It has been confirmed once again that MBC is a broadcasting company that can‘t live without Seol Min-seok.

On the 18th, MBC distributed the official poster for ‘The Class that Crosses the Line’ through a public relations agency and announced the first broadcast date.

‘The Class that Crosses the Line’ is an open class that runs immediately after ordering and is delivered right in front of the entire nation, and is a history lecture program that takes place in unexpected places. Jeon Hyun-moo and Yoo Byung-jae, who worked together on the ‘Guys Who Cross the Line’ (abbreviated as ‘Fairies’) series, will be joining this time as well.

However, the problem is that Seol Min-seok will be appearing as the ‘History Instructor’. Seol Min-seok is the person who dishonorably left ‘The Fairies’ due to the controversy over plagiarism in his master’s thesis. The production team that cast Seol Min-seok again.

‘Fairies’ was originally a program that put Seol Min-seok at the forefront. Seol Min-seok was with the program from the pilot to the three seasons. As it was a program that was centered around Seol Min-seok, his influence and presence were enormous. However, Seol Min-seok left the show due to the plagiarism controversy, and the subsequent seasons went on without him.

However, MBC is once again bringing out the ‘Sul Min-seok card’. The connection between MBC and Seol Min-seok cannot be ignored. Seol Min-seok was able to make a name for himself as a popular history lecturer thanks to MBC. From ‘Infinite Challenge’ to ‘Fairies’, they played the biggest role in making Seol Min-seok a popular history lecturer. However, when the thesis plagiarism controversy occurred, they slyly said that it was Seol Min-seok‘s fault and that they had no problem.

And now they’re going to use Seol Min-seok again. It‘s as if a broadcasting station couldn’t do a historical entertainment show without Seol Min-seok. As mentioned earlier, after the thesis plagiarism controversy, they‘ve even erased the memory of various experts appearing on ‘Fairies’. Even tvN’s ‘Naked World History’, which went through the same measles, has erased Seol Min-seok and is still loved by viewers and is doing well.

Is it a sore thumb because he was raised by MBC? Or did they want to create an opportunity that didn‘t exist before? MBC prepared the stage for Seol Min-seok’s return through ‘Heartbeat Lecturers’ (abbreviated as ‘Lecturers’) last July. And they even gave Seol Min-seok a chance to return to the ‘Crossing the Line’ series, which he had dishonorably left.

At this point, MBC‘s love for Seol Min-seok is unusual. It’s more persistent than other broadcasting stations. If they wanted to give it a chance, they should have at least not said to stop criticizing the new season of ‘Fairies’ when Seol Min-seok left. The explanation from the production team at the time, such as ‘It‘s okay without Seol Min-seok, right?’, is meaningless.

Now it’s up to the viewers to judge. Will they look kindly on the lecture given by a person who was once embroiled in plagiarism suspicions and even had to leave in disgrace, or will they at least criticize and denounce the broadcasting company for removing the two letters ‘verification’?

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