No eliminations: Producer explains how 'Kingdom: Legendary War' will be different

TVXQ's Max Changmin is an emcee for Mnet's competition show “Kingdom: Legendary War.” Courtesy of Mnet

By Dong Sun-hwa

A competition between high-profile K-pop boy bands is about to kick off.

Mnet's survival show “Kingdom: Legendary War,” featuring six groups ― BTOB, iKON, SF9, The Boyz, Stray Kids and ATEEZ ― will air its first episode at 7:50 p.m. Thursday (KST). But the program is not a cookie-cutter version of its previous incarnations “Road to Kingdom” (2020) or “Queendom” (2019), according to its producer.

“No groups will be eliminated on the way,” producer Lee Young-joo said during an online press conference, Thursday. “It is nonsensical to eliminate any of them, given their artistry and uniqueness. We want our viewers to watch their riveting performances until the end.”

This time, he added, fans in Korea and around the world will be able to vote for the best performances.

“To achieve objectivity, all gigs will be assessed based on our self-evaluation (25 percent), experts' evaluations (25 percent), voting from fans (40 percent) and video scores (10 percent),” he said. “For now, we will not disclose the names of the experts, but we have music critics, choreographers and music video directors among many others.”

For the six K-pop acts, getting involved in a fierce competition could be physically and mentally taxing, but they still chose to make appearances out of their thirst for the stage and performance.

“IKON members agonized over whether to join the program or not, but we finally decided to take part in it because we wanted to showcase our performances to people amid this tough time, in which we cannot readily perform in front of people,” iKON's Jinhwan said.

SF9's Youngbin said, “We believed we would be able to take a leap if we went head to head against other fabulous singers. It is a bit embarrassing to say this, but SF9 members have frequently been praised for physical appearances. Through the program, we want to show that we are also musically talented.”

Meanwhile, Max Changmin of K-pop duo TVXQ will host "Kingdom" alone for the time being. Another TVXQ member U-Know Yunho had also been set to appear, but he suspended his plan after being caught violating social distancing rules at an escort bar in Seoul in February.