EPISODE PREMIERES SUNDAY, JANUARY 5 AT 8PM ET/PT
NEW YORK, NY – (January 2, 2025) – The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, winner of 5 Emmy Awards including 2024’s Best Recorded News Program, returns with an in-depth look at the unusual star-making K-Pop industry in South Korea. “K-Pop: A Star is Made” with CNN Senior Investigative Correspondent Kyung Lah premieres Sunday, January 5 at 8pm ET/PT on CNN.
K-Pop idol bands have fan bases all over the globe, hugely popular musicians and songs originating from South Korea. But these bands are molded and created in a way unlike anything else in the music industry. Aspiring young stars take on rigorous vocal, dance and fitness training from early morning to late at night, some even leaving school and living in dorms away from their families. In “K-Pop: A Star is Made” Lah embeds in the strenuous training process of seven aspiring K-Pop stars in a small studio in the heart of Seoul, South Korea when they are just one week away from auditioning for the studio’s premiere idol group.
“As a Korean American growing up in Chicago, I never imagined my native language would be streamed across platforms in the US as a multi-billion-dollar industry,” said Lah. “It still shocks me to this day. What I wanted CNN’s audience is to see and experience how this happened, through the intimacy of the struggle of the K-pop trainees you’ll meet in our hour. They’re more than perfect young men and women of the TikTok era — they’re utterly human, some as young as 14, and as vulnerable as the young fans who listen to them.”
The episode features interviews with Amber Liu, Megan Moon and Min who talk about the global impact of this explosive industry, which also comes with international scrutiny for its stars. Lah also speaks with the trainees about the pressure to maintain a certain appearance, and how extreme dieting and plastic surgery are common amongst K-Pop hopefuls.
The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper is executive produced by Susan Chun.
The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper will stream live for pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps on Sunday, January 5. “K-Pop: A Star is Made” will also be available on demand beginning Monday, January 6 to pay TV subscribers via CNN.com, CNN connected TV and mobile apps, and Cable Operator Platforms. Past episodes of The Whole Story are available to stream on demand now on Max.
The Whole Story is also available as a CNN Audio showcast. Visit CNN.com/audio or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
###
About CNN Originals
The CNN Originals group develops, produces and acquires original, long-form unscripted programming for CNN Worldwide. Amy Entelis, executive vice president of Talent, CNN Originals and creative development, oversees the award-winning CNN Originals portfolio that includes the following premium content brands: CNN Original Series, CNN Films, CNN FlashDocs, CNN Presents, and the newly formed CNN Studios, an internal production studio which creates long-form programming for CNN’s global platforms. Since 2012, the team has overseen and executive produced more than 50 multi-part documentary series and 65 feature-length documentary films, earning more than 110 awards and 445 nominations for the cable network, including CNN Films’ first Academy Award® for Navalny. Acclaimed titles include the Peabody Award winning and 13-time Emmy® Award-winning Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown; five time Emmy® nominee, Apollo 11, directed by Todd Douglas Miller; Emmy® nominated Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico; the Emmy® Award-nominated “Decades Series”: The Sixties, The Seventies, The Eighties, The Nineties, The 2000s, and The 2010s, executive produced by Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman; The Last Movie Stars, directed by Ethan Hawke about the lives and careers of actors and humanitarians Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman; Grammy® Award nominee Little Richard: I Am Everything, directed by Lisa Cortés; The Many Lives of Martha Stewart; This is Life with Lisa Ling; Primetime Emmy® and duPont-Columbia Award-winning, RBG, directed by Betsy West and Julie Cohen; See It Loud: The History of Black Television, executive produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter; Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight in partnership with the BBC; the Producers Guild Award and three-time Emmy® Award-winning Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy; BAFTA nominee and Directors Guild Award winner, Three Identical Strangers, directed by Tim Wardle; and the five-time Emmy® Award-winning United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell; and five-time Emmy® Award-winning The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper. CNN Originals can be seen on CNN, the CNN Original Hub on Max and discovery+, the CNN Originals FAST channel, and for pay TV subscription via CNN.com, CNN apps and cable operator platforms.
About Warner Bros. Discovery
Warner Bros. Discovery (NASDAQ: WBD) is a leading global media and entertainment company that creates and distributes the world’s most differentiated and complete portfolio of content and brands across television, film and streaming. Available in more than 220 countries and territories and 50 languages, Warner Bros. Discovery inspires, informs and entertains audiences worldwide through its iconic brands and products including: Discovery Channel, discovery+, CNN, DC, Eurosport, HBO, HGTV, Food Network, OWN, Investigation Discovery, TLC, Magnolia Network, TNT, TBS, truTV, Travel Channel, Max, MotorTrend, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Warner Bros. Film Group, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Games, New Line Cinema, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Turner Classic Movies, Discovery en Español, Hogar de HGTV and others. For more information, please visit www.wbd.com.
Press Contacts
The Whole Story Press Contacts
Kyung Lah Press Contact
