The brutal new talent show judge who ‘makes Simon Cowell look like Mary Poppins’

A new talent show format has arrived, Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience, and although it differs in almost every way from those that came before in the 90s and early 00s, one key element remains the same – a ‘cruel’ judge critiques their every note.

What Simon Cowell was to X Factor and Popstars: The Rivals, Hee Jun Yoon is to this latest incarnation, and her almost Bond-villain-like presence is enough to make anyone wince.

She was brought in to give an authentic insight into the tough world of training to be a K-pop idol.

In South Korea, those who want to be part of a successful boyband or girlband are put through an intensive boot camp to learn what it takes to make it in the industry. They’ll live together, while they improve their singing, dancing, and refine their looks… even their personalities get a makeover. If anybody falls short of the ridiculously high standards they are held back, or cut.

The process can often take years, but a group of five British lads were put on a fast-track course – they were taken from their cosy home lives and dropped in Seoul to endure 100 days of full-on training designed to make them into the perfect boyband.

Cameras went behind closed doors at SM Entertainment, world-renowned for producing the ultimate K-pop stars, for the first time to witness the band working with the world’s greatest choreographers, singing songs from the best songwriters, and being tutored by some of the most revered experts in the K-pop business.

Dear Alice, comprised of Blaise Noon (an excellent boyband member name), Dexter Greenwood, James Sharp, Olly Quinn and Reese Carter, must perform for Hee Jun at the end of each week to demonstrate what they’ve learnt. Metro.co.uk have seen the first episode, (narrated by Vick Hope FYI), and we can tell you her responses aren’t always pretty.

While the TV show gave the fivesome a life coach, and both the production team and boys themselves emphasised how robust the duty of care is to help cope with the criticism, it can’t completely remove the sting. She definitely doesn’t resemble the softness of The Voice judges that we’ve become more accustomed to over recent years. Perhaps we’ve been missing this element from our TV viewing.

We are now acutely aware of the damage that can be done if people have their dreams dashed with no consideration as to how this will impact their lives, so any cruelty still has to be done responsibly.

In Made In Korea: The K-Pop Experience, they seem to have been able to strike the balance between comically harsh criticism, and not forever destroying young men’s confidence. The difference appears to be that, in the end, Hee Jun seems to actually care about Dear Alice’s future, and it’s not a bad singer who thinks they have what it takes getting mercilessly ridiculed, it’s good singers being told how they have to get better.

But how did Hee Jun land the job, and just how harsh can she be?

Who is Hee Jun Yoon?

Hee Jun is described as ‘the creative force behind some of the biggest K-pop bands of the last 20 years’ by the BBC.

We’re first introduced to Hee Jun with a tracking shot following her as she storms into the performance room, notebook in hand. Her all-black ensemble, stiletto heels and perfectly pruned hair styled into a bob tells audiences immediately that this woman is powerful.

During the series, she is representing SM Entertainment – the company often credited with creating K-Pop. Their pioneering and comprehensive artist development system has launched over 100 groups and solo performers, including NCT, aespa, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, EXO, Red Velvet and RIIZE.

They are behind the staging of over 2,300 global tours and a talent roster that has collectively accumulated over 100 billion YouTube views.

She didn’t get to the position of helping all this happen by providing compliment sandwiches, instead, her style is more of a criticism wrap.

How harsh is Hee Jun Yoon in Made in Korea: The K-Pop Experience? 

BBC’s head of unscripted drama Kate Phillips said she ‘makes Simon Cowell look like Mary Poppins’ while speaking at a special screening of the first episode at Soho Hotel in London.

During their debut performance in the first episode, she sat behind a desk, and told Dear Alice: ‘Start now’. Who knew two usually inoffensive words could instil such fear?

On her instruction, they performed an energetic choreographed dance to a catchy song that featured the line: ‘Can you feel the vibes?’ (We sang it all the way home from Soho Hotel after the screening).

Hee Jun delivered her feedback in Korean with a translator letting the boyband know exactly what she thought, but her facial expressions also gave a lot away. She side-eyed the boys as they jumped and grabbed the air with dramatic hand movements in typical boyband fashion, and her lips didn’t even slightly move from a straight line.

Those who miss the brutal feedback provided on The X Factor will not be disappointed with her critiques. It feels like we’re back in the talent show era, especially as Made In Korea: The K-Pop Experience will be airing on Saturday evenings.

‘I don’t think you realise what a dire situation you are in,’ she began her critique.

‘You can’t even hit the right notes.’

After asking Dear Alice’s members to rate themselves out of 100, they responded with figures ranging between 40 and 70. ‘What concerns me the most is the mark you gave yourselves,’ she then cuttingly responded.

The dramatics didn’t end there, she warned the boyband that they were wasting her time if they presented something at that quality level again before asking for the cameras to be cut.

A 40-minute meeting then took place off-camera, with SM Entertainment and the production team, while the boys nervously awaited the outcome. They were told that Hee Yun was holding back as she didn’t want to make them cry. We can’t imagine Hee Yun at her unfiltered if that is the tame version.

Speaking to and other media after the episode, Blaise touched his heart and told us: ‘It hit there.’

Dexter added: ‘It was quite the hit.’

The self-deprecating singer interejcted: ‘Watching it back it was understandable, I’d have said the same thing.

‘It all comes from a place of love. We want to be the best we can be.’

Even while understanding that her remarks were for the greater good, for the band who regularly spent eight hours in the studio with experts before returning to their at-home studio to continue practising, it was admittedly sometimes a little hard to take.

James said her ‘brutal honestly ‘shook’ them but has a similar viewpoint to his bandmate in that they needed it.

‘What I find really funny is it takes a while to translate,’ recalled Olly. Blaise explained that they would often be smiling unaware of her negative words. ‘She’d say we’re terrible, and we’re all grinning.’ They’d then quickly have to adjust accordingly as the reality was laid bare.

The beauty of having five people meant that they could survive the negative comments by confiding in each other. Blaise summarised: ‘That was really awesome.’

The difference between the early 00s TV, and now is while in one scene they are savagely destroyed with a carefully-selected sentence, in the next, they are supported by people employed purely to look after their welfare.

Both off-screen and on-screen, Dear Alice were regularly spoken to, ensuring their mental health was taken care of.

‘The criticism was hard to take, but we had a great welfare team in place, and we learned throughout the process, that they are honest because they want to push us to be better. I personally enjoyed the feedback, even if I was nervous for it,’ concluded Blaise.