There are only two episodes left and twenty-five contestants. By the end of the night, your finalists will be revealed. As always, the highlights of the previous episode play on the screen to remind you of everything that happened last week. It goes from a few seconds of the best performers and the eliminations to the revelation of the coaches and what’s about to come. Divided into five groups, the remaining contestants are to represent the companies they’re assigned under. Being the semi-finals, performances are expected to keep their high quality, and, hopefully, surpass it.
The camera pans over the new empty set and, slowly, it is filled with the 1500 viewers who managed to catch a spot in the audience to watch the performances before anyone else. A crew outside gets some comments out of the people waiting in line. “KT has my two favorite contestants!” Says a girl besides her friend. “I’m cheering for LEE NAKYUNG and SIA KIM! They’re both charming ladies so I understand why Katie Lee would want them under her label.” Her friend quickly shakes her head. “Of course I’m here for the team that’ll actually win, Royal. They have LEE SUWOONG and DO KYUNGSOO. This is the team to be frightened.” The scene changes for a mom and a smaller boy, the latter being the one interviewed. “I’m here to cheer for MIYAWAKI SAKURA! I really hope she’ll win!”
Back inside the set, a man makes his way onto the center of the big stage. He is Hong Jinwoo, the MC assigned to present this episode. “Hello, all, and thank you for being here today!” The crowd cheers in response. “My name is Hong Jinwoo and it’s a pleasure to be here as well. Before we start our performances, why don’t we hear from our judges first?” The view changes to the five chairs and the five people sitting on them. It’s your favorite CEOs! “Thank you all for coming,” Seo Jisub starts it off today. “Today we take one last step before the end. Our contestants have prepared their performances according to the companies they were assigned. Each group will have one of their members eliminated, and those who make it through will officially become a finalist. So welcome to the sixth episode and semi-finale of the Mnet Global Auditions!”
They show the cheering crowd once again as they build their expectations for what’s about to come. The MC takes back his role and begins to introduce the acts. “Now, let’s receive our very first act of the day. Here comes the Sphere contestants!” He motions with his arm towards where the contestants appear, five in total. They’re CHWE HANSOL, KANG DANIEL, MIYAWAKI SAKURA, NAM JOOHYUK, and PARK WOOJIN. “Action!” And then all the team members clap their hands in near unison before saying their team name. “We are Hollywood!”
Before they can take their places, the scene changes to the outside of the Sphere building and, then, their designated practice room. DANIEL and WOOJIN arrive together first. “It’ll be nice to have a practice room we don’t have to share with another team,” the first one comments before the rest of their teammates show up. HANSOL approaches him. “Hey, can we talk?” And the two take a seat by themselves to have a chat. “I wanted to talk to you because I didn’t want there to be an odd air between us and I wanted to be upfront so that we could get any weird tension out of the way. I have to admit that based off of last week working with your team in the same room that I did start to feel rather annoyed and put off by both you and Kenta because of all the fooling around.” A very short compilation of the two either whining or doing something weird last week appears with a black-and-white filter before return to the present. “I gotta admit going into that it’s really concerning me. I’m just questioning how committed you are to actually working towards the same goal.”
DANIEL appears sitting for his interview. “Vernon saw me at my worst last week, so he had some doubts going in. Dancing was really difficult.” The interviewer moves on the next question. “There’s been quite some criticism of your guitar, including from contestant Jo Yuri. Any thoughts on what she said?” The boy relaxes a bit before moving on. “I don’t know if Yuri-ssi has actually watched my performances. If she did, she would know I’ve done just about everything someone can do on this show.” As he lists them, DANIEL counts them on his fingers. “I played a self-composed song, I played guitar, I sang. I rapped. I played bass- Just in last week’s performance alone, I sang, rapped, and danced. I don’t know what more she’d like from me, but she can let me know if she’d like. I’m always looking to improve,” and so he smiles.
The view returns to the inside of their practice room and the three assigned coaches making their way inside. Two of them are members of the boy group CONVEX, Jinki, and Jinwook, while the third is the winner of last season, Go Hojung. “They’re so nice! And supportive!” SAKURA says in her own interview. “I’m glad to have them as coaches. They’re wonderful people.” It’s Jinwook who appears next to leave a comment. “It’s been three years since I’ve been here as a contestant myself, and I never expected I’d be invited back to coach. People may be concerned that our team is weak in dancing, but it’s definitely workable. You might not believe it, but Jinki’s the strict one between us. He’s going to make them work hard!”
