Girls Planet 999 and Street Woman Fighter, K-pop and female dance competition shows, win over viewers in South Korea and beyond
- Girls Planet 999 sees 99 K-pop hopefuls, split into three teams from South Korea, Japan and Greater China compete – the last nine standing will form a new group
- Despite some initial criticism, Street Woman Fighter – in which dance crews compete – has become one of the most popular TV shows in South Korea this year
While the rest of the world still can’t get enough of Netflix’s Squid Game, two popular competition TV series are making waves in South Korea – Street Woman Fighter and Girls Planet 999.
Both shows are airing on South Korean cable broadcaster Mnet and, like past competition shows on the channel, they are hits within the country and outside it, too.
Despite airing at the same time – both began in August and will air their finales within days of each other – the dance-crew-focused Street Woman Fighter and the K-pop talent search show Girls Planet 999 are very different.
The concept of featuring hopefuls competing for places in a new pop group has been replicated in similar shows around Asia, including Japan and China. For Girls Planet 999, Mnet opted for 99 competitors, split into three teams from South Korea, Japan and Greater China, the latter including contestants from Taiwan and Hong Kong.
With the number of contestants whittled down through performance-based competitions, voting and chances to reorganise the contestant teams, the final nine left standing will form a new K-pop group during the finale on October 22. The show is popular with K-pop fans– the official Twitter account has over 200,000 followers.