The winner of TV Chosun’s hit talent audition show “Mr. Trot” will be announced Saturday, after the broadcaster failed to name the winner on its Thursday’s episode, citing an unprecedented number of text message votes from viewers.

“Mr. Trot” was to announce the winner at the end of Thursday’s episode, aggregating the scores by the panel of judges and text message voting from viewers after the final round of competition.

However, as the show neared the end on Thursday, presenter Kim Sung-joo said the winner would be announced next week through the “special behind-the-scenes” episode, as the number of viewers’ votes reached more than 7.7 million across the nation, causing the server to crash.

As complaints filed on the program’s website, the producers changed the plan Friday, announcing the result of the competition will be released as soon as possible. A special live episode will air at 7:55 pm on Saturday, according to the announcement.

“We sincerely apologize for not being prepared for the unexpected situation and will mobilize all means to release the result as soon as the viewers’ voting result comes out,” the announcement read.

Thursday’s episode of the final round broke the program’s viewership record again, hitting 35.8 percent. Earlier on Feb. 27, “Mr.Trot” became the first cable channel show to mark a viewership rating higher than 30 percent, marking 32.7 percent.

“Mr. Trot,” which began early January with 101 contenders, is a survival audition show. The first season of the show “Miss Trot” gained a lot of attention across the nation, reviving the popularity of trot, which has been considered old Korean pop music enjoyed only among older generations.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)