Damn Idol Episode 81
Of course, not all of the audience members knew the exact situation like I Yeongha did.
But it didn't matter.
Music wasn't something you could enjoy only if you had knowledge, and Han Sion had long since discarded such vanity.
With a roar of cheers, the stage moved into verse 2. If verse 1 had been filled with the members' skills, verse 2 was filled with memories.
The song was brimming with elements of the stages the Sedalbaegil members had shown during Coming Up Next.
But as expected, the highlight was I Ion's pre-hook and Han Sion's hook, returning once more.
Five of us Driving
- Da
- Da
Diving into memories
- Da
- Da
And so, Sedalbaegil's final stage,
The audience members were all thinking the same thing.
'Sedalbaegil won.'
Unconditionally.
There was no way Take Scene could win, no matter what they did. * * *-Wooooaaaah!
"Thank you!"
"Truly, thank you! We were Sedalbaegil."
Amidst the cheers of the audience, Sedalbaegil bowed their heads in greeting.
That's right—not a studio audience, but an audience.
Because the people who enjoyed our stage in this very moment would have been immersed regardless of the program called Coming Up Next.
"Everyone, you worked hard."
"Ion, hyung, you were really cool."
"Really… it was good."
"We did well, right?"
Perhaps because it was the last stage, moisture clung to the members' voices.
In the meantime, Blue came up on stage and tried to wrap up the situation.
But the crowd's cheers were so loud that they wouldn't easily subside.
Even an encore someone had started playfully spread from mouth to mouth.
-Encore!
-Encore!
It burst out in quite a loud voice.
Of course, those cheering for Take Scene kept their mouths shut with disgruntled expressions, but at least about half seemed to be shouting for an encore.
At that sight, the words spoken while preparing for the
"No matter what we do, the final stage will end in Take Scene's victory. Even if they have to create scenes that don't exist."
"But. I wish we could win on-site."
"To the point where 2,000 audience members tilt their heads in confusion. To the point of protesting the judges' comments. To the point where viewer boards are flooded with complaints after the broadcast."
Those words came true.
I was certain we had won even without seeing Take Scene's stage.
Of course, the judges would nitpick and find fault somehow, and in the end, Take Scene would receive the higher score.
But it didn't matter.
The Sedalbaegil members seemed like they would do well even in a world where I was gone.
Thanks to today's memories.
And so our final stage ended, and the judging comments began. * * *
After the judges' evaluation.
A special VCR was broadcast to calm the excited atmosphere.
The broadcasting station always prepared this and that because they had to be ready for various situations.
The VCR being broadcast now had also been prepared in case of an unexpected competition delay.
That was why PD Gang Seoku was dumbfounded.
He had never imagined this VCR would end up being aired because a specific stage garnered such an enormous response.
'What a waste.'
By the logic of capitalism, the winner of Coming Up Next had been decided as Take Scene.
He had no complaints.
Because it was a program planned that way from the start.
But what if this program had really been fair?
If they could have spotlighted Sedalbaegil's splendid stage and the sweat hidden behind it.
They probably would have created the best scene a reality program could create.
But work and emotions must be kept separate. * * *
After hearing the judges' comments and coming down from the stage, my emotions slowly settled.
The elation and sense of accomplishment from a satisfying stage vanished in an instant.
Honestly, it was to the point of being bewildering.
I knew my emotional changes were severe, but it wasn't easy to ride a roller coaster to this extent.
But I tried my best not to show it and praised the members' stages one by one.
Interestingly, the Sedalbaegil members were waiting for my evaluation more than the judges' comments.
Because only we knew what we had kept in mind while preparing this stage.
"Since we got praise from Sion, I think we really did well."
"Right? It's very precious."
Moreover, the four judges gave our stage 376 points.
Averaging the scores, it was 94 points.
They said it was an excellent stage acoustically but visually lacking.
Nonsense.
It wasn't like other genres were mixed in; dancing any more than this to authentic tropical house would be too much.
No matter how important K-pop idol performance is, shouldn't they avoid breaking the mood the song creates?
While thinking that, I suddenly felt that the surroundings were quiet.
Looking beside me, the members were immersed in their own thoughts.
A three-month filming period.
Counting the B-team preliminaries, about one hundred days.
Because that ended today.
"But I counted, you know? It's only been two months and twenty-three days for us."
"So we have eight days left to fill three months?"
"Right."
"Then we should go on a trip together or something…."
I Ion stopped speaking.
He seemed to have belatedly realized I had to join Take Scene.
Right, that's correct.
Take Scene's debut wasn't far off, so I had to learn the choreography, record, and shoot the music video.
"It'll be fun playing as four, too."
So that's what I ended up saying.
I might be able to take about a day off, but Sedalbaegil's journey had to end here.
Very coldly, this was as far as I could take Sedalbaegil's side.
If I became part of Take Scene, I had to do my best there.
Because that was what a regressor had to do.
Just then, a cheer was heard from the audience.
Because Take Scene had ascended the stage.
The stage Take Scene had prepared with the song Ran wasn't bad.
