Episode 11 of Produce 48 had a hell of a lot of filler to stretch out the the third ranking announcement to its fullest.
Highlights of the filler include:
- Advice to the trainees from Bora
- Produce 48 beauty class
- Sports Day for must have items
- Personal go to picks
Yup, that’s it.
When it came to the actual rankings the cut off was 20th place. At this point in the competition dropping down basically means you go home and watch the rest of show on TV.
The first two trainees called up were Kim Chae Won (19th place) and Jo Yu Ri (18th place) who made small drops in rank but not enough to be taken out of contention. Choi Ye Na who had been trending down moved up to 16th place.
Kim Min Ju secured her spot in the final group of trainees moving up 5 spots to 15th place. After that Lee Seung Gi announced an extraordinary drop in rank as a person who has never fallen from the top 12 was in 14th place.
That person was Ahn Yu Jin who dropped 10 steps to land outside of the top 12 for the first time. Yabuki Nako dropped to 9th place while Shiroma Miru moved up 6 steps to take 8th place thanks in part to the bonus votes received in the concept evaluation.
Jang Won Young dropped to 7th place guaranteeing a new number one would be crowned for the third time in a row. Takeuchi Miyu was shocked she ranked at 6th place having just made the cut in the last set of rankings.
The top 4 candidates for this set of rankings ended up being Miyazaki Miho, Kang Hye Won, Lee Chae Yeon and Miyawaki Sakura. The trainees were genuinely happy to see Chae Yeon as part of the final group who could possibly place first. She ended up in 3rd place, which was her highest rank in the show so far.
Strangely the top two ended up being the two 48 members. The miracle run of Miyazaki did not come to a dream ending as she ended up in second place.
Much like previous ranking episodes the final rank was announced last. The four candidates for 20th place were Kim Na Young, Murase Sae, Kim Do Ah and Park Hae Yoon. The final 2 for this rank ended up being Na Young and Hae Yoon, which made for an unpredictable finale.
The national producers chose Hae Yoon as the final person to make it into the top 20 leaving Kim Na Young to eat pizza and watch a movie with fellow eliminated trainee Kim Do Ah.
Once the final twenty were determined it was time to announce the final assignment, the debut evaluation. The trainees were informed that it will be a live performance in front of the national producers where real-time voting will determine who makes the final 12 . The songs for the final performances were revealed to be “We Together” produced by Hang Sung Soo and “Suki ni Nacchau Darou?” produced by Akimoto Yasushi.
Each song had 10 positions and the lowest ranking trainees got first dibs at choosing what they wanted. They were warned of the danger of being bumped out by the higher-ranked trainees. Meaning some of them would not be able to perform the song they wanted and/or get to sing much. So each trainee had to use a bit of strategy and hope for the best at the end.
Yu Ri became the early punching bag for the top 20 having her position moved several times. Hae Yoon lost her main vocal part in “We Together “ to Takeuchi Miyu and was relegated to 7th sub-vocal. She was visibly upset but understood that she had three tries previously at main vocal and did not move up in the rankings enough to keep her requested spot this time.
Cho Won was pushed down the depth chart of ‘Suki ni Nacchau Darou?” to 9th sub vocal by Hye Won who claimed 5th sub vocal for the song. That sort of coldness had the other trainees stunned. Chae Yeon also got pushed to the bottom rung for “We Together” when Miho claimed 2nd the sub vocal position for the song. That surprised the others just as much for its frostiness.
With all the positions claimed the trainers informed the trainees that they had to pick a center for the live performances by themselves after shooting a video with each member in the role.
At the initial practice session Cho Won was feeling the sting of having only 3 letters to sing for “Suki ni Nacchau Darou?” which made the entire ordeal kind of boring for her. She watched Eun Bi practice from afar wishing she could the main vocal afraid that there would be no more opportunities to show the national producers what she was capable of.
Meanwhile the Japanese trainees helped their fellow Korean members with pronunciation of the lyrics. Ye Na who had been traumatized by her experience during “Pick Me” had difficulties with her part until Juri came over to help her.
The fun fact that viewers learned from this language exchange is that the “unga” in “Jibun ga” sounds like the Korean word for poop.
At their first evaluation with the trainers it appeared that the Korean trainees were not as prepared as the Japanese ones in regards to learning the song completely. Sakura, Miru and Ka Eun were pointed out for being somewhat uptight and not giving off a relaxed feeling.
Hye Won got a scolding from Soyou for singing like a depressed robot. She felt that there has been no progress from her and that she was being rude to them and the production staff for not living up to her potential or showing any marked improvement.
Eun Bi also felt the heat for rushing through her vocal and not putting any feeling behind the words. When Cho Won was given a chance to sing her part the trainers told her to be more like her. After the evaluation Eun Bi seeked Cho Won’s help to improve.
Ye Na on the other hand was complimented for doing a good job and getting into the groove the trainers were looking for.
Over at the “We Together” camp Yu Ri noticed that the team was comprised of several strong vocalists. They sang the song together as a run through and sounded pretty good as a unit.
Yu Jin noted that sub vocalists 5 – 9 only get to sing one part each. Those like Hae Yoon who were bumped out to lower positions could only watch or assist the main vocalists in getting their parts right.
During their session with the trainers this team was considered unbalanced. Both Miho and Hitomi were given some constructive criticism and some notes to take back to work on their own. The trainers wondered if Miyu could hit the high notes in the song, which she struggled to do.
They asked if anyone else could do it and only Yu Ri came close enough to hitting the notes properly. There was a warning to Miyu that if she still wanted to do the part there was the possibility it could put her at disadvantage if she did not pull it off at the live.
The episode ended with the 10 eliminated trainees saying their tearful goodbyes.
Much like the previous ranking episodes this was high on stretching out the drama as much as possible to fill the 2 hours this show was allowed on TV. Unlike the last ranking there were no major surprises other than Miho’s gain in rank from 27th to 2nd. Her ambition to get first was admirable as she didn’t seem to hold back like some of the other trainees did when they were asked what position they wanted. And I guess Hae Yoon just squeaking in could be considered a shock if you really believed the other three really stood a chance based on their work in the concept evaluation.
Otherwise the standard crop of girls stuck around making the ranking part of the episode anti-climactic. Things got better when the trainees actually competed for the the best possible position for the final evaluation. Based on the practices shown so far the behind the scenes stuff in the final episode will not be boring.