They all sit together trying to throw ideas of what they should choose to perform. “I don’t know idols very well,” DANIEL admits, “but I listened to all of Sphere’s artists last night and they all seem generally bright but really versatile.” No one seems to go against him for that. “We could always do a remix of a Convex song? Or a mashup with one?” He suggests, but WOOJIN doesn’t seem to like that idea very much. “Maybe you should focus on learning the dance instead of spending time remixing songs.” The other looks down. “I think giving everyone plenty of time to learn the dance is important,” Jinwook chimes in. “Dancing for non-dancers is hard, so it would be better not to do any complicated remixes unless they can come together quickly.”
While the others work on the song, PARK WOOJIN steps aside to learn the choreography by himself. “I ended up being the only dancer in the group, so I had to help the others out with choreography and stuff. Since all my previous teammates had been dancers,” he explains. “I don’t think I’m good enough to be taking that role, but someone had to.” The boy appears dancing until late at night, keeping up with practice because of the role he had been automatically applied. He huffs and puffs when he ends the routine, and before he can start again the scene changes back to the stage where the five members stand ready to perform.
The song starts taking over the set. It’s only the soft instrumental at first before KANG DANIEL says the first few lines. The performance may start soft, but the dancing is demanding on the details. To start the chorus comes SAKURA, the only female in the group, followed by WOOJIN and then the girl again, who returns to show she can also rap. When it’s time for the second chorus, HANSOL is the one to start it until JOOHYUK joins along. It’s HANSOL also returns with a rap. WOOJIN leads the finale as the center of the dance break and the eventual end.
“I think…” HANSOL comments, “it was like I met a song where I was finally in my element. I don’t have anything to complain about. I really enjoyed myself on stage this week.”
“Hello! We’re Polaris!” The next group says in unison, a reference to the company’s theme, and receives cheers from the audience. They’re the ones from Nova, the second to stand on stage tonight. The group is composed by CHOI YEWON, KIM SEUNGHUN, SEO CHANGBIN, TAKADA KENTA, and WANG JACKSON. One by one, they introduce themselves individually before they move to their starting positions as the lights fade away.
All the members are inside Nova’s practice room when they appear on screen again and they zoom in to capture their reactions when the coaches join them. While they don’t look surprised, the strong aura of Nova’s future idols and trainee have intimidates the five. Before the group starts discussing song options, coach Lee Sunmi advises them to pick a song with a strong stage presence that would fit the company’s image. The coaches share some notes with the contestants, telling them the areas they want them to improve, but it’s KENTA who receives harsher feedback from SUNMI, who says she didn’t even expect him to make it past the last round, but he should work hard. “I’ll do my best!” He nods and answers. Following the advice received from the trio of coaches, the group spends most of the day going over songs and getting to know one another, settling on Run by ATS as their final choice.
It’s when they start working on the line distributions and choosing centers that things get more heated up. SEUNGHUN is the first to raise his hand to demonstrate an interest in singing the high note, followed by JACKSON, another well-known vocalist from this season. The group decides to have both of them singing the part to pick the best voice and the older boy is the one who ends up with the position. On the other hand, when it comes to the one who’s starting the performance, things are not solved so easily. YEWON seems clearly upset when KENTA says he’d like to do it and doesn’t hold back her opinions, bluntly pointing out the spot is not a good fit for the dancer. “No, I can do it. You have the first lines, so I think it works better if you come out from behind, like RM does, in the original.” KENTA protests, trying to prove his point. “Look this is going to sound harsh, but I just don’t think you can pull off the role. I’ve seen your performances, and I just would feel better if you took a different role.” She says. The boy insists and promises to work hard and prove he deserves to be there. “Please, don’t underestimate me.” He asks and she waves a hand dismissively at the male. “Fine, fine, whatever.”
It seems to be just the start of a tough week as the first run-through doesn’t go well. While they sing in front of the coaches, Sunmi and Son Seungwan exchange horrified glances. “Alright, listen!” Seungwan says as she gets their attention. “I noticed how you’re all just vocalizing as a vocal warm-up before you start practicing. That’s great, but before you even think of making a sound, you also have to prepare the muscles that you’ll be using to make those sounds.” Her words are followed by real instructions and tips on how to do that. “Ah right, it will hurt for some of you… YEWON! CHANGBIN! Come here please.” She picks the rappers for the demonstration. What seemed to be simple throat massages, cause them unbearable pain. CHANGBIN grab at her arm and his face scrunches up. “Help me!” He responds weakly. The scene cuts to minutes later, Seungwan edited with an army uniform and the words ‘Sergeant Son’ appear on the screen as she points out their lack of stability. “Run in laps around the training room as you sing.” It’s clear she’s not joking. Even the most athletic members struggle with the mission and the same happens when they show clips of the group planking, with KENTA losing balance and being scolded by the coaches, then running laps one more time. “A-again?’ SEUNGHUN asks with a pitiful look. “Go, go! You can do it!” Lee Sungyeol encourages them cheerfully. They are shown afterward, everyone dripping in sweat and looking exhausted. “Sunmi! Wendy! What have you done to the children?” Sungyeol asks, looking at them.
