YG Entertainment revealed the reason why the final members of JTBC’s “MIXNINE” could not make their debut within four months.

On October 31, the first pleading for Happyface Entertainment’s compensation for damages case against YG Entertainment took place at Seoul Central District Court. The lawyers for both parties attended the pleading.

Previously in June, Happyface Entertainment filed a complaint against YG Entertainment to request compensation for nonfulfillment of contract regarding JTBC’s survival audition program “MIXNINE.” Happyface Entertainment manages Woo Jin Young, who took the final first place in the program.

YG’s legal representative stated, “If ‘MIXNINE’ was a successful program, a thing such as cancellation of debut would not have happened. However, it is true that the program did not score well, so we feel sorry and pitiful. We also suffered from a lot of damages because of this show.”

The representative added, “Releasing the album for the final members was not a mandatory clause in the contract. Since all the members’ agencies were different, we originally requested for the full authority of managing all the members for four months. We started preparing for debut, but we soon came to the conclusion that we could not create a successful album within four months with this team. So we suggested to the agencies that we have a three-year preparation period.”

The lawyer concluded by saying, “All the agencies had different positions towards our suggestion. There was one agency that said that three years was too long while another agency agreed to the length. However, according to the contract, all nine members had to participate. That’s why negotiations broke down.”

“MIXNINE” is JTBC’s audition program that aired its final episode in January 2018. YG Entertainment’s Yang Hyun Suk and PD Han Dong Cheol, who directed “Show Me The Money,” created the program. However, controversies arose after the preparations for the final team’s debut made slow progress and YG confirmed that the debut of the final nine members were cancelled.

Happyface Entertainment claimed that YG neglected the members and did not even mention any plans for the team’s debut even after two months since the show’s end.

YG Entertainment stated, “We did not expect any trial regarding request for compensation. Our legal representative will reply to the case, and we will try to solve all misunderstandings as possible by law.”

Stay tuned for more updates on this case.

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