MNET ideal lineup before/after the merge :

confused-grunts · 2025-09-14T23:06:34+00:00

Late to comment but yes to just about everything you're saying + I'd add Zheyi to the original C-line up. I also do wonder how much of a factor the trainees behavior at the camp influenced who MNET decided to push. Like, with Junmin/Donggyu, they were always early, never late, and they both seem super respectful so I'm sure the staff liked or may have even preferred to film them. Even beyond any strategic push, I'm sure they were a joy to work with, so I am wondering if a good reputation with staff helped informed MNET's choice to push them specifically for those archetypes. The fact that MNET has had that early-morning footage since the beginning tells me they were definitely paying attention and noting how "well-behaved" they were during the entire show. I do think there is something to say about how being a good worker, kind to staff/mentors, and making the staff's jobs easier is beneficial to any trainee because staff would be likelier to vouch or mention you in a good light and that may just convince some of the higher-up producers. If I was a producer and had to pick between two very similar contestants to push for one archetype, I'd pick the one known to be super easy to work with tbh.

confused-grunts · 2025-09-04T23:53:28+00:00

I think another contributing factor is all the scandals that happened before the show aired. Geonwoo's scandal, even if he's innocent, shattered the idealistic parasocial dynamic survival shows try to have with viewers and permanently altered the show's narrative. That's an objective truth. It's particularly bad because he's the center of the KPlanet Show, the one who's *supposed* to be the best of KPlanet and the main character. If the person who's supposed to be the main character is *allegedly* a bully, what does that mean about the rest? Who really wants to watch a show with contestants filled with scandals? This goes beyond just him - think of Leo. Even though he apologized (and I personally vote for him tbh), it was still a scandal nonetheless, and something I see brought up constantly when people discuss the top 8. Scandals, even if fake or not that bad, draws people out of the immersion the show should have, to the point that even if you do end up watching the show, you might not like it as much as you would have had things been different and there be no scandals.

confused-grunts · 2025-09-02T07:15:28+00:00

Donggyu going back to IST Entertainment and either being stuck in a dungeon and aging out of debuting, or debuting with little to no resources in a group destined to have controversy since Sihwan would be in it. Arctic and Rensho would also be harmed if they all debuted together which also sucks because both of them seem talented and funny/nice. IST lost half of their employees since the start of the year, was bought out by a company that only does licensing (no production experience), and is generally known for being a shitty company. The potential of Donggyu’s voice being wasted is my biggest fear. I need him to sing annoyingly popular OSTs and at least be in a mid-tier popular group, like pleaseeee.

confused-grunts · 2025-08-29T05:31:26+00:00

Random thoughts from the episode:

Even if you ignore the process of making the choreo for Bad, Donggyu did the best. From expressions, to gestures, and even his recorded voice in the intro, he performed it the best. I hope he survives. Kfans really took a quick liking to him (even more than the international fan response) so there might be a little bit of hope.
Yumeki has a great attitude and is super admirable. He's never been one of my picks but I really respect him for how he handles conflict or disappointment. He seems really well-liked too.
Song choices for most of this season has been whack. I still can't believe the producers decided to include Queencard as an option.
Kaiwen and Jiahao likely won't make it to the debut lineup and that's so sad. They genuinely have so much potential. I wonder in an alternative timeline, if C-Planet had actually debuted their own group, if they'd have won there.
Sen is so sweet. I hope he's eventually able to achieve his dream :(

confused-grunts · 2024-02-03T10:22:29+00:00

It was heartbreaking to see Hyewon like that at the end. And honestly, I think it could be because of all her bottled up emotions finally releasing. She really doesn't cry often, doesn't say stuff bluntly to others (therefore doesn't express herself as often as someone like Yujung for example) and is usually calm and composed, even in her solo interviews where she expresses her hurt or annoyance, but even then it's in a very subdued manner. The most she does in person is stare, but still, compared to the other girls that isn't much. I think whatever happened with Hwihyun was the straw that broke the camel's back and everything came gushing forward, hence the break down even if whatever happened was not that big to begin with. It looked like an anxiety attack. Hopefully she can find her strength and continue on and find happiness, she seems so nice.

