No more scandals after Produce 101 drama, makers of new K-pop reality show vow

Produce 101 vote-fixing scandal led to the series director getting a two-year prison term and being fined US$30,000, while boy band X1 was disbanded

New show I-Land will have BTS and Big Hit Entertainment founder Bang Si-hyuk in charge, and veteran K-pop star Rain as one of the judges

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K-pop reality show Produce 101 was found guilty of vote-rigging and saw the series director, Ahn Joon-young, get a two-year prison term and a fine of US$30,000.

Published: 10:00pm, 26 Jun 2020Updated: 2:31am, 27 Jun 2020

By Dong Sun-hwa

South Korean cable TV channel Mnet has promised to be fair in picking winners for its new audition programme I-Land after a scandal rocked its popular music reality show Produce 101 last year. The new show is a joint production by Mnet and Big Hit Entertainment that represents K-pop titans BTS.

Mnet has been mired in a vote-fixing scandal since last year after Ahn Joon-young – the director of all four seasons of Produce 101 – was accused of manipulating results in favour of certain contestants in the race to form the group X1. Ahn was given a two-year prison term and fined 37 million won (US$30,000) at his first trial in May, while X1 was disbanded.

“We have endeavoured to ensure impartiality this time by deciding to conduct the vote on external platform Weverse,” Mnet official, Jung Hyung-jin, says.

K-pop boy band X1 had to disband because of the Produce 101 scandal.

Weverse is an online/mobile fan community launched by Big Hit. “We will also invite outside observers, who will keep their eyes on the vote counting.”

I-Land is a competition show for 23 male idol trainees at Belift Lab, a joint venture established last March by Big Hit and Mnet’s operator CJ ENM. The contenders will fight for a position in a new K-pop boy band to be produced by Big Hit founder and chairman Bang Si-hyuk.