Mnet’s comeback war variety show Kingdom will reportedly not air this year. There are various reasons behind its cancellation and one of them is its casting lineup.
On July 29, while addressing rumors surrounding to Kingdom, Mnet’s representative said, “There were many disappointing aspects of ‘Road To Kingdom’ due to the fact that we were forced to carry out ‘Road To Kingdom’ with no audiences, as a result of COVID19.”
“The staff is currently discussing new measures for ‘Kingdom’. Therefore, ‘Kingdom’ has been pushed back and set aside from this year’s upcoming programs. In the latter half of 2020, Mnet is preparing competition programs like ‘I-Land Part.2’, ‘Captain’, and ‘Show Me The Money 9’. Please look forward to these programs,” the representative added.
“When we did Road to Kingdom, many of our artists for the lineup were revealed in advance. We will try to prepare our lineup more carefully,” Road to Kingdom CP Park Chan Wook said.
However, it is not easy to have secrets when casting groups for a show like this and in facts rumors have spread surround the groups appearing on Kingdom. Due to the nature of the show, there was a lot of burden for the artists themselves as the show is a competitions ranking the idols against themselves.
Besides paying a whopping amount for the quality stages, agencies had to persuade their artists to take part on the show.
Among the issues that come up was how Mnet is showing favoritism, especially on Road To Kingdom with their group TOO. For the unversed, Too was one the show even before they could debut to compete against five year group PENTAGON.
Too had recently acknowledged how they have gained fame and recognition due to Road to Kingdom. This issue is again popping up for the Kingdom artist lineup, where groups that have members that were on Mnet audition programs are being forced to join the show.
Rumors are rife that there have been various complaints about CJ ENM prioritizing the groups it invests in. The final issue is that Road to Kingdom could not become as popular as it predecessor, Queendom. The Road To Kingdom might be highly watched on the show but it has failed to gain any fame from the general public.
These issues are could be the reasons why Kingdom might not broadcast in 2020.
Meanwhile, Mnet’s ‘Road To Kingdom’ which ended earlier this year in June featured boy groups Pentagon, ONF, Golden Child, The Boyz, VERIVERY, ONEUS, and TOO.