Dance practices are also challenging, CHANGBIN visibly struggling more than others. A montage of different days of practice appears, collecting mistakes and nicely executed moves by the dancers and forming a huge mosaic, Sunmi’s voice in the background giving them some pointers. “What if we slow down a bit? Like… Go over it at 0.75x speed instead of normal until the sequence is perfectly memorized and we make no mistakes?” SEUNGHUN suggests when they are the only ones in the room, and it seems to work for them. Facing different struggles, the camera shows KENTA looking down when CHANGBIN approaches him. “Is everything okay, hyung? You’ve been – a little quiet. Is it because of what they said?” He asks. “Ah, it’s alright. It’s helpful advice! It’s been a little shocking, but that’s how you get cattle to move faster, right? Zap.” The other boy responds and is encouraged by the rapper. “You’ve been doing well, though. Don’t beat yourself up. I know you’ll show your best onstage, regardless of what others might say.” Despite the pressure and the stress, the group has a good time together. During breaks, YEWON and CHANGBIN are seen rapping to popular songs and JACKSON approaches SEUNGHUN for a friendly battle. “Hey, hey, we should have a proper high note battle, you know, the really high one.” He tugs into the younger's sleeve. Going from ‘do’ to ‘sol’ notes, their voices and crazy facial expressions make both burst into laughter. Sungyeol is responsible for bringing snacks to keep everyone healthy and energetic.
The closer they get to the live stage, more improvements are made, but the group could use some fine-tuning. Seungwan visits them again to check their vocals and points out some problems. “Was I too much?” SEUNGHUN asks under his breath to JACKSON, looking confused with the feedback received. Looking for some guidance, the vocalist approaches the coach later. “You’re probably so used to singing solo, so you’re probably not sure how you’ll fit in with a team. And all the more, this is a survival competition, so I understand the pressure of needing to stand out all the time, but this is also a team performance, so balance is very important. You don’t have to go so hard at every line you sing. There are some parts where you just have to take it easy. You have to know which parts call for being the entree and when to be the side dish.” She explains and tells him she believes in him. The coach makes sure to encourage the whole team before she leaves. “Team Nova, I’m counting on you.”
The camera returns to the live stage and the group is now ready to start the performance. All lights are off, but once the instrumentals kick in, a spotlight follows KENTA, who slowly approaches the group. The blue light that suddenly covers the stage reveals the other members right when YEWON starts off the hit song. CHANGBIN is the next and his rap portion is delivered powerfully. The beat picks up and welcomes a fast-paced and intense choreography. The main and lead vocalists, JACKSON and SEUNGHUN, take over the center for the chorus and put more strength into their voices to match the intensity of the part, contrasting with the soft vocals from the pre-chorus. After the team’s efforts, they manage to execute the synchronized choreography well. With good facial expressions and confidence, they show a great stage. KENTA puts emotion in his voice and his movements are expressive. The dreamy atmosphere sets the mood for the moment JACKSON hits the high note perfectly with SEUNGHUN doing the low register. They reach outwards and when they open their hands, petals fall onto the ground. Their performance comes to an end and they get into the ending pose that formed a star with CHANGBIN in the middle.
“Who did you feel was the weakest link on your team?” They ask her, and YEWON doesn’t have a problem replying. “KENTA was the weakest in our group. I just don’t see what he contributes that we don’t already have. He’s not the best singer, his rapping is non-existent. I personally think he’s gotten fortune to have made it this far in this competition.”
Five new people appear, all moving along to the center. They’re the ones under TRC and they’re CHOI MINHO, HWANG YEJI, KANG HYUNGGU, LEE CHAERYEONG, and SHIN RYUJIN. The latter is the one who starts their introduction. “We’re your,” and then they all shout together. “Antidote!”