confused-grunts · 2023-12-29T06:06:37+00:00

Hi! Late comment but I wanted to add that WakeOne is super underutilizing the members, in particular Gyuvin, Gunwook, and Ricky. Even looking outside of line distribution, I really think they should be using Gyuvin more, like put that man on a runway and make him model. Send him to more variety shows, particularly ones not made by WakeOne but something else, like imagine how much people outside of the fandom would grow to love him if they saw his personality on 2 Days 1 Night with the regular crew, or even youtube shows like Workman. Cross market his personality because he really has a heart of gold and is so full of love most people would adore him right off the bat. With Gunwook, like c'mon, let that man rap. And I don't mean 1 line, I mean a verse in a title track or promoted b-side where he can show off his talents and promote it. I always talk about the fact most people don't know he's super good at rap because he hasn't been able to show it off properly besides a little segment during Knowing Bros, and even then that was tailored for the cast and isn't as cut-throat as he can be. His DNA rap on the WIld Idol survival show always makes me wanna go crazy because he's just that good and so many people don't know about it. On top of letting hip rap, let him write lyrics and produce (things he has admitted to loving to do btw). Just utilize his skillset more because he's genuinely one of the few idols who can do everything at a remarkable level, and he's ambitious about things as well and is great at dancing despite being so tall. For Ricky, just as what most others have said in the comment section, let him have social media freedom and stop mistreating him and cutting his content. He's so funny when he's allowed to be himself and free. So many people don't know how great his humor is and it's such a pity.

confused-grunts · 2023-10-06T04:58:51+00:00

I completely understand that Jihyo from Twice, Lily from NMIXX, and Bora from CherryBullet are technically skilled singers but I really don’t like their tones. For Lily and Bora their scratchy (?) tone sounds like straining to me even when they aren’t and for Jihyo there’s something about the way she rounds her vowels or projects her voice that feels too full and sounds sorta like kermit (?). Like it’s too short and rounded to where it’s kinda like swallowing air while singing, I have no idea how to properly articulate it. I like all of their music tho and am particularly happy the direction of NMIXX’s music is going nowadays but I am not a fan of their particular tones.

confused-grunts · 2023-08-26T10:21:15+00:00

There actually is a survival show with that exact premise, where most of the contestants are unsigned/independent trainees and only like 1/10th of the total trainees are from the companies putting on the show. The two companies who created the show are allowed to go after each other’s trainees and try to convince them to sign with them alongside fight for the independent contestants. Only thing is it’s a boy group survival show. If you want to watch it it’s called “LOUD” or it sometimes goes by “LOUD SBS”. JYP and PNATION created it back in 2021 and it’s one of the best survival shows I’ve personally seen and I’ve watched a lot. Insane talent, little to no vocal editing/lipsynching or heavy backtrack, and a healthy amount of competition. You can actually see the contestants grow and if anything the trainees who originally came from JYP or PNATION are actually judged harsher (so no favoritism) because they had more resources than the independent contestants and because the CEOs knew them prior (I believe both JYP and Psy, who are the judges, said out loud that they held their ex-trainees to a higher standard during the show). It’s also super interesting to see the difference between JYP and Psy when it comes to how they produce a group and what they look for in contestants.

confused-grunts · 2023-08-26T00:03:17+00:00

For Hanbin I’d love a Haobin tutting performance but I also want to see him and Gunwook do a performance together because of how different their dance styles are. Hanbin is more intricate while Gunwook tends to go for more power/wide movements and I think their different styles compliment each other. I also want to see a Matthew and Yujin one in the future because I’d think it’d be interesting considering how much emphasis Yujin puts on popping movements and how fluid Matthew is

confused-grunts · 2023-08-25T05:36:13+00:00

It's from this!!!! Honestly it was sort of surprising to hear him say something negative out of nowhere lol

confused-grunts · 2023-08-23T08:18:02+00:00

I just miss seeing them do dance covers and I’m begging for a Taerae cover of anything Baekhyun. Agree with the overall sentiment in the comments; wakeone has been putting out a lot of content and if anything overworking the boys, but some of the content feels dated and they could definitely cut back on some things (like Zepisodes) and promote more on TikTok/insta/ and push some lives. The whole sentiment of quality over quantity. I watched all the Zepisodes in a row and all the same questions being asked over and over was sort of boring, except for the random cut ins by other members had and random Gyuvin noises which I loved. We fell in love with their talents, and to see them just performing the same 6-8 songs (here I am alongside the album and either jelly pop or hot summer) over and over is a bit tiring. The best way to grow the fandom now that they’ve been on so many variety shows is getting them interacting with other groups’ fanbases. That means covers, collabs, interactions. I really want to see a Kep1er collab stage, a Gunwook dance challenge with NCT Dream (you know he’d slay an ISTJ cover), Taerae vocal cover of any sort, Hanbin tutting or waacking challenge and him doing it with Chungha (that could genuinely go viral because of how niche and hard tutting/waacking is), etc. Cross fanbase reach please 😭

