The Broadcast Communication Committee in Seoul decided that all four Mnet “PRODUCE 101” series manipulated voting and must pay a fine

South Korea’s Broadcast Communication Committee decides that all four Mnet “PRODUCE 101” series (“PRODUCE 101” season 1 and 2, “PRODUCE 48” and “PRODUCE X 101”) manipulated voting and must pay a fine for viewing voting manipulation.  This is the highest level of sanction under the Broadcast Law.

According to the Committee, “Although the viewers paid for their votes by selling the program which the final member of the group was to be decided only by the viewer’s vote, the staff manipulated the vote results to trick the viewer and give a fair opinion. Not only did it hinder the acceptance of the audition, but it wasted the efforts of the auditioners. In accordance with Article 109 of the Broadcast Law, the Broadcasting and Communications Deliberation Committee plans to determine the amount of money in consideration of the content and extent of the violation, the return and number of illegal acts.

Last November, a producer was arrested for voter manipulation and admitted that he ordered staff to decide the final ranking before viewers submitted their votes.

In addition to the first round of voting of season one, the committee confirmed the results of the fourth round of voting were also manipulated.

“PRODUCE 101 JAPAN” was not affected.

While first season and second season’s groups I.O.I and WANNA ONE finished their contracts, “PRODUCE 48” group IZ*ONE and “PRODUCE X 101” group X1 were halted for months.

IZ*ONE was able to resume activities.

Unfortunately, the opposite has happened to X1. Four months after their debut, the group was disbanded as all members agencies were unable to come up with a unanimous agreement and thus, it was decided that the group would be disbanded.

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