Dispatch Reveals More Details On Ahn Joon Young PD’s Rank Manipulation During All 4 Seasons of “Produce”

Dispatch released the details.

Dispatch has released more details on the manipulation that has occurred during all four seasons of Produce.

Behind all of the decisions, were meetings with staff members from various agencies over food and alcohol, including Starship Entertainment, Woollim Entertainment, and 8-D Creative. After receiving a request to take care of their agency’s trainees, Ahn Joon Young would say don’t worry about them.

Starship, Woollim, and 8-D Creative Offered Ahn Joon Young PD Services During “Produce 48” and “Produce X 101”

Dispatch has confirmed with the indictment report the details of Ahn Joon Young’s manipulation of the ranks for all four seasons of Produce. The initials of the trainees do not match the actual trainees concerned, and are just for identification purposes.

The 8 Defendants

1. Kim Yong Bum (fraud, obstruction of justice)

Position: Head of the Strategy and Contents Business Department, General PD (CP) of CJ ENM Music Content Department

Responsible for: Produce 101 Season 2, Produce 48, Produce X 101 (April 2017 – July 2019)

2. Ahn Joon Young (violation of law concerning fraud, obstruction of business, breach of trust, illegal solicitation, bribery, etc.)

Position: PD at CJ ENM Music Content Department

Responsible for: Produce 101 Season 1, Produce 101 Season 2, Produce 48, Produce X 101

3. “C” (fraud, obstruction of justice)

Position: PD at CJ ENM Music Content Department

Responsible for: Produce 48, Produce X 101 (June 2018 – July 2019)

4. D, E, F, G, H — Music agency employees (mediating malpractice, violation of the law concerning prohibition of illegal solicitation and bribery)

 

Produce 101 Season 1: I.O.I

Produce 101 Season 1 began with 101 trainees. After the first round of eliminations, 61 trainees remained. After round two, 35 trainees. After round three, 22 trainees. 11 trainees made the final group, I.O.I.

Ahn Joon Young manipulated the rankings of two trainees during the first round of eliminations from 101 > 61 at the CJ ENM conference room on February 12, 2016.

Trainees “A” and “B”, who were initially in the Top 61 after the voting results, were pushed out of the Top 61. Trainees “C” and “D” were elevated into the Top 61 instead, and “A” and “B” were unfairly eliminated.

 

Produce 101 Season 2: Wanna One

Produce 101 Season 2 began with 101 trainees. After the first round of eliminations, 60 trainees remained. After round two, 35 trainees. After round three, 20 trainees. 11 trainees made the final group, Wanna One.

Ahn Joon Young manipulated the ranking of one trainee at a conference room at CJ ENM in May 2017. This happened during the first round of eliminations from 101 > 60.

Trainee “E”, who was within the Top 60 after the voting results, was pushed out of the Top 60. Trainee “F” was elevated to the Top 60 instead, and “E” was unfairly eliminated.

 

Kim Yong Bum also manipulated the ranking of one trainee during the season. During the final eliminations from 20 > 11 trainees, Kim Yong Bum manipulated the result of the live text message voting, held on June 26, 2017.

Trainee “G”, who was slated to debut with Wanna One due to the results of the live text message voting, was kicked out of the Top 11. Instead, trainee “H” was elevated to within the Top 11, and allowed to debut with Wanna One. “G” was unfairly removed from their opportunity at debuting with Wanna One.

 

Produce 48: IZ*ONE

Produce 48 began with 96 trainees. After the first round of eliminations, 57 trainees remained. After round two, 30 trainees. After round three, 20 trainees. 12 trainees made the final group, IZ*ONE.

The decision was made to pre-select the 12 members who would debut as IZ*ONE without any regards to the results of the online vote, and excluded trainees Ahn Joon Young and Kim Yong Bum decided didn’t fit their broadcasting and promotional concept. Ahn Joon Young and Kim Yong Bum met at a conference room at CJ ENM on August 2, 2018 to decide on the 12 members who would debut as IZ*ONE.

The final 12 trainees to debut were chosen at their will. The announcement of votes was based on a certain percentage of the total number of votes cast. A total of 468,290 people cast 559,169 votes, at a cost of ₩100 KRW ($0.08 USD) per vote. CJ ENM took in roughly ₩36 million KRW ($30,222 USD) in profits from the votes.

 

Produce X 101: X1

Produce X 101 began with 96 trainees. After the first round of eliminations, 60 trainees remained. After round two, 30 trainees. After round three, 20 trainees. 11 trainees made the final group, X1.

During the first round of eliminations, from 101 > 60, trainee “I” was within the Top 60, but pushed out in favor of trainee “J”, who was supposed to be eliminated.

During the third round of eliminations, from 30 > 20, trainees “K” and “L” were both within the Top 20, but pushed out in favor of trainees “M” and “N”, who were supposed to be eliminated.

During the final round of eliminated, from 20 > 11, Ahn Joon Young and Kim Yong Bum had previously selected the 11 trainees they wanted to be in X1, rendering the entirety of the live viewer votes useless. The Nation’s 1,747,877 producers sent in a total of 1,933,832 votes, and CJ ENM took in roughly ₩88 million KRW ($74,869 USD) in profits.

 

Ahn Joon Young being wined and dined

Between January 2018 and July 2019, Ahn Joon Young received around ₩47 million KRW ($39,453 USD) in services at various hostess bars from officials from multiple agencies, including Starship Entertainment and Woollim Entertainment.

 

Dispatch ended their report with a few final words.

The perpetrators can be punished, but there is no real way to help save the victims.

All we can do now is give a hug to the trainees who appeared on the Produce series. You can’t throw stones at any member. They didn’t take away an opportunity from someone else. They are all the victims.

— Dispatch

 

Source: Dispatch