Produce 101 Season 2 () is a 2017 boy group survival reality show on Mnet, and is the second season of the original South Korean version of the franchise. The public (called 'national producers') "produces" a boy group by choosing 11 members among 101 trainees from 54 entertainment companies through online voting and live voting with multiple elimination rounds. The public also chose the group's concept, debut song and group name. In the season finale on June 16, 2017, which was broadcast live, the show announced the final 11 members who would debut as Wanna One. More than 16 million people cast their votes during the finale, equivalent to around 30% of South Korea's population.
Concept Produce 101 Season 2 consisted of 101 male contestants, who were trainees under company labels, debuted idols, or individual trainees in South Korea. Though most contestants were Korean, there were some Chinese, Japanese, and Taiwanese participants in addition to those from other nations. In the final episode, 11 out of the top 20 contestants were chosen to form the show's "project group" through a national fan voting system. The group will promote for two years (ending December 31, 2018) under YMC Entertainment (also the label of I.O.I from Produce 101 Season 1). The top 35 performed with the winning team at a finale concert. The group will disband after their contracts end, allowing the members of the final lineup to return to their respective agencies.
Bigger agencies, including S.M., YG, and JYP chose not to send trainees to participate in the second season. YG Entertainment was, however, represented by four models under their subsidiary YGKPlus.Produce 101 Season 2. Mnet. 7 Apr. 2017. TV Series. The first season's main director Han Dong-chul also withdrew from the show due to other commitments.
For the boys' training, several artists were recruited for the show. Singers Lee Seok-hoon and Shin Yoo-mi were in charge of vocal training. Rappers Cheetah and Don Mills oversaw rap training. Kahi and Kwon Jae-seung oversaw dance training.
Pre-show and promotions On February 23, Mnet announced that BoA would be taking the MC role for this season, replacing Jang Keun-suk. She would be "acting as a messenger and a representative of the viewers". Later on the same day, the trainers were also announced. Mnet announced the official broadcast of the show, which would replace High School Rappers time slot, on March 8.
AKATV, a production company founded in 2015 by some of the former production staff of the first three seasons of Mnet's Show Me the Money, was given the production duties for the season, replacing Signal Entertainment Group from Season 1.
Soon after they had moved to their dorms on February 26, the participants started filming. A teaser video of who would be taking "center" (or lead role) for the first song was later revealed.
The contestants of Produce 101 Season 2 appeared for the first time on Episode 514 of M! Countdown on March 9, 2017. The group was presented by BoA, and the members performed the EDM theme song "나야나 (Pick Me)". The "center" role was given to Brand New Music's Lee Dae-hwi. Some participants had previously debuted through NU'EST, JJCC, HOTSHOT and Topp Dogg. Other participants also gained attention from National Producers such as ONO Entertainment's Jang Moon-bok, Maroo Entertainment's Park Ji-hoon, Fantagio's Ong Seongwoo and the youngest participant from Media Line Entertainment's Lee Woojin.
On March 31, the participants performed their single "나야나 (Pick Me)" at the Gocheok Sky Dome ahead of a baseball game between the LG Twins and the Nexen Heroes. In addition, Lee Dae-hwi threw the ceremonial first pitch to Brave Entertainment's Kim Samuel, at bat.
Contestants
Color key (In order of contestant's rank on the show) Final members of Wanna One Contestants eliminated in the final episode Contestants eliminated in the third elimination round Contestants eliminated in the second elimination round Contestants eliminated in the first elimination round Contestants that left the show
+101 contestantsKang Daniel ()Park Ji-hoon ()Lee Dae-hwi ()Kim Jae-hwan ()Ong Seong-wu ()Park Woo-jin ()Lai Guanlin ()Yoon Ji-sung ()Hwang Min-hyun ()Bae Jin-young ()Ha Sung-woon ()Jeong Se-woon ()Kang Dong-ho ()Kim Jong-hyeon ()Lim Young-min () Ahn Hyeong-seop ()Yoo Seon-ho ()Kim Samuel ()Ju Hak-nyeon ()Choi Min-ki ()Jin Longguo ()Kwon Hyun-bin () Lee Eui-woong ()Kenta Takada ()Roh Tae-hyun ()Kim Sang-gyun ()Jang Moon-bok ()Kim Dong-hyun ()Kim Dong-han ()Kim Tae-dong ()Seo Sung-hyuk ()Kim Ye-hyun ()Lee Keon-hee ()Lee Woo-jin ()Park Woo-dam ()Jung Dong-soo ()Park Seong-woo ()Hong Eun-ki ()Yoo Hwe-seung ()Woo Jin-young ()Joo Jin-woo ()Yeo Hwan-woong ()Justin ()Lee Gwang-hyun ()Byun Hyun-min ()Yoon Hee-seok ()Kim Seong-ri ()Kim Sang-bin ()Kim Tae-woo ()Lee Jun-woo ()Zhu Zhengting ()Kim Nam-hyung ()Lee Ki-won ()Lee You-jin ()Yoon Jae-chan ()Kim Yong-jin ()Lee In-soo ()Kim Dong-bin ()Kim Tae-min ()Ha Min-ho ()Sung Hyun-woo ()Ju Won-tak ()Choi Dong-ha ()Jung Joong-ji ()Kwon Hyub ()Lim Woo-hyuk ()Jung Hyo-jun ()Son Dong-myeong ()Lee Seo-kyu ()Kim Hyun-woo ()Choi Tae-woong ()Jo Jin-hyung ()Yoon Yong-bin ()Han Min-ho ()Yoo Jin-won ()Kim Yeon-guk ()Jung Shi-hyun ()Kim Chan-yul ()Choi Seung-hyuk ()Lee Hoo-lim ()Kim Jae-han ()Kim Chan ()Jang Dae-hyeon ()Yoo Kyung-mok ()Choi Ha-don ()Park Hee-seok ()Yoo Ho-yeon ()Jo Gyu-min ()Wang Min-hyuk ()Choi Jun-young ()Jo Sung-wook ()Kim Do-hyun ()Jo Yong-geun ()Lee Gun-min ()Jung Won-cheol ()Choi Hee-soo ()Choi Jae-woo ()Lee Ji-han ()Han Jong-yeon ()Kim Shi-hyun ()Nam Yoon-sung ()
Episodes
Episode 1 (April 7, 2017) The trainees from each company enter the studio, where seats are arranged in a pyramid with chairs numbered from 1 to 101. Each contestant chooses his preferred seat. Then contestants perform in a group or individually according to their company for evaluation. Some participants are asked to showcase any dancing, singing, or rapping skills for individual evaluation. Each trainee is judged on his potential and judges grade and assigned them into temporary groups for training: A, B, C, D, and F (with A being the highest and F the lowest). At the end of the episode, the popularity vote revealed Maroo Entertainment's Park Ji-hoon at 1st place who became popular after a gif of his wink at the end of the "나야나 (Pick Me)" performance went viral.