They danced tightly chopping up a sticky-feeling deep house track, and the stage was quite good.
Their live was solid too.
Hmm, but it seemed like the expression future house fit better than deep house.
If they had entrusted the arrangement to me, I probably would have arranged it as future bounce rather than future house.
Because a bouncy feeling would have been better than a sticky one.
-Baby, I do, Love it
-Three words are enough
Take Scene were certainly trained individuals.
Even though they could have been shaken mentally after seeing our stage, they were completely focused.
If Sedalbaegil was 100 points, about 90?
Considering that I led Sedalbaegil, that level was excellent too.
Thinking about it now, Coming Up Next's planning was quite plausible.
A structure that gave the early cuts to the personality-filled B-team participants, with the focus gradually shifting to Take Scene's stages as episodes passed.
If they had decorated that finale with it?
There wouldn't have been a single viewer who doubted Take Scene's victory.
If I hadn't been there, Gyu Taehwan wouldn't have been either, and there wouldn't have been any worries about I Ion's vocal tone.
Ah, if we limited it to the early part of the program, Onsaemiro might have been better off without me.
Because they would have played the role of B-team's ace without feeling inferiority or jealousy.
Perhaps they would have formed a team with I Ion's visuals and Onsaemiro's skill?
Each member seemed outstanding individually, but when formed as a team, it felt like they would be inferior to Take Scene.
"Sion."
While I was thinking that, Onsaemiro called out to me.
I raised my head to see the judges' scores being revealed after Take Scene's stage.
97, 100, 95, 9
8.
Total 390 points.
Thinking about how we received 376 points, it was enormous.
But I didn't say anything.
No, I couldn't.
Now that Sedalbaegil had reached its end.
Because I no longer had the right. * * *
Filming hadn't ended, but the audience members began heading home.
Usually, the winner of a survival program is announced on the final competition stage.
But that's only possible when the final competition is broadcast live, unaffected by spoilers.
Therefore, there was no revealing of the winning team on today's stage.
The winning team that would head straight to debut was scheduled to be revealed in the final episode, to be broadcast three weeks later.
While the audience members were heading home like that, the judges and PD Gang Seoku put their heads together.
Because a problem had occurred.
"Sedalbaegil won?"
"Yes. The audience vote score tally has just finished."
"Is the difference slight?"
"No. It's about 65:35."
Blue opened his mouth at the unexpected situation.
"Weren't the audience members handpicked?"
"We did pick them, but we couldn't know their loyalty."
Gang Seoku had set up today's audience as Take Scene fans.
To apply for audience attendance, one had to respond to a 20-question survey, where questions like "Which stage was most impressive?" and "Who is your favorite participant?" were included.
They turned that into data to select audience members with tendencies to cheer for Take Scene.
But such data didn't reveal the magnitude of their hearts.
Even if an audience member was most impressed by Take Scene and liked Reddy the most, it could be a casual heart of support.
A casual heart could change if there was a strong external shock.
Today's Sedalbaegil stage had that kind of power.
Of course, if PD Gang Seoku had really wanted to, he could have filled the audience entirely with Take Scene's core fandom.
But.
'There's no way I wouldn't get caught doing something like that.'
If, worst case, all the profile pictures in the audience reviews shared on social media were of Take Scene?
Trying to handle it casually would blow up the situation.
"Then what about the total score?"
"Sedalbaegil is higher."
"Including the second and third rounds too?"
"Yes. Because there were audience vote scores in the second and third rounds too."
"Hmm……"
When CEO Choe Daeho let out a hum, Trainer Yu Seonhwa, who had the least experience with broadcasting, opened her mouth.
"Can't we just manipulate the numbers moderately?"
"Absolutely not."
It was an easy task, but the risk was too great.
There are no perfect secrets in the world, and someday it might be revealed to the world that Coming Up Next was a program for Take Scene's debut.
Worst case, the next CEO of M Show could attack the current CEO and expose it.
If there was data proving vote manipulation then, it would be chaos.
If it were circumstantial evidence, they could gloss over it, but if there was physical evidence, a prosecutorial investigation could come.
Because this was good material for political circles to sniff around.
"What do you think, PD Gang?"
"Include the first mission in the scores and lower the audience vote reflection to 10%. Then it should roughly work out."
Coming Up Next's first mission was an individual competition.
The position battle where Han Sion's
It had been decided not to reflect it in the final score because it didn't match the team competition theme, but the situation had changed.
They had to borrow even that indicator to balance things out.
Fortunately, in the first mission, excluding Han Sion, Take Scene's overall scores were higher.
"The Seoul Town Funk judges' scores were too high."
PD Gang Seoku deliberately added that comment.
To make it known that the current problem was more the judges' fault.
But the judges had excuses too.
That was when there had been no plan to debut Han Sion with Take Scene.
"What meaning is there in talking about the past? Please pull out the data as you said."
"Understood."
Shortly after, the production staff calculated the final scores with the newly set rules.
Now it was time to inform the participants of the results.
They probably all knew anyway, but for the sake of the most important event.