Top 10 Streaming Variety Shows of 2025 That a Netflix Addict Loved

Hello! It's Keke.
It's the end of the year. It's a cold wave. I don't want to go outside.

This year, more than ever, I found joy in watching from the safety of my kotatsu as others engaged in 'battles where they bet their lives' on the other side of the screen. Am I a bad person? I know. But the flatter my own life is, the more the sight of others sweating, being insulted, betraying, and screaming becomes the perfect snack for my drinks...

So, I've recorded the soul-shaking survival battle variety shows that healed my heart in 2025. There are no sparkly dating reality shows here.

The target audience for this article is those of you who are tired of shows stuck in the molds of terrestrial TV karaoke, praising the Showa and Heisei eras, or 'Japan is amazing' tropes.

Let's get started.

*By the way, my Top 10 dating reality shows of 2025 have already been memorialized here, so please check them out.

Muscles don't betray you, but people do: 'Physical: 100 Season 2 - Asia'

No words needed, just muscles.

The muscle survival show from Korea has finally gone Asia-wide. While I'm sitting in my baggy loungewear drinking Costco wine, the screen is packed with superhumans with single-digit body fat percentages, allowing me to taste the defeat of being the same species.

Perhaps because fierce competitors from across Asia gathered this time, the clash of 'physical language' without a common tongue was intense. Just watching the part where they carry sandbags in a maze makes my lower back ache. It's fun to oscillate between the sense of loss when my favorite contestant is eliminated and the relief of thinking, 'Well, this is a world that has nothing to do with me anyway.'

Special mention goes to Itoi-san's shoulders! They are too amazing! He has three heads like Cerberus.

Comfortably exhausting for the brain: 'The Devil's Plan 2'

Watching the struggles of geniuses makes me appreciate the happiness of an ordinary person.

A show where smart people gather and deceive each other in games whose rules even normal people can't understand. I was worried because Ha Seok-jin-san in Season 1 was so good, but Season 2 was also great, showing a different vector of 'strange physics theories'.

Why is it so thrilling to see the faces of people being cornered by numbers and logic? While they are calculating with their brains in full gear, I'm eating rice crackers without thinking about anything. This gap. It makes me feel happy that the biggest choice in my life is something like 'What should I have for dinner tonight?'
I can't remember the rules, to the point where I pause and take photos every time they explain them. Is it just me?

The obsession with money is the scariest: 'Squid Game: The Challenge 2'

If I had 4.56 million dollars, I'd quit my job... (daydreaming).

A mad spectacle where real people compete for prize money (about 700 million yen) by perfectly recreating the sets from the drama version. Unlike the drama, they don't die, but the 'despair on their faces' when they are eliminated is so real that it's scarier than the drama in a way.

Especially this time, the participants' 'reasons for wanting money' were strangely raw... When they talk about debt or family, my stomach starts to hurt too. Watching people stand perfectly still during 'Red Light, Green Light,' I was convinced, 'I would have given up in the first 5 seconds and gone home to sleep.'

Late-night food porn and class struggle: 'Culinary Class Wars 2'

Looks delicious... someone please compile a Google Map... (relying on others).

A culinary battle of the underdog where unknown chefs (black) challenge famous chefs (white). It is sinful that this is streamed late at night when you are already hungry. While chasing the ghosts of Season 1, like Edward Lee, I was also captivated by the dishes of these new geniuses.

In the blind tasting scenes, I can drink three glasses of alcohol just from the look on the judges' faces the moment they take a bite. It is satisfying to watch the two clean-cut male judges eat an extraordinary amount of food.

Laughing and crying at the way comedians live: 'Talk Survivor! Last of the Laugh'

I laughed so hard my abs cramped... I need to exercise more...

The final chapter of a mysterious genre where Producer Sakuma and MC Chidori host a free-talk battle within a drama. True to the name 'Last,' the comedians' resolve was incredible. It is a chaotic space where the drama part is strangely lavish, and while actors perform with complete seriousness, comedians throw in self-deprecating anecdote talks.

