Prosecution has revealed that all of the members selected to join X1 and IZ*ONE were rigged, as well as one member of Wanna One being placed into the group even though he didn’t have enough votes.
According to the indictment report filed by assemblyman Ha Tae Kyung to the Seoul Central District Prosecution Office, Ahn Joon Young PD and Kim Yong Bum CP were responsible for selecting the 11 and 12 members that would debut with X1 and IZ*ONE respectively, without consideration of the viewer’s votes. Ahn Joon Young PD was also mentioned to have placed one member of Wanna One into the group when the viewer votes showed that he would not be included in the final lineup.
According to the indictment, Ahn Joon Young PD, Kim Yong Bum CP, and one more unnamed individual gathered in a conference room at the CJ ENM headquarters on July 17 to decide the 11 members that would debut in X1, as well as their final rankings. The final episode of the season was aired just 2 days later, on July 19. They also swapped rankings of trainees during the third round of voting.
The same series of events occurred in August 2018, prior to the final episode of Produce 48. Ahn Joon Young PD, Kim Yong Bum CP, and one more unnamed individual gathered together and selected the 12 members that would debut as IZ*ONE, and gave them their rankings without ever considering the viewers’ votes, excluding trainees in the (then) current top 12 that they did not want to debut.
Finally, it was revealed that one member of Wanna One had his ranking inflated by Ahn Joon Young so that he would be included in the final group. Ahn Joon Young flipped the rankings of trainee “C” and trainee “D”, eliminating “C” from Wanna One when the real results showed he was within the Top 11, and putting in “D” instead. Also, in the first round of eliminations, Ahn Joon Young flipped trainees “E” and “F”, where “E” was supposed to be one of the first eliminated trainees. Ahn Joon Young also flipped the rankings of 4 trainees during the first season of Produce 101, placing 2 trainees who were supposed to be one of the first eliminations into the Top 60.
The prosecution also revealed the collusion between the production team and executives from unnamed agencies. From January 2018 to July 2019, Ahn Joon Young PD received 46.83 million KRW ($39,358 USD) from 5 executives from 4 entertainment agencies in exchange for their appearance on Produce X 101 and Produce 48, as well as favorable editing during the program. CJ ENM ended up taking in 124.65 million KRW (104,265 USD) from text message voting during Produce X 101 and Produce 48.
