I-Land2: N/a (Korean: 아이랜드 2; stylized in all caps) is a 2024 South Korean girl group survival reality competition series created by Mnet in collaboration with WakeOne and The Black Label.[2] It is a sequel to I-Land, which created Enhypen, following the process of creating a new girl group.[3] It premiered on Mnet on April 18, 2024, and was separated into two parts. The episodes of Part 1 aired every Thursday at 20:50 (KST)[4] and the episodes of Part 2 aired every Thursday at 21:30 (KST). The show ended with the formation of a seven-member girl group named Izna, which would be trained and managed under WakeOne and become their first non-temporary girl group with a standard contract.[5][6]
Concept
In a setup similar to last season, the show is split into two Parts. In Part 1, twenty-four contestants are brought to a complex in the middle of a lush green forest. They will stay in either "I-Land" or "Ground". I-Land is a modern three-floor building with living spaces, a gym, dance studios, an item room for storage, a make-up room, and individual practice rooms. However, only 12 contestants can stay there. The remaining contestants will be sent to a simpler building called "Ground," which only has a dance studio, locker room, and dining area. They will have to commute to and from "I-Land" every day at fixed times. I-Land, and the stage where contestants' skills will be evaluated, known as the I-Stage, are connected by a gate, known as the Meta Ball. Ground is a short walk from those two connected buildings.
In Part 2, the remaining 12 contestants all get to stay in I-Land and the Ground building no longer gets used. The section of the building where I-Stage used to be became a pickup/drop-off spot for the contestants to get to and from their new performance stage, the CJ ENM Ilsan Studio.
Part 1's concept revolves around the contestants' and producers' votes and evaluation, which play a crucial role in deciding who stays in I-Land, who goes to the Ground, and who gets eliminated. In Part 2, the concept shifts to the I-Mates' and producers' votes and evaluation, which play a crucial role in deciding the contestants rankings, and again, who gets eliminated. Because I-Land can only accommodate 12 trainees, in Part 1, the contestants may be dropped and demoted to the Ground and promptly replaced by trainees from the Ground.
This season, a fox-like AI creature named NAsuri will accompany the trainees and serve as the show's mascot. For this season, the audience will be known as I-Mates. The title of this season's signal song is "Final Love Song", which is a rendition of "The Final Countdown" by Europe.
Background and promotion
On July 9, 2023, Mnet officially confirmed they plan to air I-Land 2 in the first half of 2024. Additionally, they announced the opening of global auditions for girls born before January 1, 2011, and a global audition tour was held in 10 countries and 13 cities.[7][8]
A second season of I-Land was promoted since 2020 as a collaboration with Belift Lab and Hybe. This initial plan eventually fell through, and Belift Lab instead produced R U Next?.[9][10]
On September 18, 2020, during the finale of the first season of I-Land, at the very end during the credits, it was revealed that auditions would begin shortly in preparation for debuting a girl group.[11] An online audition called 'WWW Untact Audition' was held in December 2020.[12]
On September 27, 2021, Mnet, Belift Lab and HYBE revealed the first teaser video announcing a new season to be called 'I-Land 2' and a global online audition was to be held in seven locations: Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, Thailand, Taiwan, and the United States.[13][14] The applicant submissions began on September 27 and ended on October 10. Any female born before December 31, 2009, regardless of nationality or place of residence, were eligible to apply and over 141,227 applications were received.[15] For those who passed the first round, a real-time video call audition was held from October 24 to November 21 and the final candidates were selected through another audition.[16]
On July 15, 2022, Mnet said that they had decided to temporarily postpone the airing of the show which was scheduled to air in 2022".[17][18]
On July 24, 2023, Mnet announced that they would collaborate with producer Teddy Park and his label; The Black Label. On November 28, on the first day of the 2023 MAMA Awards, Mnet revealed that I-LAND 2 will premiere in April 2024.[19] On February 5, 2024, it was revealed through the media that I-LAND 2 had attracted around 20,000 applicants from a global audition tour that ended in October 2023.[20] On March 11, it was announced that the show will premiere on April 18,[21] while the show's producers and performance directors were revealed to be BIGBANG's Taeyang, dancers Monika and Lee Jung, and producers 24 and VVN a week later.[22]
The contestants are to perform a song in groups of three to five contestants. However, unlike the first season, the producers and directors will vote for those deemed worthy to go to I-Land instead of having the contestants who aren't performing participate in a vote for each performer. If a contestant receives three or more votes from the producers, they get the chance to go to I-Land; otherwise, they go to Ground. However, if more than 12 contestants received enough votes to get a chance to go to I-Land after the entrance test is complete, those who were voted to enter I-Land must choose a certain number, based on the number of producer and director votes received, of contestants among themselves to keep in I-Land. Those with the fewest votes would be moved to Ground until only 12 remain.
