[Seoul=RNX News] Hyun Jae-hoon Reporter = The K-POP world-scale debut project ‘Boys 2 Planet’ has ignited the flames of popularity as it officially begins its debut competition.
Mnet’s ‘Boys 2 Planet’ (BOYS II PLANET / Directed by Kim Shin-young, Jeong Woo-young, Go Jung-kyung) episode 3 depicted the tense ‘1vs1 Class Battle’ with survivors from the K and C planets.
With the ranks and standings of the survivors fully disclosed, participants pledged determination to ascend to higher ranks by showcasing their strengths. Adding to this, Ong Seong-wu, as the first Planet Master, encouraged the participants, greatly enhancing the atmosphere.
That day’s broadcast also experienced massive popularity, reaching nearly 80% simultaneous viewership among live channels on TVING, and ranked first in real-time search keywords.
Moreover, Mnet Plus’s global live viewership increased by over 50% from the previous week, indicating significant global interest in the K-POP world-scale project. Its global trend was prominent as well.
On X (formerly Twitter), keywords related to the ‘Boys 2 Planet’ program and participants trended in major countries including Korea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It also entered the real-time search trends on Weibo, China’s leading SNS platform.
Meanwhile, the second global vote by Star Creators to determine the boys’ fates is available once a day through the global K-POP content platform Mnet Plus until 10 AM on the 8th (Thursday).
Through this vote, the final survivor among the lowest-ranking surviving participants will be decided during the live streaming announcement ceremony at 3 PM on the 8th (Thursday).
The ‘1vs1 Class Battle’ aired that day featured the representative song of a group that won the Rookie of the Year award at the Mnet year-end awards. A total of 10 teams with 8 members each of the same rank faced off by choosing the same song.
The winning team was decided by the star creators in attendance, with a huge benefit of up to 300,000 points at stake if a lower rank beats a higher rank, fueling the competitive spirit.
Particularly, with only 48 All-Star, Two-Star participants surviving to continue the journey, contestants poured their passion into team building, part arranging, and practice.
However, in the second rank determination battle, Yumeki shocked others by forming an Avengers-level team after clinching the top spot.
The first stage of the rank war featured Stray Kids’ ‘special’. Led by team leader Jo Gye-hyun, Team 1 performed swiftly and flawlessly from part distribution to practice, setting up a high-quality stage.
Notably, Kim In-hoo, who faced difficulties during practice, showed a much-improved stage with the encouragement of his teammates, while Kim Jun-min marked the pinnacle of stage dominance.
Receiving praiseworthy feedback from the master panel, “All 8 of them were noticeable, which is a big strength of this team,” they gained an upper hand with a 6:2 in personal votes by position against Team 2.
The second stage was Throes’ ‘First Meeting Doesn’t Go as Planned’. Team 1, which raised concerns among the masters about capturing the bright atmosphere of the song, displayed perfect chemistry on stage.
Notably, Na Yun-seo, who encouraged Heo Sin-long to regain his confidence, displayed a warm rapport between the two amidst fierce competition.
On the other hand, Team 2, with leader Jeon Yi-jeong, composed a team optimized for the concept with members Choi Lip-woo, Jung Sang-hyeon, Jang Han-eum, and Lee Chen, revealing a strong desire to win with a fresh atmosphere performance.
The fourth episode of ‘Boys 2 Planet’, airing on the 7th at 9:20 PM, will showcase the results of the Star Creators’ 1vs1 Class Battle vote along with legendary cover stages by the participants such as TVXQ’s ‘Rising Sun (Pure)’, Zerobase1’s ‘Kill the Romeo(KILL THE ROMEO)’, and Aespa’s ‘Whiplash’. [Image source = Mnet ‘Boys 2 Planet’ episode 3 broadcast capture]