Yoo Hee Yeol decided to leave his long-running program, Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook, after getting embroiled in plagiarism issues.
Since 2009, Yoo Hee Yeol has been leading the talk show and live music television program Yoo Hee Yeol Sketchbook. It has since welcomed several guests and artists who showed their musical talents while sharing stories of their lives.
But after 13 years, the lead star left the program, and the show itself announced its last episode.
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Yoo Hee Yeol Leaves Yoo Hee Yeol’s Sketchbook
Sports Seoul (via Wikitree) reported that Yoo Hee Yeol broke down and decided to leave the program. The decision reportedly came after 100 Minutes Discussion depicted him as a plagiarist. It all started during a discussion between Kim Tae Won and Im Jin Mo.
"Yoo Hee Yeol had a strong attachment to 'Yoo Hee Yeol's Sketchbook' enough to run it for 600 episodes. However, he completely collapsed after seeing his musical colleagues on the show '100 Minutes Discussion' depicting him to be an unscrupulous plagiarist,” it said.
The singer-songwriter reportedly informed the production team to leave the show after the MBC show’s July 5th broadcast. The production team tried to make him stay, but he firmly proclaimed his exit after breaking down.
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The two 100 Minutes Discussion stars have since responded to Yoo Hee Yeol’s exit but did not offer an apology.
According to Kim Tae Won, plagiarism is being neglected in South Korea. Instead of letting it pass this time, he suggested shedding some light on it already.
Meanwhile, Im Jin Mo pointed out that Yoo Hee Yeol is educated and knows about the “serious” issue.
Before the announcement, Yoo Hee Yeol clarified that there were parts of the allegations he had a hard time accepting. Still, he pledged to self-reflect to learn from it.
Park Sae Byul Offers Support For Yoo Hee Yeol
Among the artists who offered support for Yoo Hee Yeol, Park Sae Byul shared a lengthy post on Instagram and voiced her concerns about her “teacher” and the issues he is facing.
“After conversing with him for one hour, he helped me realize my life direction and concept of music. It changed my life. There are so many different kinds of music in this world. Many people have listened to David Foster and Ryuichi Sakamoto's songs. But nobody can make Toy's music,” she went on.
Yoo Hee Yeol was accused of plagiarizing Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Aqua and using similar chords to his A Most Private Evening. He has since apologized for the issue, and the Japanese musician defended him.
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