Color key
I-Land
Contestant moved to "I-Land" but was voted off and moved to "Ground"
For this mission, all of I-Land is one unit, and all of Ground is another unit. Both units have to perform the signal song of the show, Final Love Song. The parts for this mission is decided by the highest ranking contestant from the previous mission in I-Land, being Jungeun, and in Ground, all the contestants vote for a leader to make the part decisions. For the I-Land performance, each I-Lander gets assessed individually by the producers and the directors, based on how well they executed their parts in the performance of the Signal Song. The average score that the I-Landers receive as a team determines how many people will be demoted from I-Land; the lower the average score, the more demotion candidates there would be. The I-Landers received an average score of 84(.5), therefore three I-Landers would get moved out of I-Land by the I-Landers own votes. Each I-Lander would receive three votes to use to choose who to keep in I-Land and following the vote, the three I-Landers with the fewest votes would be demoted to Ground, which would open up three spots in I-Land for replacement contestants from Ground. The producers and directors would then watch the Grounders performance and choose three of them to replace the demoted I-Landers.
Color key
Contestant got promoted to I-Land by producer and director choice
Contestant got demoted to Ground by I-Lander vote
Signal Song Test (Episode 2)
Part
I-Lander
Grounder
Contestant
Score
Contestant
Score
Center
Son Juwon
92
Nam Yuju
Undisclosed
Main Vocalist
Choi Jungeun
96
Um Jiwon
Main Dancer
Kim Sujung
80
Kim Minsol
Part 4
Fuko
75
Kim Eunchae
Part 5
Kim Gyuri
78
Choi Soul
Part 6
Yui
75
Yuiko
Part 7
Ryu Sarang
83
Kim Chaeeun
Part 8
Bang Jeemin
93
Park Yeeun
Part 9
Koko
86
Lingling
Part 10
Jeong Saebi
79
Oh Yuna
Part 11
Yoon Jiyoon
88
Kang Jiwon
Part 12
Mai
90
Nana
Seesaw Game
For this mission, both the I-Landers and the Grounders will be divided into two units. The units will be decided based on whoever the I-Landers and Grounders partnered up with for team-building activities prior to the mission; in other words, partners cannot be in the same unit. Each partner duo have to decide between each other which unit to be in based on the song they'd have to perform. Both I-Land and Ground will each get two songs each, for a total of four songs overall. The I-Landers received Whistle by Blackpink and Panorama by Iz*One, while the Grounders received Bad Boy by Red Velvet and Like Ooh-Ahh by Twice. The parts for this mission are decided by the leader of each unit, which was decided through a vote. Each contestant is assessed individually and the combined score of all six members determines the unit score. In I-Land, if one unit defeats the other, by having a higher unit score, all the members of the defeated unit will all move down to Ground, while for Ground, the members of the winning unit will all go up to I-Land. After all the necessary contestants have been moved between I-Land to Ground, the first elimination of the show will take place where the two contestants with the lowest scores from either of the losing units would be eliminated from the show.
