I Can See Your Voice (South Korean game show)

I Can See Your Voice (abbreviated as ICSYV; Korean: 너의 목소리가 보여; RR: Neoui moksoriga boyeo; MR: Nŏŭi moksorika poyŏ) is a South Korean television mystery music game show series. It premiered on Mnet and tvN on February 26, 2015, and has aired for 10 seasons.
Presented with a group of "mystery singers", the guest artist(s) must attempt to eliminate bad singers from the group without ever hearing them sing, assisted by clues and a celebrity panel over the course of several rounds. At the end of a game, the last remaining mystery singer is revealed as either good or bad by means of a duet between them and one of the guest artists.
The program has implemented two different game formats:
The winning mystery singer, regardless of being good or bad, gets a reward on the following conditions:
In 2012, producer and creator Lee Seon-young planned to develop a singing reality competition show. Besides with initial genre that entirely includes "good singers", she added some unusual elements such as "bad singers", lip sync, and "guessing game" flairs (à la Identity), creating a unique format that would become the "mystery music game show" in the process. Also, she originally envisioned a program that will allow anyone to be the main character regardless of their appearances, inspired by Kim Bum-soo who struggled to gain recognition because of his look.
I Can See Your Voice was formally announced as part of the programming lineup for Mnet's 20th founding anniversary in January 2015. The game show is originally produced by CJ ENM, which would later join co-production duties by the Signal Entertainment Group. According to a presscon for its sixth season, the game show was referred as a "second coming of National Singing Contest" because of its sudden impact on their local music industry.
Filming of the show took place at various locations, such as in-house CJ ENM studios in Ilsanseo-gu, Goyang and Mapo-gu, Seoul. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has filmed under implementing health and safety protocols since from seventh to ninth season. Spectators are now allowed on filmings for the tenth season.
I Can See Your Voice made its debut broadcast on February 26, 2015. Despite the poor reception in its first season, the series was forced to renew for a second season that premiered on October 22, 2015. In the third season having premiered on June 30, 2016, Kim Bum-soo hosted for the last time, with Davichi playing at the finale on September 15, 2016.
With Kim Jong-kook assigned as the show's new host, he also played as a guest artist in the fourth season premiere on March 2, 2017. The fifth season began airing regular episodes on February 2, 2018, followed by a period of four consecutive seasons that premiered on the same month — starting with sixth season (with Hwang Chi-yeul and Lee Sun-bin) on January 18, 2019, seventh season (with Park Joong-hoon) on January 17, 2020, eighth season (with Rain) on January 29, 2021, and ending with ninth season (with Eun Ji-won (of Sechs Kies), Kim Jong-min, Tiger JK, and Jang Su-won) on January 29, 2022. A tenth season began airing on March 22, 2023, breaking the period of "January seasons".
In the first season, a Star Wars special was played on May 14, 2015, featuring reinvited mystery singers in a team-based showdown. As a prelude to the fifth season, Block B played in the Global Invasion special on January 26, 2018, featuring representative mystery singers from local ICSYV counterparts.
Since from fourth to sixth season, a postseason showcase that has aired after its finale, includes the mystery singer performance rankings for the past seasons, as well as an encore concert featuring some of invited guest artists and mystery singers return to perform one last time.
The series has a panel of celebrities who assist the guest artist(s) to decipher mystery singers' identities throughout the game. Alongside with mainstays, guest panelists also appear since the first season. Overall, 23 different members have been assigned as panelists, with their original lineup being Kim Sang-hyuk (of Click-B), Ben, Julian Quintart, and Yoon Sung-ho [ko].
Beside them, subsequent members that have assigned panelist duties also include Han Hee-jun, Lee Sang-min, Park Hwi-soon [ko] (from 2nd season); Jang Do-yeon (from 3rd season); Joon Park (of g.o.d), Shindong (of Super Junior) (from 4th season); Jang Dong-min, DinDin (from 6th season); Hong Yoon-hwa [ko], Sleepy (of Untouchable) (from 7th season); Heo Kyung-hwan, Jang Wooyoung (of 2PM), Hanhae, Mijoo (of Lovelyz) (from 8th season); Eun Ji-won (of Sechs Kies), Kim Na-young (from 9th season); Hwang Chi-yeul, Park Myung-soo, and Jonathan Yiombi (from 10th season).