'Chungju Man' Kim Seon-tae to make solo MC debut on KBS YouTube show

Kim Seon-tae, the YouTuber widely known as "Chungju Man," has been tapped as the sole host of a new KBS entertainment program.

KBS announced Monday that it will release "Donsontae Seonggong Sidae," a YouTube original variety show hosted solely by Kim, starting July 29, with new episodes every Wednesday. The show will be available through the official channel KBS Entertain.

Kim created the "Chungju Man" persona while working as a civil servant handling public relations for Chungju city, and grew the city's YouTube channel into a major platform with roughly 970,000 subscribers.

Since retiring and launching his personal YouTube channel, Kim has fielded collaboration offers from numerous companies and organizations as he embarks on a second chapter in his career. His debut video, titled "I'm Kim Seon-tae," drew more than 9.6 million views and generated wide attention, and most of his subsequent promotional collaboration content has also surpassed 1 million views.

KBS described the show as Kim — who has proven his influence as a "god of PR" — teaming up with the broadcaster to venture beyond short-form content into long-form interviews.

In "Donsontae Seonggong Sidae," Kim, having moved to Seoul in pursuit of greater success, invites figures behind South Korea's most celebrated success stories to his Seoul rental room and asks them about the secrets to their achievements.

The show digs into guests' paths to success and their defining moments through the question "How did you get this far?" It will also explore the failures, doubts, unexpected choices and deeply human moments along the way. A key draw will be Kim's signature slightly offbeat perspective and his knack for catching guests off guard with unexpected questions.