Despite its seemingly squeaky image, reality survival show Produce 101 China is not without some skeletons that production probably wished would stay buried forever. In a recent interview, former trainee Kimberley Chen gave audiences the 411 on some never before revealed happenings trainees of the show were forced to experience.
One of the things the singer shared were the methods employed by the show to amp up the appearance of how tired everyone was after a grueling training schedule. In reality, Produce 101 staff would knock on everyone’s doors at four in the morning to hustle them all downstairs… only to wait around for three hours doing nothing.
Working Under Next to Zero Sleep and Red Bull
In the beginning, Kimberley said she went along with it until she found out that it was all part of a ploy to keep the girls from getting some much needed shut eye. The singer added that they usually finished work quite late especially when they had to shoot individual interview scenes. Because there are quite a number of girls lined up, trainees often had to wait until three or four in the morning for their turn. However, she once overheard staff instructing the younger trainees that they don’t need to sleep, and to “just hurry up and retouch your make-up then to come back out”. As a result, most trainees heavily relied on drinking Red Bull to keep their energies up.
Kimberley Chen also said that she felt quite distressed seeing everyone being treated that way. Later, she and her roommates boycotted the staff’s behaviour, locking their doors and putting on headphones to drown them out when they come knocking. At one point, program staff even asked hotel management to remove the locks from their doors which management thankfully refused. It’s unsurprising then that they were slowly cut out in latter parts of the season says the singer.
Now we all know that reality shows are pretty much scripted up to a certain point but who knew the extent the girls were forced to endure just to give the show a heightened sense of verisimilitude?
Showbiz Beginnings
Before joining Produce 101 China in 2018, Kimberley Chen had already gotten her feet wet in the entertainment industry with a few stints on Australian television and Broadway and later as a trainee for JYP. Despite placing under the A+ group (the highest ranking in the show) for her outstanding singing and dancing skills, she was later eliminated at 26th place. The singer is also known for her debut song 愛你 Ai Ni which she released in 2012.
Sunny
That is so cruel. Glad she spilled the beans. This is why i don’t follow any of these types of idol competition shows because they are all manipulated and rigged. Might as well just watch a drama-at least that is honest about being fake-rather than watch a bunch of corporate people play games with dreams and hopes of young people
vhel
reality shows are generally known to do super shady and awful things behind the scenes to project a certain image and for ratings so im not even surprised at this plus considering all of the korean p101 scandals there is a certain kind of understanding on how these shows work especially for people in it who aren’t famous and/or are just starting out in the industry
GoldenAngelFeather
Who was she roommates with in the show?
trueblueclue
I watched this show and it was so f*cking rigged as the weeks went on. Yang Chao Yue can’t sing or dance for shit and she kept being on first place every week. The biggest secret I want to know is if she slept with anyone. Not trying to trash her or anything but that girl is not very talented on p101, she only has the look. I don’t watch her series so can’t comment on her acting, my opinion of her is just based on p101. I felt bad for the other trainees thinking that the show will help them when it was not at all.
GoldenAngelFeather
Dunno if she did anything to get her position but it was said many people voted for her because they were reminded of themselves and that she was very humane like with no special skills like other trainees had. Imo, she didn’t deserve the position in the group because though she had worked very hard and did her best, there were better ones out there. Many thought she was also very pretty but imo she’s not that pretty, there were prettier trainees but this is again very subjective.
As for her acting, it’s the typical awkward acting many have who start doing this without any eduction in acting or having the born talent for it. I watched her in Dance of the Phoenix, loved the drama itself but her acting was meh, if the plot was acted out by other actresses and actors it might have had a different feeling.
From the show though and also bts from drama, I can see she’s a very friendly person though, very nice and funny and a pretty simple person. She doesn’t whine or pretend to bew eak or aynthing, pretty hard working!