After Park Na-rae and Lee Jang-woo's Exit, 'I Live Alone' Bets on a New Trio

MBC's I Live Alone is entering a new chapter. With the departure of the show's longtime 'Palmyuz' trio, Jeon Hyun-moo, Park Na-rae, and Lee Jang-woo, the Friday-night variety staple is now centering a new group of regulars, informally named 'Deongeoriz,' comprising actor Koo Sung-hwan, comedian Kim Shin-young, and actor Lee Seon-min.

I Live Alone has aired on MBC since 2013, building much of its identity around a rotating cast of celebrities sharing the mundane details of solo living. The Palmyuz trio had become its most recognizable anchor over the past several years, so the group's exit leaves a real gap, one this Friday's episode appears designed to address head-on.

The episode, airing at 11:10 p.m. on Friday, follows Koo Sung-hwan as he hosts Kim Shin-young and Lee Seon-min for what he has put together as a full 'boyangsik course', a restorative, health-focused multi-course meal, a concept rooted in the Korean tradition of eating specifically to replenish energy and vitality. Koo, the eldest of the three and the group's unofficial leader, prepared each course himself.

The meal begins on his apartment balcony, where a table, chairs, and plated settings had been arranged with some care. Kim Shin-young's reaction to the setup is described as genuine surprise, she reportedly said it was the first time she had been treated to anything like it. The waiting, however, apparently tested her patience; before the first dish arrived, she compared the experience to being in a prison without bars.

The appetizer turned out to be Mexican-style, and Koo made a point of saying before unveiling it that he was not copying Jeon Hyun-moo, a small, self-aware reference to the former regular's well-known fondness for elaborate food presentations. It's the kind of moment that acknowledges the show's history without dwelling on it.

Koo also offered a mild corrective about the group's reputation. Despite 'Deongeoriz' carrying connotations of bulk and appetite (the name loosely evokes something large and hearty), he pushed back on the characterization: "We're not people who just eat a lot," he said. Whether Kim Shin-young and Lee Seon-min share that self-assessment remains, based on what was previewed, an open question.

For a show that has long relied on the chemistry of its ensemble rather than any single star, the Deongeoriz introduction is less a reinvention than a recalibration. Whether the new trio builds the same kind of sustained familiarity that made Palmyuz a fixture will take more than one episode to know.