Everyone who’s seen a K-Pop Survival Show understands their reputation of inauthenticity. After speculation and legal investigations, the Korean Music Network Channel (MNet) has demonstrated a proclivity for rigging votes in the favor of their ideal K-Pop Trainees. This has led many viewers to completely give up on watching these programs, fearing that their votes will do nothing to aid their favorite Trainee. But when HYBE, the massive K-Pop label responsible for groups such as BTS, Seventeen, NewJeans, and many others, announced a survival show with JTBC, viewers were intrigued. Today, I will explain my overall opinions on the show, as well as the final lineup for the debut group.
The girls went through seven missions before being announced as a six member group called “ILL-IT.” Initially, my favorite contestant was Jiwoo: a 2001 born all-rounder who specializes in singing. Many other (specifically international) viewers of the show also fell for Jiwoo, as well as Chanelle, the other trainee who specializes in vocal abilities. However, many of the judges’ comments toward Chanelle seemed unjust. For example, judge Lee Hyun, a respected singer in Korea before joining the cast of the show, commented that Chanelle was off key during her performance of IVE’s 2021 hit single “Eleven.” However, according to the recording, her vocals were nearly indistinguishable from the original track that she was covering. This, along with Chanelle’s subsequent elimination from the program, led viewers to believe that RUNext had been rigged. I personally agree with this statement, as demonstrated through the change in voting system.
Survival shows depend on outside activity by the fans watching, namely voting for contestants. Chanelle had received over one million votes at the time of her elimination, and was the top voted in many countries. However, during the course of the program, the voting system was changed. Instead of the fans being able to vote a majority of their top picks into the group, the fans only got to select the top two members, with four more being explicitly chosen as “Producer Picks.” This decision seemed to me to have been decided as a means of controlling the final lineup. Since this voting system was not in place from the beginning of the show, the seeming conclusion is that the companies involved did not wish for the most voted trainees to be in the group, and therefore changed the voting system. This comes off as inauthentic and deceptive. Not only were fans upset that their favorite contestants didn’t make it, but this change in voting also caused hatred and backlash toward some of the final debuting girls.
A 2007-born trainee named Wonhee, for example, ended up in first place despite ranking ninth the week before, and despite her skills not being as refined as most other girls. This caused a wave of hatred to be spread toward Wonhee, despite Wonhee having no actual power over who won in the program. Another girl who received backlash was 2004 liner Moka, a Japanese trainee. She was accused of only making it into the final lineup due to being Japanese, as diversity would have reflected well on the company and promoted an audience base for the group overseas. I vastly disagree with this accusation, however. Moka was shown to have excellent stage presence and great versatility throughout the seven missions, and I believe she is a valuable member of ILL-IT.
As for Jiwoo, I am disappointed that she did not debut. She was the best singer, as well as being well rounded in all other aspects of performance. However, she was the eldest trainee, at 21 years old, which is often considered too old in Korea to debut in a K-Pop group.
And that is my general consensus and conclusion after watching this show: I believe the program was intended to promote the members that the judges and HYBE already liked, and wanted to debut to market toward a Korean audience. They neglected the internationally popular trainees, and picked mostly young trainees who meet the Korean standards of beauty. The biggest evidence for this in my mind is the change of the voting system. Despite not being as overtly rigged as previous Survival Show programs, I do believe this show was disappointing to watch as someone who grew an attachment toward an internationally popular member.
To rate the show, I would give it a 6/10. Despite these frustrations, the performances were entertaining, and the girls themselves did an amazing job lighting up the stages. I wish them all luck for their future endeavors in the industry!