결방 (gyeolbang) — "No Episode Tonight": The Word Korean Drama Fans Hate Most
결방
결방 (gyeolbang) means that a program which was scheduled on the broadcast lineup doesn’t go out that day and takes the night off. It’s Tuesday, 10 p.m. Last week’s final scene cut out at the exact moment the lead was opening a door, and you’ve waited a full week to sit down in front of the TV — but what’s on screen is a baseball game. Thinking you must have hit the wrong channel, you pull out your phone, and there on the program’s official account is a single short notice: “금일 결방 안내드립니다.” (“Today’s episode will not air.”) Anyone who has followed a Korean drama live has had this moment of betrayal at least once, and the name attached to that betrayal is 결방.
The temperature of this word is strange. The word itself carries no emotion. It sounds closer to the dry tone of an announcement stating that the network has adjusted its schedule. But the people who actually say it out loud are usually viewers, and the moment a viewer says it, feelings get layered on top — “that’s a shame,” “this isn’t fair,” “why tonight of all nights.” So a single line like 결방이래 (gyeolbangirae) (“apparently it’s not airing”) carries both information and resentment at once.
Grammatically it’s a noun. Attach 결방하다 (gyeolbanghada) or 결방되다 (gyeolbangdoeda) and it becomes a verb. With the network as the subject you get “방송사가 드라마를 결방했다” (“the network pulled the drama”); with the program as the subject you get “드라마가 결방됐다” (“the drama didn’t air”). In real conversation, though, people far more often just toss out the noun with no verb at all. 오늘 결방이야 (oneul gyeolbangiya) and 이번 주 결방이에요 (ibeon ju gyeolbangieyo) — memorize just these two sentences and you’ve covered 90% of the situations you’ll meet.
The reasons for a 결방 are pretty much fixed: sports broadcasts (baseball, soccer, the Olympics), special programming, live election coverage, major breaking news, holiday specials, year-end awards shows. That’s why, when a Korean viewer hears the word 결방, they guess before they ask: “Ah — baseball?”
Seeing It in Real Conversation
The scene: Tuesday, 10 p.m. You sit down on the couch and turn on the TV, but instead of the drama there’s a baseball game on.
Emily: 어? 나 채널 잘못 눌렀나? 왜 야구가 나와? Huh? Did I hit the wrong channel? Why is there baseball on?
Jun-kyung: 아, 오늘 결방이야. 아까 공지 떴더라. Ah, it’s off today. There was a notice earlier.
Emily: 뭐? 지난주에 그렇게 끊어 놓고 결방을 한다고? What? They cut it off on that cliffhanger last week and now they’re skipping it?
Jun-kyung: 야구가 연장 가면 뒤에 프로도 다 밀려. 대신 다음 주에 두 편 몰아서 한대. If the game goes to extra innings everything after it gets pushed back. They’re airing two episodes next week instead.
Emily: 아 진짜… 나 이거 보려고 저녁도 빨리 먹었는데. Seriously… I even ate dinner early just for this.
Jun-kyung: 어차피 결방인데 지난 회 다시 볼까? 나 그거 뒷부분 놓쳤잖아. Since it’s off anyway, want to rewatch last week’s? I missed the end of it.
These Uses Sound Off
✗ (postponing a team meeting) 팀장님, 오늘 회의는 결방입니다. ✓ 팀장님, 오늘 회의는 취소됐습니다. (“Sir, today’s meeting has been canceled.”) → 결방 is used only for broadcasts that have a programming schedule. It isn’t used for events where people gather, like meetings, classes, or appointments. Among close friends someone might joke “오늘 회의 결방이래” (“apparently today’s meeting is off the air”), but say it in front of a superior and you’ll come across as someone treating the situation lightly.
✗ (a notice on a personal YouTube channel) 이번 주는 개인 사정으로 결방합니다. ✓ 이번 주는 개인 사정으로 휴방합니다. (“There will be no upload this week due to personal reasons.”) → 결방 leans toward a broadcast that was set to air getting bumped by outside circumstances. If the creator themselves decided to take the week off, 휴방 (hyubang) is the natural choice. Swap the two and the question of “who made the decision” gets scrambled, and it sounds off.
Example Sentences by Situation
1. An informational comment posted in a fan community This is the sentence you’ll see most often on drama message boards. By convention, people write the reason and the make-up scheduling together.
오늘은 스포츠 중계로 결방이래요. 대신 다음 주에 2회 연속 방송한다고 합니다. It’s not airing today because of the sports broadcast. Instead, they’re airing two episodes back to back next week.
