We take an in-depth look at trending issues in entertainment, broadcasting, film, OTT, performances, and sports, focusing on the latest verified facts and official schedules and viewing information.
Kim Na-hee held her wedding ceremony with a non-celebrity spouse on August 30, 2026. Reports said that around 1,000 guests attended, while Lee Chan-won hosted the ceremony and Song Ga-in performed a congratulatory song. Kim Na-hee was also reported to have sung a congratulatory song directly to her spouse.
JENNIE’s digital EP ‘Fallen Angel’ was released on August 28, 2026. The digital release contains three tracks—‘FALLEN ANGEL,’ ‘HEAVEN,’ and ‘Less than a Lover’—while a Sony Music press release says the physical CD adds three more tracks.
Actor Lee Hyung-chul made his first appearance on SBS’s variety show ‘My Little Old Boy,’ where he was introduced as a 56-year-old single man. His seven hobbies, remarks about diving, robot model assembly, and hands-free cooking became talking points, but his reasons for being single cannot be determined from the broadcast alone.
Dolly Parton’s family and spokesperson announced that she died at age 80 on August 25, 2026. Reports citing Luminate data said U.S. audio and video streams rose 2,458%, and that she was the most-streamed artist globally by on-demand audio streams on August 26. This was a single-day ranking, not an all-time cumulative record.
CD PROJEKT RED has announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered will launch on September 29, 2026. Existing owners will receive the remaster on their respective platform at no additional cost, along with the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine expansions. A third expansion, Songs of the Past, is scheduled for 2027.
Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey has reportedly overtaken Spider-Man: Brand New Day to become the highest-grossing foreign film released in Korea in 2026 based on cumulative admissions. KOBIS weekend data for August 21–23 lists 8,471,045 cumulative admissions and ranks the film first at the weekend box office. Reports say it surpassed 8 million admissions 24 days after its release.
ADOR’s ‘ADOR BOYS AUDITION in KOREA’ for domestic applicants was announced across seven cities—Seoul, Gwangju, Jeju, Daejeon, Wonju, Daegu, and Busan. Eligible applicants are men born in or after 2007, with no restrictions on fields such as singing, dancing, rapping, or acting.
As of August 11, 2026, BTS’s ARIRANG World Tour had generated $433.2 million in ticket sales and sold 2.3 million tickets across 38 shows. This surpasses the group’s previous personal best of $213.9 million from the LOVE YOURSELF tour. However, the tour is scheduled to continue through the first half of 2027, so these figures do not represent its final revenue or net profit.
Kim Jung-yeon was announced as the final winner on the finale of SBS Love FM’s “Life Is an Audition.” The reported winner’s prize was KRW 50 million, and the final result was determined by combining the scores from Finals Rounds 1 and 2 with music-streaming scores from the new-song mission.
Red Velvet released the five-track summer mini-album ‘Velvet Summer’ on August 3, 2026. The title track is ‘Surfin’ Boy.’ Official and distribution materials describe it as the group’s first full-member release in about two years and two months since ‘Cosmic,’ while early results were recorded on overseas iTunes charts and Korea’s Bugs chart.
Jorja Smith’s third studio album, ‘What Are The Odds,’ was released through FAMM on August 21, 2026. All 12 tracks were produced by P2J, with the album’s central focus being its expansion into dance music, including UK garage, 2-step, house, and Afro-house. Wizkid and Devlin also appear on ‘Alive’ and ‘This City,’ respectively.
The Korea Reputation Institute reported that RESCENE ranked first, BTS second, and Lim Young-woong third in its August 2026 singer brand reputation analysis. The study used 129,484,511 pieces of singer brand big data collected from July 22 to August 22, 2026, and RESCENE recorded a brand reputation index of 8,577,564. Singer brand reputation and star brand reputation are separate surveys with different periods and classifications.
Kim Soo-hyun is scheduled to attend the 2026 The Fact Music Awards as a presenter at Busan Asiad Main Stadium on September 19, 2026. The event has been reported as his first official event in South Korea in approximately 18 months, but there is no confirmed basis for interpreting it as a full resumption of domestic activities or confirmation of his next project.
Red Velvet released the summer mini-album ‘Velvet Summer’ on August 3, 2026. The five-track album features ‘Surfin’ Boy’ as its title track, a dance song combining bossa nova guitar, reggae rhythms, and a house groove.
KATSEYE’s third EP, WILD, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 dated August 29, 2026. Of the 170,000 album-equivalent units recorded in the U.S. from August 14–20, 2026, pure album sales accounted for 145,000 units.
NCT 127’s seventh full-length album, ‘BLINGY,’ was released on August 24, 2026. The album contains nine tracks, and the official music video for the title track ‘Blingy,’ along with post-release music show pre-voting schedules, can also be checked.
The main Gamescom 2026 event takes place at Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany, from August 26–30. Major new-game information was revealed during Opening Night Live on August 25, and Future Games Show was also streamed on August 26. Additional announcements and details may change before the event ends.
Early applications for the SOURCE MUSIC 2026 SUMMER AUDITION ended at 11:59 p.m. KST on August 23, 2026. August 24–30 is the period when first-round successful applicants receive detailed information about in-person auditions by individual email; there will be no separate on-site registration. In-person auditions are scheduled across 10 regions, from Incheon on September 5 to Seogwipo on October 18.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day recorded worldwide box office revenue of $2.022 billion in its third week of release and increased to approximately $2.22 billion in its fourth week. However, as of August 30, the final worldwide cumulative total for week five still requires additional reporting.
CD PROJEKT RED has set a 2028 release target for The Witcher 4. However, no exact month or day has been confirmed, and the release platforms and pre-order schedule have not yet been announced.