TV CHOSUN’s Million Genius Show closed its third season Tuesday night with a first: street workout act “Street Champion” and diabolo artist “The Man Who Eventually Returns” both finished at 365 total points to become the program’s inaugural co-winners, while the episode posted a 3.1% peak rating to top all Tuesday variety programming for a second week, climatepol.com reported.
Nielsen Korea put the November 3 broadcast at a 2.8% national rating, and ndnnews.co.kr and kotn.kr both confirmed the same figures, with the momentary high of 3.1% arriving during the tense final scoring.
Three Things Tuesday’s Broadcast Proves
- Million Genius Show has now ranked first among all Tuesday same-time variety shows, terrestrial included, for two straight weeks.
- The Season 3 finale produced the show’s first-ever tie at the top — 365 points apiece — sending both teams to the King of Kings final.
- The 195-point genius score by “Street Champion” stands as the highest individual act score in the program’s history.
A 365-365 Dead Heat Sends Two Acts to the King of Kings
“Street Champion,” the street workout act that set the all-time genius-score record with 195 points, was paired with star Namgoong Jin, who added 170. “The Man Who Eventually Returns,” the diabolo performer, scored 193 from the national judging panel and got 172 from his partner Choi Jae-myung. Both sums landed on 365, and the show declared a shared first place for the first time in its run, with both duos earning berths in the upcoming King of Kings competition.
| Act | Discipline | Genius score | Star partner | Star score | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Street Champion | Street workout | 195 | Namgoong Jin | 170 | 365 |
| The Man Who Eventually Returns | Diabolo | 193 | Choi Jae-myung | 172 | 365 |
One fan wrote that the geniuses made them doubt their eyes, and now the Season 3 results made them doubt their eyes too — “Million Genius Show is a hit!” Another said it is a joy to watch special genius performances from the comfort of home every week, the kind of spectacle usually reserved for holiday specials.
Wushu, Acro Yoga, and a Floating Box Fill Episode 6
First-generation yoga master Yeo Dong-gu and Lee Jung-eun opened with acro yoga, balancing handstands and aerial seated poses while arguing that trust is the whole point of couple yoga; they scored 171. TV CHOSUN’s first official on-screen couple, Chun Gil and Jang Hye-ri, followed with a high-difficulty routine performed to a breakup song after admitting their rehearsals had started with collapsed poses and no trust.
Then came wushu national team member Cho Seung-jae, the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games silver medalist, who said he had not trained for five years but cut 5 kg in a short span for the stage. Wielding twin swords and a long staff, he drew 175 points, and the audience’s reaction was that they had just watched a martial-arts film. Kendo third-dan holder Ahn Sung-hoon, who has previously placed fourth in magic and second in a strength show, transformed into a martial artist singing “Stamp” amid flying kicks and aerial sword work, earning praise from Cho Seung-jae himself: “Wushu is physically demanding, but to pull it off while singing — he did it more stylishly than I did.”
The LED performance troupe Vivid Crew lit the darkened stage with five-colored lights synced to gukak (traditional Korean music), and magician Choi Hyun-woo teamed with profiler Pyo Chang-won for a murder-mystery illusion in which answers written on a chalkboard appeared inside a box floating in midair, worth 169 points. Pyo, who said singing on stage had been his childhood dream, performed “Love Twist” with a card trick and afterward said, “I’ve achieved my lifelong dream; I have no regrets.”
Why the Tie Matters for the Format’s Future
The show, which pairs national-level geniuses with top stars in a bid for 10 million views, airs every Tuesday at 10 p.m. on TV CHOSUN.
One viewer summed up the mood after the broadcast: “Today was a day dopamine exploded perfectly — yoga, wushu, and magic.”
