Mnet scandal what is

Posted : Boy band X1 announced its disbandment five months after its debut. Courtesy of Swing Entertainment By Dong Sun-hwa K-pop boy band X1 announced its disbandment Monday following the vote-rigging scandal of Mnet, which aired an audition program last summer to launch the project group.

The members' management companies including Play M, Yue Hua, Woollim and Starship decided on disbandment after failing to reach an agreement about the group's future, a PR agency representing X1 said in a statement.

In May, Mnet premiered the fourth season of "Produce ," the cable channel's flagship audition program for idol trainees that gave birth to K-pop acts I. They debuted in August with the album "Quantum Leap" and enjoyed popularity until the vote-fixing scandal erupted. The incident primarily involves the multiple Produce series and Idol School , which were intended to create K-pop groups with members selected by audience vote.

In July , during the final episode of the Produce series' fourth season, Produce X , several viewers suspected that the total votes were manipulated after noticing numerical patterns.

On August 1, , viewers filed a lawsuit against Mnet, as their on-site text voting service charged won per vote, prompting an investigation led by the Seoul Metropolitan Police. Ahn Joonyoung and Kim Yongbum, producers for the Produce series, were arrested on November 5, Ahn later admitted to manipulating the rankings varying amounts for all four seasons of the Produce series.

On December 3, , Ahn, Kim, and six other entertainment agency representatives were indicted for charges including obstruction of business, fraud, and bribery. A court trial began on December 20, They eventually started promotions back up and released the album on February 17, X1 ended up disbaning after just promoting one album.

Since the news became a hot topic, Mnet has stated they will not be producing any more "debut reality" type shows due to the scandal. In , South Korean cable television channel Mnet produced their first reality television competition series, Superstar K , which immediately became popular, creating a boom of audition program franchises. In , they launched Produce , aiming to create a short-term K-pop project group of 11 members selected by audience vote from a pool of contestants.

The group formed from that season, I. I , was successful throughout their 1-year contract, and due to their immense popularity, Mnet subsequently continued the series, creating its own Produce During the live broadcast of the final episode of Produce X on July 19, , several viewers suspected that Mnet had tampered with the total votes after noticing some of the final rankings were multiples of In response to the allegations, Mnet admitted that there were errors in calculation, but also maintained that the final rankings were correct and that there was no intention of changing X1 's member line-up.

On October 1, , the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency confirmed that votes from eliminated trainees were added to the total votes of the members who debuted in X1, a process that affected trainees who were originally in the top Some entertainment agencies who disagreed would request their talents to be eliminated at the last minute to withdraw them.

He also alleged that some trainees knew the final rankings before the results were announced, and that a trainee from Woollim Entertainment was told by a representative that only one person from their company would debut in X1. Two trainees alleged that the center position for the theme song, "X1-MA", was originally assigned to a different contestant chosen by trainee vote before the producers changed it to audience vote at the last minute.

Staff members anonymously alleged that, for the final ranking results, only one off-site producer had counted the votes in a separate room and sent them the results via text message. On October 3, , a trainee of Idol School alleged anonymously that only three to four of the 4, applicants had auditioned to appear on the show, indicating that the majority of the contestants did not have to go through an audition process to compete.

In addition to that, they were cut off from outside communication, were only allowed to buy daily necessities once a month, and were not given enough food to eat. During the previously mentioned October 15 broadcast of PD Note , several trainees anonymously claimed that their living quarters had poor ventilation and some girls developed rashes from dust. While an internal probe continues, CJ ENM says it has no plans to reveal the victims' names as it believes this would not be in their best interests.

Since the first season aired in , the Produce series continued for three more successful seasons. It has given birth to popular groups like I.

Join ST's Telegram channel here and get the latest breaking news delivered to you. We have been experiencing some problems with subscriber log-ins and apologise for the inconvenience caused. Until we resolve the issues, subscribers need not log in to access ST Digital articles. But a log-in is still required for our PDFs. Skip to main content. Key producers of Mnet's Produce series were found to have fixed the votes for some contestants in return for financial favours from their agencies.