“Even Jeon Hyun-moo didn’t know”... ‘I Live Alone’ team offers further explanation after airport-submitted official letter and scenario are revealed

[Financial News] MBC has issued a further clarification over allegations that the Jeon Hyun-moo episode of its variety show I Live Alone, featuring an “impromptu trip” to Kazakhstan, was planned in advance.
According to Star Today on the 16th, MBC said of the publicly released filming-permit application letter and scenario, “These were materials submitted during preparations to obtain filming permission from Incheon International Airport Corporation.” It added, “They were not a script that predetermined the actual broadcast content.”
That day, Chosun Ilbo released the production team’s filming-permit application letter and scenario, among other documents, which the office of Kim Eun-hye, a People Power Party lawmaker on the National Assembly’s Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, had obtained from Incheon International Airport Corporation. The production team submitted the documents to the corporation on July 22.
The scenario reportedly included a line in which Jeon Hyun-moo says in front of the departure counters, “I’ve been to China too many times. Should I try Kazakhstan?”
The official letter also stated that a specific flight departing at 11:10 a.m. on August 6 would be used. Jeon Hyun-moo did, in fact, board that flight and depart.
MBC emphasized, “We submitted it because we needed an outline to attach to an official letter requesting cooperation from the airport authorities,” adding, “The content was not shared with the cast, and Mr. Jeon Hyun-moo didn’t know about it either. There were no instructions to stage it in advance, either.”
Earlier, I Live Alone aired footage on August 14 of Jeon Hyun-moo arriving at the airport without having chosen a destination and then spontaneously departing for Almaty, Kazakhstan. Suspicions of advance planning arose later when the city of Almaty said it had supported the filming.
On August 25, the production team clarified that it had not received sponsorship or filming support. At the time, it explained that, based on the destinations Jeon Hyun-moo had often shown interest in and the flight situation, it had judged that he was likely to choose Kazakhstan. It said it planned to cancel the staff’s plane tickets if he chose somewhere else.
[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter