The Wave is K.

Korean pop culture, ranked by the numbers · 한류 랭킹

Creators

How Na Young-seok Builds His Shows

나영석 PD는 예능을 어떻게 만드나

Na Young-seok, known as Na PD, is credited as director on a run of tvN and KBS shows built on one-line premises, from 2 Days & 1 Night (2007) to Jinny's Kitchen (2023). The table covers eight flagship shows; the text covers how the formats, casts and spin-offs connect.

Data as of

Thumbnail of the Jinny's Kitchen teaser trailer
Pictured: the thumbnail of the Jinny's Kitchen teaser trailer (2023), from Prime Video Singapore's YouTube channel; Jinny's Kitchen is the latest show in the table.10
Eight flagship shows credited to producer-director Na Young-seok, by first airing
First aired Show Network or platform Na's credit Format Source
Aug 5, 20072 Days & 1 Night1박 2일KBS2Director, episodes 1–232Road-trip format: a cast visits a place in Korea for one night and two days1
Jul 5, 2013Grandpas Over Flowers꽃보다 할배tvNCredited directorFour veteran actors backpack overseas with Lee Seo-jin2
Oct 17, 2014Three Meals a Day삼시세끼tvNCredited directorThe cast live in a village three days a week and cook three meals a day3
Sep 4, 2015 (web); Apr 8, 2016 (tvN)New Journey to the West신서유기Naver TV Cast, then tvNCredited directorCast in costume complete tasks to win dragon balls4
Mar 24, 2017Youn's Kitchen윤식당tvNCredited directorThe cast run a small Korean restaurant abroad5
Jan 8, 2021Youn's Stay윤스테이tvNCredited directorYoun's Kitchen's first spin-off: a hanok guesthouse in South Jeolla for foreign guests6
Jun 24, 2022Earth Arcade뿅뿅 지구오락실tvNCredited directorFour heroes chase an escaped moon rabbit through games and missions7
Feb 24, 2023Jinny's Kitchen서진이네tvN and TVING; Prime Video worldwideCredited directorLee Seo-jin opens a Korean street-food restaurant in Mexico, then Iceland8

First-aired dates, networks, directors and premises are as each show's Wikipedia article gives them (retrieved November 6, 2026).12345678 "Credited director" means the article's infobox lists Na Young-seok as a director; 2 Days & 1 Night lists him for episodes 1 to 232.1 New Journey to the West shows its web start and its tvN start separately. Na has many other credits, including KBS shows from 2001 and further tvN shows; this table shows eight flagships rather than every title, because Wikipedia's filmography table for him has inconsistent rows.9

How the shows connect

Format

A format you can say in one line

Na Yeong-seok (나영석; his nickname is "Na PD"), who joined KBS in 2001 and was born on April 15, 1976, is credited as director on the shows in the table.9 Each runs on a premise that fits in a sentence: a cast visits a place for one night and two days, four veteran actors backpack abroad, a cast cooks three meals a day in a village, a cast opens a restaurant or guesthouse.12356 Wikipedia credits 2 Days & 1 Night (KBS2, from August 5, 2007) with bringing the road-trip format to Korean reality television.9

Link

A joke becomes a show

Wikipedia's article on Three Meals a Day says the idea came from a joke on Grandpas Over Flowers, which Na and the actor Lee Seo-jin had worked on together.3 Lee Seo-jin then reappears across the franchise: he travels with the four actors in Grandpas Over Flowers, a manager in Youn's Kitchen and, in Jinny's Kitchen, the restaurant owner.28

Franchise

From one restaurant to a franchise

Youn's Kitchen (tvN, March 24, 2017 to March 23, 2018, 20 episodes) had the cast run a small Korean restaurant abroad.5 Youn's Stay is its first spin-off: with travel disrupted by COVID-19, the production opened a hanok guesthouse in South Jeolla Province for foreign guests and gave the show a new title.6 Jinny's Kitchen is the second spin-off, made "with the goal of forming a franchise", and Wikipedia calls it the first Korean entertainment show distributed worldwide by Amazon Prime; it ran in Bacalar, Mexico in season 1 and Reykjavík, Iceland in season 2.8 Videos: Youn Stay ǀ 尹STAY Teaser (tvN Asia); Jinny's Kitchen | Teaser Trailer | Amazon Prime (Prime Video Singapore).10

Beyond TV

Beyond the broadcaster

New Journey to the West began on the web on September 4, 2015 and reached tvN on April 8, 2016.4 Na and his team also run a YouTube channel, "Channel 15ya" (채널십오야), where two web spin-offs of Three Meals a Day were released: Three Meals in Iceland (September 20 to November 29, 2019) and Three Meals a Day for Four (May 15 to July 24, 2020).3

New faces

The same producer, a different cast

Earth Arcade (tvN, June 24, 2022) is a reality-variety show whose four heroes, including An Yu-jin of IVE, try to catch an escaped moon rabbit, and Park Hyun-yong is credited as co-director on it and on New Journey to the West from season 7.47 Videos: Earth Arcade 3 | Official Trailer | CJ ENM (CJ ENM Global).10

Limits

What this post leaves out

This is a description of the formats and release history, not a ranking. It gives no ratings, because the sources' season counts and rating tables disagree in places (Wikipedia's article on Three Meals a Day says nine seasons aired to July 2020, while its filmography entry for Na lists ten to 2021), and it doesn't judge any show.39

Sources

  1. Wikipedia, 2 Days & 1 Night, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  2. Wikipedia, Grandpas Over Flowers, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  3. Wikipedia, Three Meals a Day, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  4. Wikipedia, New Journey to the West, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  5. Wikipedia, Youn's Kitchen, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  6. Wikipedia, Youn's Stay, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  7. Wikipedia, Earth Arcade, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  8. Wikipedia, Jinny's Kitchen, retrieved 2026-11-06.
  9. Wikipedia, Na Yeong-seok (career and filmography), retrieved 2026-11-06.
  10. YouTube, official channels named in each caption (tvN Asia, Prime Video Singapore, CJ ENM Global), every ID checked with oEmbed on 2026-11-06; lead thumbnail checked.