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

Netizens have discussed their suspicions about HYBE‘s treatment of a survival show contestant.

In June 2023, the survival program R U NEXT? introduced viewers to 22 talented trainees competing to debut as part of BE:LIFT Labs‘ new girl group.

The show’s winning participants have since debuted as ILLIT, with several fan favorites not making it into the group.

One such trainee was Chanelle, now known as FIFTYFIFTY‘s Chanelle Moon.

Many questioned how Chanelle was eliminated from the show before the finale, as she often stood out due to her vocal skills. Recently, discussing a possible reason for her elimination became a hot topic.

A netizen on a Korean forum shared a clip of one of the performances from one of the units formed during an episode. In the unit were Chanelle Moon, Himena, Seoyeon, ILLIT’s Wonhee and Moka performing “5th Season” by OH MY GIRL.

The post also included comments from the video that called out the alleged editing of all the members of the unit’s vocals except Chanelle Moon, stating that only her voice could be heard wavering. The comments accused HYBE of editing another individual in the performance in an effort to “push” them.

• “This gives me chills. It’s obvious Chanelle is the only one who didn’t get editing. She’s the only one whose voice sounds different because of the AR changing.”
• “A competition but… with editing? I did not understand why Moka kept signing up to be #1, but now it makes sense. She knew HYBE would edit things to her favor.”
• “The sound changes for Wonhee and Moka. You can almost hear the autotune. Am I the only one who can tell?”
• “It looks like they were never interested in debuting Chanelle. In other videos, Wonhee and Moka lack a lot. But with editing, they sound better. For Chanelle, though, they take a close-up of her when her voice cracks live. Like, why? Moka is probably the one who had the most voice cracks IRL.”
• “I doubt that’s how Moka sounded IRL. They edited her voice, but not Chanelle’s.”
• “Moka got a lot of special treatment with the editing, huh?”
• “Why is there even special treatment in survival shows…?”
• “I heard Chanelle’s voice was the only one that didn’t get edited.”
• “They aired Chanelle’s voice cracking without editing because they were never going to give her a spot. But the members who were already chosen? Heavy editing. LOL. This is so wrong.”
• “2:53 Wonhee and Moka don’t sound like this. Chanelle’s voice is the only one that’s not edited. They even made the whole thing feel extra by showing Jo Kwon frowning, LOL. It was all set up so they could eliminate Chanelle.”
• “Princesses from autotune world.”
• “People who have heard this song before, or even sang this song before, know… It’s impossible to sound that clean. Not even a single huff of breath? It’s fake.”

Chanelle has since debuted as a member of FIFTYFIFTY, but many netizens couldn’t help but comment on situation, agreeing with the post.

• “R U NEXT? is the first survival show with such extreme editing. I watched the whole thing, but honestly, it wasn’t enjoyable to watch.”
• “The editing was also malicious toward Chanelle. I was rooting for Chanelle, but after she got eliminated, I stopped watching.”
• “When you watch that show, you can clearly tell which members are the agency’s picks. They even edit them really favorably.”
• “Editing is usually done, but they went overboard with Wonhee and Moka.”
• “Wow, no wonder I only liked Chanelle at that time. My eyes didn’t deceive me. You pathetic HYBE jerks…”