On March 27, Mnet’s “Produce 101 Season 2” staff responded to rumors that the participating trainees were coerced into staying quiet about recent controversies regarding the show.

Earlier, a media outlet reported that the “Produce 101 Season 2” staff had used coercive and intimidating language to coerce trainees into not talking to third parties about the controversies. However, the staff responded that the story was distorted and they had only asked trainees to be careful, since one person’s words could lead to big misunderstanding.

Mnet said on March 27, “Since there are so many trainees, since the beginning of the shoot, we had them move by team. Before the article, there were times that the A group ate first, and sometimes, the F group ate first. We were doing this to use our time efficiently.” They added, “After March 17, which was when they started preparing for the performance tests on March 26, the trainees moved by the songs they were assigned as opposed to their grades.”

They clarified, “Since the trainees all belong to different management companies, we wanted to make sure that we reduced the amount of misunderstanding as much as possible while communicating. At the beginning of the program and before any articles were published, we asked the trainees to have an accurate grasp of the situation before communicating with anyone outside.” They also said, “The cast and staff are all working as hard as they can to make this a good show. We just hope that inaccurate communication will not make all of our efforts a waste.”

Meanwhile, “Produce 101 Season 2” will air its first episode on April 7.

Source (1)