K-pop Music Shows 2026: How Music Bank, Inkigayo, Show! Music Core, M Countdown, Show Champion and The Show Pick No. 1, Plus Air Times, Voting Apps and How to Watch Abroad

How the six shows weigh their No. 1

A music show win is not decided by votes alone. On all five shows that publish a split, streaming is the biggest item, and album, video/SNS, broadcast and fan-vote scores are added to it under names and weights that differ by show. Music Bank weighs streaming the most (60%), Inkigayo weighs video/SNS the most (SNS 20%), and Show Champion has the largest single fan-vote item (global fan vote 20%). Adding up every vote item, Show! Music Core has the most at 25% (viewer committee 5%, global pre-vote 10%, live app vote 6%, text vote 4%). The Show, rebooted in June 2026, has no reported points split; a pre-vote picks 3 nominees, followed by a live vote and an after-vote.

The table shows the numbers on each broadcaster's notices and official pages as of 7 September 2026. Music Bank is the only one whose KBS notice lists the components without percentages, so its percentages are the ones reported by the press. M Countdown's six items on the Mnet Plus screen add up to 110%; they are copied as shown.

Music Bank (KBS2, Fridays 5:15 pm): digital streaming 60%

KBS's notice lists five K-Chart components: digital streaming, broadcast plays, the K-pop fan vote, album sales and SNS. The notice gives no percentages. Top Star News put them at digital streaming 60%, broadcast plays 20%, K-pop fan vote 10%, albums 5% and social media 5% in articles in May and August 2026, and Dailian reported the same split in January 2024.

The fan-vote app is coogoong. Voting moved from ALLCHART to Fancast from the 29 August 2025 episode (no. 1262), and when Fancast was renamed coogoong on 24 July 2026, voting moved to the coogoong app from the 31 July episode (no. 1301). The candidates are the K-Chart's top 50 plus that week's performers and requested acts. The show has aired at 5:15 pm on Fridays since 10 July 2026. It did not air on 19 and 26 June 2026 because of the FIFA World Cup. The MCs since 27 February 2026 are actor Kim Jae-won and Bang Jee-min of izna.

Inkigayo (SBS, Sundays 3:20 pm): streaming 50%, SNS 20%

In a notice dated 16 September 2024, SBS said that from the 6 October episode the split would change to streaming 50%, SNS 20%, albums 10%, on air 10%, pre-vote 5% and live vote 5%, with data from global music platforms added to the streaming score. Press reports in August 2026 carry the same split. The counting period runs from the Monday two weeks before the broadcast to the Monday of the previous week, and up to 2 songs per artist are counted. OSTs, songs from audition or variety programmes and songs that fail SBS's review are excluded. A song that wins three times enters the Hall of Fame and leaves the chart.

Live voting runs in the HIGHER app only during the broadcast, 5 votes per person (since the 11 August 2024 episode). The global pre-vote has run in the LiNC app since 31 March 2025, with up to 10 votes per account per day; points come from watching video ads and entering star chat rooms. Melon's Star Post page directs Inkigayo voting to the Aztalk app. After each broadcast, the Hot Stage vote, a 100% fan vote among that day's performers, is open in the HIGHER app until noon the following Thursday.

The regular slot is Sunday 3:20 pm, but the start time changes from week to week. In 2026 the show started at 2:50 pm on 16 August, 12:20 pm on 23 August, 3:15 pm on 30 August and 3:35 pm on 6 September. The official page lists each week's time with the episode. The MCs are Shinyu of TWS, EJ of &TEAM and Lee Hyun of BABY DONT CRY, a lineup SBS announced on 5 January 2026; press reports in August 2026 still name Shinyu and EJ as MCs.

Show! Music Core (MBC, Saturdays 3:20 pm): a pre-score picks 3 nominees, live votes add 10%

Since the 30 May 2026 episode, a pre-score of streaming 50%, albums 10%, video 10%, broadcast plays 5%, viewer committee vote 5% and global pre-vote 10% picks 3 nominees, and only those three get the live app vote (6%) and live text vote (4%) that decide the winner. As of January 2025 the split was broadcast plays 10%, global pre-vote 5%, live app vote 5% and text vote 5%. Broadcast plays and text votes shrank; the global pre-vote and app vote grew.

Only songs released within 2 months of the broadcast date count, one song per artist, from artists who have officially debuted. Drama and webtoon OSTs, audition-show songs and songs that fail MBC's review are excluded, and music videos that do not fit the show's 15+ rating are left out of the video score. A song with 3 wins in total enters the Legend M-Chart and leaves the chart.

The global pre-vote and the live vote run in two apps at once, Mubeat and MUNIVERSE. For the 5 September broadcast the global pre-vote ran from 7:30 pm on Tuesday 1 September to 11 am on Thursday 3 September, and the viewer committee voted from 9 am on Wednesday 2 September to 11 am on 3 September. The committee is 2,000 people who each vote for 4 songs, chosen from the top 50 by combined streaming, album, video and MBC radio-play scores. The MCs since the 5 September 2026 episode (no. 962) are Sungho of BOYNEXTDOOR and Sangwon of ALPHA DRIVE ONE. Before them, Kim Gyu-vin of AND2BLE and Dohoon of TWS hosted from March 2025 to the 22 August 2026 episode.