For this mission, both the I-Landers and the Grounders will have to divide themselves up into three units, a vocal unit consisting of two people, a dance unit consisting of three people, and a creative unit consisting of the rest of I-Land or Ground. The I-Land unit of one category would go up against the respective matching unit from Ground. The vocal units receive one song each, the dance units; two each, and the creative units get the same song. The creative unit has the extra job of creating their own choreography from scratch for the song they receive. Each contestant is assessed individually and the average score of all of the contestants in the unit would determine the unit score, which was always rounded down to the whole number. For every I-Land unit that receives a lower unit score than the matching Ground unit, three members from I-Land would be demoted down to Ground following all of the performances. This would make for a maximum of nine contestants' demotions from I-Land. The amount of promotions from Ground would match the amount of demoted I-Landers. The demoted contestants would be decided by whichever contestants had the lowest scores from I-Land, and the promoted contestants would be decided by whichever contestants had the highest scores from Ground. After all the necessary contestants have been moved between I-Land to Ground, the second elimination of the show will take place where the two contestants from Ground with the lowest individual scores would be eliminated from the show.
Right after the relocation of contestants from the results of the Unit Battle, the producers introduce a lyric writing mini mission to the contestants for the original song, I Will Always Love You (IWALY). The winner of this mini mission gets their written lyrics featured in the song, their name featured as a co-lyricist of the song, and the benefit of choosing whatever part they want, regardless of what the other contestants chose for their desired part, when it came time to choose for this mission. Fuko is revealed as the winner of the mini mission, and the I-Landers proceed to choosing their desired team and parts, in the order of the producer-formulated ranking. After the other 11 contestants have chosen their desired parts, Fuko, as the winner of the mini mission, gets to choose whatever part she wants, whether it was occupied already or not. She chose Team A's center, therefore moving Jiyoon, who previously selected that part, to the final empty part of the mission, being Team B's Main Vocalist. The contestants who selected the same part on different teams, e.g. Team A's Center and Team B's Center, are compared by the producers following the performances and the winner of the matchup, or the person who performed the part better, automatically advances to Part 2 of the show. The loser of the matchup gets demoted to Ground and will have to wait for the results of the 1st Save Vote to be revealed, alongside the Grounders. For the Grounders, their performance was more of "a final performance to impress the audience to have them vote for you" instead of having some of them replace the demoted I-Landers. Their parts were decided by their leader, which was decided through a vote, and they were not assessed directly by the producers during and after their performance.
Color key
Advanced to Part 2 (Producer's Pick)
Demoted to Ground
Grounder's Leader
1:1 Position Battle (Episode 6)
Part
I-Lander
Grounder
Song
Original Artist
Team A
Team B
Center
Fuko
Yui
Um Jiwon
"IWALY"
Original Song
Main Vocalist
Kim Sujung
Yoon Jiyoon
Kim Gyuri
Main Dancer
Jeong Saebi
Koko
Son Juwon
Part 4
Bang Jeemin
Ryu Sarang
Park Yeeun
Part 5
Choi Jungeun
Lingling
Oh Yuna
Part 6
Mai
Nam Yuju
Kim Chaeeun
Part 7
Kim Minsol
Part 8
Choi Soul
1st Save Vote
The Grounders, after the final mission of Part 1, have been waiting to find out the results of the 1st Save Vote, where each I-Mate can vote for 6 contestants that they want to advance to Part 2 daily. A total of 50% of each contestant's points are based on Korean votes and the other 50% is based on international votes. The two vote counts would be added together and converted into a points total for each contestant. The contestants with the top 6 highest points totals would automatically advance to Part 2, while the rest of the contestants would be eliminated from the show.
