Damn Idol Episode 89
* * *
Episode 8 of Coming Up Next aired.
Episode 8 was the concluding episode of the mission to rearrange Chris Edward’s classic songs.
It was the one where Sedalbaegil arranged Chris Edward’s “Highway” and put on a stage titled
The stage was excellent.
It faithfully carried on the time-travel concept from
Of course, among the viewers, there were plenty of people who didn’t like that kind of thing.
But even they leaned more toward liking it than disliking it, because the stage itself was just that good.
They had realized that slapping settings and lore all over a mediocre stage looked tacky, but when the stage was excellent, it became one more thing to enjoy.
-Wow, turns out I like this kind of thing.
-I always thought idols were being dumbasses whenever they made a fuss about lore, but now I know why.
-Why?
-Because they couldn’t sing lololol. So it wasn’t the lore that made it look stupid?
-You can just say Sedalbaegil did well. Why drag down all the other idols too?
-Because they’re bundles of inferiority complexes.
-Flower stans, welcome.
-Tension moms, welcome.
-Isn’t it Synth moms?
-Could be Take Scene stans too lol
-Is Sedalbaegil public enemy number one? lol Why do they have so many enemies lololol
-Absolute comparative advantage.
-Seven syllables of insight, fucking top-tier
So fans on general communities wanted to react like that too.
But once the judges’ comments were revealed, room for controversy appeared.
[It was a stage created by contestant Han Sion’s individual ability, and the other members benefited from it.]
[An awl in a bag. An awl will pierce through the pouch. That can be a good thing, but it can also be a bad thing. The pouch called Sedalbaegil was torn apart by the awl.]
Because the judges’ comments unanimously emphasized Han Sion’s role and diminished Sedalbaegil.
-Didn’t Onsaemiro kind of kill it today?
-Right. He sang the best.
-?? Sedalbaegil did well, though?
-I think Hip Sion was just so good that the judges saw it that way.
-Isn’t Han Sion the villain, not Lee Ion? lololol Ecosystem destroyer lolol
The stage score for Sedalbaegil that was revealed afterward was also lower than expected.
People who watched the program casually simply let it pass, but it wasn’t as if there were no people taking it seriously.
In particular, communities that knew their way around the idol scene began to burn.
-Aren’t they laying the groundwork to debut Take Scene?
-Why bother? They can just debut Sedalbaegil.
-Then they can’t recoup the money they poured into Take Scene while training them for years.
-Comment above is right. Sedalbaegil has no investment costs, so they’d have to settle accounts right away. It’d be much sweeter to debut Take Scene first, then debut Sedalbaegil a year or two later.
-Was there anyone who didn’t know this program was made to debut Take Scene in the first place?
-Agreed. I still can’t forget Choi Daeho in episode 1. Take Scene has to compete, but there’s no reason for it lololol They just told them to fight out of nowhere lol
-But there’s already lots of proof that Take Scene’s debut plan has been set.
-(photo)(photo).
-This is data from a huge concert agency, and Take Scene is listed for a bunch of September festivals
-(photo)(photo).
-And here it says Ryan’s rookie group.
-(Info drop) There has been no rookie group debuted by Ryan in the past two years.
-Hul.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also heard they’re filming a music video at a studio.
Of course, not all viewers agreed with these opinions.
Controversy over the fairness of judges’ comments existed in every audition program, after all.
It was nothing special.
But after the comments from Chris Edward, who had been a special judge, the atmosphere shifted slightly.
[It was an enjoyable stage. I don’t know Korean, but I’m not stupid enough to miss the vibe built up on a stage because of that.]
[The five of you clearly reached the same destination along the same emotional line. And then you made it explode. Boom!]
[You definitely have points that are lacking. If I take you apart one by one, I can see weaknesses and flaws.]
[But when you came together as a whole team, none of those parts were visible at all.]
Because it was a judgment in a completely different direction from the existing judges’ comments.
PD Kang Seokwoo did not particularly emphasize Chris Edward’s words, nor did he minimize them.
He simply aired them as a static bust shot without cuts.
But that in itself had meaning.
-Doesn’t it kind of feel like the PD is taking a shot at the judges?
-Maybe Choi Daeho made such a fuss about having to debut Take Scene that he got annoyed?
-More than possible.
-lololol Logically, isn’t Edward right?
After that, the broadcast also showed Chris Edward saying goodbye to Han Sion.
[It was a truly wonderful arrangement. I’ll tell you this: at every crossroads, you chose the path where the team called Sedalbaegil could become perfect.]
[The original song was just that good.]
The two even looked fairly close, and there was also a part where Chris Edward said they absolutely had to meet again.
In a way, it was a natural scene.
It was the scene of Chris Edward, who had joined the program like a miracle, leaving, so giving it that much airtime made sense.
But if you thought about it carefully, it was a little strange.
Why had he spoken with Han Sion alone?
Had the other judges not seen him off?
Did Chris Edward’s exit really have to be shown in this way?
It was something one could very well wonder about.
Soon, the next mission was revealed, and episode 8 came to an end.
As soon as the broadcast ended, internet news outlets all uploaded articles about Coming Up Next’s ratings at once.
[COMING UP NEXT! Breaks Through the Elusive 10% Mark.]
[M Show’s Greatest Achievement Since Its Founding. “Recruiting PD Kang Seokwoo Was the Best Choice”]
[MBN’s Ratings Maker, Now M Show’s Midas!]
Because Coming Up Next had finally broken through the 10% ratings mark.
[Average rating: 10.2%]
[Seoul metropolitan average rating: 10.9%]
[Highest minute-by-minute rating: 12.2%]
It was an incredible record.
