"Infinite Challenge" Members Call Off "Super 7" Concert

TV personalities Haha (left), No Hong-chul (second to left), Park Myung-soo (third to left), Yoo Jae-suk (center), Jung Joon-ha (third to right), Jung Hyung-don (second to right) and musician Gil (right) pose in the teaser photo for the cancelled "SUPER 7" concert, originally scheduled to open at the Olympic Gymnastics Hall in Seoul, South Korea, on November 24 and 25, 2012. [LeSSang Company]

"Infinite Challenge" members have called off their concert after causing much noise about the expensive ticket price and confusion in the concert hour and date.

The regulars of "Infinite Challenge" has decided to cancel "Super 7" concert and apologized about triggering a controversy over the concert schedule through a statement sent Friday.

"During the six months of MBC's labor strike, we've come up with ways to spend our Thursday [originally the day of taping "Infinite Challenge"] meaningfully. That's when we thought we should plan a concert to communicate with our fans directly at a concert," the statement read.

"In that process, we figured LeeSSang members are the ones who know well about us and decided LeeSSang Company [the production agency owned by Gary and Gil] should plan the event......Because we've been focusing on the quality of the show, we were not able to take care of the details."

"Infinite Challenge," originally scheduled to open on November 24 and 25 in the evening, caused an angry backlash from the public from the beginning starting with its expensive tickets.

The tickets ranged from 77,000 to 132,000 Korean Won [about 69 to 117 U.S. dollars], and it made people wonder whether the event really was to repay for their fans' love and support, as mentioned in their initial announcement.

Adding to the confusion of the ticket buyers--most of whom have been supporting Yoo Jae-suk, Park Myung-soo, No Hong-chul, Ha ha, Jung Hyung-don, Jung Joon-ha and Gil through the TV program--LeeSSang Company set the concert date and time when "Infinite Challenge" airs on MBC.

Though the production agency has been stressing the fact that the two-day concert has no relevance with "Infinite Challenge," this eventually made the public think the members are contradicting themselves to rationalize the commercial event.

In regard to the dispute, LeeSSang member Gil apologized to the public through his Twitter account Friday, announcing that he will take all the responsibility and drop from "Infinite Challenge" and his bandmate Gary will leave SBS' variety program "Running Man."

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10 아시아 Editor : Monica Suk monicasuk@