The Produce X 101 vote-rigging scandal continues as new evidence emerged in the ongoing investigation. It has been revealed that the voting manipulation could have happened not only on the final results of the competition but as early as Episode 2 of the recent season of Produce 101.
Maeil Business reported that new evidence had surfaced the votes that were cast during the show, except for Episode 1, may have been rigged. During the run of Produce X 101, viewers and fans could cast their votes once a day through the show's website and app. Each time, viewers have to select 11 trainees to vote. The votes were counted in real-time.
The publication noted that the first two rounds of voting for the fourth season of Produce 101 were set up, so fans could pick their favorite 11 trainees. However, some of the vote totals that were shared by the show cannot be divided evenly into 11.
Apparently, the number of people that voted on Episode 1 totaled to 223,179, which could be equally divided by 11. However, that is not the case in the succeeding episodes and rounds of voting where the total votes couldn't be equally divided by 11.
The report also cited that some broadcast and entertainment industry insiders have also noticed different on the online voting. The insiders claimed the voting that took place during the airing of Produce X 101 appears not to have been carried out as normal.
"It appears that their intention was to select the debut members that had been internally decided upon in advance, regardless of the voting results at the beginning," a source told Maeil Business.
An investigation was earlier launched against Mnet, the network that aired and co-produce the reality show, on suspicion of vote manipulation on the final result of the Produce X 101, which also determined the ranking of its top 11 trainees. The top 11 trainees were announced during the final episode on July 19, and the group made up the new boy group, named as X1, which eventually debuted last month.
Now, it was revealed that votes could have been rigged as early as Episode 2. This means the police are conducting an investigation not only on the final episode's votes but of all of the voting results throughout the show.
Additionally, authorities are looking into possible vote-rigging in the previous seasons of Produce 101, as well as the 2018 survival show of Mnet, Idol School. So far, Produce 101 had four seasons.
The show's producer earlier acknowledged that there were errors in the final vote counts of Produce X 101. However, they claimed that the errors did not affect the final rankings of the trainees.
