JTBCâs hit cooking variety show âPlease Take Care of My Refrigeratorâ has run into an unexpected backlash over its second-anniversary fan event, after viewers discovered that the application form asks for a photo, a social media ID, and details of any past broadcast or YouTube appearances.
The show announced the event, billed as ââPlease Take Care of My Refrigeratorâ In-Person Viewing DAY,â through its official social media accounts to mark its second anniversary. Selected participants will get to watch the showâs chefs compete in a 15-minute cooking battle on site and taste the finished dishes themselves, according to Sports Chosun. MyDaily reports that filming is scheduled for November 23, with the exact time to be shared later only with those selected.
The application form itself is where the trouble started. Alongside standard fields such as name, photo, age, gender, place of residence, phone number, and email address, applicants are asked for their social media ID and for any experience appearing on television or YouTube, including when and in what content they appeared, if applicable. Sports Chosun reports that attaching a photo taken within the past six months is marked as mandatory, though a phone selfie is acceptable.
Viewers quickly questioned why a fan event needed that kind of information. âIs this really recruiting true fans?â one commenter asked, according to MyDaily, while others wondered whether the show was actually looking for influencers. âIf youâre going to do this, just say from the start that youâre recruiting YouTubers and influencers,â another wrote. âI have nothing, so I guess I wonât get picked even if I apply,â one viewer added, while another asked, âWhy do you need to see my face? Do I really have to attach a photo just to watch a filming?â
The criticism gathered around a single contradiction: the event was presented as a special gift for viewers who love the show, yet several of its questions appeared to have little to do with how much an applicant likes the program. Sports Chosun reports that some viewers suspected the questions were designed to pick people likely to attract attention on screen, rather than ordinary fans. âWhy do you need photos and social media IDs? I donât think Iâve ever seen such an absurd application. Just contact influencers directly,â one commenter wrote.
MyDaily reports that some people said they gave up partway through filling out the form. The outlet also notes that no specific reason has been confirmed for why those particular items are being collected, leaving the production teamâs intentions open to interpretation.
No official explanation from the production team was available in either report. Both outlets frame the same open question: whether the team will clarify the purpose of the questions and the criteria it will use to select participants before the November 23 filming.
The controversy is notable because the showâs appeal rests on its chefs and its kitchen-showdown format rather than its studio audience. âPlease Take Care of My Refrigeratorâ pits chefs against each other to cook for 15 minutes using ingredients taken from celebritiesâ refrigerators. Since its return in December 2024, the show has stayed popular on the back of star chefs including Choi Hyun-seok, Lee Yeon-bok, Jung Ho-young, Kim Poong, and Son Jong-won, and it airs every Sunday at 8:50 p.m. on JTBC. An anniversary event built around that fandom would ordinarily be an easy goodwill win, which is part of why the reaction has been so sharp: instead of celebrating the viewers who made the revival a success, the form made some of them feel screened out.
For now, the event itself is still on, and the application questions remain as published. All eyes will be on whether JTBC addresses the criticism and adjusts the form, or lets the anniversary celebration go ahead under a cloud of suspicion about who it was really meant for.
