ENA‘s ‘Baek Jong-won’s Les Miserables’ has been unveiled.

‘Baek Jong-won‘s Les Miserables’, which first aired on the 30th of last month, is a survival show where 20 challengers who have experienced failure perform Spartan missions to seize a chance to turn their lives around. It has been reported that four cooking experts (Japanese chef Kim Min-seong, meat chef David Lee, Chinese chef Lim Tae-hoon, and Western chef Yoon Nam-no) will join CEO Baek Jong-won and share the desperation of the 20 challengers. However, the program has been receiving close attention from viewers even before it aired due to controversy over the glorification of criminals.

On the show that day, 20 challengers with different stories gathered on the set where they will survive for 100 days. Located in Yesan-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, this was a 40,000-pyeong abandoned factory that was renovated for ‘Baek Jong-won’s Les Miserables’. The 20 challengers who arrived here with a burning will, saying, “I desperately wanted it”, had to overcome their pasts, mistakes, failures, and pains in order to move forward.

The stories of the challengers were revealed during this process. Immature single dad number 19 (Kim Hyun-joon), father number 16 (Joo Hyun-wook) with 400 million won in debt from a multi-level marketing company, failed head of the household number 14 (Son Woo-sung) with 500 million won in debt, defector number 13 who abandoned his family (Ha Jin-woo), ruined idol number 6 (Kim Kook-heon), juvenile thief number 7 (Kim Dong-jun), child abandoned by parents number 1 (Seong Hyun-woo), Eagles released pitcher number 4 (Yang Kyung-min), child born with an inconvenience number 15 (Yoo Ji-min), and alcoholic number 9 (Oh Chang-seok).

The reasons for their failures were varied, but one thing they all had in common was that they had no second chances. Because they had no second chances, their determination to challenge ‘Baek Jong-won‘s Les Miserables’ could not help but be desperate. That’s because ‘Baek Jong-won‘s Les Miserables’ gives ‘My Own Store’ to those who successfully complete all the courses. The 20 challengers with various stories each began the challenge with strong determination.

Meanwhile, CEO Baek Jong-won was watching the entire situation from the entrance of the 20 challengers in the monitoring room. From the beginning, their every action was subject to evaluation. CEO Baek Jong-won expected the challengers to be desperate, but the challengers seemed somewhat lax before the first mission. In response, CEO Baek Jong-won, who was furious, strongly rebuked them, saying, “You are not here to socialize.”


After a while, the first mission was finally revealed. The door opened with a siren, and a huge mountain of onions weighing a whopping 3 tons appeared in front of the 20 challengers. There were 10,000 onions. The first mission was to “cut the onions into 3mm pieces.” The challengers soon began to busily carry the onions. The challengers’ skills varied greatly. As it turned out, the challengers’ numbers were given in order of their experience in the restaurant industry, with the later numbers indicating more experience.

Baek Jong-won and the four head chefs closely watched the 20 challengers’ process. The first mission evaluation criteria set by the five-person judging panel were work, ingredient yield, hygiene, and cleanliness. These were important success factors for a business. Since everyone’s career was different, swordsmanship and speed were not the evaluation criteria. Some of the challengers got injured while performing the mission amidst the heightened tension. The five-member panel carefully observed and evaluated them up until that moment.

How much time had passed? The five-member panel appeared in front of the 20 challengers. The five-member panel, which began the face-to-face evaluation, expressed their grim reaper-like anger at some of the challengers‘ attitudes. They spat out fiery venom, “Aren’t you going to do it right?” to a challenger who was only concerned about showing off his career. They also strongly warned a challenger who hid his injury because he didn‘t want to be eliminated that treatment would come first.

Then the panel broke several challengers’ nameplates. The nameplates of challengers 4 (Yang Kyung-min), 14 (Son Woo-sung), 15 (Yoo Ji-min), and 16 (Joo Hyun-wook) were broken. Did they get eliminated? The first episode of ‘Baek Jong-won‘s Les Miserables’ ended amidst explosive tension.

Hong Se-young, Donga.com reporter projecthong@donga.com