LIGHTSUM’s Chowon Reveals How It Felt To Be Unfairly Eliminated From IZ*ONE’s Lineup On “Produce 48”

Many Mnet Produce 48 viewers were delighted to see former contestant Chowon make her debut in Cube Entertainment‘s new girl group, LIGHTSUM, but her career hasn’t gone exactly as it should have. Back in 2018, she was unfairly eliminated from IZ*ONE‘s lineup as a victim of Mnet’s vote manipulation scandal. Now, she’s revealing how it really felt.

Given her talents now, it may surprise those who didn’t watch Produce 48 to learn that Chowon had a rough start on the show. She actually ranked 64th in the first episode, falling to 88th place by episode three. However, by episode eight, Chowon had become nicknamed “Reversal Queen” after dramatically improving her ranking to 8th place.

After gaining so much popularity as the show went on, viewers were sure Chowon would make it into IZ*ONE’s lineup. But to the dismay of many, she ended up ranking 13th in the finale, missing the cut by one place—or so viewers were told. As part of investigations into Mnet‘s subsequent vote manipulation scandal, Korean courts confirmed that Chowon actually ranked 6th in the last episode and should have made it into IZ*ONE after all.

Now, Chowon has opened up about how she felt after learning that she’d been unfairly eliminated from the show. “It would be a lie if I said I didn’t feel any disappointment or sense of defeat,” Chowon revealed at LIGHTSUM’s debut press conference. She went on to say, “At the time, I felt confused and like things are really unfair.”

While Chowon did make her movie debut back in March 2020 playing Soo Jung in Bully Bad Guys, she didn’t get any other chance to show her performance skills in the almost three years following Produce 48‘s finale. As such, it’s no surprise that she felt dejected by the huge loss she suffered at the hands of Mnet’s unscrupulous producers.

Nevertheless, Chowon has turned her attitude around into positivity and determination. “Now,” she explained, “I’m happy and excited that I got to debut with my LIGHTSUM members.” On top of this, she revealed she’s particularly excited to debut with Nayoung and Yujeong, both of whom competed alongside her on Produce 48—”Especially since we never got to perform together for the viewers,” Chowon added.

I can’t wait to show everything we’ve prepared to those who supported our debut.

— Chowon

In just two days, LIGHTSUM’s debut music video is about to surpass 5 million sales. Watch “Vanilla” here: