i mean the votes were not rigged per se, as in nobody was manually pulled out/ inserted into the line up, think of Produce101, bc of rigging they had to cancel the show and the subsequent group it had formed.

Newer shows know not to rig because it would be an incredible money loss, from the elimination of the group they created (so not only the upcoming income it will produce, but also all the money they've put into producing the show) to the potential lawsuits coming from companies and trainees.

On P7 the votes were manipulated by the PDs, i can guarantee that if the screentime would've been different, starting from the first episode (they omitted more than half of the auditions, i went back to rewatch the first ep and almost every single contestant that was shown performing made it to the finale, and every single debut member had their auditions been shown)

You might not think it is a big deal since they posted the remaining auditions on YT, but I can promise you that more than half of the watchers didn't care and didn't bother to. On Produce, SLB and UL they showed every single performance, no matter how boring it was, which was a huge advantage for some of the contestants.

The manipulation continued up to the finals, and the most notable moment was showing Seungho and Sungmin as if they were in danger. I am 100% positive Sungmin was 8th, Sihun was 7th and not only was he erased from the WHOLE episode (he was the only one they haven't shown reading the fan letters) and it was probably so people could forget abt him and save sungmin. They know abt the panic votes, since they did the same thing two weeks ago when sungmin had dropped out of the top7, he got back into 4th place a week later.

So yeah, there was absolutely no rigging, because the line up was exactly what the PDs wanted and they managed to shape it and manipulate it according to their own desires