What is Mixnine?

Mixnine is a Korean reality program which is a collaboration by JTBC broadcasting station, Director Han Dong Chul and YG Entertainment’s CEO Yang Hyun Suk. The main goal of the program is to find promising talents from various entertainment agencies in Korea including both trainees and already-debuted K-pop idols who were less popular to battle it out in a series of missions to be able to stand a chance to be part of the debuting team.

The show formed two teams with the first one being the Male Team and the second one being the Female team. Throughout the show, the trainees were tested and eliminated to form the final group for each team who then battled it out to determine which of the two will debut.

Mixnine Received ‘Mixed’ Responses

The said program created a buzz for its concept and received mixed responses from the fans and the public. Many people claimed that the show was only a strategy for Yang Hyun Suk (YG Entertainment’s CEO) to coerce his “big agency” power over the trainees and idols from smaller companies. It was even said that such program was just to ignite multiple reactions from the public and garner positive sentiment towards the agency.

While there were people who did not like the overall concept of the show, some fans were actually supportive of the program’s plan. They pointed how those idols who already made their debut but lacked response from the public would be able to gain some attention and following and aid in their lack in popularity regardless of the results after the show. This is true to some extent since.

Mixnine’s Concept and Format

Mixnine first aired on October 29, 2017 and ended on January 26, 2018. Han Dong Chul, the executive producer of the show originally came up with the idea after thinking for the third season of the show he produced which was Mnet’s Produce 101. The recruitment, audition process, competitions, battles, evaluation, and announcement of results lasted for almost three months for its entire 14-episode duration. The first episode kicked off with Yang Hyun Suk and other guest judges conducting auditions to pick the trainees who will appear on the show. There were a total of 400 auditions held from more than 70 agencies during the show. Several established K-pop artists participated in choosing the trainees including CL, Zion.T, Seungri, and Taeyang. According to Yang Hyun Suk himself, he was not only after the talent but also good looks and pleasing personalities. This is contrary to what he was previously known for which is person who mainly focuses on “talent” more than anything.

After the tour at the different entertainment agencies in Korea, all the trainees that were picked were divided into four classes (Debut team, A, B, and C) which was then followed by several ranking missions and trainings to identify who were worthy to become part of the debut team. The evaluations were determined by both the judges and viewers through voting.

The show invited many artists to the show to help in the training of the trainees in various aspects of being K-pop idol such as in singing, dancing and rapping. The singing sessions were facilitated by vocal trainer and singer Ha Dong Kyun and singer Suran. The training for dancing was conducted by the famous twin male dancers from YG such as Kwon Young Deuk and Kwon Young Don. Meanwhile, rapper Swings was their rap mentor for the show. Comprised of 9 members for each team, the Male and Female group would go against each other to form the final group who would promote for seven months.

Evaluation and Results

The first elimination started at Episode 7 where a total of 71 contestants were eliminated and 99 remained (46 girls; 56 boys). The show went through many more eliminations to narrow down the contestants until the show’s final elimination round at Episode 14. The final group was then determined after going through three battles such as the ‘Position Battle,’ ‘Formation Battle,’ and ‘Digital Song Battle’ all throughout the show. The winner of the said reality program was none other than the Male team garnering 8, 114 points over 7, 866 points by the Female team.