Appearing in their practice room, the scene that is shown is of their first meeting. Their coaches include two members from K.ARMA, Doyeon, and Sana, as well as the trainee Jung Jinsoul. The first ones to get there are the coaches and they wait for their contestants to arrive. “We had a lot of fun, huh?” Doyeon asks the trainee and the public is reminded that all three of them had actually made their journey together on the previous season, although each one taking a different path. When the contestants arrive, Doyeon seems surprised. “Oh my-” she chuckles while looking at HYUNGGU. “We trained together when I was in high school.” The boy appears in his interview and comments about their relationship. “I actually know Doyeon from a long time ago. We actually trained together at a smaller company when we were both in high school! It’s funny because I went from being her sunbae to us switching up the roles.”
When they sit down to throw song suggestions, CHAERYEONG doesn’t look too content with what they had settled on. She points out how it was too similar to her last few performances and it’d probably look bad on her for repeating. But her teammates work on hard on convincing her that everything will turn out alright and that enough would be different for it not to be the same. CHAERYEONG goes to Jinsoul for help, later on, asking her things about how she could stand out and do her best. Jinsoul tells her that she just needs to be herself and that that would be enough. “Oh and wait CHAERYEONG do this.” Jinsoul smiles and winks and then watches the other girl copy her. “Perfect! I knew it would suit you!”
YEJI and HYUNGGU are assigned the roles of choreography while the other three, MINHO, CHAERYEONG, and RYUJIN, took care of writing their own rap lyrics. RYUJIN is the one who suggests they increment some sort of dance battle into the choreography, and they all agree with it. It’s that same girl who appears working hard to get things done. It’s YEJI the one who approaches her. “RYUJIN ah, you should rest.” She tells her and makes her sit down. “We can do this, ok?” And the other girl does as told, taking some time to relax before they could get back to practicing.
HYUNGGU is the one who brings energy drinks to help encourage everyone to keep up with the high energy until the end of the week. “Getting in a room full of dancers can be tough sometimes,” MINHO says in his interview. “I wondered what we would do because styles can be similar but don’t flow together. HYUNGGU and YEJI made it work in a way that I didn’t feel that struggle or difference at all. I loved their work and we all got to give our input and it turned into a charismatic stage I think is worthy of TRC.”
The screen wobbles, and then suddenly they’re back on the stage, getting ready to perform. RYUJIN is the one who starts the song, and, in between the lyrics, there’s their team name in it. HYUNGGU and YEJI are the ones who take on the chorus along with a couple of words by the other rappers, MINHO and CHAERYEONG. Following it, MINHO takes on the first rap verse following, using the original lyrics he came up with during the week, all while they all danced. After another chorus, CHAERYEONG and RYUJIN show off their own lyrics as well. It’s when they go past the third chorus and a bridge that YEJI gets to do a high note and then they fall into a dance break. The boys divide from the girls, and they act as if they are in a dance break until it leads to them all getting back together and the end of the song.
“MINHO did really well too. I… quite like him, actually.” DO KYUNGSOO says. “He may not look like it but he’s sort of soft inside and treated me well last week.”
The next group makes their way to the stage. They’re JO YURI, SIA KIM, LEE NAKYUNG, WONG YUKHEI, and ZHOU JIEQIONG representing KT. All together, they each make a small heart-bow before saying their introduction. “Shot through the heart! We’re team Foh!cus!” After each of their individual introductions, the members move to their starting positions but are cut by the editing team to show what they were up to during practice.
LEE NAKYUNG can be seen making her way inside the room and, before long, she lets out an excited “Oh my god!” in English as she jumps around the practice room. “It felt crazy, really.” The girl says in her interview. “That’s my dream company and Eclipse is one of my favorite groups just like ChiChi was to me before. It felt crazy that I’d get to spend time with both Minji and Haseul and Luda, too!” Scenes of the coaches entering the room appear on the screen and of NAKYUNG staring at them. “They were all amazing. It really felt like a dream come true!” In contrast to the first girl, another girl appears in her own interview. “Thank god the CEOs all introduced them,” YURI chuckles. “I… didn’t know who everyone was, honestly. I searched Naver to figure out who my coaches were.” She giggles, covering her mouth. “Whoopsie.”
The three female coaches introduce themselves, and Minji goes ahead first. “I’m Kim Minji, Leader of Eclipse, a recently debuted group under KT with a day and night concept.” Below her face, the text appears one by one as if she’s saying exactly what’s expected of the leader. Haseul goes next. “Hello, I’m Jo Haseul, main vocalist of Eclipse. I know how exciting and stressful this time can be. A lot of people don’t understand how hard it is to put yourself out there. I’m… not the most outgoing person, as I’m sure Ariel would be able to confirm, so I know how difficult it can be.”
