Here’s How Music Shows Determine Which Artists Get Which Waiting Rooms

It’s not just about seniority.

Whether it is music shows, reality programs, or award ceremonies, fans always notice the differences in waiting rooms for each artist, but not always in a positive way. Over the years, there have been discussions on the quality of waiting rooms. In some cases, fans have also discussed the unfairness of allocating rooms to idols.

NCT DREAM in Music Bank waiting room | 채널 NCT DAILY/YouTube

The director of KBS‘s Music Bank, Han Kyuong Cheon, sat down for an interview and revealed some TMI (too much information) about how they created the show. Alongside whether artists can interact with each other, he spoke about how waiting rooms were allocated to each idol.

Han Kyuong Cheon explained that the size of each waiting room is set, and this quality is the primary way to determine which idol has which room. If a group or artist has many members or back-up dancers, these idols would be prioritized for the bigger spaces.

The final thing is the ranking of seniority. In K-Pop, the idea of seniors and juniors is fundamental, which seems to apply to the waiting rooms.

The artists who made their debut earlier are assigned first. This is followed by those who made their debut later.

— Han Kyuong Cheon

It seems as if the process is much more complicated than first thought, and many stages of thought going into allocating waiting rooms. You can watch the whole video below.

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