Netflix kicked 2023 off with a bang with the South Korean reality competition series Physical: 100. Premiering on Jan. 24 to automatic praise, the show has remained glued to Netflix’s Top 10 charts and has become an instant hit with over 140 million hours of watch time and counting as of this writing. It is now the first unscripted reality competition to ever hit Netflix’s Non-English TV charts.
The show’s premise involves 100 physically-fit male and female contestants battling it out in a series of enormously tough challenges — or “quests” as they are called on the show — in order to win the 300 million won cash prize, or 243,188 USD, and earn the title of the athlete with the “perfect physique.” The contestants hail from a variety of backgrounds including CrossFit athletes, snowboarders, Olympians, MMA fighters, gymnasts, bodybuilders, and even K-pop stars, a dancer, a rapper, and a Korean Naval SEAL officer, among others.
On Feb. 21, the competition’s first season concluded and crowned its inaugural winner, Woo Jin-yong. The rollercoaster ride of near-impossible challenges, surprise eliminations, and euphoric accomplishments had put the desire for a second season at an all-time high. Can fans look forward to more Physical: 100? Here’s what we know.
Has Netflix renewed Physical: 100 for a season 2?
The runaway success of Physical: 100 in the United States and across the globe is likely nothing Netflix could have expected. It not only exceeded that of the similar-esque Squid Game reality competition by leaps and bounds — controversy or not — it also acquired a legion of fans almost guaranteed to tune in for a second season.
Likely due to the surprising nature of its ascent outside of the South Korean market, Netflix has not renewed Physical: 100 for a second season yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t, but it doesn’t mean it will, either. A reality show consisting of 12 contestants is hard enough to coordinate. Adding 88 more and also including physically dangerous activities complicates matters, to be sure.
Physical 100’s finale has resulted in a steady stream of buzz for the show, even dethroning Penn Badgley’s psychological thriller You as the fan-favorite show of the week. If Netflix is paying attention, and we’re sure it is, then it shouldn’t be too long before word breaks.
We Got This Covered will update you with more news as it’s announced.