The team starts working together to figure out which song they’d like to use. They settle on two by ChiChi and SIA works on putting them together alongside JIEQIONG. With the final mix, JIEQIONG gains a new partner in NAKYUNG to choreograph something together for their performance. “Everyone in the group is easy to work with, but I got to try something new this week with mixing our dance break music with SIA so that was really fun,” JIEQIONG says in her interview. “But it’s hard.” Her lips form into a tiny pout. “NAKYUNG and I also got to choreograph the dance break which I loved! She’s really cute and our ideas went nicely together.”
A team name is a necessity in the rules this time around and, for this team, it rises from YUKHEI’s initiative. “Foh!cs, with an exclamation mark after the Foh.” The others pause a moment to think, but then quickly come to an agreement on his suggestion. “The girls from Eclipse, and Luda, were really lovely.” The boy comments. “They gave us lots of pointers and tips and helped as much as they could, maybe even more than they had to.” This leads to a different scene of SIA and Ariel sat side by side in the practice room. “Can I ask what is your main goal? Do you want to be an idol? A singer? To do musicals? To act maybe?” The coach says to the other and it catches her a bit off guard. “Because to be honest with you, I think you could do all of that, I mean, if you so choose and you don’t have to choose only one. But to be an idol, you will have to dance. You’ll be unstoppable if you improve your dancing if you show you can keep up with the dancers in this group.”
The camera slowly zooms into the contestant’s face but doesn’t play what her answer was. Instead, it changes to her interview. “That day was probably one of the biggest learning experiences on the show. Sometimes, we just need someone to tell us we’re doing a good job and it’s enough to make us want to work harder.” With this, the scene changes once again to a different location. They’re back on the stage and with positions ready. It’s time to show what they got.
The other members kneel around YURI who raises from the center while the first few notes start to play, and then the girl winks to the camera before she starts to sing. YUKHEI is the one who starts the chorus and impresses a few of the audience members when he does the famous leg splitting movement, followed by SIA who brings an end to their brief song. That’s only because the song of a record scratching plays loudly, followed by a new beat. The group performs the dance break that NAKYUNG and JIEQIONG had worked on, which leads to the intro of their second song. YUKHEI is the one who starts them off, followed by NAKYUNG. Following the new choreography, the group moves smoothly to the new setting of their performance. By the end, YURI and SIA are the ones in charge of covering the chorus with ad-libs, leading the song to its end.
“I think,” YUKHEI says, “thanks to us all working so well together we did well. It all comes down to teamwork because if we hadn’t worked so well together and trusted each other, we might not have performed exactly like how we practiced it.” PARK WOOJIN appears after. “It’s a bit of an image change for some of them, but even so, they pulled it off really well. I was surprised, honestly, but I should’ve expected their talent to show.”
The final group makes their way to the stage, the five final people to perform. They are DO KYUNGSOO, JEON HEEJIN, KIM HYOJIN, LEE SUWOONG, and SOHN YOUNGJAE. “We are Youth Over Flowers!” They greet before posing like flowers. It’s enough to show before they show a new practice room.
It starts with KYUNGSOO standing quietly and SUWOONG appearing on view, sneaking up behind him and uses his index fingers to pull the corners of the other’s mouth up into a smile. He pushes them in front of a camera and makes sure to introduce them. “Hello, I’m the grumpy kitty, Do Kyungsoo!” Says SUWOONG beehind said boy. “And I’m Suwoong, the cute and fun kitty!” He says with a brighter voice, throwing up a peace sign. KYUNGSOO, still just as quietly, throws up a peace sign as well.
Their coaches are two members of LUXE, Cheri and Ella, and a contestant from the previous season, Jeon Wonwoo. “I know you might be stricken by us,” Ella flips her hair over her shoulder, “and we can take pictures later after we have a song and a dance.” The three of them introduce themselves before Wonwoo appears in his interview. “Team Royal are great! They’re all quite different, so they’ll be able to shine individually but also come together nicely as a team. I think we’ll see new sides of them, too!”
