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SM Rookies 2022 debuting in NCT? They surprise fans as guests on Doyoung, Jungwoo's show

With 'The NCT Show' only consisting of NCT members as guests, fans are confident that the SM Rookies 2022's presence has confirmed their debut in NCT

With SM Entertainment debuting some iconic K-pop groups like EXO, Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet and SHINee, fans are always excited to see their upcoming artists. They were also over the moon when SM resumed their trainee announcements in the form of SM Rookies with many reminiscing about the time artists like NCT’s Johnny and Red Velvet’s Seulgi had been introduced. Well, following the debut of aespa and NCT’s Sungchan and Shotaro back in 2020, we are finally getting SM Rookies 2022. Fans further think they are joining NCT as the trainees appeared on the boy group’s YouTube show.

In early July, SM announced their upcoming artists Eunseok, Shohei and Seunghan to the public. With the label confirming NCT Tokyo, many think that Japanese trainee Shohei might be a part of it. However, the SM Rookies social media accounts unfollowed NCT which confused fans as they wondered if SM will be debuting a new boy group. NCT was the label’s last boy group in 2016. But in the third week of July, SM Rookies 2022 appeared as surprise guests on ‘The NCT Show’ hosted by Doyoung and Jungwoo. With the YouTube show being held only for NCT members, fans think that this has confirmed the debut of the trainees in NCT.

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Are SM Rookies 2022 part of NCT?

With NCT currently consisting of 23 members, for every full group comeback, we get ‘The NCT Show’ which allows all of the members to shine and play around with each other. On July 23, many were surprised that the segment hosted by Doyoung and Jungwoo brought in the SM Rookies 2022 as guests. The two NCT members also observed that Shohei was born in the same year as Doyoung and shared that they now had a new 96 line which fans think confirms their debut in the group.

Fans also think that Eunseok, Shohei and Seunghan are part of a new sub-unit for Sungchan and Shotaro who were also present. While Sungchan and Shotaro debuted in NCT in 2020, they do not have a fixed sub-unit yet which means they have not been musically active apart from the yearly full group comeback.

Watch the episode below.

‘New NCT members indeed’

Sungchan had also shared that he was learning Japanese which has many wondering if he, Shotaro and the three SM Rookies 2022 are part of NCT Tokyo. A Knetizen observed, “Why are they being put in NCT content... is SM serious about adding them..?” Another fan tweeted, “Doyoung giving the sm rookies a speech about the essence of nct…if they’re not neos i will be SHOCKED.” One NCTzen commented, “I believe we should scrap the ideas of nct japan and hollywood and instead debut a unit called nct s with sungchan, shotaro, the smrookies seunghan and shohei, and also sunoo from enhypen.”

Another was confident, “NCT DOYOUNG AND JUNGWOO with SMROOKIES SHOHEI, EUNSEOK AND SEUNGHAN and y'all saying they're not gonna be part of NCT?? ㅋㅋㅋㅋ let's see.” One fan joked, “Omgg another batch of unemployed people/j.” Another wondered why Sungchan, Shotaro and Xiaojun were present, “They were watching over their new team.” One fan shared, “No artist ever show up on NCT shows not even Wonstein and Giselle for Music Space therefore, I am 100% convinced that these SM Rookies are SungTaro’s future groupmates.” Another wrote, “NOT DOYOUNG INCLUDING SHOHEI TO THE 96z TEAM. IWNWUEKWISKW. NEW NCT MEMBERS INDEED.”