Your Newest Survival Show: Girls Planet 999
You've heard of Produce 101, now make way for the Girls Planet 999, Korea's newest survival show that will debut a nine-membered girl group by the end of the show. The 99 girls come from three different countries, 33 from South Korea (K-GROUP), 33 from China (C-GROUP), and 33 from Japan (J-GROUP).
Image credit: iQiyi
Each country that the contestants hail from are considered a Planet, alongside a Master Council made up of Kpop Masters who will mentor the trainees, and a Planet Master who is the MC and will act as the bridge between the trainees and the audience, otherwise known as Planet Guardians. Like most variety shows, the fate of the trainees is dependent on viewer's votes, but more on that later..
The Nation's Little Brother, actor Yeo Jin Goo is cast as the Planet Master while soloists Sunmi and Tiffany Young will be acting as the Kpop Masters. There are also Vocal Masters, Lim Hanbyul and Jo Ayoung, and Dance Masters, Back Kooyoung and Jang Juhee who will be training the contestants.
Image Credit: MNET
More about Girls Planet 999
Auditions for this programme were held between January to February this year and saw about 13,000 applications! As such, the number of individual trainees in this programme is high, with almost 25% of the contestants being individual trainees.
The first episode will air on 6 August, but the theme song O.O.O (Over&Over&Over) for each group has already been released. The song starts out elegant and majestic, before breaking into a lively, upbeat tempo full of girlish charms.
K-GROUP's rendition of O.O.O with Stardium's Kim Dayeon as the center was released on 12 July. The video has since garnered close to 1.5 million views.
C-GROUP's rendition of O.O.O with Top Class' Shen Xiaoting as the center was released on 14 July. The video has since garnered over 800 thousand views.
J-GROUP's rendition of O.O.O with Avex Artist Academy's Ezaki Hikaru as the center was released on 16 July. The video has since garnered over 900 thousand views.
O.O.O with all 99 trainees was just released today during M Countdown.
Where to watch and vote
For survival show lovers, you can catch Girls Planet 999 every Friday from 6 August at 8:20pm KST (7:20pm in Singapore) on Mnet. If you don't have access to Mnet, you can also watch it live on iQiyi.
Image credit: UNIVERSE
Want to support your favourite trainee? Voting will be done through the UNIVERSE app, a platform that connects fans with their idols, similar to WeVerse. Throughout the course of the show, exclusive content might be released on UNIVERSE as well.
You can find out more information and browse clips of the trainees on the Girls Planet 999 official page.
Trainees to look out for
As of 19 July, all the trainee profiles have been released. Their self-introduction videos and videos of them playing mini games have also been released. Naturally, some trainees have caught the eye of audiences. Here are three trainees, one from each group, to look out for!
K-GROUP Huening Bahiyyih
Does the name sound familiar to you? You might be wondering: 설마 (seol-ma; could it be) Huening Kai? Yup! One of the hottest trainees from K-GROUP is none other than TXT's maknae, Huening Kai's younger sister Huening Bahiyyih! She comes from a family of Kpop idols, with her older sister Lea being a former member of Kpop band VIVA and is now a model and YouTuber. In her self-introduction video, she showcased her bright and fun-loving personality by doing a 99-second speed challenge that not only showed off her quirks, but also introduced more about herself. Currently, her self introduction video has amassed over 1.3 million views.
C-GROUP Sun Ruiqi
A contestant on Produce 101 China and Produce Camp 2020, Sun Ruiqi is not new to survival shows. Since 2018, she has also promoted with the Cpop band Chic Chili with the name Sury and has also debuted as a soloist. In C-GROUP's rendition of O.O.O, she stole the audience's heart when she sang the line "바로 나야" (ba-ro na-ya; that's me) while holding the ace of spades. Currently, her self-introduction video has garnered over 100 thousand views.
J-GROUP Ezaki Hikaru
If her name sounds familiar to you, that's because she's the center for J-GROUP's performance of O.O.O! Although she stands at 154.5cm, don't underestimate her stature as her presence and power in rapping will blow you away! In her self-introduction video, her introduces herself to have features similar to that of a smiling sloth and introduces herself with a rap. She also shows us her Korean prowess by speaking and rapping completely in Korean throughout the video! Naturally a fast talker, even her speaking sounds like a rap! Currently, her self-introduction video has accumulated over 200 thousand views.
Are you excited to see what's in store for these 99 girls? We definitely are! While we wait for 6 August to come, check out more videos about the trainees on Mnet's YouTube channel!
If you’d like to find out what other bands were formed through survival shows, check out our listicle on 7 Kpop bands that you didn’t know came from survival shows!