PRODUCE 48 Episode 5: The First Ranking

This article is part of an ongoing series covering MNet’s reality talent show, PRODUCE 48. Check out the recaps of Episodes 1, 2, 3, and 4 right here on LWOS Life. 

After countless weeks of performances, assessments, and gradings, we have finally came down to the first wave of eliminations. Most contestants have participated in group and solo challenges, and were grouped by company assessments. These assignments, along with the voting done by fans, have brought us to where we are today. The top 58 of the 92 will continue through to the next episodes of the show while everyone else is sent packing.

Produce 48 Contestants Face Top 58 Cut-Off in Rankings

Lee Ga-eun Places #1 for Third Week in a Row

Lee Ga-eun topped the charts once again after having the lead for two weeks prior. This was the first week that showed precisely how many votes each person got, with Ga-eun getting 633,511. She gave an emotional speech to her parents after being awarded the #1 spot. Amazingly, the amount of votes in total from each episode combined was 14,718,724.

Japanese Idol Update

Miyawaki Sakura, who has been the top Japanese trainee throughout the show so far, placed fourth. On the first episode she took the #1 spot and has been declining in the rankings since. Although going down in the charts, Sakura stays comfortable in the rankings and never falls below fifth. After placing fourth this week, she vowed that she will not cry on the show since she has cried on every episode so far. Matsui Jurina placed 13th despite unexpectedly leaving the show last week. People were still under the impression that Jurina, while not present for the rankings, would return. One could speculate that this was recorded before Jurina announced that she was not coming back.

Choi Ye Na’s Unique Story

Each trainee that moved on was given a chance to speak, with everyone giving their usual thanks. The only speech/story that stuck out to me was Choi Ye Na’s. She spoke about how her parents have always been skeptical of her becoming an idol since her brother tried but got stopped because something happened to him. She wants to continue in the contest to prove herself to her family.

Fun at the Rankings

Before the “first ranking”, trainees walked into the set that they were at on the initial episode. They took seats on the floor, with numbered seats based off of where they get ranked in the grandstands. Trainees were given the opportunity when walking in to show off their personality with a dance, catchphrase, or any other sort of act. Throughout the episode rankings were announced, starting at 57th and going up to #1. After that, we got a very dramatic reveal for the 58th spot.

NGT48 jokester Yamada Noe was ranked 14th, going down three spots from last week. When Noe went onto the stage, she was asked by host Lee Seung Gi if she could do another dance. Noe agreed to dance, but only if Seung Gi would too. They both eventually danced, although it took some convincing to get Lee Seung Gi to.

Not All Contestants Were Created (Or Treated) Equal

The 58th spot went to Sato Minami, who was very thankful. At the end of the episode we saw the eliminated contestants say their farewells to the cast. Since the show relies almost completely off of fan votes, not having much camera time works against contestants regardless of their work ethic. This frustration was recently shared online when eliminated contestant Park Jinny said she didn’t get any screen time despite working hard on a livestream. Fellow former contestant Alex Christine commented in the IG Live, saying “relatable.”

“Dancing Queen” Contest

This week’s episode itself did not include much content, with a fair amount of it being filler footage that wasn’t relevant to this weeks rankings. Some of the clips shown were of fun tasks that trainees were given during their dorm time months ago.

One of the clips was a guest appearance that showed Kim Chung-ha and Jeon So-mi hosting a “dancing queen” contest. Chung-ha and So-mi are both winners of Produce 101 season 1 and former members for I.O.I. Speaking of So-mi, there are rumors swirling around that she will lead the next JYP girl group, which is expected to debut before the end of 2018. It should be taken with a grain of salt, but it is interesting news for any fans of her.

The winner of the Dancing Queen contest was Goto Moe. As a celebration she did a very good dance cover of Produce 101’s “Pick Me”. During the celebratory dance Matsui Jurina got choked up, as she saw how much Moe has improved. Because of Moe’s win, her Class C was all given packages that contained makeup. It felt odd that all of this content that showed off personality would air after the first voting period has passed by. 

A Preview of the Next Episode

When the show was concluding, it was announced that all voting from past weeks will be reset for the next episode. Also voting opened for fans to vote for which concept they want specific trainees to do. The options for concepts are Contemporary Girl Pop, Moombahton/Trap, New Jack Swing, Tropical Pop Dance, Hip-hop/R&B Pop & Pop Dance. We were also shown a preview of tomorrow’s episode where contestants are told that the winner of the next task will get 100,000 extra votes.

Now that the contestant pool has been practically split in half, the intensity of the show is bound to heat up. The next episode of Produce 48 airs tomorrow, where we find out what the next big task for contestants will be. Produce 48 becomes one step closer to finding Asia’s next big girl group.