They’re all hard at practice when SUWOONG decides to say something. “Can I try this part, too?” The one he points out had been originally assigned to KYUNGSOO who looks up at his partner. To settle this, Cheri suggests they fight for it to see who’d win the desired part. KYUNGSOO stands up from when he was sitting and moves to the center of the room. “I would like to keep my part,” he says firmly. “I’ve proven that I can embody the dark, mysterious aura from my past performances and I won’t disappoint the audience with my voice.” SUWOONG seems to disagree. “Ah, but it’s a more enticing gaze. The part is short but powerful. It requires someone who has mystery over the subtleties in their expressions, so they can captivate the audience in just a second.” The original owner of the line does not step down. “Please allow me to demonstrate.” With that, he’s the first one to go, performing his part of only a few seconds. SUWOONG goes next, trying it for his own. After a short reunion, Ella is the one who announces the winner, and the line remains with KYUNGSOO.
From then on, it appears their practice time only gets more complicated. No one seems to be quite getting their moves right, and it gets to the point of SUWOONG’s fan escaping from his hand and hitting HEEJIN on the back of the head. The girl looks back or, well, stares at the boy behind her before shaking her head. “It’s fine, let’s just keep going.” The girl says. “We had a lot of ups and downs during the week, so at first I wasn’t really sure how well we’d be able to practice,” HEEJIN comments during her interview. “Everything, generally speaking, was alright.” She squints at the camera before pointing a finger at it. “SUWOONG, you know what you did. You’re lucky all I did was a glare.” Her glare, however, turns into a grin once she’s done.
The tension does continue. “Are you taking this seriously, Kyungie?” SUWOONG asks KYUNGSOO in the middle of another practice. The other doesn’t hold back anymore. “I’ve been here since 5am every weekend morning and am always one of the last to leave. Just because I am not yet as good as you doesn’t mean I am not trying!” The boy throws his fan onto the ground and the room turns silent. “You tell me if I am taking this seriously or not. Let’s have a break, please.” He says before walking out of the room. It’s another time when HYOJIN suggests they all sit down and discuss their feelings. YOUNGJAE decides to speak up. “We had to make the choreography simpler because of you and Taeyang hyung didn’t get to shine properly as a dancer.” A quick flashback shows both HYOJIN and YOUNGJAE standing together on stage alongside TAEYANG, the latter being eliminated. “Is that gonna happen again?” HYOJIN replies to him. “Truthfully, it’s been hard keeping it to myself all these days. I didn’t know what to say to make it better, or how to properly apologize and decrease the tension. I had a hard time looking any of you in the eyes, because I spent all of my time when I wasn’t practicing wondering, should Taeyang hyung be here in my place instead? Do I really deserve this?” He licks his lips and tried to look up at YOUNGJAE. “I won’t be a burden this time, I promise.”
After their meeting is over, YOUNGJAE approaches HYOJIN separately. “I’m sorry for everything. It’s just… I really want this. I don’t wanna go home.” With moods getting settled, the image on the screen changes to that of the stage and the five contestants wearing their long, traditional robes.
They all carry serious expressions as the music starts to play and a thin layer of fog covers the stage. Along with the beat, they all open their fans in unison. The lights are dim, but they soon turn brighter when HYOJIN starts to sing. SUWOONG goes next, followed by HEEJIN, and then SUWOONG again. They had worked on modifying the choreography, while not by much, just enough that it wouldn’t be too hard for the vocalists to achieve. YOUNGJAE is in charge of the rap, standing out between the vocalists. KYUNGSOO gets to perform the lines he fought for before, and, with the tease of a smile, the stage becomes darker as they all dance together with their robes flowing. HYOJIN brings an end to the song, as he had started it.
“KYUNGSOO oppa,” HWANG YEJI appears to comment. “He’s started dancing did you see? I was impressed with him as well for finally stepping out of his comfort zone.”
With the end of all five performances, the audience leaves the set and the contestants take over the stage once again. They’re all alined with their own teammates, separated by company. It is now the time that’ll settle it. What’ll come next are the final eliminations and all that’ll be left is proving your worth to get the title of a winner.
To start things off, Tiger JK does the honors of starting the final announcements. “We watched all five of your performances with much attention. As said before, no matter which placing you end up with, all groups will lose one of their members. But these placings are still extremely important to you and I hope you realize that.” The man nods. “Next week will be the grand finale and teams will remain as they are after eliminations. This means you should reflect on your positions this week and figure out what you must better or keep for the next and final round.”
