As the ‘D-Day’ ruling on the impeachment of President Yoon Seok-yeol approaches in one day, tension is rising in the broadcasting industry.

As the entire nation‘s attention is focused on the Constitutional Court at 11 AM on the 4th, the three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS, as well as comprehensive broadcasters such as Channel A, are responding with all their might by urgently organizing breaking news reports and special programs to deliver the ruling results and the subsequent situation in real time.

In particular, as the Constitutional Court decided to allow live broadcasts and general audience viewing in consideration of national interest, each broadcasting company will switch to a special report system starting this morning.
According to each broadcasting station on the afternoon of the 3rd, the special report system on the 4th is a plan to cancel or postpone all previously scheduled regular broadcasts and replace them with news specials, as this is a major issue that affects not only the political world but also the entire society, regardless of the verdict results such as citation and dismissal.

Previously, each broadcasting station postponed all programs until the next day when President Park Geun-hye was impeached on March 10, 2017, and also suspended all programs and switched to a news system during the ‘Unprecedented Arrest of a President in Constitutional History’ in January.

Along with this special report system, broadcasting stations are also showing moves to change the schedules of planned production presentations and first broadcasts.

MBC decided to postpone the new Friday-Saturday drama ‘Barney and Brothers’, which was scheduled to premiere on the 4th, by one week and to air it on the 11th.

KBS also planned to release the production conference for the new entertainment program ‘Bloomtier’ at 10:30 AM on the 4th to coincide with the first broadcast on the 5th, but as soon as the Constitutional Court’s ruling date was set, they said, “We had to change the schedule due to unavoidable internal circumstances,” and moved it up a day to the 3rd.

Programming officials from each broadcasting station said, “It will depend on whether or not the impeachment will be passed, but since this is a national emergency that could affect the future presidential election landscape, we will switch to an emergency special report system and replace it in order to provide quick and accurate reporting.”



Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.