Full Rankings:

EP 5 Ranking Contestant EP 1 EP 2 EP 3 EP 5 Votes
1 Lee Ga-eun 5 1 1 633,511
2 Ahn Yu-jin 2 2 2 607,823
3 Jang Won-young 3 4 4 539,596
4 Sakura Miyawaki 1 5 3 532,273
5 Kwon Eun-bi 25 3 5 507,633
6 Moe Goto 16 8 6 461,078
7 Nako Yabuki 14 27 16 449,722
8 Wang Yi-ren 7 9 8 404,888
9 Choi Ye-na 6 7 9 390,483
10 Lee Chae-yeon 29 10 10 368,218
11 Miyu Takeuchi 39 11 8 362,417
12 Hitomi Honda 30 47 22 333,670
13 Matsui Jurina (OFF SHOW) 4 12 12 329,455
14 Noe Yamada 45 9 11 314,400
15 Kim Min-ju 13 17 19 307,334
16 Miru Shiroma 9 22 13 297,902
17 Jang Gyu-ri 6 14 14 296,913
18 Juri Takahashi 20 29 20 289,547
19 Jo Yu-ri 10 19 18 289,180
20 Kim Si-hyeon 15 13 17 262,648
21 Miho Miyazaki 17 16 15 256,613
22 Huh Yun-jin 19 15 21 256,613
23 Lee Si-an 8 18 27 235,777
24 Erii Chiba 27 38 23 228,389
25 Kang Hye-won 38 40 41 222,716
26 Ko Yu-jin 24 34 26 220,375
27 Saho Iwatate 46 24 24 189,308
28 Kim Chae-won 21 21 30 179,387
29 Na Go-eun 36 20 28 178,233
30 Bibian Murakawa 28 31 29 178,024
31 Mako Kojima 12 23 25 177,040
32 Son Eun-chae 95 85 53 175,744
33 Tomu Muto 23 28 32 175,038
34 Kim Do-ah 31 25 31 166,662
35 Lee Ha-eun 51 58 33 164,273
36 Miu Shitao 41 45 39 160,881
37 Bae Eun-yeong 18 30 34 149,092
38 Kim Na-young 55 63 58 139,350
39 Chiyori Nakanishi 22 37 40 127,714
40 Sae Murase 32 43 45 120,865
41 Kim Cho-yeon 68 75 37 115,687
42 Park Seo-young 34 26 35 112,060
43 Park Hae-yoon 59 35 43 109,158
44 Aoi Motomura 37 42 36 103,611
45 Wang Ke 92 33 44 101,292
46 Nanami Asai 26 41 42 96,530
47 Han Cho-won 64 79 88 89,134
48 Cho Ka-hyeon 65 36 38 89,074
49 Lee Yu-jeong 33 48 49 76,345
50 Kim So-hee 48 44 48 75,898
51 Yu Min-young 86 32 46 75,698
52 Yoon Hae-sol 40 50 55 73,457
53 Kim Min-seo 62 39 47 69,913
54 Park Min-ji 49 56 60 68,130
55 Kim Hyun-ah 67 72 64 67,037
56 Misaki Aramaki 50 61 66 66,659
57 Kim Su-yun 58 51 54 66,438
58 Minami Sato 57 66 59 64,511
–CUT OFF–
59 Ikumi Nakano 43 53 50 64,172
60 Hwang So-yeon 90 46 51 63,482
61 Shin Su-hyun 42 57 62 63,471
62 Kang Da-min 70 74 75 60,709
63 Shinobu Mogi 44 59 55 57,697
64 Erina Oda 56 67 69 57,612
65 Yoon Eun-bin 54 68 65 57,364
66 Choi Yein-soo 47 52 57 56,200
67 Natsumi Matsuoka 35 55 52 54,450
68 Park Chan-ju 85 69 71 52,903
69 Park Jinny 52 49 61 52,495
70 Kim Da-yeon 60 65 70 48,458
71 Rena Hasegawa 61 54 63 47,766
72 Cho Ah-yeong 83 78 86 46,320
73 Lee Seung-hyeon 66 60 68 45,759
74 Yuuka Kato 71 73 73 43,570
75 Kim Da-hye 80 89 78 42,377
76 Mina Imada 53 64 67 40,155
77 Serika Nagano 72 81 76 40,131
78 Hong Ye-ji 76 76 80 39,465
79 Lee Chae-jeong 96 94 92 38,465
80 Park Ji-eun 77 70 79 37,826
81 Manami Ichikawa 79 83 87 37,685
82 Alex Christine 88 86 85 37,536
83 Sae Kurihara 73 84 81 37,300
84 Cho Yeong-in 74 62 74 36,672
85 Yuki Asai 69 80 83 35,929
86 Ahn Ye-won 82 88 84 35,795
87 Kokoro Naiki 75 82 82 34,463
88 Kim Yu-bin 90 93 93 34,070
89 Cho Sa-rang 89 90 91 34,038
90 Choi So-eun 86 92 89 31,436
91 Ayana Shinozaki 84 87 77 30,489
92 Won Seo-yeon 81 77 90 30,103
OUT Miku Tanaka 63 71 72
OUT Amane Tsukiashi 78 91
OUT Cocona Umeyama 94 96
OUT Azusa Uemura 93 96

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351 thoughts on “PRODUCE 48 Episode 5: The First Ranking”

    1. I like Sakura. The fixation on her is because she is one of the biggest AKB48 contestants. You could certainly argue that showing people on the program more often than others makes it easier for them to get votes. The show is all about screen time.

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