M Countdown (Mnet, Thursdays 6 pm): streaming 50%, albums 15%, global social media 15%

The chart screen on Mnet Plus gives the weighting as streaming 50%, albums 15%, global social media 15%, global fan vote 10%, Mnet broadcast 10% and live vote 10%. The six items add up to 110%. The data comes from Circle Chart (Apple Music, Spotify, Melon, Bugs, VIBE, genie, FLO, YouTube, Tencent Music, KakaoMusic, SAMSUNG Music, V Coloring) and TikTok. Of the six shows in this guide, M Countdown is the only one that names the platforms supplying its streaming data.

In its January 2024 overhaul Mnet said it would add social media indicators such as short-form video use on top of music video views. The weekly No. 1 vote runs on the M Countdown official website. The show airs every Thursday at 6 pm. The MCs since the 12 March 2026 episode (no. 919) are So Jung-hwan of TREASURE, Park Gun-wook of ZEROBASEONE and Kyehoon of KickFlip.

Show Champion (MBC M, Wednesdays 5 pm): global fan vote 20%

The TOP5 posts MBC PLUS publishes for each episode state the criteria as streaming 35%, albums 15%, global fan vote 20%, SNS 10% and broadcast score 20%. The November 2022 post and the 2 September 2026 post carry the same split. For the 2 September broadcast (episode 610) the counting period was 24 to 30 August.

The pre-vote runs in the IDOLCHAMP app, made by MBC PLUS. Going by agency notices, it closes at 2:59 pm on the Monday before the broadcast. The show airs live every Wednesday at 5 pm, and MBC PLUS's YouTube channel ALL THE K-POP streams it live at the same time. The MCs are Jeon Min-wook and Jang Yeo-jun of CLOSE YOUR EYES. Nam Seong-mo of 82MAJOR stepped down after the 8 July 2026 episode.

The Show (SBS Life): rebooted in June 2026, a BIGC pre-vote picks 3 nominees

The Show returned on the SBS Life channel on Tuesday 2 June 2026 at 6 pm with episode 394. Since then it has been scheduled episode by episode: 14 July (395), 28 July (396) and 1 September (398). No points split has been reported; instead there are 3 rounds of fan voting. A pre-vote in BIGC CHOICE inside the BIGC app picks the 3 live nominees and the subject of the Fan Pick Cam (a close-up cam that follows a single member), followed by a live vote on the day and an after-vote once the broadcast ends.

The pre-vote opens at 5 pm a few days before the show and closes at 10 am the day before. For episode 396 it ran from 5 pm on 24 July to 10 am on 27 July; for episode 398, from 5 pm on 28 August to 10 am on 31 August. The regular MC since 14 July 2026 is Chu Liyu of FLARE U. Some episodes add special MCs; on 28 July they were Masato and Mano of BAYON.

How to vote from abroad: the app for each show

Five shows take votes through smartphone apps, and M Countdown takes them on its official website. Inkigayo, Show! Music Core, M Countdown, Show Champion and The Show call theirs global votes. Pre-votes close a few days before the broadcast and live votes are open only during the live show. Broadcasters change apps: Inkigayo's global pre-vote moved from Diggus to LiNC in March 2025, Music Bank's fan vote moved from ALLCHART to Fancast in August 2025 and again to coogoong in July 2026, and Show! Music Core added MUNIVERSE in May 2026.

How to watch from abroad: where a live stream exists

M Countdown streams live on Mnet Plus. The live list on the Mnet Plus website carries the next episode (945), with a notice that the content is not offered in some regions because of licensing and rights policies. Show Champion streams live on the ALL THE K-POP YouTube channel every Wednesday at 5 pm KST. For Inkigayo the route is the LIVE tier of the SBSKPOP X INKIGAYO YouTube channel membership. SBS described it in its May 2025 membership plan as the tier where Gayo Daejeon and Inkigayo live streams can be watched.

Music Bank is scheduled on KBS World TV, KBS's international channel, on Fridays at 5:10 to 5:15 pm KST. The KST schedule lists episode 1306 at 5:10 pm on 4 September and episode 1307 at 5:15 pm on 11 September, with a repeat on Monday (5:55 pm on 7 September). A rankings digest called Music Bank K-Chart is also scheduled several times a day. The schedule marks subtitles as EN, CN, BM, VI, TH, ID and H. The KBS Kpop YouTube channel keeps Music Bank full-cam and individual-cam playlists.

For Show! Music Core, stage fancams and clips go up on the MBCkpop YouTube channel; for The Show, Fan Pick Cams and full replays of past episodes go up on SBS Medianet's THE K-POP YouTube channel.

Glossary

Nominees: the acts shortlisted by pre-score or pre-vote; Show! Music Core and The Show shortlist 3. Pre-vote and live vote: votes taken over the days before the show and votes taken during the live broadcast. Hall of Fame (Inkigayo): 3 wins put a song there and off the chart. Legend M-Chart (Show! Music Core): 3 wins in total put a song there and off the chart. Hot Stage (Inkigayo): a stage chosen by a 100% fan vote among that day's performers. Fan Pick Cam (The Show): a close-up cam of the one member chosen by vote. Champion Song (Show Champion): the week's No. 1. Counting period: for Inkigayo, the Monday two weeks before the broadcast to the Monday of the previous week; Show! Music Core and Show Champion announce it per episode: for the 5 September Show! Music Core it was noon on Monday 24 August to 11:59 am on Monday 31 August, and for Show Champion episode 610 (aired 2 September) it was 24 to 30 August.