Produce X 101 (프로듀스 X 101) was a 2019 reality boy group survival show on Mnet. It was a large-scale project in which the public "produces" a unit boy group by voting for their favorite members from a pool of 101 trainees from different entertainment companies. This was the 4th season in the South Korean franchise.
Concept
Produce X 101 brought together 101 trainees from different entertainment companies in South Korea, and final trainees were selected through audience voting to form a boy group. The group would be performing together, under Swing Entertainment and CJ E&M (also the label of Wanna One from Produce 101 Season 2). Mnet revealed that the debut group would have a five-year contract. The first two and a half years of the group, the members will focus fully on the group as a whole. The final two and a half years, the members will be allowed to do group and individual activities. This marks the longest contract term to come from the Produce 101 series.
Trainers
Mentor
Vocals
Rap
Dance
Special Trainers
- Soyou
- Joohoney
- Minhwak ("Monday to Sunday" Choreographer)
- Kasper ("Super Special Girl" Choreographer)
Contestants
See: Season 4 Contestants
Episodes
Episode 1
(May 3rd, 2019)
Trainees from different companies, stepped into the studio, where 101 seats were arranged in a pyramid-like structure with an "X" in the middle, which when someone sits on the #1 seat (which is located on the top of the pyramid), lighted up. Trainees could battle for the #1 seat and in the end, it was revealed that the trainee who had gotten the #1 seat would have a 1 minute PR time at the end of the episode. Trainees enter and notice that the seats which were numbered from #1 to #10 only had the 'debut' seat style while the #11th seat was a normal one. This led to the speculation of whether the number of the members debuting had reduced. After Lee Dongwook entered, he confirmed that there are indeed 11 members debuting and the concept was 10 + X members. The first 10 is the same as the previous seasons, where they are determined by the ranking in the Final Live Ranking. But during the Final Live Ranking, the 11th member would not debut, rather "X", the trainee the highest number of votes from a total of four voting periods. Along with this, a new class for grading trainees came forth - "X class". The grades assigned to trainees for their temporary training groups were A (being the highest), B, C, D, and X was the lowest class. X-class would not be admitted to the 101 Training Center. The evaluation began and a lot of trainees were graded X but it is still not known if they were really eliminated or not. At the end of the episode, a PR video of JYP Entertainment's Yun Seobin was shown and the total votes thus far were shown, Jellyfish's Kim Minkyu was ranked #1.
Episode 2
(May 10th, 2019)
The evaluation ended the beginning of this episode and the trainees were assigned their grades and accommodated their respective dorms after receiving their uniforms. The title song, "X1-MA" is revealed, which they would perform 3 days later at M! Countdown. Trainees begin to train according to their assigned schedule with the mentors. Later it is revealed that the X-rank trainees aren't eliminated, rather taken to a different training center where they emphasize more on the trainee's basics. The trainees would undergo one more final evaluation, in where they are filmed when they are performing "X1-MA". Their re-evaluation grade would reveal their positions and line distributions. At the end of the episode, the total votes were shown where OUI Entertainment's Kim Yohan was ranked #1
Episode 3
(May 17th, 2019)
The episode began with the grade re-evaluations of the trainees. The trainees filmed themselves performing the "X1-MA" and these videos were graded by the mentors. This time the grades available were A, B, C, D, F and X. A would be the center group, and F would serve as "back up dancers" as they have in previous seasons. Those left in the X class would not be allowed to perform on stage. 'A' Class had only 15 trainees, while 'X' class had one trainee left. The trainees from 'A' Class would be eligible for the center position of the group, becoming the "face" of the title song. After re-evaluation, the center was chosen with a poll where the National Producers had voted. Three trainees from 'A' Class made the cut-off, Kim Wooseok of TOP Media, Kim Sihoon of Brand New Music and Son Dongpyo of DSP Media. Son Dongpyo won and was chosen as the center of the performance. After rehearsing several times, they performed at M! Countdown.
After the performance, Lee Dongwook announced that only the top 60 trainees would qualify in the second evaluation and the rest would be eliminated. To start of the second mission, Lee Dongwook announced that a trainee whose name was picked from the lucky draw would pick a team of 12 or 14 and perform songs of mainstream idols: Wanna One, BTS, EXO, MONSTA X, NCT, NU'EST, SEVENTEEN, and GOT7. Son Dongpyo, with the privilege of being the center of "X1-MA", got to choose his group first. The others who were picked by the lucky draw followed suit. The team founders then participated in a foot race to choose the group they wanted. After picking, it was announced that the team would be halved, one half performing the debut song of the selected group and the other group would be performing a hit song unlike the previous seasons, where the group would be performing the same song. The team founders had the right to choose the song and their team members.
