Non-Summit
Non-Summit, also known as Abnormal Summit, is a South Korean television program on JTBC which first aired on July 7, 2014. The show features a panel of non-Korean men, living in South Korea, who debate on various topics and "Korean culture, through the eyes of a foreigner," in a talk show format, in the Korean language. The show concluded its first season on December 4, 2017 with Episode 177, with no set date for a new season.
Development
The show started productions with veteran Lim Jung-ah, who produced Star Edition, and co-produced, with Yeo Woon-hyuk, variety shows MBC's Radio Star, and JTBC's Men's Stuff, after coming over to the cable company, from the major networks, in 2011.The show's format, presented with humor, is meant to emulate a meeting of world leaders, like Doctors Without Borders, i.e. "Youth Without Borders"; or the United Nations, or G11, and is hosted by Jun Hyun-moo "Chairman", Yoo Se-yoon "Secretary General", and Sung Si-kyung "Chairman", with guest appearances by South Korean celebrities, guest "representatives", who announce the weekly topics. The stated mission: "The youth group, without borders, Non-Summit, is a variety show, that strives for peace and security, for the world's youth, by speaking on agendas, and debating with abnormals, who insist they're representatives."
The show has been compared to KBS2's 2006 Global Talk Show, which had female foreigners discussing global issues. Host Yoo Se-yoon said their new show would go a step further than getting to know one another's cultures, and would include problem solving, coming up with "what's better, together." Lim said the show's in-depth discussions made fluency in Korean the number one standard for casting the global guests. Lim said, "The cast of foreign people was because, although Korea is reinforcing its position on the global stage right now, it still is just one country among many others. And I thought perceiving the problems of Koreans who are in their 20s and 30s, in a universal perspective, was necessary."
Production changes
Along with 7 new and 2 returning representatives, a reorganization of the show also introduced some changes to the show's production crew. Chief Producer Lim Jung-ah was replaced by Cho Seung-wook, who created KBS2 Yahaengsung or Night Star, and Hidden Singer after joining JTBC. PD Kim Hee-jung, also with the show since the beginning, was replaced by Kim No-eun of JTBC's Off to School and .Cast
Original cast
The show's format of a summit, refers to the foreign cast, eleven at time the show first aired, as "Representatives" from their individual countries, who make up an International panel. Promotions and news reports noted several of them for the notoriety they had made for themselves prior to the show:United Kingdom's James Hooper, National Geographic explorer and mountain climber; Canada's Guillaume Patry, professional StarCraft pro-gamer; Japan's Takuya Terada, a model and member of K-pop multi-national group Cross Gene; Italy's Alberto Mondi, a Fiat foreign car dealer; China's TV announcer Zhang Yu'an; and United States's Tyler Rasch, a scholar at Seoul National University, who runs a webzine about Seoul.
Others came to South Korea, as students and young workers: Belgium's Julian Quintart, former student with Rotary Youth Exchange, singer/actor/TV personality; France's Robin Deiana, former exchange student at Konkuk University, model; and Australia's Daniel Snoeks, the youngest, followed by Terada, is best known for his tattoos.
Ghana's Sam Okyere, who has appeared on other variety shows in South Korea, a graduate of Sogang University, and official ambassador for seaweed in Wando in South Korea, became known for his mischievous behavior. Turkey's Enes Kaya, who acted in the Korean film Haunters, became an outgoing debater on the panel.
In an interview about the show's "debate" style, Julian Quintart said he hoped the program to be an introduction to South Korea to the debate culture, and expressed the importance of having healthy discussions, with consideration of the opponent's view. Takuya Terada addressed the sensitive topic of the Asian countries, that come up in the debates, "Japan, Korea, and China are all close to each other, but if you look at their history, they're really far apart. Since the histories are all different, it can only be a delicate topic, but through this program, I'm glad we can talk about it and take the time to understand each other."
2014
On Episode 5, Daniel Lindemann from Germany, who studied Korean language at University of Bonn and works at a Korean company; replaced United Kingdom's James Hooper, who has left for Australia to work on a PhD.Visiting "intern" representatives, made up of male foreign students and workers in South Korea, were added to the cast, and filled in for vacationing, or otherwise missing, representatives on Episodes 11, 12, 13, and 17.
On October 23, 2014, media reported that Daniel Snoeks would be leaving the show to return to his studies in Australia, and had taped a final appearance for the Episode 17, October 27 show. One of the show's directors, Kim Hee-jung confirmed the report; and the news stated that plans were being made to replace the empty seat with visiting "intern" representatives to show a "more diverse culture."
On December 2, 2014, media reported Enes Kaya's alleged involvement in a scandal. Kaya released a statement denying the allegations, but said that he would voluntarily leave the show to not cause damages.
2015
On January 6, 2015, media reported that visiting intern representatives Ilya Belyakov, Blair Williams, and Sujan Shakya would become fixed cast members, changing the show's original G11 format to a G12 setup. Russia's Belyakov, the visiting intern on Episode 20, studied at Yonsei University, and works as a medical translator. He has been in Korea for eleven years and said he wants to "break prejudices of Russia" and talk about Russia's relationship with America and China. Williams, from Australia, who was on Episode 22, and also attended Yonsei University, after double majoring in business management and Korean at University of Queensland, works as a marketing strategist. And Nepal's Shakya, from Episode 27, has been in Korea since 2010, studies urban planning at Dankook University and hopes to bring awareness to Nepal and teach others about his country.On June 20, 2015, Director Kim Hee-jung announced that six members of the cast, Belyakov, Quintart, Shakya, Deiana, Williams and Terada, would be leaving. She said the change was in order to introduce new cultures and for viewers to hear the reactions of other countries; with new members to be announced on July 6. The six members said farewells, in the show's one-year anniversary retrospective, on June 29, Episode 52, and later, met with fans and planned an August concert. Media reported viewers' mixed reactions to the cast changes, in particular, from a fan club of Russian representative Belyakov, and opinions that the cast was already doing well, with Belyakov and Quintart's contributions especially noted.
The new cast announced on July 1, 2015, included Samy Rashad El-Baz from Egypt, a graduate student in Korean language and literature at Seoul National University and a previous intern who appeared on Episode 11; and first time to appear: Przemysław Krompiec, Poland, Carlos Gorito, Brazil, Nikolai Johnsen, Norway, Andreas Varsakopoulos, Greece and Yuta Nakamoto, Japan.
In September 2015, Director Kim Hee-jung announced the show would be adding more diversity by scheduling appearances with new "visiting intern" representatives, including those already invited from Thailand and Mexico.
At the end of December 2015, Japanese representative Nakamoto left the show after Episode 78 to prepare for his debut as a singer with his contracted company, S.M. Entertainment.
2016
In the beginning of June 2016, media announced cast changes expected for Episode 103, with nine members leaving - Zhang, Rasch and Okyere,, Lindemann and Krompiec, Gorito, Johnsen, Rashad El Baz and Varsakopoulos. One reviewer said the show would have trouble finding a substitute for the consistently intelligent level of discussion Rasch had brought to the show.Episode 103 began with a reorganization of nine representatives which included two remaining members Patry and Mondi. They were joined by new members: Mark Tetto,, a prior intern on Episode 24, and first time to appear: "Lucky" Abhishek Gupta,, Zahid Hussain,, Mao Yifeng,, Aurelien Loubert,, Alex Mazzucchelli , and Niklas Klabunde .
After the new cast were introduced on Episode 103, subsequent episodes no longer previewed starring cast members. After Episode 105, three additional visiting intern/representatives were added as recurring cast, Christian Burgos,, previously on Episode 68 and newer interns, Ogi Hitoshi,, and Wang Xinlin,.
On July 22, 2016, Mondi responded about the cast changes and he and Patry being the two selected to stay, "There were so many other members who speak better Korean than us....and there were other members who were funnier." About the changed atmosphere, he said, "Since different people are on, a new kind of Non-Summit may appear."
In late August 2016, Chinese representative Mao Yifeng, who appeared on Episodes 103 and 104, was deleted from the show's cast list and promotional posters.
2017
On the 144th episode it was announced that India representative Lucky Abhishek Gupta would leave the show due to personal business.List of episodes, topics and guests
Season 1 (first part)
2014
| Ep. # | Date | Topic | Guest representative | Guest country of origin |
| 1 | July 7 | Independence from parents | Jang Dong-min |  |