2. Giving a friend a heads-up (casual speech) The sentence that rescues a friend from waiting in front of the TV for nothing. In casual speech, particles often get dropped too.
야, 오늘 그거 결방이야. 괜히 열 시에 TV 앞에 앉아 있지 마. Hey, that show’s not on today. Don’t go sitting in front of the TV at ten for nothing.
3. An official network announcement (formal style) This is the form you’ll see verbatim in news articles and in on-screen network captions. Here it must be used in the passive, as 결방됩니다.
특집 편성으로 인해 금주 《○○○》은 결방됩니다. 시청자 여러분의 양해를 부탁드립니다. Due to special programming, ○○○ will not air this week. We ask for our viewers’ understanding.
Polite vs. Casual Speech, and Similar Expressions
The difference between casual and polite speech comes down not to the word but to the predicate you attach after it. To a friend, 오늘 결방이야; to a senior, 오늘 결방이에요; in an official document, 금일 결방됩니다. Since you leave the word itself alone and only change the ending, it’s actually an easy one for learners.
Let’s line up some expressions that look similar but sit in different places.
| Expression | Temperature / intensity | Where it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| 결방 (gyeolbang) | Neutral. Has a whiff of the official notice | When a scheduled TV or radio program doesn’t go out that day because of outside circumstances |
| 휴방 (hyubang) | Neutral. Feels like the creators’ own decision | When the production team of a radio show, YouTube channel, or web variety show decides to take a week off |
| 불방 (bulbang) | Heavy. Smells like something went wrong | When something was fully produced but in the end could not be aired, due to review board issues or an incident |
| 재방송 (jaebangsong) | Neutral | Re-airing an episode that has already gone out. A 결방 slot is sometimes filled with a 재방송 |
In practice, news of a 결방 travels alongside these words. “오늘 결방이고 대신 재방송 나온대” (“it’s not airing today, and they’re running a rerun instead”) is the most common combination.
Cultural Background — 본방사수 and the Night of the 결방
The 결 in 결방 is the Chinese character 缺, meaning “to be missing.” It’s the same 결 as in 결석 (gyeolseok, 缺席, “absence from class”) and 결근 (gyeolgeun, 缺勤, “absence from work”). Add the 방 (放) from 방송 (bangsong, 放送, “broadcast”) and the literal reading becomes “to skip a broadcast.” A program taking a day off the way a person takes a day off school — hold onto that image and the meaning won’t slip away from you.
There’s a reason this word carries such outsized emotion in Korea. Koreans have an expression: 본방사수 (bonbangsasu). It means defending the original broadcast with your life — that is, watching in real time at the scheduled hour rather than catching up on replay. Since ratings decide a drama’s lifespan and whether it gets extended, watching live is also a way for fans to show support. A whole night that you spent a week preparing for, swallowed entirely by a single extra-innings baseball game — that’s a 결방.
There’s one more reason 결방 is especially loathed in drama fandom: timing. Korean dramas love to cut an episode off at a decisive moment. Right before the truth comes out, right before hands are held, right before the door opens, the screen goes black. You’ve held out a whole week in that state, and then the 결방 notice drops and the wait becomes two weeks. That’s exactly where reactions like “결방 실화냐” (“a 결방, seriously?”) and “2주는 못 기다린다” (“I can’t wait two weeks”) come flooding into fan communities.
These days, with more people binge-watching (몰아보기, morabogi) on streaming, some say a 결방 doesn’t hit the way it used to. But the schedules of terrestrial and cable channels are still very much alive, and a 결방 notice from a network’s official account is still one of the fastest-spreading pieces of news in that week’s fandom. If you’re a learner who wants to follow Korean dramas in real time, you will run into this word sooner or later.
Today’s Quiz
Your favorite YouTuber has decided not to post a video this week and has put up a notice on their channel. Which expression is the most natural here?
- 이번 주는 결방합니다.
- 이번 주는 휴방합니다.
- 이번 주는 불방합니다.
See the answer
Answer: 2 — 이번 주는 휴방합니다.
Since the creator themselves decided to take the week off, 휴방 (hyubang) is correct. Option 1, 결방, is used when a program with a fixed schedule gets bumped by outside circumstances like a sports broadcast or special programming, and option 3, 불방, is used for the heavier situation where something was fully produced but in the end never made it to air. The difference between the three words lies not in their meaning but in “who decided, and why it didn’t go out.”
All definitions, example sentences, and dialogue in this post are original work written by the author; no part of it is quoted from the National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary.