Build Up

2024 survival show from Mnet. Goal: form a male vocal project group with 4 members.

MC: Lee Dahee
Judges: Baekho, BTOB Eunkwang, Kim Jaehwan, Lee Seokhoon, Mamamoo Solar, Red Velvet Wendy

Pre-show

Before the show started, ~1 minute clips of each contestant singing were released, showing only their silhouettes. Later, a short message from each of the contestants was added to the videos.

On Jan. 21st, the names of the contestants were released, along with a color-coded category that they were assigned to.

I also kept track of the mentions of each contestant's number in the Talk section on the Mnet app prior to the first episode. If you looked at the chat, you'd know it was mostly v2 spam 🙄 followed by v40, so I didn't bother tracking them. But I thought the data for the others would be interesting to give an indication of their relative popularity and see how that compares to the actual votes.

Episodes 1-2

Voice Check-In

The contestants listened to the one-minute clips of each other's voices and cast a vote if they would like to work with that person. The people with more votes got to pick their song for the next round first.

🏆 32 votes - Gwangseok
🏆 28 - Jeup
🏆 27 - Hayoon

25 Sanghyun, Seongjeong, Soomin, Taewoo; 24 Euibin, Sunyoul; 23 Jay; 22 Inseong, Inhyuk, Yeo One; 21 Bitsaeon, Seongwon

18 Donghun, Hwanji, Seohyung; 17 Yeonwoo; 15 Seokhwa; 14 Haram, Hwanhee, Woong

13 Inhwan, Juhe, Minseo, Neon, Seongjun, Wumuti, Yunseo; 12 Jaekyung, Taehwan; 11 Geonu, Minwook, Suhwan; 10 Hyukjin

9 Bain; 7 Junhyeok, Seunghun; 5 Intae

Pre-4 Mission (Round 1)

For the first round they divided up into 10 teams of 4 and the judges picked a "top tier" member from each team. Each "top tier"/T contestant then had to pick one member from their team as "low tier"/L. The remaining contestants were then "mid-tier"/M. Their status as T/M/L determined their priority in picking their partners for the next round.

Episodes 3-5

2v2 Rival Mission (Round 2)

green background = winner

Mnet released short "Chemi Build Up Challenge" videos for each pair, where they had to react to 9 questions by pointing to which one of them matched the description best.

answers
🩵 pointed to person 1
💙 pointed to person 2
🩷 pointed to themselves
❤️ pointed to each other
🩶 neither

I'm not sure what, if any, meaning to take from this 😂 but I made it anyway ha~
maybe who are the more dominant personalities? or the ones who have most red hearts and/or most even blue hearts have the best chemistry? I'm gonna say Soomin and Geonu have the best chemistry 🌸 I was happy to see Hyukjin and Inseong also seem to get along well 😊 And btw, the answer to Q6 is probably Inseong ~ don't be fooled by his cute appearance 🐰 he was on some special squad in the military, the man has skills~

Elimination 1

10 people were eliminated from among the losing teams of the 2v2 mission.

• Seokhwa #4 (rank in voting)
• Hwanhee #9
• Taehwan #11
• Inseong #12
• Seongjun #18
• Hyukjin #24
• Sungwon #26
• Seongjeong #31
• Euibin #33
• Hwanji #35

Since Inseong was eliminated, as well as my other favorites Seongjun and Seongjeong, I dropped the show here.

Seongjun and Seongjeong posted messages on Instagram after the elimination:

Hello! This is Hong Seongjun! You did your best to support me but I'm sorry I couldn't live up to your expectations and personally I'm really disappointed but - while doing Build Up I learned a lot and met some good people so it was a really good experience! Thank you very much for giving me so much attention and support!! Please keep watching me in the future! 🫶🫶 Hong Seongjun fighting! Build Up fighting! 💪💪

Seohyung commented: Thank you and I love you the most hyung..❤

Hello! This is Kim Seongjeong.
Today I finished Build Up. Since this was my first ever experience challenging a survival program I was really nervous and I think there were a lot of things I could have done better. The hyungs and dongsaengs I met on Build Up looked really amazing and cool to me. There were a lot of moments where I felt like wow, being a singer is not something just anyone can do. But I was suprised that a lot of people liked me and gave me a huge amount of support. It was a dreamlike time where I was really happy and grateful, wondering can I actually receive this much love and support? Going forward I will start working as an actor. With the many experiences I gained through Build Up, I'll work even harder and do my best to be remembered as a humble and confident actor wherever I go.
I want to thank everyone who liked me once more and I'll be back to you soon after becoming cooler!
Will you support me, Kim Seongjeong? 😊
I'm really really grateful and thankful
Everyone stay happy and healthy 💙

Gwangseok commented: Love you my dongsaeng ❤️ We're the best, you know that right?

Inhwan commented: Let's soar high as star actor Kim Seongjeong fighting!!! 🔥🔥