‘K-pop Star 6′ ‘last chance’ for wannabe K-pop stars: producers

Producers Park Jin-young, Yang Hyun-suk and You Hee-yeol pose for photos at the press conference discussing their upcoming reality music competition show “K-pop Star 6″ in southern Seoul on May 9, 2016. (Yonhap)

SEOUL (Yonhap) — The upcoming final season of the popular audition show “K-pop Star” will be the “last chance” for aspiring K-pop stars to make their dreams come true, its star-studded panel of judges said Monday.

The founders of three of South Korea’s leading management agencies — JYP Entertainment, YG Entertainment and Antenna Music — said they decided to make the sixth season their last because admittedly, the show was getting too repetitive.

“The subtitle of ‘K-pop Star 6′ is ‘The Last Chance,’” said Park Jin-young, founder and CEO of JYP. “The reason (we decided to make this our last season) is because the performances of the contestants and even our evaluations have gotten so repetitive they started draining us.”

Producers Park Jin-young, Yang Hyun-suk and You Hee-yeol pose for photos at the press conference discussing their upcoming reality music competition show “K-pop Star 6″ in southern Seoul on May 9, 2016. (Yonhap)

The judges were at first hesitant to end the show, but they eventually decided to do “what our hearts told us,” the singer-turned-producer said at the press conference at SBS headquarters.

The main difference between the final season and all its predecessors is that even trainees signed with existing agencies may enter the competition.

“We are fully opening our doors. Our goal is to find a K-pop star who will live up to that title,” Park said.

Previously, those already training for Park, Yang or Yoo’s agencies were barred from participating, but that restriction will no longer apply, the judges said.

That, however, does not mean they will give preferential treatment to their own trainees, Yang Hyun-suk, who founded and leads YG, said.

“I’ve been in entertainment for 30 years and I’m still afraid of you journalists and our viewers,” he said. “If we are biased, we could end up shutting down our businesses.”

Another difference is that the winner will not be required to choose from the three judges’ agencies. The three companies will collaborate to produce and promote the finalist who may stay with the agency he or she is already working with.

Meanwhile, Yang had a more personal reason to lament the show’s conclusion.

“I’ve probably hesitated the most among the three judges,” he said. “The remaining two have been in other shows, but I’ve only been on ‘K-pop Star.’ In fact, this may be my last TV show.”

Meanwhile, Yang said his agency will soon announce whether the iconic 90s boy band Sechs Kies will reunite after 16 years. Rumors of the group’s comeback have been rampant since Yang posted a photo of him with former boy band members on Instagram.

“There’s no reason for us to hide what’s going on, but please wait for us to make a formal announcement in three days,” he said.

Applications will open at the end of this month, with the show planned to premiere in November.

The audition series have so far produced stars such as Akdong Musician, Lee Hi and Sam Kim.

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