Korean reality competition shows aren’t new a new thing by any means. For years now we’ve watched as eager young participants appear on our screens, each with a dream to become a Kpop idol and win the hearts of millions. Over the course of months, they are randomly assorted into groups and made to compete in challenges until they are weeded down into the perfect global group, which usually consists of 7 to 9 members on average. At which time, the “global group” will promote in Korea and East Asia before disbanding based on the terms of their contract. I’ll be the first to admit that these shows are entertaining. The songs are catchy, the drama is HIGH, and you naturally root for one or two trainees based on how they are edited by staff. However, there is so much exploitation and awfulness at the core of these shows that makes it hard to enjoy and with the proliferation of so many shows like this, I know the general public has to be feeling it, too.
For one, there are far too many shows to justify the premise. A competition show like this exists to debut a group that will be popular and successful. At first, that’s exactly what they did. In 2015 and 2016, groups “Twice” and “I.O.I” were formed on reality competition shows and went on to massive success. However, I seriously doubt they could do the same today, not with 2 to 3 groups like them debuting at the same time. Inevitably, these groups cannibalize each other. For example, “Boys Planet”, “Queendom Puzzle”, “R U Next?”, “My Teenage Girl”, and “A2K” have all aired within a year of each other with their subsequent groups all debuting into an already crowded Kpop scene. Just this week, HYBE announced a collaboration with Geffen for a new show called “The Debut: Dream Academy” which will debut a group later this year. These groups will struggle to gain popularity and the blame will be placed at the feet of the idols themselves when it should fall on the greedy companies who refuse to coordinate their releases.
On top of the over-saturation, these shows are horribly misleading. One thing they love to tout is the “Global” nature of their groups. They will bring in trainees from Japan, China, Thailand, and the United States just to name a few countries and make their ethnicities part of the storyline. This is done in a hollow attempt to entice international viewers to watch the show and more importantly, vote on a third party app where they can also be bombarded with ads. However, their base is Korean fans since the group will make Korean music. This means they have to prioritize the Korean trainees no matter how popular an international trainee may become and since the great rigging scandal of 2019, they can no longer just outright manipulate votes. So what they do is edit international trainees to look lazy or difficult to work with in the hopes that the audience will do their dirty work for them and it usually works extremely well. The international trainees who have to try and continue on with tarnished reputations and the manipulated international viewers are just collateral.
Every country has their reality shows and they all have their unique issues. In the UK, the entire country is enraptured for weeks watching young, hot Instagram models pair up on “Love Island”. Just this year, a cheating scandal on “Vanderpump Rules” captured the public imagination and spawned months of speculation from podcasters and journalists alike. While people undoubtedly get hurt on these shows, Kpop competitions shows are much more brutal because they subject children to the same conditions we’re now learning are harmful to adults. Trainees born as recently as 2009 have to compete against legal adults and interact with obsessive fans without protection or media training. Then the judging itself is distinctly brutal, with panels consisting of idols these kids definitely look up to make the often biased remarks sting that much more. Anything to get a reaction from the trainees and all for what, so some corporate conglomeration can make a few million more this year than they did the last year? I’m not saying that these shows shouldn’t exist but there needs to be a cultural examination of the place these shows hold, if not in Korean society than with the international audience that watches them.