UPDATED March 31:
New Era Project, a management agency of the seven finalists in TV CHOSUN‘s Mr. Trot, today stated that the recent allegations of sanctions against those contestants by other broadcasters were definitely false.
The company made an official statement on the speculative media coverage, which was reported on the day of the final round of Mr. Trot, about KBS‘s sanctions against one of the Top 7 contestants. “We’ve never heard that the Korean broadcasters would restrict the contestants of Mr. Trot from appearing in their programs. Therefore, our artists will never be damaged by disadvantages about which many fans are worried,” New Era Project said. “We’re rather afraid of any inconveniences, which may be caused by the excessive concerns, between the contestants and the officials from the broadcasters,” the agency added.
Mentioning the allegations related to KBS, New Era Project stressed that it had never heard of those sanctions. “We’re already discussing our artists’ appearances with a lot of programs. Above all, a KBS producer’s remark on restricting Young Tak from the music shows is not true at all,” the company dismissed the controversy.
Shortly after the spread of the articles about KBS’s “gapjil” behavior (refer to the original article below) related to Mr. Trot, some of the media consecutively reported that Young Tak, who had become the “sun (No. 2 winner)” in the final round of Mr. Trot, was the victim of the threat made by an anonymous KBS producer. KBS denied the allegation aggressively, saying that it’s never stopped the contestants in other broadcasters’ shows from appearing in its programs. “There’s no reason to do it,” KBS said.
Original Article
Just ahead of the final round to be aired tonight (10 p.m. on March 12, KST), TV CHOSUN‘s survival audition show Mr. Trot has been at the center of so-called “gapjil” controversy.
According to the exclusive report by a Korean daily newspaper Sports World on March 12, multiple officials in the broadcasting industry revealed that a producer of KBS had warned a participant in Mr. Trot about his appearance in the popular show. “As a warning, which sounds rather like a threat, the producer told the participant not to dream of appearing in KBS’s music programs if he would continuously do in Mr. Trot. This incident has already become known to the cast of the show,” the officials said.
The participant threatened by the producer is said to be one of the last 7 survivors who have scraped into the final round in Mr. Trot. Sports World has kept his name anonymous as well as the producer’s identity, however, since the participant has his own finale ahead.
As many viewers of Mr. Trot have been paying a huge attention to the Top 7 participants’ future careers including albums, the TV shows and the live stages. How long and actively will they perform as the new stars of trot scene after the end of the program?
