Non-Summit (), also known as Abnormal Summit, is a South Korean television program on JTBC which first aired on July 7, 2014. The show features a panel of non-Korean men, living in South Korea, who debate on various topics and "Korean culture, through the eyes of a foreigner," in a talk show format, in the Korean language. The show concluded its first season on December 4, 2017 with Episode 177, with no set date for a new season.
Development
The show started productions with veteran Lim Jung-ah, who produced Star Edition, and co-produced, with Yeo Woon-hyuk, variety shows MBC's Radio Star, and JTBC's Men's Stuff, after coming over to the cable company, from the major networks, in 2011.
The show's format, presented with humor, is meant to emulate a meeting of world leaders, like Doctors Without Borders, i.e. "Youth Without Borders"; or the United Nations, or G11, and is hosted by Jun Hyun-moo "Chairman", Yoo Se-yoon "Secretary General", and Sung Si-kyung "Chairman", with guest appearances by South Korean celebrities, guest "representatives", who announce the weekly topics. The stated mission: "The youth group, without borders, Non-Summit, is a variety show, that strives for peace and security, for the world's youth, by speaking on agendas, and debating with abnormals, who insist they're representatives."
The show has been compared to KBS2's 2006 Global Talk Show (Misuda), which had female foreigners discussing global issues. Host Yoo Se-yoon said their new show would go a step further than getting to know one another's cultures, and would include problem solving, coming up with "what's better, together." Lim said the show's in-depth discussions made fluency in Korean the number one standard for casting the global guests. Lim said, "The cast of foreign people was because, although Korea is reinforcing its position on the global stage right now, it still is just one country among many others. And I thought perceiving the problems of Koreans who are in their 20s and 30s, in a universal perspective, was necessary."
Production changes
Along with 7 new and 2 returning representatives, a reorganization of the show (ep. 103 onward) also introduced some changes to the show's production crew. Chief Producer (CP) Lim Jung-ah was replaced by Cho Seung-wook, who created KBS2 Yahaengsung or Night Star, and Hidden Singer after joining JTBC. PD Kim Hee-jung, also with the show since the beginning, was replaced by Kim No-eun of JTBC's Off to School and .
Cast
Original cast
The show's format of a summit, refers to the foreign cast, eleven at time the show first aired, as "Representatives" from their individual countries, who make up an International panel. Promotions and news reports noted several of them for the notoriety they had made for themselves prior to the show: United Kingdom's James Hooper, National Geographic explorer and mountain climber; Canada's Guillaume Patry, professional StarCraft pro-gamer; Japan's Takuya Terada, a model and member of K-pop multi-national group Cross Gene; Italy's Alberto Mondi, a Fiat foreign car dealer; China's TV announcer Zhang Yu'an; and United States's Tyler Rasch, a scholar at Seoul National University, who runs a webzine about Seoul.
Others came to South Korea, as students and young workers: Belgium's Julian Quintart, former student with Rotary Youth Exchange, singer/actor/TV personality; France's Robin Deiana, former exchange student at Konkuk University, model; and Australia's Daniel Snoeks, the youngest, followed by Terada, is best known for his tattoos.
Ghana's Sam Okyere, who has appeared on other variety shows in South Korea, a graduate of Sogang University, and official ambassador for seaweed in Wando in South Korea, became known for his mischievous behavior. Turkey's Enes Kaya, who acted in the Korean film Haunters, became an outgoing debater on the panel.
In an interview about the show's "debate" style, Julian Quintart said he hoped the program to be an introduction to South Korea to the debate culture, and expressed the importance of having healthy discussions, with consideration of the opponent's view. Takuya Terada addressed the sensitive topic of the Asian countries, that come up in the debates, "Japan, Korea, and China are all close to each other, but if you look at their history, they’re really far apart. Since the histories are all different, it can only be a delicate topic, but through this program, I’m glad we can talk about it and take the time to understand each other.”