Kang Ho Dong Excluded from KBS Year-End Award Nominations List

Kang Ho Dong, who’s retired from the entertainment industry indefinitely, has been excluded from all KBS year-end award nominations list.

According to the final nominations list released by KBS on December 21, Kim Byung Man (“Gag Concert”), Shin Dong Yup (“Immortal Song 2”), Yoo Jae Suk (“Happy Together 3”), Lee Kyung Kyu (“Qualifications of a Man”), and Lee Seung Ki (“1 Night and 2 Days”) were the only nominees listed for this year’s grand award.

Fans have been questioning why Kang Ho Dong, who led one of the country’s most popular variety shows in “1 Night and 2 Days” until his retirement in September, was not included in the list.

“We decided to exclude him from the list since he’s temporarily retired from the industry, and to prevent any controversy it may cause,” an official from KBS said.

Lee Soo Geun, the winner of last year’s “Best Variety MC Award (second best award),” also missed the list. He was Kang Ho Dong’s co-host for “1 Night and 2 Days” but did not win enough votes from the reporters who picked the final list.

The 2011 KBS Entertainment Awards will be held on December 24. Yoo Jae Suk, who’s been one of the top two MCs in Korea, has not won the top award since 2005. Could this year finally be his year? 

Thunderstix is the Editor-in-Chief for soompi.com. You can email him at eugene@soompi.com, or follow his twitter.com feed at @eugenekim222.