[Full Text] 'Money, Lee, and Tae' Controversy Over Lissène's Wonyoung Ultimately Leads to Cancellation.. KBS Says "No Political Purpose or Viral Intent" [Official]

*This content was translated by AI.

KBS web variety show 'Money, Lee, and Tae' drew attention to Lissène member Wonyoung's "Scary-no" incident but faced backlash for secondary victimization and was ultimately cancelled before broadcast.

On the 31st, KBS issued an official statement: "We offer our deepest regrets and sincere apologies to viewers who felt discomfort and concern due to the preview video of the web variety show 'Money, Lee, and Tae Success Era' released on July 29 via the YouTube channel 'Kebaksu Original,' and to the performer who suffered psychological burden and hurt."

It continued, "While our production intent was to fully convey the performer's perspective, we seriously acknowledge that certain expressions and directing methods in this content may have caused discomfort and hurt to both the performer and viewers. We sincerely apologize for this and promise to produce programs more carefully in the future, taking into account diverse perspectives and viewers' empathy with greater care."

KBS explained, "We adjusted the video's visibility status reflecting viewers' opinions, and after multiple discussions, we accepted Kim Seon-tae's decision to step down, cancelling both digital and broadcast scheduling. We are verifying the facts regarding the production team and thoroughly reviewing the entire production process. We are comprehensively checking whether the content's planning intent and expression methods were appropriate, and whether they aligned with performer protection principles and production ethics."

KBS also clarified the controversial hashtags. "We deeply apologize for the hashtag setting error. A specific person-related hashtag used in the previous 'Teaser 2' video was applied unchanged to the preview 'Shorts' video. Due to the production team's negligence, the hashtag was posted." However, "there is absolutely no fact that we intentionally linked specific individuals and Lissène for political purposes or other intentions, or used it for viral marketing or to secure view counts," they apologized.

Earlier, on July 29, a video titled '[Preview] Why Does My Name Come Up in Politics?!' was released on the channel. It featured Lissène members Wonyoung and Minami talking with Kim Seon-tae.

At that time, Kim Seon-tae asked Wonyoung, "Why don't we just talk lightly about the 'Scary-no' incident?" Wonyoung shared her feelings: "Suddenly appearing on the news, in a single day's news like this, it was so scary. I felt I had to be very careful with every word."

After the video was released, some pointed out that the production team may have deliberately brought up Lissène's 'Scary-no' story for sensationalism, accusing them of secondary victimization against Lissène members.

In particular, the production team included the phrase "What's Scary-no?" in the video thumbnail and tagged names unrelated to Lissène such as Hong Myung-bo, Lee Jae-yong, Min Hee-jin, NewJeans, and Han Dong-hoon, sparking further controversy.

As a result of the controversy, Kim Seon-tae announced his voluntary withdrawal from 'Money, Lee, and Tae' via his YouTube channel.

Hello everyone.

We thank all viewers who sent us valuable opinions regarding KBS programs.

First, we offer our deepest regrets and sincere apologies to viewers who felt discomfort and concern due to the preview video of the web variety show <Money, Lee, and Tae Success Era> released on July 29, 2026 via the YouTube channel 'Kebaksu Original,' and to the performer who suffered psychological burden and hurt related to this content.

<Money, Lee, and Tae Success Era> was a program planned to convey performers' hidden stories and sincere thoughts through questions that are difficult to address in existing interviews. This interview also aimed to create an opportunity for the performer to directly share their feelings and convictions regarding controversies they have long felt were most unjust.

However, while our production intent was to fully convey the performer's perspective, we seriously acknowledge that certain expressions and directing methods in this content may have caused discomfort and hurt to both the performer and viewers. We sincerely apologize for this and promise to produce programs more carefully in the future, taking into account diverse perspectives and viewers' empathy with greater care.

We adjusted the video's visibility status reflecting viewers' opinions, and after multiple discussions, we accepted Kim Seon-tae's decision to step down, cancelling both digital and broadcast scheduling.

Regarding matters raised in the petition, we are verifying the facts with relevant departments and the production team, and thoroughly reviewing the entire production process. We are comprehensively checking whether the content's planning intent and expression methods were appropriate, and whether they aligned with performer protection principles and production ethics.

In particular, we deeply apologize for the hashtag setting error. A specific person-related hashtag used in the previous 'Teaser 2' video was applied unchanged to the preview 'Shorts' video, and due to the production team's negligence in failing to check this during the upload process, the hashtag was posted.

The production team absolutely did not intentionally link specific individuals and Lissène for political purposes or other intentions using these hashtags, nor did they use them for viral marketing or to secure view counts. However, we sincerely apologize for causing confusion and misunderstanding among viewers due to this negligence, and for causing discomfort to the performer and related individuals.

KBS will re-examine all procedures for digital content production and promotion in light of this incident, and will continuously improve its production and review systems to enhance performer protection and viewer trust.

KBS takes this matter seriously and will do its utmost to produce more careful and responsible content, prioritizing respect for performers and viewer trust. We will continue to listen to opinions from viewers and repay them with better content in the future.

Thank you.

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*This content was translated by AI.