I almost found myself crying at Daigo's love and strictness toward 'comedy.' Even though I was just laughing, for some reason, after it ended, I felt the same fatigue and satisfaction as if I had watched a movie. It became a mental protector that lets me think, 'Well, compared to the trials of comedians, this is nothing,' even when bad things happen.

A microcosm of a stressful society: 'Abuse Village'

I don't want to be abused, but watching abuse is... okay.

A crazy village set up by Producer Sakuma where all the villagers hurl abuse at you. Koji Higashino and Kasumi Mori are the MCs, and comedians just endure the abuse, but the vocabulary of the abuse is strangely high-level and educational (though I have no opportunity to use it).

As a modern person living in a stressful society, watching others being abused on my behalf might have a certain detox effect... No, maybe not. My stomach hurts.

Kasumi Mori's cold gaze was, in a sense, the biggest abuse of all. Thank you.

The heavy second life of athletes: 'Final Draft'

You can't live on muscles alone... it's a harsh world...

A survival show where retired top athletes compete for 30 million yen in second-career funding.
I thought it would just be a physical fitness test, but it tests intelligence, luck, and 'human power.' Knowing their glory during their active years makes watching them fight in the mud hit even harder...

It is thrilling how MC Nagano cuts through the 'athlete platitudes.' MEGUMI's realistic comments also sink in. In a world where 'I used to be great' doesn't work, can you throw away your pride? Watching it made me think about how I should conduct my own life. Although I'm still lying around in loungewear without throwing anything away.

The behind-the-scenes of idols is too real: 'timelesz project'

Fuma Kikuchi's eyes are so serious it's scary (I mean that as a compliment).

An audition for new members of timelesz, formerly Sexy Zone. At first, I took it lightly, thinking, 'It's just an idol audition, right?' but Fuma Kikuchi's judging eyes are those of a predator stalking its prey. It's scary.

Every time a tense atmosphere flows, like 'If you forget the lyrics, it's not going to work,' I want to turn up the heat on my kotatsu. The immaturity of the candidates and the resolve of the members supporting them. As I review the audition streams so far ahead of the '-REAL-' arc starting in January, I worry about the fate of my favorite candidates and get a stomachache.

Witnessing the moment someone else's life changes is always high-calorie.

The Hell of Naming Relationships: 'The Line Between Friends with Benefits and Lovers'

The title alone is too much. But I still watch it.

The #1 show to watch secretly in the middle of the night. It gathers men and women who are in situations like 'we're not dating, but we have a physical relationship,' and forces them to decide whether to make it official or stay in the gray zone... a hellish concept.

Watching it makes me want to punch a cushion in frustration, shouting, 'Ugh! Just make up your mind already!' But I don't relate to the part where you're drunk on that ambiguous relationship. Just date or break up already.

Drinking cheap wine while heckling these futile romantic patterns is the loneliest, yet most luxurious time.

The Monster Known as the Need for Approval: 'The Influencer'

A world where follower count is your combat power. I want a scouter.

A survival show where Korean influencers compete to see who has the most influence. The production choice of displaying follower counts on their collars gave me a dystopian chill. A system that feels like the darkness of modern society boiled down, where losing numbers means elimination.

In a world where 'getting attention is winning,' seeing them promote themselves without shame is, in a way, refreshing. I have a tofu-soft mentality that gets depressed if I lose even one 'like' on social media, so I have nothing but respect for their steel-like mentalities. But I wouldn't want to be friends with them. I'd rather watch from afar.

Conclusion

Those were the shows that stirred my heart in 2025. They are all high-calorie, and I feel exhausted after watching them, but perhaps that exhaustion is what it means to be 'alive' (or whatever). How about curling up under a kotatsu during the holidays and having a drink while enjoying other people's drama as a side dish? That's what I'll be doing. Happy New Year.

Click here for the 2025 Reality Romance Top 10

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