Physical: 100 pits 100 physiques in an arena; losers smash their torso casts

By 2021, Jang Ho-gi, a producer at Korean broadcaster MBC who had worked on investigative journalism and documentaries, saw reality TV genres blurring and wanted to try something new that could travel beyond Korea. He had first been struck by physically superior people from many fields during his own special-forces military service, and later watched gym body-challenge winners online during COVID.

The format he proposed to Netflix in 2021 made one thing the whole engine: the human body. One hundred of Korea's most impressive physiques — Olympic medalists, bodybuilding champions, special forces soldiers, trainers and fitness influencers — enter a vast arena and are eliminated through quests that test strength, speed, agility and cunning, alone or in teams, until one body remains.

The show's signature idea was making the body itself the trophy and the casualty. Each contestant had a plaster cast made of their own torso; on elimination the loser smashed it with a hammer on the arena floor. 'In Squid Game, losers just die,' Jang explained. 'I wanted to take away their most precious thing... their body.' He deliberately mixed men and women, amateurs and professionals, so outcomes stayed unpredictable.

Physical: 100 launched January 24, 2023 and within two weeks entered Netflix's global Top 10 non-English TV list in more than 30 countries. It went on to become the first unscripted Korean show to top Netflix's non-English chart, and more than a month after launch it was amassing around 45 million viewing hours. Its 300-million-won prize (about US$239,000) went to CrossFit athlete and snowboarder Woo Jin-yong.