The Mnet audition program "Boys Planet" has been under scrutiny recently as suspicions of manipulation have been raised surrounding the rapid rise of an individual contestant's personal camera ranking. However, Mnet has refuted the allegations point by point, stating that they are not true.

On April 10, an Mnet representative told Daily Sports, "It is true that during the first group battle signal song camera mission evaluation, contestant Seok Matthew ranked 9th in Group G." They added, "The ranking was calculated based on the official Boys Planet YouTube channel's tally of individual camera evaluations (view count + likes x 100) as previously announced."

Furthermore, the representative stated, "At the time, Group G's Christian and Wang Zuhao were unable to participate in the signal song camera filming due to health reasons and were excluded from the evaluation, which had been previously announced." They explained, "All data aggregation for 'Boys Planet,' including the mentioned data, is being conducted through external agency Samil PwC for verification."

Mnet concluded, "The 'Shining Boys' were selected through a vote by the trainees themselves." They added, "The vote was conducted among all trainees, excluding those who were unable to participate in the vote due to health reasons."

The issue raised by some netizens is the suspicion of "pushing" contestant Seok Matthew by the production team. Mnet had previously announced that from December 30 to January 7, the view count and number of likes of each trainee's individual signal song "I Shine" camera video would be combined and applied as a benefit for a specific mission. The benefit allowed the top 9 trainees from both Group K and Group G to select their teammates for the competition.

However, netizens pointed out that Group G (foreign group) trainee Seok Matthew suddenly jumped from 35th place to 9th place before the voting deadline, raising suspicions of manipulation. They cited the fact that, unlike Group G, there was no significant difference in the actual ranking of Group K.

Despite the allegations, the view count of trainee Ma Jingxiang, who ranked 10th at the time of the tally, was 59,275, while Seok Matthew's view count was 47,717 - a difference of over 10,000 views. However, since the final ranking was calculated by multiplying the number of likes by 100, it would only take 110 more likes for Seok Matthew to surpass Ma Jingxiang.

Meanwhile, the debut team of "Boys Planet" will be determined by 100% viewer (star creator) votes. The debut team will consist of nine members, and the show will conclude on March 20.

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