Aside from "evil editing," Mnet is once again slammed for its "cruel" ranking system following the preview of its new idol-survival program, "Queendom Puzzle."
SNSD Taeyeon Announces Initial Ranking of Contestants in Mnet's 'Queendom Puzzle'
Mnet's "Queendom Puzzle" will finally have its premiere on June 13.
Unfortunately, while K-pop fans have been anticipating the show, a controversy arose, with people raising their brows at the credibility and fairness of the program.
Ahead of its first episode, Mnet's "Queendom Puzzle" released a special preview on June 6. It unveiled the lineup of female artists and groups from K-pop 3rd- and 4th-generation.
ALSO READ: Mnet Reveals 'Queendom Puzzle' Controversial Lineup — Internet Buzzes with Reactions
In the video, the participants were seen entering the set one by one, and their surprised reactions seeing each artist.
Just then, MC Taeyeon, who was introduced to MC show, shocked the contestants as she shared the initial rankings of each artist before the official competition starts.
Taeyeon announced:
"There is a so-called 'rank' in the music industry. This is based on the report card that you've received so far from the K-pop scene. We divided the groups based on the standards of the Queendom Puzzle."
Hearing this, the participants were surprised and suddenly felt embarrassed, making remarks such as:
- "It's cruel."
- "What army are we in?"
- "It's suddenly cool."
As explained, the idols will be divided based on their total number of music shows wins (50%) regardless if they are from a group or solo win, and the other 50% will be based on the highest first-week sales volume of the artist in the K-pop scene.
After the scores were converted and combined, here are the results:
Rank 1: JooE (MOMOLAND), Lee Chaeyeon (IZ*ONE) WJSN’s Yeoreom, Im Do Hwa (AOA’s Chanmi), and Kei (Lovelyz)
Rank 2: Weeekly’s Jinha, Zoa, Park Soeun, and Lee Soojin, Yeeun (CLC), LABOUM’s Haein, and PURPLE KISS’s Yuki.
Rank 3: tripleS’s Yoon Seoyeon, Lee Jiwoo, Rocket Punch’s Yeonhee, Suyun, Juri, Chaerin, Bora, and Jiwon.
Rank 4: Weki Meki’s Elly, LIGHTSUM’s Sangha, Miru, Fye, H1-Key’s Hwiseo, woo!ah!’s Nana and Wooyeon
The rank 1 has the best scores, while rank 4 has the worst.
'Queendom Puzzle' Controversy Over 'Cruel' & 'Unfair' Ranking System
Apparently, despite raising interest with the pre-released video ahead of debut, "Queendom Puzzle" has been controversial for dividing the ranks of idol groups.
Viewers criticized Mnet for using the word "rank," which seemingly tries to spark a fight between fandoms and K-pop communities. People felt that the ranking system is also "cruel" for emphasizing the obvious "upper" and "lower" class in K-pop.
Viewers also complained how rude it was for the artists who joined the program to be judged based on their chart performance more than their talents and skills.
Further, fan bases pointed out the "unfairness" of the system, given that soloist and ex-BNK48 Fye and former NMB48 Miru, who came from Thailand and Japan, respectively, don't have a single music show trophy in Korea as they don't promote in the country.
With this, fans are skeptical if the show will be any different from the previous Mnet programs, and if it would choose winners fairly.
Meanwhile, Mnet's "Queendom Puzzle" is an entertainment program that completes the best combination of girl groups, and will premiere at 10 p.m. KST on June 13 (Tue).
READ MORE: Mnet Under Fire For 'Evil Editing' Lee Chaeyeon in 'Queendom Puzzle' Trailer
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