Produce 101 Season 2 ( Hangul : 프로듀스 101 시즌 2) is a 2017 boy group survival reality show on Mnet . The public (called 'national producers') "produces" a boy band 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 .

Bigger agencies, including S.M. , YG , and JYP chose not to send trainees to participate in the second season. [2] YG Entertainment was, however, represented by four models under their subsidiary YGKPlus . [3] The first season's main director Han Dong-chul also withdrew from the show due to other commitments. [4]

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.

Soon after they had moved to their dorms on February 26, the participants started filming. [9] A teaser video of who would be taking "center" (or lead role) for the first song was later revealed. [10]

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". [6] Later on the same day, the trainers were also announced. [7] Mnet announced the official broadcast of the show, which would replace High School Rapper ' s time slot, on March 8. [8]

Episode 1 (April 7, 2017) Edit

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 assigne 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.[17]

Episode 2 (April 14, 2017) Edit

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 number of 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) Edit

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.[18] 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.[19]

Episode 4 (April 28, 2017) Edit

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.[20]

Episode 5 (May 5, 2017) Edit

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 from each company 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.[21]

Episode 6 (May 12, 2017) Edit

BoA once again meets with the trainees to announce the next challenge. The trainees are tasked to perform live in groups based on positions they want to debut in: vocal, dance or rap. There are five songs for vocals (I.O.I's "Downpour", BTS's "Spring Day", BoA's "Amazing Kiss", BLACKPINK's "Playing With Fire", and Jung Seung Hwan's "If It Is You") four songs for dance (Jason Derulo's "Get Ugly", NSYNC's "Pop", Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You", and Flo Rida's "Right Round") and four songs for rap (Mino ft. Taeyang's "Fear", iKON's "Rhythm Ta", Zico's "Boys and Girls", and Simon Dominic, G2, BewhY, and One's "Who You"). Each song has a member limit and would be picked by each trainee based on their ranks: Park Ji-hoon who ranked 1st (center) from the first elimination round would have the privilege of choosing the song he wants to perform first. BoA also announces that only 35 trainees will remain in the next round and that the winner from each position category will receive 100,000 votes while the winner from each group will receive 10,000 votes. After each performance, they are ranked in their groups first and then overall in the category. On the day of the stage performances, Super Junior's Leeteuk substituted BoA to host the show due to the latter's prior commitment. Only six groups are covered this week, with "Shape of You" group (composed of Noh Tae-hyun, Park Sung-woo, Kim Tae-dong, Justin, Kim Dong-han, and Lee Jun-woo) receiving the show's first-ever encore call.[22]

Episode 7 (May 19, 2017) Edit

The remaining seven teams perform their respective stages and rehearsals for the groups are shown. After the last performance, the contestants are shown their overall ranking based on their positions. The additional 10,000 points are given to 12 contestants for receiving the highest points on their respective group and the extra 100,000 points to Lee Gun-hee, Noh Tae-hyun, and Kim Jong-hyun for receiving the highest points in vocal, dance, and rap position respectively.[23]

Episode 8 (May 26, 2017) Edit

The episode opens with BoA treating the contestants to pizza before she temporarily goes overseas during the Position Evaluation filming. Sometime after the performances and before the ranking announcement on May 12, BoA gathers the boys informing them about the coming elimination round (where contestants ranking 36 onwards would get eliminated). She then introduces the next challenge: Concept Evaluation. She introduces the five songs: Hyuk Shin's "I Know You Know" (Synth-pop/Funk), Veethoven, Oh Sunghwan, Kiggen and ASSBRASS's "Oh Little Girl" (Hip Hop), ASHTRAY & KINGMAKER's "Show Time" (Nu-disco), Devine-Channel's "Open Up (열어줘)" (Future EDM), and Triple H's "Never" (Deep house). Group formations are based on the viewers' poll which was first introduced at the end of Episode 5. The top 12 trainees voted for each song are assigned to the songs first. Due to voting manipulation controversies, however, Kang Daniel, Lee Ki-won, and Kim Dong-bin are banned from their alleged preferred songs. After they are given their designated songs, the formed groups started to rehearse.

