Young K Missed 'Amazing Saturday' — Then tvN Played a DAY6 Song for TXT

When DAY6's Young K joined tvN's "Amazing Saturday: DoReMi Market" as a new regular cast member in late February 2026, fans immediately wondered what would happen the first time he had to miss an episode. The answer came on March 28 — and the timing could not have been more perfectly awkward. With Young K away for DAY6's ongoing 10th anniversary tour, the show did exactly what it always does when a cast member is absent: it made that absence the centerpiece of the episode. A DAY6 song became the dictation challenge. And the guests who had to tackle it were TOMORROW X TOGETHER's Yeonjun, Soobin, and Beomgyu.

It is the kind of moment that could only happen in Korean variety television — an unscripted collision of scheduling realities that produces something funnier and more resonant than anything a writer could have planned. Two of the biggest acts in K-pop, connected through one absent man and one very specific game show tradition, sharing a stage that one of them technically already occupies.

How Young K Ended Up on Amazing Saturday

The backstory begins with a controversy. In late 2025, longtime "Amazing Saturday" regulars Park Na-rae and SHINee's Key both departed from the show following public scrutiny over their involvement in a series of illegal medical procedure allegations. Their exits left two prominent spots in the show's lineup suddenly vacant, and producers moved quickly to find replacements that could bring the same energy to the beloved Saturday night staple.

Young K — vocalist, bassist, and principal songwriter of DAY6 — was announced as one of the new additions in February 2026. His first episode aired on February 28, and his entrance, typically kept secret even from the MCs Shin Dong-yup and Boom until filming began, set the tone immediately: he walked onto the set singing, the production team had prepared a fake script to maintain secrecy, and the response from both cast and viewers was warmly enthusiastic.

"I was so excited and nervous that I wasn't sleeping well," Young K said at the time. "I want to join as quickly as possible." Boom, the MC who has presided over "Amazing Saturday" since its early days, praised the new addition in characteristically enthusiastic terms: noting that Young K "sings well, writes lyrics well, composes well, is handsome, and eats well." On a show where eating is literally the prize, that last point carries weight.

The Amazing Saturday Tradition: When Members Are Away

For those unfamiliar with the show's format, "Amazing Saturday: DoReMi Market" operates on a deceptively simple premise: cast members must correctly transcribe the lyrics of a song, word for word, in order to win food from featured markets across Korea. The competitive stakes are food. The fun comes from watching people fail spectacularly at lyrics they thought they knew.

The show has cultivated a beloved tradition around absent members: when a regular cast member cannot make it to a recording session, the music featured in that episode's dictation challenge tends to come from that absent member's own discography. It is the show's gentle way of keeping everyone present even when they are not — and it creates the kind of audience anticipation that social media thrives on. Viewers at home track absences in real time, speculating on which song will appear.

On March 28, with Young K away for DAY6's "The Decade" 10th anniversary tour, a DAY6 track materialized as the week's challenge — dropped in front of three members of TXT who, to put it generously, may have had their own promotional concerns foremost in mind.

TXT's Chaotic Appearance: Comebacks on the Brain

TOMORROW X TOGETHER — Soobin, Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Taehyun, and Hueningkai — are one of the most prominent second-generation Big Hit/BIGHIT Music acts, and 2026 is already shaping up to be a significant year for the group. Their 8th mini album, tentatively titled "7TH YEAR: A Moment of Stillness in the Thorns," is scheduled for release on April 13, 2026 — just two weeks after this episode aired — making the group's March schedule a whirlwind of promotional activity.

Three of the five members appeared on this episode of "Amazing Saturday": Yeonjun, Soobin, and Beomgyu. If the preview clips released before broadcast were any indication, none of the three were operating at less than full intensity. Yeonjun, according to MC Boom, became so consumed by the competition that he was seen booing his own teammate Soobin during the challenge — a level of competitive investment that the show's producers clearly found delightful enough to highlight in promotional materials.

Soobin, meanwhile, started the episode with a confidence that the actual dictation results apparently did not support. A subtitle identifying him as "the person who was very confident" confirmed what viewers watching the preview could already suspect: the lyrics got the better of him. Beomgyu's appearance generated its own share of reactions, described by those who watched as bursting with the kind of energetic unpredictability TXT fans have come to expect from their most theatrical member.

Between challenges, Soobin referenced the group's upcoming comeback directly: "I just filmed the music video yesterday," he told the cast, noting that the video would likely be performance-heavy. It was a candid glimpse into the pre-release period for a group that has been building momentum through its seventh year.

Young K: Absent But Present

For DAY6 fans watching the March 28 episode, the moment when their group's music appeared on screen — without the newest "Amazing Saturday" cast member there to experience it — carried a particular kind of affection. Young K has been one of DAY6's most prolific contributors behind the scenes: a songwriter whose credits span years of the group's discography, a vocalist with a distinctive lower register that has anchored some of the group's most beloved tracks. Hearing a DAY6 song play in the studio while other performers grappled with its lyrics had the quality of an accidental tribute.

His absence on March 28 was a scheduling inevitability rather than any reflection on his commitment to the new role. DAY6's 10th anniversary world tour, "The Decade," has taken the group across Asia through early 2026 — including stops in Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Singapore, and domestic Korean cities. The collision of a touring schedule with a weekly live variety show is a practical reality for any active artist, and Young K had been upfront about this from his first episode, indicating that pre-existing commitments would occasionally require adjustment.

What the Moment Says About K-Pop Crossovers in 2026

Beyond the entertainment value, the March 28 episode of "Amazing Saturday" reflects something more interesting about the current state of K-pop's variety landscape. Young K's addition to the "Amazing Saturday" lineup placed a member of one of K-pop's most respected second-generation band acts into direct weekly contact with the genre's current generation — an ongoing conversation between different eras of the industry, conducted through food and song lyrics.

The appearance of TXT in the same episode, grappling with DAY6 material in Young K's absence, compressed that conversation into a single memorable moment. Soobin, Yeonjun, and Beomgyu have grown up in an industry that DAY6 helped shape; the group's influence on band-format acts and self-produced K-pop more broadly has been documented across a decade of releases. Watching three members of the next generation struggle with lyrics by the group that preceded them, on a show that one of those predecessors now calls home, is the kind of cultural layering that makes Korean variety television genuinely interesting to follow.

"Amazing Saturday: DoReMi Market" airs every Saturday at 7:40 PM KST on tvN. Young K's regular appearances on the show continue as his DAY6 touring schedule permits. TOMORROW X TOGETHER's 8th mini album releases April 13, 2026.