Tears And Hospital Visits — Survival Show’s Shockingly Brutal Challenge Enrages Viewers
Starlight Boys, an ongoing South Korean and Chinese boy group survival show, recently premiered via iQIYI and SBS on October 26, 2024. Sixty-nine male contestants worldwide are currently competing for a spot in the final top 9.
While Lee Sung Kyoung is the MC, Lee Seung Gi, BIGBANG’s Daesung, Choi Youngjoon, Hanhae, Kwon Eun Bi, Pentagon’s Hui, THE BOYZ’s Eric, and STAYC’s Yoon are judges (known as “Guiders”).
The show has already seen its fair bit of criticism over alleged xenophobia despite being marketed as a global program.
New Survival Show “Starlight Boys” Under Fire For Alleged Racism And Xenophobia
Now, the show has earned complaints again following the second episode.
During the second episode, all contestants were to dance on stage for evaluation by the guides. Rather than performing one at a time, the trainees all began dancing to the signal song at the same time.
From there, 56 trainees out of the 68 would qualify, but until a contestant was selected, they would continue to dance to the signal song with 30-second breaks between each round.
As the rounds continued, some of the breaks became slightly longer as contestants were picked, but the final trainees selected did 19 rounds of dancing to the song. Based on the length of the signal song, that is around an hour of almost non-stop dancing.
Near the end, it got unbearable to watch for many of the contestants with trainee Sun Yinghao calling for a stop, stating that they were not “machines.”
An individual who previously spoiled the content of this episode also posted following this one, claiming that Ling Qi, Yinghao, BAE173‘s Hangyul, Jijun, Shihuan and potentially more contestants were admitted to the hospital due to the “weird competition system.”
The participants were badly deceived. Under the weird competition system, many of them have been to the hospital for treatment, including Ling Qi, Yinghao, BAE173’s Hangyul, Jijun, Shihuan and more.
Netizens watching the program were surprised and angry over the challenge, especially considering the potential health risks.
who the fuck thinks letting those trainees to dance to the same song for more than 17 rounds is a thing to do, that's like nearly a fucking hour non stop 😭😭 #StarlightBoys thank you for speaking up yinghao and FUCK LEE SEUNGGI pic.twitter.com/DSvHhmDqDO
— SOHEE MONTH 🎉 (@jeberene) November 2, 2024
they were on 11th round with less than a minute break some even broke down and couldn't breathe and this is what you have to say ? im so disgusted with this show and system#StarlightBoys pic.twitter.com/68nGFwrqKM
— su (@ryumaifan) November 2, 2024
there are a total of 68 trainees across 3 floors, but with only 7 guiders, how can they ensure that all trainees are observed? Some trainees are bound to be overlooked, and those who are have to dance repeatedly, exhausting their energy. this is a stupid mission!! #StarlightBoys pic.twitter.com/xW8ViR0fkb
— 한결's 𝘨𝘰𝘮 🧸💤 VOTE FOR HANGYUL (@gyuldenage) November 2, 2024
You can watch the full episode below.
