From ‘Masked Singer’ to ‘Good Doctor,’ Korean Formats Take Hold on U.S. Screens

Accepting his award for original screenplay at this year’s Oscars, director Bong Joon Ho triumphantly declared,  “This is a very first Oscar to South Korea.” Little did he know that the second, third and fourth were swiftly coming his way on a night that saw “Parasite” make history.Combine that with the fact that two of the biggest shows on U.S. television are based on Korean properties, namely “The Masked Singer” and “The Good Doctor,” and that a milestone was reached in the music world when BTS became the first K-pop group to perform at the Grammys, and it’s clear that a change is in the air. “Awareness of Korean entertainment in the United States is higher than it has ever been,” says actor-producer Daniel Dae Kim. That awareness has increased the volume of content moving between South Korea and the U.S., and altered its flow.