The group members then assigned positions (i.e Main Vocal, Leader, Centre.. etc.) and began practicing. Bae Yoonjung was added as a new mentor and Joohoney of MONSTA X was seen as a guest mentor.
The winning team, determined by the consolidated votes of the individual members would receive a bonus vote benefit, while the highest scoring team would perform at M! Countdown.
Groups that performed "Love Shot" and "Mama" of EXO and "No More Dream" of BTS were shown this episode.
At the end of the episode, the popularity vote was shown where OUI Entertainment's, Kim Yohan was ranked #1.
Episode 4
(May 24th, 2019)
The remaining groups performed their songs and their rehearsals and practices were shown. Anzardi Timothee of the "Energetic" group of Wanna One had lost his grandmother a week prior and revealed this to his group. It was revealed that the winning group would get a vote benefit of 3K votes and the trainee who ranks first in the winning group would have their votes multiplied by ten. After performances ended, the overall ranking was shown where Source Music's Kim Hyeonbin ranked first, with the normal votes as well as with benefit votes.
Episode 5
(May 31st, 2019)
The episode started off with the 99 trainees introducing themselves before the first ranking elimination in the main studio. Before the announcement of the 51-19th ranked trainees, events which happened before the ranking was shown. Trainees were woken up by their title song "X1-MA" and by an announcement of Kwon Eunbi (IZ*ONE) for their "Body Class". In this Class, trainees were trained to improve stamina and endurance. The box jump, intended for testing their leg muscles and endurance had three levels, 75cm, 100cm and 120cm. Trainee Cho Seungyoun was the only one who finished all the three levels. Their dorm life was shown proceeding with the ranking announcement of the trainees from 51st to the 59th rank. Independent Trainee Kim Sungyeon was ranked 59th, the first trainee who was announced to escape elimination. The ranking continued on for the 41st to 50th ranks. It was followed by a mission of arm wrestling among the trainees. The visual center was picked after this, Jellyfish Entertainment 's Kim Minkyu was picked as first place. Lee Dongwook continued to list out the trainees ranked from 40th to 21st. A hidden camera prank was shown, scaring the trainees with multiple "ghosts". The announcement of the top twenty trainees was carried out. Kim Minkyu and OUI Entertainment's Kim Yohan competed for first place and Kim Yohan placed first with 1,094,299 votes. The trainee ranked 60th was announced at last, Around Us Entertainment's Jeong Jaehun barely escaped elimination.
Episode 6
(June 7th, 2019)
Lee Dongwook met with the trainees once again to announce the next challenge. The trainees were tasked to perform live in groups based on positions they want to debut in: vocal, dance, rap, or "X". "X" was a new position that requires trainees to perform two of the three aforementioned positions simultaneously. There were four songs for vocals (Paul Kim's "Me After You", Hwasa's "Twit", Bolbbalgan4's "To My Youth", and Wanna One's "Day by Day"), three songs for dance (Imagine Dragons's "Believer", Bruno Mars's "Finesse", and Jason Derulo's "Swalla"), two songs for rap (Zico's "Tell Me Yes or No" and Haon, Vinxen's "Barcode"), and two songs for "X" (Charlie Puth's "Attention", for vocal x dance, and SMTM4's "Turtle Ship", for rap x dance). Each song had a member limit and would be picked by each trainee based on their ranks: Kim Yohan who ranked 1st from the first elimination round would have the privilege of choosing the song he wants to perform first. The winner from each performance in the vocal, dance, and rap positions would receive 100 times their votes while the winner among all songs of each category would receive 100,000 votes. For the "X" position, the winner from each performance would receive 200 times their votes while the overall winner would receive 200,000 votes. After each performance, they were ranked in their groups first and then overall in the category. Lee Dongwook also announced that only the top 30 trainees would remain in the next round. Only five groups were shown this week.
Episode 7
(June 14th, 2019)
The remaining teams performed their respective stages and rehearsals for the groups were shown. After the last performance, the contestants were shown their overall ranking based on their positions. Kim Wooseok, Kang Hyeonsu, and Won Hyuk emerged as the overall winners of the vocal, dance, and rap positions respectively, each of them earning 100,000 votes along with their audience votes times 100. Lee Jinhyuk emerged as the overall winner of the "X" positon, earning 200,000 votes along with his audience votes times 200.
