In the summer of 2024, Be Lift Lab, a subsidiary that is owned by Hybe, had collaborated with the media company, JTBC, to create the survival show called “R U Next?”. The show was very popular but not for the right reasons. Apparently the judges on the show mistreated the contestants and the contestants were often seen bullying each other, similar to Dream Academy, which debuted the group called Katseye. The show “R U Next?” was supposed to create a girl group even though Be Lift Lab was known for debuting boy groups like their first boy group, Enhypen.
Now, onto the contestants. The contestants on the show included Fifty-Fifty’s new members Chanelle Moon, and Yewon, as well as Illit, a South Korean girl group that was formed through the show. During one of the episodes, Chanelle, Wonhee, and some other contestants were performing in front of the judges. Sadly, Chanelle placed 11th while Wonhee and the other contestants were safe from the elimination. The reason Chanelle got eliminated was because the show edited the other member’s voices except for Chanelle’s voice during her high note. They made the other girl’s sound better in order to eliminate Chanelle. The show got a 1 out of 10 review because of what they did. To better understand the public’s reaction to the show, read through some of the following comments:
Anonymous comment #1: Honestly, this show has been a big waste of time and investment. I was initially really looking forward to the show as it seemed to be really interesting and the girls were obviously quite talented. The first episode seemed really promising as it was smoothly run. Not many mistakes were seen in the trainees’ performances. In the later episodes, the show really started to show it’s true colors. It felt too rushed as the girls seemed to always feel the need to rush practice and recording to the point where their initial hope, excitement and optimism about the competition started to fade away and turn into misery and depression.
Anonymous comment #2: Awful show- everything is too fast paced to the point that it’s clear there is missing information about what’s going on behind the scenes. Some girls aren’t portrayed in a good light at all.
As you can see, many people did not like the show at all which reveals how awful the judges were. It was too fast-paced and the contestants were rushed when competing. Not to mention Youngseo, a contestant who won second place, left before Illit even debuted. Youngseo was also taken out of the final photos of the contestants. There are many rumors as to why she left, but it is not known for sure. This further confirms the _____of the show.
I honestly, never saw the point of watching a survival show and pointing out that one contestant is better than the other one. That’s just unfair because all of girls were obviously very talented and votes were obviously rigged during the voting for the final line-up.
In conclusion, I see no point to rig the votes and make a pre-debut member leave. This is honestly the worst survival show besides Universal Ticket and Dream Academy. Those shows were actually better than this. Although Hybe is picky about choosing contestants, the fact they chose Wonhee, the contestant who won first place, as the center and the fact she has no vocals, just doesn’t sit with me correctly. It is true that Hybe chooses visuals and doesn’t care about talent, but the sad truth is that most big companies are like this when they start a survival show. THEY. ONLY. CARE. ABOUT. VISUALS! The K-Pop industry is like a competition for winning a grand prize of the most popular group of the year, but groups compete for other things too like vocals, weight, height, and the worst of them all is face cards (basically visuals but the angles of the face ex. jawline.) However, some minors decide to join anyway. Most ex-trainees claim that companies like SM, push them to get plastic surgery, otherwise, they will not get a place in the debut group. I’m writing this article to show the dark side of K-pop survival shows and how they could lead to severe depression for most K-pop idols and trainees.
CITATIONS:
https://kpopping.com/survivalshow/2023-R-U-Next
https://www.koreaherald.com/article/3450943#:~:text=Chanelle%2C%20who%20also%20participated%20in,program%20%E2%80%9CWicked%E2%80%9D%20in%202016.
