It’s the long stretch for the remaining 30 Produce 48 contestants. After the concept evaluation wrapped up this week, the remaining 20 who survive the voting stage will get one last challenge. This week we see the concept evaluation and what came of it. The six groups performed original tracks in front of a live crowd that voted for who they thought did the best. The top group would get a combined 130,000 extra votes leading into next week.

Check out Jack’s review of last week’s episode here.

Produce 48 Contestants Attempt To Advance Into The Top 20

“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop

The first performance on the episode was “1000%,” in a contemporary girls pop genre. The day before their performance, this group got torn apart at the dress rehearsal. Lee Chae Yeon teared up the second a trainer mentioned her name. People noticed how much the trainees, and Chae Yeon in this example, have had a ton of pressure put on them.

Goto Moe had tons of trouble during practicing time, but her team was very helpful to her. In what came off as strict or even an aggravated approach to Moe at times was just a strict/sober way of trying to get her to learn. She seemed very thankful for this.

When this performance happened you could see that these stages had more attention to detail than in past challenges. This specific performance event included pyrotechnics. The group let out a big sigh of relief once they got off the stage.

“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing

The second song also saw big struggles during the training stage. When performing in front of a board of judges, the hopeful trainers became very critical after the performance. Comments about the group being perfect for the concept became comments about how all of it was wrong and bad. The choreographer for the song said that she did not like any of it. The group looked very dejected after this meeting with the trainers. They improved immensely once dress rehearsal came around. They were all in dresses for their performance.

“I AM” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop

The group of performers for “I AM” were shown next on the episode. Member of the group Choi Ye Na was very energetic during many practice sessions, and the broadcast noted that her whole group fed off of that energy. This song didn’t really know what it wanted to be. The producers asked for them to sing in a less sexy and more cute voice, but then once the performance came around the styling of the trainees was certainly not cute. It was hard to tell what you were supposed to take from the song. You can tell that despite everything else they are singing in very light voices during the performance. The studio version of the song felt like it was sung in a much more fitting way. The voices in the studio edition were much stronger and felt suitable for everything else.

“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance

“Rollin’ Rollin’” was labeled the Tropical Pop Dance concept, but it could also be considered Bubblegum Pop. A part of the hook felt like it resembled BLACKPINK’s “Playing With Fire” hook. If you want to test it out for yourself, here’s “Rollin’ Rollin’” with a timestamp of the mentioned moment, and here’s the mentioned part of “Playing With Fire.” You hear that too? Anyways, despite the song being really good, there wasn’t much to note here. No real troubles leading up to the performance, and the performance went as planned.

“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap

During the intermission, there were many eliminated Produce 48 contestants that got up and started to dance to entertain the crowd. “Rumor” was similar to “Rollin’ Rollin’” in that there wasn’t much to note. Kim Si-hyeon claimed that she was practicing facial expressions for the song. The hook for this song can get stuck in your head really easily. This performance was one of the most enjoyable for me.

“See You Again” – Pop Dance

In the previous episode, it was shown that Minami Sato was very close friends with Kang Hye-won, with some people on the show describing Hye-won as a mother. Sato was seated in the crowd for this performance to support Hye-won and her group. There was an emotional performance before the song when they reunited.

When showing footage leading up to the performance it felt like there was a lot of tension over who will be the center in the group. Lee Daehwi from Wanna One, who won Produce 101 Season 2 was the producer for this song. The performance onstage had a backdrop of light colored flowers that matched the outfits that the performers were wearing.

The Audience Vote

The episode ended with trainees learning where they stand in the rankings after the in-house voting that took place. “Rollin’ Rollin’” won first place, giving each member 20,000 votes. Miru Shiroma got 50,000 votes since she was the most voted for in her group.

Concept	Members	Votes	Bonus
Tropical Pop Dance – “Rollin’ Rollin’”	Jang Won-young, Hitomi Honda, Kim Do-ah, Kim Na-young & Miru Shiroma	266	130,000
New Jack Swing – “To Reach You”	Nako Yabuki, Kim Chae-won, Jo Yu-ri, Na Go-eun & Jang Gyu-ri	242
Moombahton / Trap – “Rumor”	Kwon Eun-bi, Sae Murase, Lee Si-an, Han Cho-won & Kim Si-hyeon	241
Pop Dance – “See You Again”	Sakura Miyawaki, Park Hae-yoon, Miyu Takeuchi, Kang Hye-won & Wang Yi-ren	222
Contemporary Girls Pop – “1000%”	Miho Miyazaki, Miu Shitao, Moe Goto, Lee Chae-yeon & Kim Min-ju	138
Hip Hop / R&B Pop – “I Am”	Kim Min-ju, Choi Ye-na, Ahn Yujin, Lee Ga-eun, Juri Takahashi & Huh Yun-jin	89

 

A teaser was shown of next week when the top 20 will be announced and will advance into the final stage of Produce 48. There was also lots of filler content that will be shown next week, including groups preparing for a performance on M! Countdown (which happened today). In two weeks, the group will be (most likely) finalized, with 12 people being able to say that they won Produce 48.

Here is the full ranking that the live audience gave all performers:

Rank	Contestant	Concept	Votes	Bonus
1	Sakura Miyawaki	“See You Again” – Pop Dance	99
2	Miru Shiroma	“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance	79	50,000
3	Nako Yabuki	“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing	76
4	Kwon Eun-bi	“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap	65
5	Kim Chae-won	“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing	63
6	Jo Yu-ri	“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing	59
7	Sae Murase	“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap	56
8	Park Hae-yoon	“See You Again” – Pop Dance	55
9	Jang Won-young	“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance	53	20,000
10	Hitomi Honda	“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance	50	20,000
11	Kim Do-ah	“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance	46	20,000
12	Lee Si-an	“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap	44
13	Miho Miyazaki	“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop	42
14	Han Cho-won	“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap	41
15	Miu Shitao	“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop	37
16	Kim Na-young	“Rollin’ Rollin’” – Tropical Pop Dance	36	20,000
17	Miyu Takeuchi	“See You Again” – Pop Dance	35
18	Kim Si-hyeon	“Rumor” – Moombahton / Trap	35
19	Moe Goto	“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop	28
20	Na Go-eun	“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing	27
21	Choi Ye-na	“I Am” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop	26
22	Kang Hye-won	“See You Again” – Pop Dance	23
23	Ahn Yujin	“I Am” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop	22
24	Lee Chae-yeon	“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop	18
25	Lee Ga-eun	“I Am” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop	17
26	Jang Gyu-ri	“To Reach You” – New Jack Swing	16
27	Juri Takahashi	“I Am” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop	15
28	Kim Min-ju	“1000%” – Contemporary Girls Pop	10
29	Wang Yi-ren	“See You Again” – Pop Dance	10
30	Huh Yun-jin	“I Am” – Hip Hop / R&B Pop	9

 

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