One of the most popular former trainees of the new installment of Produce series was Yoon Seo Bin. He was a JYP trainee who initially gained recognition for his good looks. He was one of the big 3 trainees and people had lots of high expectations for him.
However, all of that came crashing down when netizens who claimed to be his former high school mates came out with serious allegations against him. He was rumored to have been a notorious bully, he also participated in underage smoking and drinking.
Soon after the rumors spread fans demanded a response from JYP and Mnet.
On May 8, JYP announced they had officially terminated their contract with the trainee, they told the press,
“JYP Entertainment believes that Yoon Seo Bin did not behave in line with our company’s policy, we have decided to terminate our contract with him.”
He was also dropped from “Produce X 101” and Mnet promised to edit him out as much as possible to avoid harming other trainees.
“Produce X 101” production team begins filming way before the actual air date and since there was a lot of focus on Yoon Seo Bin, the production team is now forced to change a lot of things and re-edit because of the controversy.
Netiznes commended Mnet for doing their best to edit out Yoon Seo Bin but this also brings up another issue, the issue of trainees with troubled/dark/controversial past.
As a result of this controversy, the production team behind Mnet has asked agencies to check the background of their trainees to make sure they have clean pasts.
An official from the production team explains that the agencies have been asked to check the backgrounds from now on and if they the trainees’ past turn out to be controversial the agencies shall be held responsible.
Mnet will also be more thorough with the trainee selection from now on to prevent such controversies from occurring and affecting the show again.
What do you think of this announcement?
Related: Former JYP Trainee Yoon Seo Bin Apologizes For His Past Mistakes
Source: (A)
My Personal Thoughts
This is a great decision. I am all in for privacy and such but the mistakes of one trainee affected one of the biggest agencies in South Korea and cost one of the biggest programs a lot of time and money.
Not enough credit is given to the production team that makes things happen. I feel dizzy just thinking about all the editing they have to do knowing well they started filming a while ago. I would be pissed if I were them.
I am also shocked by this whole thing because I know how strict JYP are about their artists’ personalities, its something JYP himself takes pride in and that was slightly compromised because of this trainee. I don’t remember a JYP artist was ever called a ‘bully.’
Kids, if you wanna achieve great things in South Korea then worry about your image deeply. This is how the idol world runs, it’s sad but it is what it is, those who don’t like it can quit.
Agencies should be more careful because a lot of idols ruin their groups when netizens find out about their past, its for the best that they do additional screening to avoid future catastrophes.
Imagine if he had gone on to debut in the new group by Produce X 101, imagine then netizens finding out about this later on, this could’ve cost millions in damages. You might think its over exaggeration on my part but do the math, you’ll see that debuting a kpop group costs millions and one mistake by a rookie idol of any group is enough to cost a fortune.