It meant that one out of every ten citizens had watched Coming Up Next.
To approach it in a bit more detail, broadcasters currently estimated the total pie for entertainment programs to be around 30 to 35% in ratings.
That was what you got if you added up the ratings of every TV program airing in the same time slot.
In that case, today’s entertainment programs weren’t graded out of 100 points, but out of 30 points—or 35.
Coming Up Next had received 10 points out of 30.
Until now, Channel M Show had given the impression that while it had strong influence in the music industry, its content power as a channel was weak.
Among cable channels excluding terrestrial broadcasters, it had been competing for third or fourth place.
But with one hit from Coming Up Next, most of its metrics were being rewritten.
Given the situation, M Show should have been in a festive mood day after day.
But in reality, it was not.
It was something ordinary employees did not know, but among the upper ranks, the atmosphere was rapidly cooling.
It was because of the broadcast direction of episode 8.
“Has Kang Seokwoo gone insane? Why did he air it like that?”
“No idea. I heard the president went ballistic.”
Those who criticized Kang Seokwoo.
“Wasn’t Ryan Entertainment the one who went way too far?”
“Exactly. They’re the ones who trashed the program.”
“What did Kang Seokwoo do wrong? A PD just needs to get high ratings.”
Those who defended Kang Seokwoo.
The two sides clashed fiercely, creating an ominous atmosphere.
And this was Kang Seokwoo’s choice.
Kang Seokwoo had accepted Han Sion’s advice to push Sedalbaegil.
Even rationally, it was the right judgment.
But he went one step further from there.
‘If I take this all on by myself, I might get discarded after they’re done using me.’
He had served it up as material for M Show’s factional fight.
He had attached himself not to the president’s side, which was close with Ryan Entertainment, but to the director’s side that opposed the president.
If that happened, Kang Seokwoo would be safe unless the entire director line was expelled.
Moreover, Kang Seokwoo was currently holding an Excalibur more powerful than anyone else.
If someone attacked him…
“You scoundrel! How dare you do this to me, the man who achieved the highest ratings since M Show’s founding?”
He simply had to become a ratings parrot.
In other words, he could consistently say, “I don’t know about Ryan or M Show or whatever, but I got good ratings, didn’t I?”
Because that was the role of a PD.
If Kang Seokwoo came out like this, it became awkward to pursue him to the end for the responsibility of Han Sion and Sedalbaegil running off.
If they wanted to hold him accountable, the president’s faction had to step forward, and then the director line would pounce without hesitation.
Of course, if one looked closely, the broadcaster’s practical interests did lie with the president’s faction.
If Take Scene gained popularity, the profit Ryan Entertainment would bring M Show would be enormous.
But this was a practical interest not recorded through any formal contract.
The public justification was with the director line.
Because they could rebuke them, asking if they were in their right mind to ruin a program that had surpassed 10% ratings because of business logic.
“Wow, Kang Seokwoo is smart.”
“He was an outside hire, wasn’t he? He would’ve had to pick a line eventually.”
And so, within M Show, it became the accepted theory that Kang Seokwoo had pushed Sedalbaegil in order to play the part of a ratings maniac.
It wasn’t wrong, but…
There was no one who knew that the beginning of all this had been Han Sion’s three-inch tongue.
‘This is clean.’
There was nothing good about it becoming known that the issue causing such a stir at the broadcasting station had started from the mouth of a cast member.
It was cleaner to say that Kang Seokwoo, cornered and holding a usable card, had attached himself to the director line.
Now the rest was out of Kang Seokwoo’s hands.
How the president’s faction and the director line would reach an agreement could not be predicted.
However.
‘Things didn’t go as well for Sedalbaegil as I expected.’
PD Kang Seokwoo knew what Han Sion had been doing lately.
He was going around the indie scene and steadily appearing as an event-style guest.
But not a single line of news had gone up on the internet, and it seemed almost impossible for the buzz to spread in the future.
When the situation had first occurred, the buzz should have caught fire.
Now, a week later, it was already too late.
He thought it was unfortunate, but public and private matters had to be separated.
Perhaps someday a day would come when he could help, but it was not now.
* * *
At the same time.
There was someone who had the exact same thought as PD Kang Seokwoo.
It was Gu Taehwan.
“Sion. Things didn’t go well for us, right?”
“Hm? What didn’t?”
“I mean, in the end, we couldn’t draw attention.”
Han Sion had said that the Sedalbaegil crew had to prove themselves and become famous.
He had also said that to do that, the Sedalbaegil crew needed to bring over the buzz from Coming Up Next.
Gu Taehwan thought the indie performances were part of that effort.
At first, it had seemed like a fairly excellent plan.
Fancam videos had been uploaded one after another, and their names had started going around band communities.
But in the end, nothing had changed.
The buzz had disappeared, and the public’s interest had left only traces behind.
It seemed likely that Ryan Entertainment or M Show had exerted pressure.
Of course, if asked whether Sedalbaegil had achieved zero growth, that was absolutely not the case.
Leaving aside their musical growth, there had probably been a slight increase in awareness of their team brand name.
But if the final goal they pursued was 100, it felt as if they had grown by only 1 at most.
Perhaps they had not even reached 1.
That was why he was asking.
Not because he wanted to criticize Han Sion for failing to succeed, but because if the plan had gone awry, he wanted them to think it through together.
Han Sion’s reaction to that was…
“What are you talking about?”
As if the question had come completely out of nowhere.
PD Kang Seokwoo, Gu Taehwan, and perhaps even CEO Choi Daeho of Ryan Entertainment.
Every single one of them was mistaken.
Han Sion’s plan had not even begun yet.