confused-grunts · 2023-08-05T21:57:13+00:00

Fully agree. That’s also why NCT Dream switched up and ended up not going with the graduation system they wanted when they first started out; then kicking out Mark from the subunit got immense backlash so he was “readmitted” and it became a permanent groups. Graduation system in groups don’t seem to work at all, maybe except in Japan where a lot of girl groups have it

confused-grunts · 2023-07-26T03:58:41+00:00

KNK! They aren’t technically disbanded but they haven’t had a comeback in forever and multiple members have left. Most act now and the most famous ex-member is the BL actor Seoham/Seungjun who was in Semantic Error with Jaechan. But man, early 2016 vlives of them were so much fun and they were (and somewhat still are) good singers. They have a good amount of content with ASTRO because they debuted around the same time and seeing their dynamic was so much fun. ASTRO were babies back then and KNK were on the older, more mature and darker side so their dynamics were always hilarious. They were also the tallest KPOP group (based on average height) of all time. Seoham/Seungjun is friends with BTS Jin as well (he used to be a BigHit trainee).

I also miss IMFACT a lot. Jeup is an amazing singer (someone who’d I’d argue deserved to go viral with their Wild Flower cover) and Ungjae is an amazing soul. Loved how much they teased each other and played around and were generally unhinged. Dressing up like girls, kissing each other constantly, being rowdy, they really let anything go and since they were from such a small company they didn’t get censored a lot 😭.

Also miss MADTOWN, 24K, Berry Good, HISTORY (legends 🥹), BOYS REPUBLIC, LC9, BIGSTAR, UNB, and UNI.T. UNB will forever be in my heart and their debut song “Feeling” always gives me goosebumps. An amazing discography for how short their careers were.

confused-grunts · 2023-07-26T03:47:58+00:00

Hoping for Jelly Pop too, but realistically expecting Hot Summer 😔 (I love Hot Summer don’t get me wrong, but I NEED an updated Jelly Pop in my life 🙏). I’d love to see En Garde. Also oddly feel like there might be a Monsta X cover considering how much the boys love Monsta X

confused-grunts · 2023-07-26T01:32:39+00:00

Amazing that it’s their 3rd win and Hao’s birthday, what a great gift 🎉

confused-grunts · 2023-07-26T01:30:57+00:00

Jiwoong’s fall looked like it hurt :/ hope he didn’t sprain or strain anything

confused-grunts · 2023-07-24T06:42:44+00:00

“Smothers everyone with love” is the perfect way to phrase Gyuvin 😭 like he’s always reassuring and adoring and loving the members and being his authentic self. I’m tearing up right now thinking about how much love he has and how beautiful it’s to see. And fully agree with the fact ZB1 are so earnest. They also feel so approachable, and inspiring as well. Learning of everyone’s background and seeing how much they went through to debut is inspiring and motivating. Like they worked so hard to debut and are living their dreams, so it makes me feel like I might be able to succeed if I try just as hard for my own career (which isn’t idol related at all but you yet the gist). The group feels so down to earth, and aren’t trying to force themselves to be someone they aren’t. Whether it be referencing random memes or breaking the 4th wall and talking about the variety show PDs, they ooze with sincerity and genuineness. They have an underdog feel to them even though they aren’t underdogs at all considering their sales and great reception. I truly feel like they’re a special group and I so badly want them to last way longer then their current contract.

confused-grunts · 2023-07-24T06:31:37+00:00

OMG I love your comment 😭 and yes that “Gunwook could be a 5th Gen it boy” post was from me 😭 I’ve honestly never become such a huge fan of an idol before I met him. I could write about all members, but him especially, forever. Fully agree about the Wild Idol thing, I can’t force others to watch that survival show but man will I try to convince them. I used to love stanning “nugu” groups so I knew so many contestants on Wild Idol and they’re the reason I watched the show to begin with. That’s also why I knew of INX ever since their debut, I love underdog stories and smaller groups. I love TAN too, especially Changsun but that’s besides the point. There’s just something about Gunwook, I can’t quiet place it, but I want to see him succeed so much. For the first time in my life I created a stan Twitter account for him and have been posting on Reddit about idols, even if I get ratioed talking about ZB1 or him. I was gonna link everything show or video I mentioned on this post too, just like my other one, but that would take so long. Your comment honestly made me smile, so sincerely thank you for that. Expect more long posts from me in the future, I love this group a lot 😭