Color key
Advanced to Part 2 (I-Mate Votes)
Eliminated from the show
1st Save Vote (Episode 7)
Rank
Contestant
Votes
Total Points 50% Korea + 50% Global
Korea
Global
1
Bang Jeemin
122,696
885,334
2,015,422
2
Koko
106,243
814,534
1,799,728
3
Nam Yuju
97,382
810,494
1,722,383
4
Kim Sujung
92,271
778,049
1,643,478
5
Son Juwon
59,927
514,243
1,077,549
6
Kim Gyuri
70,079
405,157
1,036,676
7
Yui
59,921
470,910
1,028,156
8
Park Yeeun
57,933
220,465
726,653
9
Kim Minsol
46,502
247,409
663,490
10
Lingling
17,210
266,378
444,613
11
Um Jiwon
20,229
142,973
328,876
12
Choi Soul
20,793
132,223
321,266
13
Kim Chaeeun
23,809
77,303
283,488
14
Oh Yuna
14,885
73,464
205,854
Part 2
The second part of the show tells the I-Landers that there will initially be 6 members in the debut lineup. By the end of Part 2 though, there turns out to be 7 members in the debut lineup, but when Part 2 starts, the I-Landers are unaware of this fact. Within I-Land, the 12 contestants who advanced from the first part will all be assigned rooms based on their ranking; the higher the ranking, the better the amenities their room will contain. In addition, the producers can now watch the trainees prepare for each test in real time in a secret room within the I-Land building. Immediately after each test, the results of each contestant will be revealed. The top six trainees will all wear a badge that symbolizes that they would be part of the debut group if the show were to end there, but the ownership of the badges can change depending on the results of each mission, which determines who gets to be part of the top 6.
Black Made Test
For this mission, the contestants were divided up by the producers into three groups of four, and each group was automatically given a song, without opinion from any of the contestants. Each unit's leader was automatically decided by the producers as well, while the contestants in each group decided the parts amongst themselves. Instead of performing on the I-Stage from Part 1, the place where the I-Stage used to be were three vans used to transport each unit to a new performance stage (CJ ENM Ilsan Studio). Each contestant was scored individually, 50% of their score came from the 233 I-Mates votes who attended the performance in real time, and the other 50% of their points came from the producer-given score. The I-Mate score is determined by how many votes each contestant gets, the contestant with the most votes, or first place, would get 100 points and each place downwards would get two points less, until twelfth place, getting 78 points. The producer-given score would then be added onto the I-Mate score and the sum would become their total score. The contestants are then ordered by their total score for their rankings, following the Black Made Test.
For this mission, the contestants were divided up by the producers into four groups of varying numbers of contestants, and each group was automatically given a song, again, also by the producers. Each unit's leader was the contestant with the highest ranking from the previous mission. The parts for this mission were chosen by the contestants in their ranking order from best to worst. Each contestant was scored individually, 50% of their score came from the 300 I-Mates votes who attended the performance in real time, and the other 50% of their points came from the producer-given score. The I-Mate score is determined by how many votes each contestant gets, the contestant with the most votes, or first place, would get 100 points and each place downwards would get two points less, until twelfth place, getting 78 points. The producer-given score would then be added onto the I-Mate score and the sum would become their total score. The contestants are then ordered by their total score for their rankings, following the Main Position Test.
For this semi-final mission, the whole concept of the mission was to have the contestants take care of creating everything that was to be part of their unit's final performance, from the costumes and makeup, to set design and even part distribution. The contestants started by having to divide themselves up into two units of six. Each unit's leader and center was the first and second ranking contestant from the previous mission, being Koko and Jeemin respectively. The rest of the contestants of each unit were chosen in alternate by the two leaders, starting with Koko due to her higher rank. After the units were fully formed, the units were to decide between 9 songs to perform, selecting one as their choice. They were able to choose between 'Into the New World', 'Bad Girl Good Girl', 'Happiness', 'Latata', 'Dalla Dalla', 'Black Mamba', 'Eleven', 'Fearless', and 'Attention'. Koko's unit had the privilege of getting priority when choosing their units song due to Koko's higher ranking, meaning if Jeemin's unit were to want the same song, they wouldn't be able to have it. The contestants were not assessed directly during and after their performances. Following the performances, the results of the 2nd Save Vote were shown, and three contestants were marked safe through the Save Vote. Directly after this reveal, the producers selected their seven picks out of the nine remaining contestants for a total of ten contestants who will be able to participate in the final episode test.
