Unedited Footage Of “Physical: 100” Final Match Is Revealed By Producer In Response To Manipulation Claims

The producers of Netflix‘s reality show Physical: 100 released the original footage of the final rope-pulling match to debunk manipulation claims.

Cross-fit athlete Woo Jin Yong won the competition, but at the end of February, runner-up Jung Hae Min did an interview that suggested that the last game of Physical: 100 had been tampered with. On March 8, Netflix held an emergency press conference at MBC‘s Golden Mouth Hall to address the allegations made against the final match.

In the interview, Jung Hae Min stated that the game was stopped in the middle while he was winning because Woo Jin Yong complained about the rope spool being too noisy. He also claimed that when he was about to win, the producers stopped the game due to “audio issues” and asked him to do a rematch, which he reluctantly agreed to and lost. In response, Woo Jin Yong posted on his social media that he never stopped the match and “never made any requests to win the match in an unfair manner.“

Jang Ho Gi, the producer of Physical: 100, stated that he wanted to show the unedited footage of the final match to show that the timeline was not manipulated.

There was only a temporary stop and resumption at the beginning of the match because of audio issues and the contestants’ opinions… Both contestants were on a break while organizing their respective ropes. However, the ropes of the two people which had been stopped for a while suddenly started turning and made a loud roaring noise that was never heard before. We’ve done multiple simulations before this and never heard this noise. It was decided that we had to continue the game so we did, but the roaring noise got to the point where it was too severe, and we wouldn’t be able to use the footage, so we stopped the game.

He also pointed out that the roaring noise can be heard in the original footage for 10 minutes, raising concerns about safety issues. “I thought it would be a problem if the rope broke and rolled over to the contestants, so I officially stopped the game to stop this from happening.”

The producer also said the claims that Woo Jin Yong raised his hand first and stopped the game and that Woo Jin Yong and the producers are lying are false. He also claimed it is not true that they stopped the game without any particular reason.

There are many conflicting opinions, so we wanted to show you this part clearly. The game was not suspended for any reason, and a specific contestant did not raise his hand to stop the game and interrupt the flow.

The original footage showed Jung Hae Min and Woo Jin Yong struggling with the noise, and Woo Jin Yong was seen continuing to compete for about 10 minutes without raising his hands after saying, “I think my rope caught in something.”

Producer Jang Ho Gi also addressed the allegation that the game stopped right when Jung Hae Min thought he had almost reached the end. He pointed out that Woo Jin Yong’s rope started to loosen, which created a knot.

Jung Hae Min claimed that once the game resumed, the producers suspended it just when he thought, ‘This is it!’ He said he kept pulling the ropes to complete the game, but the producers came and yelled for him to stop. However, this is different from the truth. Twenty-six seconds after the match resumed, at 18:56:07, Woo Jin Yong’s rope fell out of place, causing the strings to get tangled, and his rope spool stopped. Judging that this was an unexpected accident, the production team demanded to stop the game, and we blew the whistle to request to stop the game at precisely 18:56:20 to clarify Jung Hae Min.

In addition, the producer claimed that it is not true that the producers stopped the game after Jung Hae Min allegedly won the “second game.”

In particular, it is not accurate to call it a ‘second game’ when it was just 26 seconds after resuming the game, and it’s not accurate to say Jung Hae Min was winning. The final round was a long game that required extreme mental strength and endurance. Therefore, both contestants were not notified of the total length of the rope, and the rope equipment was made so that you can’t tell how much of the rope was left from the outside. Therefore, neither of the contestants could be judged accurately. There were moments Woo Jin Yong was in the lead, and it’s not true that Jung Hae Min pulled three times the amount of rope Woo Jin Yong did.

Producer Jang Ho Gi then claimed that the production team proposed to do the rematch a few days later after doing some maintenance, but the contestants decided to resume the game on the same day.

There were allegations that in the process of consulting with the two contestants, five producers surrounded and pressured Jung Hae Min to do a rematch, eventually persuading him after a dozen minutes; however, we discussed it with the two contestants and even told them that we can’t use the previous footage because it was a filming accident. And we said we would follow the two contestants’ agreements. In addition, the main producer, general producer, and three Netflix officials participated in the discussion, so it wasn’t dozens of minutes forcing the contestants, but an agreement made with both contestants. We informed them that they can resume the game in a couple days after resting some rest.

The two contestants then decided to resume the game that day and agreed to accept the results. In addition, the producer addressed the claim that the difficulty level was manipulated.

Another suspicion was that the production team manipulated Jung Hae Min’s rope to make it more difficult—that the rope of a specific contestant was tampered with. Regarding this, I will show you the beginning of the final match. If you watch, you will see that the two contestants’ ropes have the same difficulty level. You can see Jung Hae Min pulling the rope without any difficulty. It was not a structure where we could arbitrarily adjust the difficulty level.

Producer Jang Ho Gi also apologized for the inconvenience this has caused the cast, contestants, and viewers. He then explained that they could only disclose a snippet of the match because Netflix owns the original footage and has strict regulations on the footage. He also explained that they could not release the clip as a file due to concerns about the editing done by third parties and the exposure of personal comments unrelated to the recording situation.