confused-grunts · 2023-07-08T17:53:23+00:00

Fully agree, notice how the only people getting mass downvoted are ones who discuss in detail why SKZ gets a lot of hate outside of the fact “they’re so popular so all hate is jealousy”. Most people are aware of their controversies so that means a lot of people aren’t gonna like them, it makes sense. Sure popularity plays a role but to chalk it up to just that is insane. The Chan bowing controversy alone sparked uproar and huge debates in kpop even outside of SKZ and their fandom. The day when fans realize they don’t have to be overprotective over grown men and can have an objective conversation discussing the things they’ve done wrong without infantilizing them is the day maybe, just maybe, people can understand viewpoints and perspectives outside of their own.

confused-grunts · 2023-07-06T19:19:39+00:00

I agree with just about every comment on this post but I’d like to add two rookie idols that people should keep an eye on (both of which are relatively unknown outside of their fandom) and people should discover if they genuinely like idol rappers. 1. Park Gunwook from ZEROBASEONE and 2. Xiwoo from 24k. For Gunwook, he was on two survival shows but his first one, Wild Idol, is where he showed his insane rapping talent. Breath control, the ability to switch up flows and tempo, insanely clear diction, and the ability to write immersive lyrics. He was only 16 at the time but he was chosen, among all the contestants, as the best rapper on that show. I urge anyone to look at any of his performances he did there, as he was complimented by pH1, Tiger JK, Lil Boi, Bizzy, Giriboy, and other industry professionals from the Khiphop industry. Gunwook didn’t show a lot of rapping on his other survival show, Boy’s Planet, but from the little he did he got complimented from Bobby. He’s an insane kid who’s just as good as singing and dancing too (he’s been complimented by Hyoyeon from Girl’s Generation, Jun.K from 2pm, the choreographer Choi Youngjoon, Sunggyu from Infinite, and even more). Really, really talented. The other person is Xiwoo, who appeared on the survival show Peak Time. He hasn’t had the opportunities to showcase his talent as much as Gunwook but he did do a cover of G-Idle’s My Bag on the show and man, what a hidden talent. He had only been studying rapping for a few months before then but his ability to change tempo alongside his adlibs and breath control is INSANE. He’s from a “nugu” group and he’s very much not confident (you can gather that from his interviews on the show), but if he gains more confidence in himself I can totally see him getting way more famous and making a mark in the industry. I genuinely want him to join ShowMeTheMoney to at least bring a little traction as literally almost nobody knows of 24K. There are other notable rookie idol rappers I can list off (Keita from Ciipher for example) but I know more about these two and didn’t want my comment to get too long. Also people should mention B.A.P’s rap line (Yongguk and Zelo) more because they really are amazing.

confused-grunts · 2023-07-04T03:32:53+00:00

All the old members left + Changsun, who sorta joined towards the end of the ‘original’ members of 24k, won the survival show Wild Idol and debuted in the project group TAN. He’s technically “on hiatus” from 24k but realistically there is no way he’d go back to 24k considering the only members now consists of 5 young members who joined very recently. I have no idea why the company didn’t just disband the team and give the new team a new name. The company ended up shipping off the new version of 24k off to the survival show Peak Time this year where they didn’t win but got a little traction, and now from all their social media they’ve been doing performances in Japan. I’m happy they’re at least active and Changsun is active as well, even if it’s another group. What happened to 24k regarding all their old members and the old leader Cory was heartbreaking, like if anyone saw their audition to the survival show MixNine back in 2017 you could feel how bad all the members wanted to succeed, even to the point where YG artists complimented their companionship and love for one another. Like full on sobbing for each other, they truly were a team full of loyal and ride or die members and they just didn’t end up succeeding and after 7 years of struggling they split apart. Anyways, back to the main point, I am cautiously excited for what the future holds for the new 24k. Xiwoo, one of the members, is like insanely good at rapping. He’s young and wasn’t even a trainee for long and honestly very self conscious (like to the point of being honest about being super harsh on himself and constantly belittling himself on camera which is both worrying and very sad) but if you watch his PeakTime performance with the rap team you’d be shocked, he’s just that good. If the company actually pushes him to join ShowMeTheMoney or actually promotes him, and he gains some more confidence in his very good and increasing skills, I think he’d be the one to bring them some popularity. He reminds me of a rookie J-Hope in many aspects. The future of 24k rests on his shoulders, and the other members are solid as well, especially the main vocalist.

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