Cover The K-pop and K-drama fandom is strong indeed (Photo: IMDB)
The K-pop and K-drama fandom is strong indeed (Photo: IMDB)
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From cancelled dramas to changed group policies, the K-pop and K-drama fandom showed how organised followers can make Korea’s entertainment industry listen
For years, the relationship between Korean entertainment companies and their audiences was fairly straightforward: agencies made the decisions, artists carried them out and fans bought the albums, streamed the songs and watched the dramas.
That arrangement has become considerably less tidy. A fandom can now organise a boycott before breakfast, send protest trucks to an agency’s headquarters by lunch and turn a company statement into a trending topic by dinner. Sometimes the noise goes nowhere. Other times, the people making the decisions actually change course.
The most revealing cases aren’t necessarily the loudest controversies. They’re the moments when fandom became consequential enough to affect what happened next: a drama disappeared from the schedule, a concert was postponed, a group’s structure was rewritten or an agency reversed a decision it had only just announced.
None of this means fans always get what they want. Nor does it mean a fandom is ever a single, unified bloc. In some of these cases, fans were fighting one another as fiercely as they were fighting the companies. But the message to the Korean entertainment industry has become difficult to ignore: the audience isn’t simply watching anymore. It has money, networks and the ability to organise.
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‘Joseon Exorcist’ was cancelled after two episodes
Above After just two episodes, mounting public backlash and advertiser withdrawals led SBS to pull the historical drama from its schedule
It took Joseon Exorcist two episodes to discover how quickly an audience could become an economic force.
The SBS historical fantasy drama premiered in March 2021 and immediately ran into a backlash over its depiction of historical figures and the use of Chinese-style food and props in a story set in the Joseon period. What might once have remained a niche argument among history enthusiasts quickly spread across Korean online communities. The petitions became so intense that sponsors withdrew their support as criticism intensified.
SBS initially announced that the series would take a week off so the production could revise the controversial material. Two days later, it cancelled the drama altogether.
The decision was extraordinary on a purely commercial level. Production was reportedly about 80 per cent complete, and the broadcaster had already paid most of the broadcasting rights fee.
The cancellation wasn’t caused by a single fandom in the conventional sense; the backlash was broader than that. But it remains one of the clearest demonstrations of what organised viewers can do when criticism moves beyond social media and into the commercial ecosystem supporting a show.
See more: 9 of the most controversial K-dramas of the past decade
NCT Dream fans helped rewrite the rules of the group
Above Fans didn’t just fight to keep seven members together. They helped change the rules governing who could stay in the group
NCT Dream was supposed to come with an expiry date.
When SM Entertainment launched the unit, its members were subject to a graduation system: once they reached 20, they would leave Dream and potentially move into other NCT units. Mark was the first to graduate, leaving the group in 2018.
Fans, however, had become attached to the original seven-member line-up, and opposition to the graduation system grew. In 2020, SM abolished the graduation system, paving the way for Mark to return and the original seven members to promote together again.
The decision permanently changed the unit’s structure. What had been designed as a rotating team became a fixed seven-member group. It turned out to be a terrific decision for both the group and the company. NCT Dream’s 2021 album became one of the best-selling albums on the Gaon Chart that year and was named Best Album at the 31st Seoul Music Awards.
Mamamoo fans turned a concert boycott into a company decision
Above Fans threatened to boycott concerts and merchandise over the group’s packed schedule. RBW responded by putting the concert plans to a vote
The Mamamoo fandom wasn’t asking RBW for another comeback. It was asking for fewer schedules.
In November 2018, a fan association warned that supporters would boycott Mamamoo’s upcoming concerts and merchandise unless RBW, the group’s agency, addressed what they described as the group’s excessively hectic workload.
RBW initially indicated that the shows would go ahead. However, it did something unusual: it put the question to the fans.
After a formal fan vote, the agency announced that the concerts would be postponed.
RBW co-CEO Kim Do-hoon later apologised to fans and said the company needed to take their opinions more carefully into account when scheduling the group’s activities.
Loona fans turned a boycott into a financial weapon
Above After BlockBerry Creative removed Chuu from Loona, fans turned their spending power into a boycott of the agency’s albums, merchandise and paid content
After BlockBerry Creative removed Chuu from Loona, fans organised a boycott of the agency’s albums, merchandise and paid content.
After BlockBerry Creative removed Chuu from Loona on November 25, 2022, Loona Union called on fans to boycott paid products associated with the agency, including albums, merchandise and the mobile game SuperStar Loona.
The boycott came as the group’s dispute with BlockBerry Creative escalated. On December 22, the agency indefinitely postponed The Origin Album [0], which had been scheduled for January 3, 2023, saying it had considered the opinions of Orbits and others and found comeback activities meaningless while concerns surrounding the members remained unresolved.
The members’ legal disputes continued separately. Four won injunctions in January 2023, while ViVi and HyunJin filed their own in February. By June 16, all 12 members had left BlockBerry Creative through separate legal proceedings and contract disputes.