Episode 2 (April 14, 2017) After a few more evaluations, the trainees are assigned to dorms by their evaluation grades, and BoA announces that they will be performing on M! Countdown with their single "나야나 (Pick Me)"; they introduce the lyrics and choreography, and are told that they have three days to memorize the choreography and lyrics for a video evaluation. Line distribution and stage placement are determined by their final letter grade; A will have the most lines while F will be backup dancers who stand on the floor by the stage. The trainees film themselves individually performing the song while their fellow grade members watch. Each video is evaluated by the mentors. After the re-evaluation, they are given their new grades and are asked to move to their new rooms by rank. Four F ranked trainees moved up from their grade: Jellyfish Entertainment's Yoon Hee-seok, HF Music Company's Jung Won-chol and Pan Entertainment's Lee Ji-han are moved to B rank while The Vibe Label's Kim Tae-dong moves to the A rank.
Episode 3 (April 21, 2017) After the announcement of the new batch of A ranked trainees, A rankers are given an hour to prepare a stage to appeal to the other trainees. The trainees, including those in the A group, have to vote for who they believe would be the best for the center position. Brand New Music's Lee Dae-hwi of group A is voted to be the center with Lee Woojin received the second most votes. After their live performance, BoA announced the departure of 3 trainees from the show and that the 37 contestants who would receive the lowest ranks would be eliminated in the first elimination.
The trainees started their second mission: group performances in front of a live audience. 16 teams are formed to compete for 8 songs given: Super Junior's "Sorry Sorry", Shinee's "Replay", 2PM's "10 out of 10", B2ST's "Shock", Infinite's "Be Mine", EXO's "Call Me Baby", BTS's "Boy in Luv", and SEVENTEEN's "Mansae". Being the center, Lee Dae-hwi chooses his team first. Following the finalized picks for his team, by random draw, Lee Dae-hwi picks Hwang Min-hyun to choose his team. The remaining 14 team founders are also chosen by random draw. Each group consists of 5-7 members. The team founders then compete for songs individually through a race: only 8 can secure their desired songs and choose their opponent from the remaining 8 teams who lose in the race. The episode later showed the groups rehearsing and assigning roles of the 'leader', 'center', 'main vocalist', 'sub vocalists', and 'rappers'. Each song is then performed live by the two groups and each member is voted on separately by the live audience. The winning team among the two is determined by combining the individual scores. Members of the winning group would gain an extra 3000 points each, to be included into the ranking announcement of the week after. The group with the highest overall points would later perform on M! Countdown. Only four teams covering "10 Out of 10" and "Call Me Baby" were covered this week.
Episode 4 (April 28, 2017) The remaining 12 teams performed their respective songs and rehearsals for the groups are shown. After the last performance, the contestants are shown their ranking based purely on individual live votes and the additional 3000 points for the contestants of the winning teams: Park Woo-dam takes the 1st place. His "Mansae" group (composed of Park Woo-dam, Ju Won-tak, Kim Yeon-kuk, Woo Jin-young, and Kim Tae-dong), also score the highest, and are able to perform a special stage on M! Countdown.
Episode 5 (May 5, 2017) For this episode, contestants from Produce 101 Kim So-hye, Choi Yoo-jung and Kim So-hee appear as special panelists. The episode opens with the remaining 98 contestants entering the main studio by company. In between announcements of each trainee's ranking, events leading up to the elimination are shown, such as their dorm life, exercise and a hidden camera prank. I.O.I's Kim Do-yeon and Choi Yoo-jung met with the trainees and hosted a dance battle among the trainees, in which Hong Eun-ki was crowned "Dancing King". A poll for 'Top Visual' was also conducted, in which Park Ji-hoon was ranked 1st. Park Ji-hoon also retained his first place in the rankings announcement. First center Lee Dae-hwi was ranked 7th, the shocking fall in his rank surprising everyone. After announcing the top 59 trainees, BoA announces that the last trainee to be saved from elimination is Kim Sang-bin, ranking 60th. At the end of the episode, BoA announces that the team formation for the 4th mission, which is position evaluation, will be decided by online voting. This is a major difference to that of Season 1, where trainees got to choose the song they want.
Episode 6 (May 12, 2017)