【Text/Observer Network Ruan Jiaqi】
In Korea, where idol artists are constantly changing new, debuting in the well-known talent show "Produce 101", which has created super popular groups such as IOI and WANNAONE, has become the dream of countless trainees.
But now the "101 series" has become a street rat - according to Yonhap News Agency, the South Korean police confirmed today (14th) that since the first season of the draft held in 2016, the entire series of "Produce 101" has been fraudulent for four seasons.
The program director An Junying and producer Kim Yong-bum, who were arrested on the 5th, were handed over to the prosecution for review and prosecution today, in addition to 8 other people involved in the case were filed and investigated.
The third season of the girl group IZ*ONE, and the fourth season of the boy band X1, which debuted, are also currently due to the "fake scandal" that has led to a complete stagnation in the work trip, unable to appear on the hit song program, and also lost many advertising endorsements.
In the face of the request of the members of the two groups to dissolve their respective societies, the brokerage company CJ E&M said that it would discuss the results of the investigation until the results of the investigation were released. However, it has been revealed that some members are currently emotional and have proposed dissolution.
The third season of "Produce 101" debuted in the Japanese-Korean cooperation girl group IZ*ONE Picture from the official website
According to Yonhap News Agency reported on the 14th, after being arrested by the court on the 5th for suspected black box manipulation and tampering with voting results, The korean idol talent show "Produce 101" director An Junying and producer Kim Yong-bum were handed over to the prosecution for review and prosecution today.
An Junying and others are suspected of operating in the black box during the live competition link from the first to fourth seasons of the show, fabricating the results of the audience's paid SMS voting and selecting specific trainees.
At present, An Junying has confessed to the police that he tampered with the rankings of the contestants in the third and fourth seasons. The police also revealed that they have mastered the situation of the production team and the agency of some trainees manipulating the contestants' rankings.
After investigation, An Junying has repeatedly accepted hospitality from a number of entertainment agencies in entertainment venues since last year, and the total amount of bribes involved has reached tens of millions of won (about 100,000 to 500,000 yuan).
The police believe that there are black-box operations throughout the 4 seasons of the show, in addition to the creative staff, more than 10 people, including the personnel of the performing arts agency and the executives of the Mnet channel operator CJ Entertainment Media, have also been investigated. Among them, two persons related to the planning company submitted non-prosecution opinions.
The announcement of the "full series of counterfeiting scandals" not only cast a shadow over the first two seasons of the group IOI and WANNA ONE (both of which have been dissolved due to the expiration of the campaign);
IOI debuted in the first quarter of 2016
WANNA ONE debuted in the second quarter of 2017
This has dealt a devastating blow to the future careers of IZ*ONE and X1, which are active in the Korean music scene.
According to South Korea's East Asia Daily, IZ*ONE, which was originally scheduled to release the first regular album on the 11th of this month, was urgently cancelled, and the album release plan was postponed, not only could not be on the SBS, KBS, MBC three major stations of the song program, in order to promote the new album on the program will also be cut.
Promotional photo for the new album "BLOOM*IZ"
X1, which just debuted in July this year, is currently at a complete standstill in its career. According to the original plan, the X1 limited group will be active for 5 years.
Both groups have decided not to participate in the Mnet Asian Music Awards (Mnet Asian Music Awards), which will be held in Japan on December 4.
Since IZ*ONE and X1 have now been labeled as "counterfeit groups", even if they remain unchanged, it will be difficult to continue activities in South Korea in the future, and the original brokerage company of some members has asked CJ E&M to disband the group, but CJ E&M said that it will discuss it after the results of the investigation are released.
According to the Korean media "JOYNEWS24", some members have admitted that they have been mentally affected quite a bit: "There is no way to continue group activities, I hope to disband." ”
After 4 years of drafting, the "Produce 101" series has become the iconic representative of the Korean idol draft, and has been exported to China, Japan, and Thailand to produce local versions, with great influence.
In the course of the investigation of "Produce 101", several other talent shows held by the same TV station mnet have also been suspected by the police of "black box operation".
For example, the "Idol School" broadcast in 2017 finally broke through 9 people from 41 candidates, and fromis_9 formed a group.
Pictured from Visual China
Li Hairen, a trainee who continued to be popular in the draft but accidentally fell out of the debut circle, exposed a large number of program shady scenes in Social Media posts in October, including internal members, fraudulent signing of contracts, poor accommodation environment, failure to provide full meals, and disguised imprisonment.
Li Hairen's promotional image of the "Idol School" talent show
On October 17, Li Hairen cried in the "PD Handbook" about the shady curtain of the show