Babysitting reality show “Oh! My Baby (SBS)” has surpassed its contemporary MBC variety show “Radio Star (MBC)” in audience rating, heralding the rise of “babies” in the Korean entertainment scene.

The latest May 28 episode of “Oh! My Baby” saw a 6.8 percent audience rating here, beating MBC “Radio Star” (5.4 percent) and KBS 2TV’s “Ddabong World Cup” (2.0 percent) that are aired in the same time slot, consumer market research firm Nielsen Korea reported Thursday.

Besides “Oh! My Baby,” multiple babysitting shows starring celebrities’ children, such as MBC’s “Where Are We Going Dad” with starlets Yoon Hoo and Kim Min-yool and KBS 2TV’s “Superman Is Back” with Choo Sa-rang and Haru. 

The babysitting shows poses a significant change to the country’s reality show trend, considering that the genre is relatively new to the entertainment scene. The first episode of “Oh! My Baby” was aired on Jan. 13 as a pilot program, entertainment critics said.

The rise of babysitting shows owes much to the presence of its baby starlets whose popularity has gone beyond that of many grown-up entertainers.

By Chung Joo-won (joowonc@heraldcorp.com)