R U Next?

On June 1, 2023, JTBC and Belift Lab announced that they had began filming for the new survival program R U Next?, which aims to create the agency's next global girl group. The contestants would be assessed through seven rounds.^[1] On the same day, Girls' Generation's Choi Soo-young was confirmed as the show's host.^[2] On June 7, the official Twitter, Instagram and Weverse accounts for R U Next? opened and the first set of promotional posters were posted. An article was also released on the same day confirming the show would be containing seven missions and would also air through Wavve and Netflix in South Korea and Abema TV in Japan from June 30, at 8:50PM KST.^[3] On June 9, former Miss A member and actress, Bae Suzy, was confirmed to sing the signal song for R U Next?. It was released on June 12 at 6:00PM KST.^[4] Profiles of the twenty-two contestants were revealed on June 16, with individual profile photos and introduction videos.^[5]

Final lineup

After the performances of the final round, the six-member final lineup was decided through a combination of votes and label consideration. The six winners - Wonhee, Youngseo, Iroha, Yunah, Minju, and Moka - were chosen to become members of ILLIT, the first girl group under BeLift Lab, and in turn, the third girl group to debut under Hybe after Le Sserafim and NewJeans.^[6] However, Youngseo left the pre-debut lineup which was announced on 5 January 2024,^[7] and hence the group was later confirmed to debut with the remaining five members.^[8] Illit debuted on March 25, 2024 and released their debut album, Super Real Me, with Hybe's chairman Bang Si-hyuk participating as producer of their album.^[9][10] The group's name "Illit" is the combination of the phrase, 'I will' and the word, 'it,' according to Hybe, which demonstrates the group's desire to go beyond their potential and strive to be what they want it to be.^[11]

Host

• Choi Soo-young

Coaches^[12]

• Park Gyu-ri
• Lee Hyun
• Jo Kwon
• Kim Jae-hwan
• Aiki
• Vincenzo
• Mandu

Guests

• Baekho - special coach for Round 2 (Episode 2-3)
• Jay Park – special coach for Round 3 (Episode 4)
• Enhypen's Heeseung & Jungwon – special coach for Round 4 (Episode 5-6)^[13]
• Woozi - special coach for Round 4 (Episode 5-6)
• Shin Kung - special coach for Round 6 (Episode 9)

Round 1: Tryout

• Episode 1-2

The try out is the gateway to see if you have the potential to become a member. The trainees have been divided into 7 different units with 3-4 members per unit. The tryouts will be evaluated within each unit. Each unit will be evaluated by the coaches after their performances.^[15] The unit members will then each be divided into three levels: HIGH LEVEL (H), MID LEVEL (M), and LOW LEVEL (L).

Round 2: Death Match

• Episode 2-3

The theme of the mission is the debut title tracks of the 4th generation idol groups of HYBE. Within the three levels formed, 2 units will be formed. Two units will perform together with the same song. The unit that wins will get a benefit of extra points. Starting from this mission, there will be eliminations. Trainees in the Low Level will become elimination candidates.^[16]

The coaches chose the 1st and 2nd places by level after Round 1. The 1st and 2nd place of each level has the advantage of choosing the members of their unit. In selecting the songs the Low Level team chooses first, however higher teams can push aside the lower ranking teams if they want to select the same song.

A mini mission was carried out to decide the killing part for each song. Each contestant will carry out an expression audition in front of a camera to see how well they can leave an impression with the first verse of their mission songs and test their expressive skills. The contestants will vote amongst themselves to choose who gets the killing part.

Each coach will give scores to the individual trainees from 1 - 100 (up to a total individual score of 700). The average of the individual scores will be the overall team score, where higher team score will be the winner for each song. The winning unit receives an extra 50 points added on their individual score.

Color key

Bold denotes the contestant who picked the team members.

Round 3: All-Rounder

• Episode 3-5

The contestants will be divided into 3 units of 7 members each, regardless of their level. The three unit will be performing two different genres, heel choreography and hip-hop. Each song for the heel choreography will include a mission prop.

The units are formed around each levels' 1st place trainee, Hyewon, Seoyeon and Yewon. The three leaders will have the power to decide the parts and flow of the practice sessions. The heel choreo songs are decided based on a flexibility test and hip hop songs are decided based on 'Show me the SWF' freestyle dance and rap competition, where the winning unit will choose the mission songs for all the units.

