Auditions are still pouring in… The winner’s popularity is minimal.

[Seoul = Newsis] Reporter Choo Seung-hyeon = Recently, a series of large-scale auditions came to an end. SBS TV’s ambitious first girl group audition, ‘Universe Ticket’, gave birth to the 8-member global girl group, ‘Eunice’. JTBC’s steady seller ‘Singer Gain’ In Season 3, Hong Isaac was selected as the final winner.

The last episode of the audition, which lasts for two to three months, attracts the most attention, but the atmosphere is quite different. ‘Superstar K’, ‘Produce 101’, ‘Miss·Mr.Trot’, where everyone worked hard to determine the ranking and vote. It is difficult to find such momentum. ‘Universe Ticket’, which maintained a viewer rating of 0%, eventually ended with 0.6% (Nielsen Korea nationwide). As of the last episode, ‘Singer Gain”s viewership ratings are gradually decreasing, with Season 1 at 10.0%, Season 2 at 8.7%, and Season 3 at 7.3% (Nielsen Korea paid nationwide).

Naturally, the topicality of the winner is gradually decreasing. ‘Miss and Mr. Trot’, which has taken up a large share of recent audition programs, failed to produce a winner comparable to Song Ga-in and Lim Young-woong in Season 1. ‘Singer Gain’ The industry’s opinion is that Season 2 has no notable developments. At least, the group ‘Zero Base One’, which was discovered through Mnet’s boy group survival ‘Boys Planet’ last year, is showing results. Mnet, the original audition company, also stopped at this.

◇ Poverty amidst abundance… Boring with similar formats

Viewers’ fatigue with audition programs is considered the biggest factor. Mnet ‘Produce 101’ As the series became popular, idol auditions started popping up, and trot auditions followed TV Chosun’s ‘Miss Trot’ for example. Repetition of similar formats reduces interest and reduces concentration.

For diversity, last year, Mnet’s ‘Queendom Puzzle’, the mega karaoke survival ‘VS’, MBN’Oppa’s Generation’, ‘Shocking. Knight’ etc. appeared, but did not cause much of a stir. A broadcasting official pointed out the concentration of viewers, saying, “Recently, audition programs have become more segmented into genres such as K-pop, band, hip-hop, vocals, and trot, so the viewer threshold has increased.””Like the past ‘Superstar K’, it may be refreshing if an audition that can be enjoyed by all people regardless of genre comes out. “Singer Gain” may seem similar, but it is a competition between professionals, so it has a different personality from a pure audition pro, he said.

◇ The shadow of the winner is fading… It’s difficult to form a fandom

As audition programs are repeated and interest in the winners decreases, the halo is fading. This is the reason why many audition winners are trying again. In particular, there were many winners of ‘Mr. Trot 2’, which ended last year. KBS 2TV ‘Trot National Sports Festival’ Winner Jin Hae-seong, MBC TV ‘Trot Nation’ Winner Seongjun Ahn, MBN ‘Voice Trot’ Winner Park Se-wook and others appeared.

Viewers would soon become fandom, but that process did not take place. Song Ga-in and Lim Young-woong formed a solid fandom as the original trot audition winners. Consumers in the music market are limited, and it is difficult to expand fandom as auditions increase. A music official said, “The first season’s winner’s fandom is sometimes trying to push out a new winner who could become a competitor. “Since the entire pie has already been shared, it is more difficult to form a new fandom in the domestic market.”

◇ Broadcasting companies that can’t let go of auditions

Nevertheless, each broadcasting company is eyeing the launch of a new audition program. CJ ENM was a pro on Mnet’s Hip Hop Survival ‘Show Me the Money’ As the popularity of the series decreased, a new season was not released for the first time in 11 years last year. There were even rumors of its abolition, but it was announced that it would move to its OTT platform Tving rather than Mnet and launch a new hip-hop survival program. Also, JTBC ‘Girls on Fire’, Mnet ‘Build-Up: Vocal Boy Group Survival’ Audition programs such as, etc. are about to be broadcast for the first time.

A music industry official said, “Rather than recruiting fresh faces, there are more and more things that are aimed at making money using IP (intellectual property rights), such as advertising, music, concerts, entertainment, and management. Because of this, the season was unreasonably extended, and viewers became bored with the endless loop.”

☞ Sympathetic Media Newsis chuchu@newsis.com