trip - Nepal
The filming of the Nepal trip was done subsequent to the April 2015 Nepal earthquake, which occurred on April 25, the day of the second episode of the trip's airing, show Episode No. 12, (and the following May 2015 Nepal earthquake). The station and show's responses are noted in the episode summaries.
The travel agenda announced added a surprise cast to the third trip in April 2015, to Sujan Shakya's home country of Nepal, to visit the "mysterious ancient ruins" and Shakya's large extended family. The cast included Shakya as the country host, Yoo, Zhang and Mondi, as on the previous two trips, and added current Non-Summit cast member, Germany's Daniel Lindemann and the United States intern, Mark Tetto, who appeared on Episode 24 of Non-Summit. The surprise revealed was British mountain climber and adventurer, United Kingdom's James Hooper, who appeared on the original cast of Non-Summit, Episodes 1-4.