Each viewer can vote for 3 contestants that they want to advance to the final daily. A total of 50% of each contestant's points are based on Korean votes and the other 50% is based on international votes. The two vote counts would be added together and converted into a points total for each contestant. During the live airing of Episode 10, all votes done by the viewers were tripled in impact. The contestants with the top 3 highest points totals would automatically advance to the final, while the rest of the contestants would have to wait for the producer's contestant choices following the reveal of 2nd Save Vote results.
For this final mission, the contestants were shown two original songs produced by Teddy to perform. The members of each unit and their parts were pre-decided by Teddy himself. Each unit's leader was decided through a vote by the group members. The contestants were not assessed directly during and after their performances. Following the performances, the results of the Final Save Vote were shown, and five contestants were marked safe through the Save Vote. Directly after this reveal, the producers selected their two more picks out of the five remaining contestants for a total of seven contestants who will be part of the final debut group: Izna.
The name Izna is derived from the words "whenever, wherever, whatever". It alludes to the fact that the group aims to be one with no limits to their confidence.
Color key
Debuting contestants (I-Mate's Vote)
Debuting contestants (Producer's Pick)
Eliminated from the show
Produced by Teddy Test (Episode 11)
Team
Part
Contestant
Rank
"Fake It"
Center
Jeong Saebi
7
Main Vocalist
Choi Jungeun
1
Main Rapper
Ryu Sarang
5
Part 4
Fuko
Eliminated
Part 5
Mai
6
"Drip"
Center
Bang Jeemin
2
Main Vocalist
Yoon Jiyoon
3
Main Rapper
Koko
4
Part 4
Nam Yuju
Eliminated
Part 5
Kim Gyuri
Eliminated
Final Save Vote
Each viewer can vote for only one contestant daily. A total of 50% of each contestant's points are based on Korean votes and the other 50% is based on international votes. The two vote counts would be added together and converted into a points total for each contestant. During the live airing of Episode 11, all votes done by the viewers were tripled in impact. From six contestants who will debuting, 5 contestants will be selected from global votes, while one contestant will be chosen by the producers. After the six contestants were announced, it was revealed that the producers decided to pick one more contestant to join the final lineup.[25]
In the table above, the blue numbers represent the lowest ratings and the red numbers represent the highest ratings.
N/A denotes ratings that were below the full rank, so they were not published.
This series aired on a cable channel/pay TV which normally has a relatively smaller audience compared to free-to-air TV/public broadcasters (KBS, SBS, MBC and EBS).
Aftermath
Izna debuted on November 25, 2024, with the extended play (EP) N/a.[27][28]
^Ahn Byeong-gil, Ahn (March 22, 2024). "'아이랜드2 : N/a' 24인 베일 벗다" ['I-Land 2: N/a' 24 members take off their veil]. m.sports.khan.co.kr. Archived from the original on April 19, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
^"大马女孩Ling Ling韩国参赛 争取当练习生出道" [Malaysian girl Ling Ling enters Korea contest, fighting to become trainee and debut]. China Press (in Chinese). Malaysia. March 23, 2024.
^"19岁Ling Ling参加Mnet选秀拼出道 放话成为首位大马女偶像" [19-year-old Ling Ling enters Mnet survival show to debut, strives to become first Malaysian K-pop female idol]. Sin Chew Daily (in Chinese). Malaysia. March 24, 2024.
^아이랜드 2 시청률 [I-Land 2 Ratings] (in Korean). Nielsen Korea. Retrieved June 28, 2024 – via Daum.
^Lee, Tae-soo (November 4, 2024). 엠넷 '아이랜드2' 걸그룹 이즈나, 오는 25일 데뷔 [Mnet 'I-Land 2' Girl Group Izuna to Debut on the 25th] (in Korean). Yonhap News. Retrieved November 4, 2024 – via Naver.
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