The second elimination round takes place during the second half of the episode with the remaining 58 contestants from each company are seen entering the main studio by company. Names of the top 35 trainees are called by BoA one by one starting from rank 34. In between the second elimination round, a mini contest of who punches the strongest is conducted. Kang Dong-ho is given the title "Punching King". Kim Jong-hyun receives the 1st place in the ranking announcement while Kim Dong-han ranks 35th, just escaping elimination.[24]

Episode 9 (June 2, 2017) Edit

BoA announces that since there is an uneven distribution of members after the last elimination, groups with more than 7 people need to vote on who stays. The remaining groups, which have less than 7 people after the elimination, pick from the members who were voted out. All the composers for the concept evaluation songs visit the trainees and they perform in front of the composers. This episode shows the live performances for all five concept evaluations. "Open Up (열어줘)" group (composed of Kang Daniel, Kang Dong-ho, Kim Yong-guk, Joo Hak-nyeon, Yoo Seon-ho, Takada Kenta, and Im Young-min) received an encore call and afterwards was also declared the winner of the concept evaluation, resulting in at least 20,000 benefit votes for each member, with the person from that group with the most votes, winning 100,000 benefit votes, to be revealed in the next elimination (Kang Dong-ho and Kang Daniel are the two candidates for 1st place). In addition, the group will also perform on M! Countdown.

Episode 10 (June 9, 2017) Edit

The episode opens with the remaining 35 contestants from each company entering the main studio. Amidst the eliminations, the trainees participate in a question relay and a team game event where "Open Up (열어줘)" group emerges as the winner. They are also asked to vote for the top 6 pick for the debut team in the trainees among them, with MMO Entertainment's Yoon Ji-sung taking 1st place and Kang Daniel, Jung Se-woon, Park Ji-hoon, Ong Seong-woo, and Park Woo-jin taking 2nd to 6th place respectively. At the elimination, BoA reveals that only 20 trainees will advance to the final stage. Kang Daniel is announced as the overall winner of the concept evaluation, winning 100,000 benefit votes. With ranks 19 to 3 revealed, Kang Daniel and Park Ji-hoon are called up as the contenders for 1st place, with Kang Daniel revealed to be 1st in the overall rank as well. The contenders for 20th place are then called up, Choon Entertainment's Kim Yong-guk and Cube Entertainment's Lai Guan-lin, with Lai Guan-lin, whose massive rank drop surprised everyone, surviving the elimination.

With the top 20 confirmed, BoA announces the next and final mission – the debut song evaluation. She introduces "Hands on Me" (produced by The Underdogs and Deez) and "Super Hot" (produced by Ryan Jhun) as the final line-up's debut songs. She explains that they will be split into two teams of 10, each team composed of one main vocal, six to seven sub vocals, and two to three rappers. The trainees choose their positions beginning with rank 20 up to 1, with the higher ranked trainees being given the advantage of replacing the lower ranked trainees and bumping them into another position. Due to voting manipulation controversies, 17th place Im Young-min had to choose his position first as a penalty. After positions are confirmed, the trainees begin practicing the choreography and memorizing the lyrics in preparation for the final stage.

Episode 11 (June 16, 2017) Edit

The episode begins showing the boy's audition tapes, as well as their final confessional interviews. An announcement is then made that viewers will now be able to send SMS votes for one trainee only, which will be added to the online votes in order to determine the final line-up. The debut evaluation starts off with the eliminated trainees joining the top 20 trainees for a performance of "It's Me (Pick Me)". BoA then reveals that the debut group will be named Wanna One (Hangul: 워너원).

The episode cuts to the boys performing in two groups. "Super Hot" group (composed of Ha Sung-woon, Kim Samuel, Kang Dong-ho, Yoo Seon-ho, Ahn Hyung-seob, Lee Dae-hwi, Choi Min-ki, Lim Young-min, Kim Jong-hyun, and Lai Guan-lin) performs first with Ha Sung-woon as the center of the group, followed by "Hands on Me" group (composed of Kim Jae-hwan, Kang Daniel, Ong Seong-woo, Bae Jin-young, Hwang Min-hyun, Jung Se-woon, Joo Hak-nyeon, Yoon Ji-Sung, Park Woo-jin, and [Park Ji-hoon]]) with Bae Jin-young as the center of the group. After the performances, a segment is shown during which trainees watch videos left by their families, some of which surprise the trainees by visiting them in person. The top 20 trainees also perform together a special song titled "Always (이 자리에)" as a commemoration of their time throughout the competition.

Voting comes to a close, and ranking announcements begin. Bae Jin-young, Hwang Min-hyun, Yoon Ji-sung, Lai Guan-lin, Park Woo-jin, Ong Seong-woo, Kim Jae-hwan, and Lee Dae-hwi are announced as 10th to 3rd place, respectively, confirming them for debut. The top 2 trainees are revealed to be Kang Daniel and Park Ji-hoon once again. Kang Daniel once again receives the most votes, confirming his position as the center for Wanna One, with Park Ji-hoon in 2nd place. Finally, 11th place Ha Sung-woon is announced as the final member.