Broduce 101, originally going by the name Produce 101 Season 2 (Korean: 프로듀스 101 시즌 2) was a 2017 Mnet’s reality show which let the public (called ‘national producers’) “produce“ a Korean boy group by choosing 11 members among 101 trainees from 54 entertainment companies through online voting and live voting with multiple elimination rounds. Not only that, but the show also lets the public choose the group’s concept, debut song, and group name. In the season finale on June 16th, 2017, which was broadcast live, around 30% of South Korea’s population contributed to the final decision of the group, which means more than 16 million people cast their votes during the finale. What makes it so popular and what happens to the trainees afterward? Wanna know the detailed information about Broduce 101? Stay tuned and scroll down this article below!
Reason Behind the Creation of Broduce 101
In 2016, Mnet produced the first-ever large-scale Korean girl group survival reality show titled Produce 101 (aka the first season and the precedent of Broduce 101). It was the second-largest-budget show of all shows produced by Mnet. Mnet spent about four billion won (approximately $3.4 million) to produce the show. Despite the big-budget, the show was having a huge success, even led to one of the tv show-produced girl groups – IOI. The reason for that is that the show runs in a unique format. The show introduced the public to lend a hand in “producing“ a unit girl group by choosing members who deserved a spot in the final group. The show also had the biggest number of contestants in a survival show in which around 101 trainees from 46 entertainment companies participated. So, the show has succeeded in creating huge anticipation and public participation. The show also had high ratings in the survival show category, generating an average of around 3.04% rating with the lowest 1.04% rating (episode 1) and the highest 4.38% (finale episode), a pretty high number for a tv cable channel like Mnet. Not only the program, but the song released by the show also had a high position and sales in the public. The song “Pick Me,” which was chosen as the official song of the show peaked in the top 10 digital charts and generated around 893,723 sales in Korea alone. Overseas, the show also received huge popularity, in which the show aired in Japan through Mnet Japan and in big part of the Asian and North American regions, through Channel M. The aftermath of the show, girl group IOI, also received a lot of success with them winning awards such as Rookie of the Year and drawing fans from all around the world. Due to the success of the Produce 101 (season 1), Mnet decided to produce another show equivalent to the first season. Thus, the second season was born. The second season adopted the same format as the first season, but with a slight difference. Instead of the female trainees who participated, the show would be filled by male trainees. Produce 101 Season 2 consisted of 101 male contestants, who were trainees under company labels, debuted idols, or individual trainees in South Korea. Though most contestants were Korean, there were some Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese participants in addition to those from other nations. In the final episode, 11 out of the top 20 contestants were chosen to form the show’s “project group” through a national fan voting system. Unlike the first season’s group that was just promoting for a one-year-contract, the second season group would promote for two years (ending on December 31st, 2018) under YMC Entertainment (the same label of I.O.I from Produce 101 season 1). The group will disband after the end of their contract, allowing the members of the final line-up to return to their respective agencies. True to their contract, Wanna One (the name of the second season’s finale group winner) officially disbanded on December 31st, 2018, with their final activity as a group being their last concert on January 24–27, 2019, after two years of promoting together.
The List of Contestants
The contestants of Produce 101 Season 2 appeared for the first time on Episode 514 of M! Countdown on March 9th, 2017. The group was presented by BoA, and the members performed the EDM song “나야나 (Pick Me)” (the official theme song of the second season). The “center” role was given to Brand New Music’s 이대휘 (Lee Dae-hwi). Unlike the first season, which was all trainees or individual singers/actresses, some participants in the second season had previously debuted with other groups, such as NU’EST, JJCC, HOTSHOT and Topp Dogg, creating quite a controversy among the public when it was first revealed. Here is the full list of the second season contestants: With the final 11 trainees line-up of Wanna One including Kang Daniel, Park Ji-hoon, Lee Dae-hwi, Kim Jae-hwan, Ong Seong-wu, Park Woo-jin, Lai Kuan-lin, Yoon Ji-sung, Hwang Min-hyun, Bae Jin-young, and Ha Sung-woon.
