"Immortal Song 2" Under Fire For Harsh Elimination Method

The highly anticipated idol survival show, “Immortal Song 2,” has recently been under fire after the airing of its pilot episode on the 4th. Netizens have been critizing the program’s elimination method saying that it’s too harsh.

The set up of the show consists of six contestants competing one-on-one with each other. Meaning, after the first contestant performs, the said idol will compete against the following artist, and the first elimination will take place between just those two. In other words, one of the six will be already have been eliminated even before the remaining four contestants have the opportunity to show the audience and the judges what they have prepared.

As soon as the first episode ended, the program’s online boards were bombarded with criticisms about this method. Viewers have commented, “I think it would be better if the contestants were evaluated after all the artists have performed like the way it is done on ‘Survival: I Am A Singer.’  The choices are too narrow in a one-on-one format,” and “The elimination method seems to be too brutal for idols who are still very young. This method creates an unfair advantage for the later contestants. The contestants who go first eventually get forgotten by the time the last performance comes around.”

Because the first contestant needs to beat out five contestants, the chances of winning is 1/32, approximately 3%. On the other hand, the last contestant needs to defeat only one contestant, and the chances of winning jump markedly to 1/2, 50%.

In the first episode, the order was as follows: SHINee’s Jonghyun, Super Junior’s Yesung, IU, SISTAR’s Hyorin, B2ST’s Yoseob, 2AM’s Changmin. Although Hyorin won, in order for Jonghyun to have won, he would have needed to trump all five of his competitors.

In the first round, Jonghyun defeated Yesung and cried. During the program, the captions said he “cried because he felt bad,” but netizens have been speculating that he cried “because he couldn’t handle the anxiety and brutal nature of the show.”

To make matters worse, merely after the first episode, four out of the six contestants have confirmed their discontinuation in the program. Although IU, Yesung, Jonghyun, and Yoseob have all said that they were leaving as a result of their busy schedules, some are saying that they felt too pressured by the format of the program.

What do you guys think about this? Do you agree with the criticisms? Do you think the netizens are overreacting? Or does the show really need to reformat its structure?

Source: Osen via Naver

**Any copying, republication, or redistribution of SOOMPI’s content is strictly prohibited without prior consent of SOOMPI. Copyright infringement is subject to criminal and civil penalities.**