SBS addresses suspicions of manipulating the Popularity Award at the '2013 SBS Entertainment Awards'

SBS addressed suspicions that the Popularity Awards in the 2013 SBS Entertainment Awards were fabricated or manipulated by the broadcasting company.

It appears that since December 17, the audience votes for the popularity award took place on the SBS home page and a total of 21 names including Yoo Jae Suk and the 'Running Man' members were put up as candidates.  By the time the poll ended on December 30, Yoo Jae Suk had garnered well over 60% of netizens' votes.  However, he did not receive an individual Viewer's Choice Popularity Award, but rather was awarded as a group with the entire cast of 'Running Man', stirring up a lot of talk among viewers and netizens. There was also another popularity award that went to Jo Yeo Jung and Kim Sung Soo, which was actually not based on netizen votes, leading to further confusion.

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A rep from SBS told Newsen on December 31, "The Popularity Award fabrication is not true. The Popularity Award that Jo Yeo Jung and Kim Sung Soo received were not the Popularity Awards that the audience voted on. The entries for that were entirely different. It was not the Viewer's Choice Popularity Award."

SBS continued, "It is true that Yoo Jae Suk was in the overwhelming lead in the votes for the Viewer's Choice Popularity Award on the SBS home page.  However, apart from Yoo Jae Suk, the other SBS 'Running Man' cast members had a lot of votes, as well. Considering their team work, we decided to award the 'Running Man' members as a whole," explaining why 'Running Man' received the award rather than Yoo Jae Suk by himself.