‘Finding Momoland’: MLD proves show was not rigged, countering Daisy’s KBS exposé
‘Finding Momoland’ was a survival show by Mnet with 10 contestants. The winning members got to debut in the K-pop girl group Momoland. The group is known for putting out at least one viral hit every year that tops charts even in the West — songs like ‘Wrap Me In Plastic’ and ‘Thumbs Up’. Originally, it had 9 members, but the group is now down to six after Daisy, Taeha and Yeonwoo left. Rumors of discord with the label MLD was confirmed with Daisy’s exposé with KBS in 2020.
After Daisy was left out from group promotions for several of their releases, she was interviewed by KBS1’ News 9 in January 2020. In the interview, she claimed that their survival show ‘Finding Momoland’ was rigged. Despite being eliminated, she debuted with Momoland regardless of the outcome of the show. She then left the group and filed a lawsuit against their label as she claimed that MLD had recouped the cost of production of the show from the participants. But the label has finally spoken up and denied the manipulation allegations.
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Daisy's rigging claims
On October 11, 2021, the court sided with Daisy about how the label had cut the cost of production by taking payments from the participants. They ordered MLD to pay the $55k (66 million won) which they had taken from her for her participation in ‘Finding Momoland,’ along with other earnings that she made through side gigs. MLD had filed an appeal to not pay the amount. According to them, former Momoland member breached her contract by providing false information in the KBS interview. They had also denied the claims that the label had manipulated their survival show's results.
MLD’s court case
MLD Entertainment has finally revealed the outcome of their case about the rigging claims. According to KBS’ exposé, the label had rigged ‘Finding Momoland’ and acknowledged the manipulation. However, that seemed to be false with MLD filing a case asking KBS to clarify and apologize for the false report. On December 27, MLD shared, “The court sided with us and on this past 25th, KBS clarified the initial report at the end of their broadcast. We are once again notifying that there was no manipulation in selecting members of Mnet's 'Finding Momoland'.”
KBS1 has also issued a formal apology. They sent out a ‘Corrective Information Announcement’ related to MLD Entertainment at the end of their broadcast of News 9 on December 25. According to the ruling of the court and the Media Arbitration Committee, MLD had not manipulated ‘Finding Momoland’ and had not decided the debut lineup in advance. However, we are yet to get news on the appeal that MLD filed against the court ruling in Daisy’s favor of paying the cost of production of the survival show. In other news, Momoland is finally set to have a comeback on January 14, 2022. Their last album release was in November 2020.