The CEO gives the contestants one more look before looking down. “We’ll start today with the group who finished in fifth place for this week.” He takes a long pause to build up tension before proceeding. “The one in last place today is… Nova Entertainment’s group, Polaris.” His eyes are now on them. “For a semi-finals performance, yours didn’t quite reach our expectations. While we understand that Nova is famous for dancing in particular, not all of you are dancers and you probably focused your song search too much on that. And that’s most of what you did, too. We were expecting some more than what you put out for us today. One of you will be going home today, and that person is… KIM SEUNGHUN. Congratulations on your journey up to here.”
With the first elimination out of the way, comes the next announcement. “The group who finished in fourth place today is… Sphere Entertainment’s group, Hollywood. We believed yours took a step away from what is normally thought of when people think of Sphere. It also felt like there was also some trouble accommodating to each of the members’ skills. Just as the group before, you didn’t give us much more than what already came with the song. One of you will be going home today, and that person is… CHWE HANSOL. We wish you good fortune on what you’ll try next.”
To move on, Tiger JK switched out for Baek Jiyoung, who continues with the next announcement. “The group who finished in third place today is… TRC Entertainment’s group, Antidote. Your performance did manage to show each of the members but it still felt a bit lacking. It wasn’t quite as hard-hitting as we would have expected. It was good that you put your own lyrics and choreography but the song continued on the same wavelength until the very end and there weren’t a lot of moments that people could point out after it was done. One of you will be going home today, and that person is… SHIN RYUJIN. We hope you continue working towards your dream.
The woman changes her stare between the two remaining groups, a slight smile on her lips. “Now we only have two groups left, and only one of you will be the winner of the day. I hope you’re feeling as nervous as you would if this were the finals. There is only a week between today and the real results, so you shouldn’t be taking this lightly.” She chuckles. “I’ll be announcing the first place of the semi-finals now. And that group is… Royal Entertainment’s group, Youth Over Flowers! You put on a wonderful performance. The setting was settled from the start, and we noticed you even simplified movements that’d be too hard for some of the members. It’s a thing to worry about with so many vocalists in the group, but you all did a great job. Sadly one of you must leave us today, as well. That person is… KIM HYOJIN. You’re the only one who’ll get to leave as a winner, so we hope you hold onto that and do even better in the future.”
“As for the second place, we have KT Entertainment’s group, Foh!cus. You managed to show different sides of KT, although they weren’t complete opposites, which would have run away from their concept. The transition between the two didn’t work as smoothly as we would have liked, but that’s about as much as we have to point out. You all did a great job as well and we can’t wait to see what you’ll get to show next time. However, you’ll also have to lose a member today, and that person is… ZHOU JIEQIONG. We also wish you the best of luck in the future.”
Five contestants less make them twenty, and the last number there’ll be. “All of you remaining here are officially our finalists of the fifth season of the Mnet Global Auditions. Next week, only four of you will be able to become the winners, and you’ll have to do that as a group. We expect to see the best that you can show.”
To see all the of this season’s contestants, click here!
And now, let’s see what’s in store for our seventh episode and grand finale!
With the last round of eliminations comes the grand finale! The groups will remain the same, except for the member they lost. All people involved should show at least two of their performance skills, one of them being dancing. This time around, contestants will have to prepare two performances. On the first, just like last week, they’ll have to portray the image of the company they were assigned under, and for the second, that of another company. For these, the judges sorted things randomly. All groups are told to come up with a name of their own. A list of the groups can be found below:
SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Jinki, Jinwook, Go Hojung #5017 - KANG DANIEL #5033 - MIYAWAKI SAKURA #5035 - NAM JOOHYUK #5038 - PARK WOOJIN SECOND PERFORMANCE CONCEPT: TRC ENTERTAINMENT
NOVA ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Lee Sunmi, Son Seungwan, Lee Sungyeol #5004 - CHOI YEWON #5039 - SEO CHANGBIN #5045 - TAKADA KENTA #5046 - WANG JACKSON SECOND PERFORMANCE CONCEPT: KT ENTERTAINMENT
TRC ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Doyeon, Sana, Jung Jinsoul #5002 - CHOI MINHO #5011 - HWANG YEJI #5018 - KANG HYUNGGU #5028 - LEE CHAERYEONG SECOND PERFORMANCE CONCEPT: NOVA ENTERTAINMENT
KT ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Haseul, Minji, Lee Luda #5014 - JO YURI #5026 - SIA KIM #5030 - LEE NAKYUNG #5047 - WONG YUKHEI SECOND PERFORMANCE CONCEPT: ROYAL ENTERTAINMENT
ROYAL ENTERTAINMENT — Coaches: Cheri, Ella, Jeon Wonwoo #5007 - DO KYUNGSOO #5013 - JEON HEEJIN #5032 - LEE SUWOONG #5042 - SOHN YOUNGJAE SECOND PERFORMANCE CONCEPT: SPHERE ENTERTAINMENT
The public will know the groups will have a second performance, but not which second concept they were given.
