CJ ENT criticized for hiring a producer who has just been released from prison for "Produce 101"

CJ ENT is said to be challenging public opinion after revealing information about recruiting Ahn Joon Young, to work as its employee after 2 years of this producer serving a prison sentence for vote rigging.

Ahn Joon Yong previously contributed a lot to the “giant’s” Mnet channel, as the director of the talent search music program “Produce 101” from 2016 to 2019.

Producer Ahn Joon Young - who was jailed for 2 years after a vote bribery scandal. Photo: Korea Times

In 2019, producer Ahn was accused of accepting bribes and manipulating voting results in favor of some contestants in the seasons of "Produce 101" that he directed. This program has produced 4 project groups: IOI, Wanna One, IZ*ONE and X1. Due to the scandal from the program's producer, the 4 groups' reputations have been affected and fans have lost their trust.

In 2021, the Seoul Supreme Court upheld a lower court's ruling that sent Ahn Joon Young to prison for two years, and ordered him to pay 37 million won (US$27,000) in compensation.

Joon Young later resigned from Mnet and was unexpectedly announced to return to work at the company this April. The famous TV channel Mnet, in the face of the "storm of public opinion", explained that they decided to give him a second chance after considering the sincerity and enthusiasm of this employee with the desire to contribute to "restore trust" with the public.

However, news of his return has angered many, especially supporters of boy band X1, the group most affected by the scandal, the 11-member group - formed during the fourth season of "Produce 101" and disbanded just four months after their debut due to Mnet's vote-rigging scandal.

X1 is a group that disbanded due to Ahn Joon Young's bribery scandal. Photo: Mnet

Many Koreans expressed their dissatisfaction with this decision, sharing:

"Ahn Joon Young shattered the dreams of idol trainees and made them despair."

"Why does Mnet only care about their own expectations without thinking about the mistakes this production director has caused to K-pop fans?"

Rep. Ha Tae Keung of the People's Power Party also criticized CJ ENM on Facebook, saying: "We cannot entrust the future of our country's entertainment and content creation industry to a company that encourages crime instead of creating opportunities for other loyal and honest people."

Produce 101 was once the most loved and watched program in the land of Kim Chi. Photo: Mnet

After the endless controversy, Mnet had to apologize and appease the public: "Our decision to re-hire Ahn Joon Young was definitely a mistake. We decided to give him a chance to make up for his past mistakes, but this did not meet society's expectations of fairness.

We would like to apologize to those who love Mnet and our staff. We will humbly accept our limitations in hiring and are determined to prevent incidents like this from happening again."

However, the station was quite vague when it did not reveal in its statement whether the company would fire producer Ahn as the public demanded. However, CJ leaders said that they are discussing this and will have a satisfactory answer for the public.