Shin A-hyeon, a 20-year-old college student from Gyeonggi, is an avid viewer of K-pop idol audition programs, or “survival shows,” like Mnet’s infamous “Produce 101” franchise (2016-2019) and the upcoming “Boys II Planet.”

After nearly a decade of observation, she feels the format has indeed somewhat lost its luster — but she's still planning on watching the shows and doesn't doubt that producers will keep making them.

“It really has gotten stale,” she said. These days, every show seems to rotate through the same few formats and contestants. “But I’ll probably keep watching.”

The mix of fatigue and loyalty speaks volumes. K-pop’s infamous idol audition shows as we know now have been around for about a decade, garnering explosive popularity ever since the breakout success of Mnet's “Produce 101" series. Rarely, if ever, do they achieve mainstream success. Which has many outside the core K-pop audience asking: Why do they keep popping up?

Many K-pop audition programs launched last year racked up ratings well below the 1 percent mark. KBS' “Makemate1,” for example, peaked at 0.6 percent on its first episode, and JTBC's “Project 7" also peaked at around 0.6 percent.

This isn't a new problem. “There were concerns over saturation in K-pop survivals even back when ‘Finding Momoland’ was airing,” said Eo Si-yong of F&F Entertainment, which represents rookie boy band AHOF, referring to the 2016 audition program that formed girl group Momoland.


Nine years later, “Boys II Planet,” which begins airing Thursday, is arguably the most hyped survival series. The show's first season launched million-seller boy band ZeroBaseOne. Still, most viewers expect the season to feature even more repeat contestants than ever, such as idols with past debuts, near misses or previous attempts, a sign of a shrinking talent pool and the format’s growing lack of freshness.

But freshness isn't the top priority for such producers currently. A higher one, as some might expect, is money — or lack thereof. As production and marketing costs soared at a breakneck pace over the past half a decade, survival shows have become a rather cost-effective way for smaller agencies to launch a new group, with a prebuilt fan base.

“This is all a money game now,” said Eo. “Major agencies, on average, spend 10 to 20 billion won ($7.2 to 14.5 million) just to market rookie groups. If a single audition program can be made for less than 10 billion won, then it serves as a cost-effective promotional channel.”

Bands launched by survival shows often aren't aiming to become the next BTS — their biggest priority is to debut. F&F Entertainment launched AHOF through SBS’s “Universe League” (2024-), and despite the existence of similar programs like KBS’ “Makemate1” and JTBC’s “Project 7,” AHOF went on to sell more than 360,000 copies of its first EP “Who We Are” within its first week of release and win first place on multiple music shows.

For broadcasting companies, teaming up with K-pop agencies joint investment can reduce financial risks, Eo added.

With the global K-pop fan base growing exponentially over the past decade, the domestic success of a survival show, often gauged by ratings, now holds less weight as well — and having a K-pop agency on board greatly reduces a broadcaster's financial risk.

A-hyeon, as a K-pop fan, also sees more value in the groups that come out of K-pop programs than in the content of the programs themselves. “Debuting through a survival program brings far more attention than debuting through a small agency, regardless of the ratings,” she said.

“Survival shows have lost their pull with the broader audience,” said culture critic Ha Jae-keun. “That’s no longer the metric broadcasters prioritize above all, as what matters the most for them is whether the show captures the attention of core fans.”

Still, Ha believes, there’s room for further evolution.

“The K-pop industry has expanded and so has the potential fan base,” Ha said. “As long as the right stars are discovered,” he feels, the shows “will be able to create stardom.”


BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]