‘Produce’ fans file gripes

A group of fans of the recently-wrapped music audition program “Produce X 101” filed an official complaint against the show’s production staff on Thursday, MAST Law & Consulting said.

According to the law firm, the complaint was filed to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office against the production staff of “Produce X 101” on the suspicion that they had fabricated fan voting results on the final episode of the show’s fourth season.

The law firm made the complaint on behalf of 260 fans of the show, who claim that CJ ENM — the company that owns cable channel Mnet's “Produce” series — scammed them, and that if that was the case, there would be other entertainment agencies involved with them.

“We have reported CJ ENM’s producers and the agencies for fraud and deception,” MAST said.

The law firm claimed that reoccurring patterns in the differences of votes for the contestants were “unnatural and strange.”

“It wouldn’t have gotten this far if the producers had just revealed the raw data of the number of votes in the first place,” the firm said. “But everything has come from that. We demand a thorough investigation to make sure that no such thing happens again.”

Police searched the producers’ office on Wednesday, after Mnet submitted a request to police for an investigation earlier this week.

“There is nothing wrong with the votes, no fabrication. The repetition in numbers seem awkward, but that’s just the way it is,” a representative from Mnet said.

By Yoon So-yeon