With the hit of Netflix's variety show "Culinary Class Wars: cooking class war season 2," chef Im Seong-keun, who was on the verge of surpassing 1 million YouTube subscribers, became embroiled in a sincerity controversy after admitting to three drunk driving offenses, and about 30,000 subscribers left in a single day.
On the 20th, the subscriber count for Im Seong-keun's YouTube channel "Im Seong-keun Imzzang TV" was about 964,000 as of 10 a.m. This is a drop of nearly 30,000 in just one day from the roughly 990,000 level before the controversy. After appearing on "Culinary Class Wars 2," Im Seong-keun's subscribers surged, and he was expected to soon surpass 1 million and receive YouTube's Gold Button.
However, the upward momentum plunged after the 18th, when he admitted on his own to three instances of drunk driving. In particular, "lack of sincerity" is being cited as the main reason fans turned away.
Right after the admission, Im Seong-keun said in a comment that "I didn't want to hide my wrongdoing and live pretentiously," and that he "judged that thinking 'no one will know if I don't say it' is a betrayal of everyone," presenting it as a confession of conscience.
A subsequently released 2020 drunk driving judgment reportedly specifies that Im Seong-keun personally drove for about 200 meters with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.141%. Some are criticizing him for allegedly trying to downplay or conceal the facts.
As disappointed fans continued to "unsubscribe," 30,000 people left the channel in a single day, and the fallout is spreading in broadcasting as well. MBC's "The manager," which had even released a teaser, is discussing cutting Im Seong-keun's appearance in its entirety, and JTBC's "Knowing bros" is also said to have canceled his planned appearance.