"Strong Heart" mulling casting of whole groups like with Super Junior

Super Junior member Kim Heechul on SBS talk show "Strong Heart" [SBS]

SBS talk show "Strong Heart" is considering casting entire groups to its show instead of just a select number of members from them.

"We're thinking about casting entire teams to the show now, like we did with Super Junior, in which all the members are close to each other and know each other well," producer Park Sang-hyuk of "Strong Heart" told 10Asia over the phone on Tuesday.

All ten current members of Super Junior appeared on a pre-recorded session of "Strong Heart" aired on August 16 which seems to have helped the show see ratings of 13.3 percent, a boost of 0.7 percentage points from its previous episode and the highest score it has seen in a month, numbers by AGB Nielsen Media showed.

He said that he was worried at first since some of them, like Lee Teuk and Shindong, make frequent appearance on variety shows while others, such as Sungmin and Ryeowook do not, but casting them as a whole rather had a positive effect.

"The members who were used to being on these sort of shows, like Kim Heechul and Eunhyuk, made way for the members who weren't, to help make them stand out and even when they talked, the spoke of things which would make the others stand out so I realized that having an entire group would bring out the show's characteristics," Park explained.

He added that they cast actor Choi Min-soo for the show too because they did not want an idol group to dominate the show which has some 15 to 20 guests battle each other every week by telling stories of themselves under the lead of hosts Kang Ho-dong and Lee Seung-gi.

"Strong Heart" is recorded every two weeks with each filming session broadcast in two episodes so the second part to the show starring Super Junior is set to go on air tonight.

Super Junior will speak about the various incidents they experienced while leading their life as a top K-pop group in the Asia region while Kim Heechul is said to have remarked on the band talking about their future a lot recently with mandatory military service having become a reality most of the group's members must soon face.

Kim Heechul, 28, is set to enter the military on September 1, making him the second member of the group to leave the spotlight to fulfill the two-year duty required of all Korean men.

The remaining members of the group, between ages 23 and 28, will have to serve their time in the coming years as well. Most Korean men enter the military in their early to mid-twenties.