Written by: Anushka Basnet - 2023002, Grade IX
Posted on: 03 December, 2020
Produce is a survival series produced by Mnet. Till date there are 4 seasons of the series named as Produce 101, Produce 101 (Season 2), Produce 48 and Produce X 101. Here 101 trainees from around 48 different entertainment companies were introduced and they competed with one other to debut in a group upto a certain contract period. First season of produce season produced the girl group I.O.I in the year 2016. It had the contract period of one year and contained 10 members. They achieved numerous awards as I.O.I and disbanded after a year in 2017 after the contract ended. Second season also had the same procedure and produced the boy group Wanna One in 2018. They had 11 members and won 48 awards in just a year. They disbanded in 2019.
Third season which produced girl group Iz*one was formed in 2018, had the contract period till 2021 and forth season produced X1 which was produced in 2019 but never debuted due to various scandals. Idol school, however, is slightly different. It has had only one season which produced fromise_9. And fromise_9 is a permanent group rather than a contract and were chosen from 41 trainees. Both of the shows were however hosted by Mnet.
In all shows the rankings of the trainees along with the final lineup were supposed to be chosen by voting system. However, after the final episode of produce X 101 aired netizens found numerical patterns in the votes. On August 1, 2019, 272 viewers filed a lawsuit against Mnet, as their on-site text voting service charged ₩100 per vote, prompting an investigation led by the Seoul Metropolitan Police.
Ahn Joon-Young and Kim Yong-Bum, producers for the Produce 101 series, were arrested on November 5, 2019. Ahn later admitted to manipulating the rankings to all four seasons of the Produce 101 series. On December 3, 2019, Ahn, Kim, and six other entertainment agency representatives were indicted for charges including obstruction of business, fraud and bribery. A court trial began on December 20, 2019. On October 1, 2019, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that votes from eliminated trainees were added to the total votes of the members who debuted in X1, a process that affected 2-3 trainees who were originally in the top 11. Same happened with Iz*one and two trainees were taken out form the original lineup. LAterthemain producers agreed to have manipulated voting of the first two seasons as well.
On October 3, 2019, a trainee of Idol School anonymously said that only three to four of the 4,000 applicants had auditioned to appear on the show, and majority of the trainees who were in the show did not audition . In an interview with MBC, one of the trainees alleged that, throughout their six-month training period, the contestants were only given clothes appropriate for the summer and had to wear them in cold weather. In addition to that, they were cut off from outside communication, were only allowed to buy daily necessities once a month, and were not given enough food to eat. She also claimed their rankings were rigged too and investigation is going on this case.
After the scandal X1 did not debut and the members were back at their own agencies. IZ*one is still doing their activities and is preparing for a comeback but the members are given a lot of hate after the scandal and are under a lot of pressure. Fromise_9 went on almost a year long hiatus and had their recent comeback in August even though not many promotion activities are given to them. Since I.O.I and Wanna one already disbanded they did not suffer a lot.
Now these survival shows are the hope of many young trainees who spend almost their most time in the practice room dancing and singing hoping for a bright future. No matter how small or big the company they come from they all have worked hard equally and doing these sorts of things will only damage their mental health and their chance of succeeding on their dreams of debuting. Also difference in screen time, giving priorities/favoritism, having them on strict diets on these shows will damage hundreds on the trainees career and their hard work. However, blaming the idols who debuted for these incidents is also wrong. They were trainees who equally worked hard to get their positions and because of rigged producers and shows systems, they should not be given hate or threats to leave the group.
Resources- https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/cxd0tm/produce_48_speculated_of_vote_manipulation_by_kbs/
https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/e2ew0p/kpop_how_one_of_the_biggest_groups_turned_out_to/
https://www.reddit.com/r/kpop/comments/dw4l5g/police_have_reportedly_found_evidence_of_vote/