Episode 8
(June 21st, 2019)
Lee Dongwook announced the beginning of the next evaluation prior to the second round of eliminations, meaning that all 60 boys that have survived so far would continue to practice for the performances, but not all of them would get to perform. The evaluation was revealed to be a concept evaluation where viewers chose group formations from a poll online. Lee Dongwook introduces the six songs: Funky Retro Dance "Pretty Girl" (KZ , Nthonious & The-Private), Future Funk "Super Special Girl" (Kwon Deunguk), Mainstream Pop "Move" (Zico), R&B, Dance House "Monday to Sunday" (PrimeBoi) and Future EDM Dance "U Got It" (Noehl & Kiggen). The second round of eliminations took place during the second half of the episode with the remaining 60 contestants from each company were seen entering the main studio. Names of the top 30 trainees were called by Lee Dongwook one by one starting from rank 29. The contenders for 1st place were Kim YoHan, Song Hyeongjun, Lee Jinhyuk and Kim Wooseok. It is then announced that Kim Wooseok ranked at 1st place. Meanwhile, the contenders for 30th place were Joo Changuk, Kim Dongyun, Moon Hyunbin and Won Hyuk. It is announced that Joo Changuk ranked 30th, just escaping elimination. Although they were eliminated, Lee Dongwook said it wasn't over for the eliminated trainees. The trainees had a second chance by recording a skill that they would like to show & 1 minute introduction video appealing to the National Producers to give them another chance. The National Producers voted for 1 eliminated trainee to get a second chance in the competition, voting ended within 24 hours after the end of this episode.
Episode 9
(June 28, 2019)
After elimination, Lee Dongwook gathered the groups and revealed the benefit votes for the on-site voting. First place trainees of each team would receive 500 times their votes. The first place team of the concept evaluation would receive 200,000 benefit votes. However, the members of the first place team would split the votes so that the first place trainee in the group receives 100,000 votes and the rest receive 20,000 votes. Dongwook also revealed that the groups were only allowed six members for the final lineup have to reorganize their groups. So, groups "MOVE", "Pretty Girl", and "U Got It" have to vote out one, four, and three members respectively. After the trainees were voted out of their group, they were then moved to one of the two remaining groups with a low count of members. This left Kim Sihoon, Keum Donghyun, and Song Yuvin to move to the "Super Special Girl" team and left Nam Dohyon, Lee Sejin, Joo Changuk, and Kim Minkyu to move to the "Monday to Sunday" team. After the members were all moved and settled, the groups then had to reassign all the parts including the center position. The trainees had a practice session in front of all the trainers, including two special trainers, Minhwak the choreographer for "Monday to Sunday", and Kasper the choreographer for "Super Special Girl". After each group's practice with the trainers, the trainees were all gathered and Lee Dongwook announced the surviving "X" trainee from the previous episode and public vote. Dongwook revealed that trainee Kim Dongyun was the one who survived. He then announced that each group would be given 20 minutes to decide if they would like to recruit Dongyun for their performance. If no one chose to recruit Dongyun, then he would choose a group blindly (from a random draw). All the groups were separated to deliberate their options, and at the end of their allotted time, the "Monday to Sunday" group decided to recruit Dongyun. They were the only group to chose him so he was automatically added to their team.
Episode 10
(July 5, 2019)
Each concept stage was shown along with behind the scenes practices, training, and recording for each group. After each group performed, Lee Dongwook gathered the trainees and announced the rankings for each group and for each trainee among the groups. "U Got It" was announced to be the first place team, with trainee Kim Yohan taking the overall first rank spot, gaining the most benefit votes.
Episode 11
(July 12, 2019)
Lee Dongwook announced the final 20 trainees to survive the ranking announcement and move on to the final episode and live show. He also announced that trainee Choi Byungchan had decided to leave the show due to personal reasons, so only the 30 trainees left would be ranked. Before the ranking announcement, some behind the scenes footage was shown of the trainees. This included a makeup class lead by a well-known Korean YouTube influencer, Ssin (씬님), and a "field day" with the trainees playing various games for prizes. After these behind the scenes videos were shown, Dongwook announced the top 20 trainees. Between the rank announcement, the trainees were shown choosing their "top picks" from the 31 trainees. Hwang Yunseong came out as the trainee's top pick. In the ranking announcements, OUI Entertainment's Kim Yohan placed 1st and iMe Korea's Lee Sejin placed 20th, barely escaping elimination. After the ranks were announced, the trainees were then gathered and shown the two debut concept songs. The first song revealed was, "To My World", a funky K-pop genre song produced by Sean Alexander and Drew Ryan Scott, the ones who also produced "U Got It" for the concept evaluation. The other song revealed was, "Boyness", an EDM Dance genre song produced by Flow Blow (Venta and Zyro) and Hui of Pentagon. They also previously produced "Never" from Produce 101 Season 2 concept evaluation, Wanna One's debut song "Energetic", and Produce 48's title song "Pick Me". The last part of the episode showed the trainees in their groups practicing together and in front of the trainers. Each groups leaders were chosen, TOP Media's Lee Jinhyuk being the leader for "Boyness", and Starship Entertainment's Song Hyeongjun being the leader for "To My World". The centers were not chosen this episode, but will be revealed during the live show.
