New “Evidence” Suggests Belift Lab Rigged ILLIT’s Debut Lineup

Recently, debut plans for ILLIT and NewJeans were leaked, sparking suspicions that Belift Lab had plagiarized the former. The similarities in marketing strategies, key phrases, conceptual themes, and even the PowerPoint design led many to believe that the accusations held merit.

On November 11, 2024, Belift Lab released a statement denying the allegations.

Belift Lab Denies Plagiarizing NewJeans’ Debut Plans For ILLIT

The company asserted that they had finalized ILLIT’s debut plans, including the selection of six members, as early as July 21, 2023. They also provided a snippet from their debut plan report to support their claim. According to Belift Lab, they had received the debut plans for NewJeans as a reference on August 28, 2023. They claimed to have already finished ILLIT’s debut plans by then.

After Belift Lab’s statement, netizens observed that the timeline meant that Belift Lab had already decided on the lineup for ILLIT even before the last episode of R U Next?. The final episode of the survival show aired on September 1, 2023, in real time. If Belift Lab’s timeline was followed, they had already chosen the members even before the show was done.

Netizens pointed out that ILLIT’s debut plan documents had already hinted at this. The had wanted to raise anticipation for the group with their HYBE name rather than focus on “the underdog story” that most survival shows root for.

The girl group battle born on the basis of reliable consumeristic power given by a huge entertainment company. Rather than an underdog story, raise anticipation in early days from pre-debut.

— ILLIT’s debut plans

This is not the first time that Belift Lab has been accused of rigging R U NEXT?. It was previously suspected that they had purposefully eliminated Chanelle despite her high popularity and talent.

HYBE Suspected Of Rigging ILLIT’s Line-Up To Not Include A Popular Contestant Of ‘R U Next?’