By the end of the next episode, one group will be considered the winner of this season.
Just like the previous episode, the contestants will be recorded during their preparation time. The five companies prepared one of their practice rooms with cameras and will allow their group to practice inside with free use of the high-tech equipment available in it. On the first day of training on Friday, the 2nd, the coaches will visit their practice room to help the contestants decide on songs and give them some tips on not only their past experiences in the MGAs but also as performers. Additional meetings may be arranged if needed and if it doesn’t conflict with anyone’s schedules. The only coaches that won’t be attending are the Eclipse members who will be busy with preparations to go to Japan at this time.
All contestants are supposed to make their own way to the recording studio prepared specially for this episode. This time contestants will have to perform a stage in front of a live audience of 3000 people and also air for the world to watch on the 10th of August. This means that contestants will have more time to practice and there will be no pre-recording of the performances, so make sure to do well. To help with this, the episode will be hosted by the MC Hong Jinwoo, the same from the semi-finals. They’ll go to the same set from the previous episode. The bigger stage will allow for bigger props if needed, and these should be checked with the staff beforehand for them to prepare it. This has backup dancers included. The groups will get to prepare themselves backstage and, this time around will have to wait there while the other groups perform. A room with a TV is available for those who’d like to watch the groups performing.
Sitting between the stage and the public with their much more comfortable chairs are the CEOs of each big company. They’ll make sure only the most captivating contestants will receive the big prize to make this the best season yet and continue to represent their companies.
Tune in next Saturday, the 10th, for our final episode!
MGA Season 5 episode seven preview: The finalists have been decided and the final mission has been given. It’s all or nothing now. Will the contestants manage to give the public what they want? Will anyone show any hidden skills? Tune-up next week to find out!
[ All of the performances were aired in their entirety. Cuts from the show itself were uploaded to Mnets’s Official Youtube Channel. ]
If you made it this far, either if you were eliminated on this episode or not, you may add +3 POINTS IN A PERFORMANCE SKILL to your points tally. Make sure to link back to this post for verification.
Contestants have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 9th, to post their 200+ words solos about the final challenge in front of the CEOs. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5finale. They’ll have less than four minutes to perform each of their chosen performance and prove their worth to make them the big winners (as long as it doesn’t break any laws). Good luck! Song choices should be submitted to the rkevent inbox. Two groups performing the same song will not be allowed and this will be chosen on a first come first serve basis. Any group chats made for plotting should include both Mod Bianca (luvseungjoon on twitter) and Mod Gab (jindeukii on twitter) for monitoring.
Since the final episode will be filmed live, there is no way for the contestants to record their interviews after the performances. Instead, they will be taken by surprise on Thursday, the 8th, to a separate practice room where they’ll record the very last interview of the season. The contestants will be asked a variety of questions and some may be included in the list found below! Feel free to come up with your own questions if you think they can be fitting.
This is the very last interview. How does that make you feel?
What did you think of the results last week?
How was it like working with your group?
How was it like working with the coaches?
How do you think you’ll do?
Are there any performances you’re looking forward to?
What was your own favorite performance this season?
What was your favorite performance of the season apart from your own?
Who do you think will win?
Once they’re done, they’ll be taken back to their usual practice room.
You may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview, as explained above, to also be posted until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd. For doing so, you may earn +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS and these can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5finale. Please link this post as verification.
COACHES! If you write one 200+ words solo about your muse’s time spent interacting with the contestants you may earn +3 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS. You’ll also have until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 9th, to post your solos. These can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5finale. Please link this post as verification.
For an additional +2 CHARISMA OR CREATIVITY POINTS, you may also write an extra 200+ words solo about your muse’s interview. These would take place after or in between their time spent together on the 2nd. Coaches will be taken to a separate practice room where a mini-interview-set has been prepared for recording. Questions will mostly be about their thoughts on the contestants and how the performance preparations are going, as well as their expectations for final results. Please post this until midnight EST at the end of Friday, the 2nd, to collect points. These can be added to your points tally as soon as it is posted. Please tag all related posts with #rkmga5 and #rkmga5finale. Please link this post as verification.
If the coaches write their solos or not will not impact the results of the groups. More information about muses joining the live audience will come in a separate post.