Episode 12
(July 19, 2019)
This episode was the finale of the Produce X 101 series. The episode started of with the final trainees doing a final journal in a practice room. They talked about their adventure and progress on the show. Some clips were shown from various point sin the show. It then went to the live stage with Lee Dongwook introducing the start of the show and getting things started. Once voting was opened, the final 20 trainees started performing the show's title song "X1_MA". Throughout the song, the eliminated trainees joined the stage creating a full performance of all 101 trainees. Lee Dongwook then revealed the name of the group, as was voted on by the public, "X1". "X1" is meant to represent the show's title song "X1_MA", the 11 trainees in roman numerals, and the 10+X theme of the show. They then showed some behind the scenes recording and practices for "Boyness" and "To My World", even teasing who the group centers would be. The groups were shown gathered and watching clips of each trainee as center, then voting on who would be the final center for both songs. During the live performance following these clips, it was revealed that Song Yuvin was chosen as the center for "Boyness" and Hwang Yunseong was chosen as the center for "To My World". After the performances of each debut song all 20 trainees then performed the song "Dream For You" with some behind the scenes clips played before hand. Throughout the show, Dongwook teased the places of the trainees hovering around the debut cut-off. Clips were then shown of the trainees watching their audition clips, and then complimenting each other and sharing their bonds and friendships. Next was the official ranking announcement. Lee Dongwook announced the trainees from 10th to 3rd, then called the candidates for 1st and 2nd to the stage to reveal the rankings. After the top 10 trainees were officially announced, Dongwook then announced the "X" trainee. This trainee was the one of of the 10 trainees left that had received the most amount of votes from the beginning of the show until the voting was closed in this final episode. Lee Dongwook had some final closing words, and then Kim Yohan (ranked 1st) called the 11 debut members to greet the nation as a unified group.
Controversy
See: Mnet Vote Manipulation Investigation
Results
The name of the group was revealed in Episode 12 to be X1 (X One).
| Results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Name | Episode 12 Votes | Accumulated Votes | Company |
| 1 | Yohan | 1,334,011 | 4,468,996 | OUI |
| 2 | Wooseok | 1,304,033 | 4,424,309 | TOP Media |
| 3 | Seungwoo | 1,079,200 | 3,869,629 | Plan A |
| 4 | Hyeongjun | 1,049,222 | 3,735,217 | Starship |
| 5 | Seungyoun | 929,311 | 2,200,382 | Yuehua |
| 6 | Dongpyo | 824,389 | 2,762,824 | DSP Media |
| 7 | Hangyul | 794,411 | 2,221,045 | MBK |
| 8 | Dohyon | 764,433 | 3,147,303 | MBK |
| 9 | Junho | 756,939 | 3,147,303 | Woollim |
| 10 | Minhee | 749,444 | 1,798,609 | Starship |
| X* | Eunsang | 689,489 | 3,164,535 | Brand New Music |
- X = Final member decided by the total number of votes they have accumulated throughout the whole season.
Aftermath
- The finale concert was held on July 19, 2019
- The final group of "10+X" trainees was revealed to be named X1. They debuted on August 27, 2019.
- After the show, there were a lot of accusations of voting fraud from Mnet. From 20th to first place each ranking was a multiple of 7944.44 rounded. For example, 1st place's votes were 7944.44 times 178 (1,334,010.68 or 1,334,011). 20th place's votes were 7944.44 times 38 (284,788.80 or 284,789).=
- There were rumors that CJ ENM would be debuting a group of some eliminated trainees called "BY9", but nothing was confirmed and it seems any plans may have fallen through.
- The Producer for Produce 48 and Produce X 101 admitted to committing voter fraud in October 2019. While it was legally deemed that the trainees/participants were victims and not involved in the situation, a lot of netizens still called for X1's disbandment since the group had been formed on "unfair" terms.
- On January 6, 2020 it was announced that X1 would disband after long discussions between the members and their agencies.