The boycott did not itself determine those legal outcomes, but it showed how fandom spending could become a form of protest: Orbits deliberately withheld money from the company while supporting the members.
Seunghan’s return to Riize lasted two days Riize
Above SM Entertainment announced Seunghan’s return, then reversed the decision two days later after a wave of opposition from fans
On October 11, 2024, SM Entertainment announced that Seunghan, whose personal and rather controversial photos circulated on the internet, would return to Riize after nearly a year away from group activities. He was expected to resume promotions in November.
But backlash arrived.
Sections of the domestic Riize fandom vehemently opposed his return, sending hundreds of protest wreaths to SM’s headquarters in Seongsu-dong. Other fans, particularly internationally, mounted counter-campaigns demanding that he remain in the group. The dispute became an intensely public argument over what Riize should look like—and, more importantly, which part of its fandom the company was prepared to heed.
Two days after announcing Seunghan’s return, SM reversed the decision on October 13, 2024. He would leave Riize permanently.
More than the retraction, the speed of the reversal was exceptionally surprising. It made the commercial leverage of organised fans unusually visible.
‘River Where the Moon Rises’ had to refilm six episodes
Above When Ji Soo was removed six episodes into the drama, Na In-woo took over. The production went back to reshoot the opening episodes
Six episodes into River Where the Moon Rises, the production found itself in the unenviable position of having to replace its leading man. Most of the show had already been filmed.
Former leading man Ji Soo left the historical series in March 2021 after allegations of school misconduct surfaced, triggering a major public backlash. By then, roughly 90 per cent (95 per cent in other reports) of the 20-episode drama had already been completed. KBS and production company Victory Contents replaced him with Na In-woo, who took over the role of On Dal from episode seven.
That could have been the end of the problem, but Victory Contents decided to push further, reshooting the earlier episodes so that viewers watching the drama later would not have to see two different actors playing the same character. The decision came after the replacement attracted positive reactions from viewers alongside calls for the earlier episodes to be remade.
The logistics were brutal. Kim So-hyun, who had most of her scenes with the male lead, had to return for weeks of additional filming, while several other cast members agreed to participate without additional payment.
Shinee fans got their anniversary party moved
Above When fans decided the venue wasn’t good enough for Shinee’s 15th anniversary, SM Entertainment moved the celebration—and added another night
There was nothing wrong with Shinee’s 15th-anniversary celebration.
The venue was the problem.
SM Entertainment initially planned the group’s May 2023 fan meeting at Kintex in Ilsan. Fans quickly objected to the venue’s flat-floor configuration and raised concerns about sightlines, particularly for an event celebrating one of the most important anniversaries in Shinee’s career.
Then they did something that made the complaint difficult to dismiss: they threatened a boycott.
The backlash continued even after SM attempted to explain the venue choice. Fans organised a boycott and sent protest trucks to the company’s headquarters. Within days, SM apologised and announced that the event would instead take place at Seoul’s Jamsil Arena.
The move also meant adding a second date. Everyday is Shinee Day: [Piece of Shine] was ultimately held at Jamsil Arena on May 27 and 28.
Long story short, SM changed the venue.
Super Junior’s ‘Only 13’ campaign took fandom activism to the shareholder level
Above The ‘Only 13’ campaign went from petitions and protests to something few fandoms had attempted before: buying shares in the agency
The “Only 13” campaign was already extraordinary before anyone thought to buy shares in the company.
In 2007, SM Entertainment announced a new Chinese sub-unit for Super Junior, with Henry Lau among the new faces. Some Elf members feared the project would expand Super Junior itself and objected to the possibility of additional members joining the main group.
Fans organised petitions, boycotts and demonstrations outside SM Entertainment’s headquarters. At one protest in November 2007, more than 1,000 fans reportedly gathered to oppose the addition of new members.
Then they began buying SM Entertainment shares.
By March 2008, fans had reportedly accumulated more than 58,000 SM Entertainment shares, giving them a small but symbolic stake in the company. They said they intended to use their position as shareholders to oppose further additions to Super Junior.
The campaign did not stop Henry and Zhou Mi from becoming members of Super Junior-M. But SM ultimately kept the new members within the Chinese sub-unit rather than adding them to the main Super Junior line-up.
The hostility directed at Henry and Zhou Mi also remains an uncomfortable part of the story. But the campaign itself marked an unusually direct attempt by fans to influence the structure of a group—not just through what they bought, but through a stake in the company selling it.
See more: Super Junior, BigBang? 10 oldest K-pop groups still active today
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Sasha Lim Uy Mariposa is a lifestyle journalist who is known for her food writing. Based in Manila and currently a marketing content specialist, she still dabbles in entertainment, beauty and dining coverage. She was the former managing editor of Esquire Philippines and was the food editor at SPOT.ph. She also edited several best-selling books about food.
She now writes for the different Tatler Asia markets as a contributing writer for T-Labs.
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