After each performance, each coach will give scores to the individual trainees from 1 - 100 (the total of individual scores will become the final unit score). The winning unit receives an extra 100 benefit points and the second place unit receives an extra 50 benefit points.

Mission 1: Heel Choreo

Bold denotes the contestant who picked the team members and acts as the team's leader.

Mission 2: Hip Hop

Bold denotes the contestant who picked the team members and acts as the team's leader.

Round 4: The Specialists

• Episode 5-6

Bold denotes the contestant who picked the team members and acts as the team's leader.

Round 5: Concept Game

• Episode 7-8

This round consists of two missions, testing how well the contestants digest songs of different concepts that are represented through colors. The final results for this round is composed of 50% Color mission and 50% Black Mission.

Mission 1: Color mission

Starting from lower-ranked contestants to the higher-ranked contestants, the contestants choose their desired songs based on the color of the room, which indicates the concept of the song, as well as the artist pictured on the outside of a door. The higher-ranked contestants must push out a member if there are more than five people in a room.

Within each group, each contestant will each decide how the parts should be distributed. Each contestant in the group then votes on which distribution they think is the most ideal, which ends up being the final part distribution. The contestant whose part distribution is chosen will also be the leader.

Each coach will give scores to each individual contestant from 1 - 100 (up to a total evaluation score of 700). Each contestant's total score calculated will consist of 700 evaluation points from the coaches, 200 points from the on-site audience, and 500 points from the 2nd votes voting round. When each contestant's total scores are added together, there is a maximum of 4500 points possible to be scored per unit. The trainees will no longer be divided by the High, Mid and Low Zone from around 5 onwards, instead the top six contestants based on the combined results of Mission 1 and 2 would be ranked in the Next Zone (A.K.A Orange Zone) while those ranked 7th and below would be relegated into the Grey Zone, with those ranked the bottom three be eliminated.

Color key

Bold denotes the contestant whose part distributions were chosen and acts as the team's leader.

Mission 2: Black Mission

The second mission involves each team choosing one contestant as a representative and performing one song.

Color key

Bold denotes the contestant whose part distributions were chosen and acts as the team's leader.

Round 6: Image Training

• Episode 9

This round tests trainees potential with two teams competing against each other with original songs as well as performing two cover songs.

Color key

Mission 2: Global Kpop Mission

Round 7: Finish Line

Group mission

The group mission is the performance of the show's theme song. This marked the first and final time the ten finalists of the show get to perform together.

Medley of Round 2 performances

This marked the return of all 22 contestants (consisting of the ten finalists and the twelve eliminated trainees) who performed a special medley of Round 2 performances, in their original teams from Round 2.

First voting period

The first global voting period took place from June 23, 2023, at 12pm KST to July 5, 12am KST. Fans were able to vote for six contestants, once a day. 50% domestic and 50% global votes were converted into scores.

Color key

Second voting period

The second global voting period took place from July 7, 2023, at 12pm KST to July 20, 12am KST. Fans were able to vote for six contestants, once a day. 50% domestic and 50% global votes were converted into scores.

Color key

Third voting period

The third global voting period took place from July 21, 2023, at 10:30pm KST to Aug 10, 12am KST. Fans were able to vote for six contestants, once a day. 50% domestic and 50% global votes were converted into scores.

Color key

Final Live Voting

Color key

Singles

R U Next, during its time of broadcast, gained a large fan following from South Korea and many other countries. The final episode was viewed in 182 countries and regions, and over 23 million votes were cast globally to select six contestants to join the debut lineup. During the broadcast of the show, its official TikTok channel accumulated over 800 million views, and the show's official accounts on other social media platforms attracted more than one million followers. The final lineup, consisting of Wonhee, Youngseo, Minju, Iroha, Moka, and Yunah, received good fan reception.^[19][20]

Despite its popularity among fans, there were several controversies surrounding the show. Among them were the selection of the debut lineup members, because the system of choosing the six members of the debut lineup, mainly two via fan voting and four via label pick, caused some dissatisfaction among viewers who felt the fan votes were not the main factor behind choosing the members of the debut lineup, and another reason was due to the elimination of some trainees who were among the most well-liked contestants by fans, who felt they deserved a chance to debut like the six winners.^[21][22]

• Official website (in Korean)