“No manipulation of debut members, no more fooling around”

Mnet’s audition program was once again embroiled in controversy over manipulation. Starting on the 17th, fans of Mnet’s took organized action in front of the CJENM office building in Sangam-dong, Seoul, holding a truck protest with the slogan “No manipulation of debut members, no more being fooled.”

PD Ahn Joon-young and PD Kim Yong-beom, who were released from prison after receiving 2 years in prison and 1 year and 8 months in prison respectively for the ranking manipulation case of the Produce series, are currently working at CJENM Mnet. There is no way to know the level of punishment because of ‘personal information’. As there was no proper punishment for manipulating broadcasts within the company, another audition program manipulation controversy was expected.

On the 11th, the ‘Produce Truth Investigation Committee’, which previously uncovered the ranking manipulation of the debut group of the Produce series, said, “All audition programs should no longer be stigmatized as fabricated.” They pointed out the opacity of the process of ‘selection of shining boys’, which is equivalent to a visual vote and ranking assignment based on the number of likes.

The Truth Investigation Committee said, “We confirmed a question about the ‘Like’ number not being displayed on Signal Song, the official YouTube channel of . If the decision was made to keep it private in order to create tension in the program, after the controversy, the number of ‘likes’ should have been disclosed and the overall ranking based on this should have been announced.”

Regarding the process of ‘selection of shining boys’, the Truth Investigation Committee said, “In , which can be said to be the previous season of , and in the Produce series, the visual members selected by the trainees have always been revealed on the air, so it is suspicious. is amplifying,” he said. Regarding this, Mnet explained, “The trainees were selected through a vote conducted on all trainees, excluding trainees who had difficulty participating in the vote due to reasons such as health.”

In the end, the production team of said on the broadcast on the 13th, “All processes related to voting, from tallying the voting system of to calculating results, are verified by Samil PwC, an external professional organization, to prevent manipulation of votes by the production team. He started to evolve, but the controversy seems to be increasing.

On the 14th, at 10:00 AM, Mnet held a vote to select the killing part for the final mission song, calculated the score of ‘Views + Likes X 100’ and decided to reflect it in the part selection. It has been changed to 7 o’clock.” He added, “We selected the killing part after obtaining prior consent from all trainees on the criteria and results of the change.”

Regarding this, Sports Chosun said, “The trainees who won first place at 7:00 am and 10:00 am are different.” There is no way I can rebel against the words of the production team.”

Like Mnet audition programs in the past, , which was not free from criticism for pushing certain performers through broadcasting, will have its final live broadcast on the 20th. Even if the debut group is completed, there is no choice but to work without being able to clear the suspicion of ‘manipulation’. As of the 17th, seven civil complaints have been received by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, and the program is pending deliberation.