From Skid Row to Superstardom: An Idol System Novel-Chapter 329: Producer (8)

This episode of Pop Star Academy, now tentatively being marketed as Dream Academy, was a make-or-break point for the production team, the investors, and everyone involved in the business aspect.

After repeated scandals, leaks, accusations of mistreatment, PD Ji-ho’s firing, and the ongoing public backlash, PD Emily, who was now the sole PD in charge of the show, was aware that she was under a microscope and any little slip-up would be her undoing.

The interest in the show was currently unprecedentedly high, and she knew she didn’t have the room or leeway to mess around or craft drama, yet she still had to keep the people entertained somehow because, for all the claims that they didn’t want drama, stats and surveys proved that they absolutely did.

Thankfully, she had contestants who created drama themselves, including the king of drama himself, and more importantly, there was now a clear rivalry that she could play into, which she knew the public would eat up.

She didn’t even need to do much editing or storytelling to make it more compelling because, as if the universe set it up, the contestants would do it themselves.

After the signal song, the episode immediately transitioned to the teams preparing for the previous performance.

Scenes of the other 3 teams were displayed, including their meetings with the respective idols of the songs they were going to be performing.

And while it was interesting seeing the contestants stressed about putting on a good performance and meeting their idols, for Grace and her friends, since they already knew the results of the performance, their focus was on two things.

1. How the production team was going to redeem themselves after doing Ariel dirty in previous episodes.

2. Seeing Shin Ji-yong’s beautiful face as he interacted with the contestants.

Thankfully, they weren’t forced to look at the more boring teams and William’s ugly face any longer.

The scene transitioned to Benjamin’s team, which seemed like they were having the easiest and most fun time.

Everything fell into place easily; there were no arguments, and when they met Shin Ji-yong, it was as if he and Benjamin had been friends forever.

The whole interaction was quite wholesome, especially knowing that Benjamin and his team had killed the performance.

But to Grace, who was calculating the episode run time and knew the order of production operations, the later a team appeared, the more screen time they would have because they were more important.

"Oh. Are they giving Ari’s team a lot of screen time this time? It had better be good." Grace muttered as she kept one eye on monitoring people’s live comments while watching the episode.

To say she had no faith was an understatement.

But to her surprise, Ari was actually portrayed in a great way.

From being the team leader, to his awkward comfort of Justin, who was crying about his broken leg and not wanting to be left out, to standing up to Golden Generation Leader JM about including Justin on the team, coming up with choreography which included Justin, and making sure that the parts were evenly split among his teammates.

The production team portrayed Ari so positively that Grace had to rub her eyes to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

When she checked online, other Ari fans were also in disbelief at such positive editing.

└ Is this reality? They’re portraying my kid in such a positive light. I can’t believe it!

└ Why is he so awkward and sincere? Ari, nobody can cry when music is blasting like that, but I appreciate the effort.

└ Aww, the team hug is so cute. Notice how you never see William hugging anybody, but lots of people hugging Ari, even though he looks like he hates it.

└└Don’t mention that disgusting b*stard here!

└ My Shaylaaaaa

"Grace! We’ve done it! The protesting and boycott threats worked!"

Justine shook Grace’s shoulder happily, while Rachel wiped a tear from her cheek.

To the sacrifice of their school work, the two of them had repeatedly tweeted, sent emails, and made calls to the production team for fair treatment and portrayal of the contestants, and it was amazing to see that their hard work was not in vain.

Unfortunately for them, Grace kept muttering while glaring at the screen.

"I can’t believe it! Good editing? They’re probably planning to drop another bomb. I won’t be deceived by that evil producer."

"But PD Ji-ho is gone, and he was apparently the one orchestrating everything behind the scenes. Supposedly, he was the one who ordered William to act that way at field day, too.

"He’s just the scapegoat. Don’t fall for their pr tricks. William is a trash human. And this production team is trash too! There must be a bomb that they’re planning to drop."

But unfortunately for Grace, it really seemed that the production team had turned over a new leaf.

As the clips transitioned from the performance preparation to the skill evaluation, while some contestants were only shown for a few seconds, at least everyone had screen time that showed them in a somewhat positive light.

And the person who had the most screen time out of all of the contestants was Ariel,

He received 30 seconds each for his vocal, rap, and dance evaluation, while some contestants got less than 10 in total and did really well.

The judges’ praise for him was fully displayed, and when the scene changed to the ranking ceremony, where Areum announced his top 3 placement in all categories, while Ari’s Angels were celebrating, bragging, and mocking other contestants, other fans began feeling uncomfortable with how much screen time, praise, and positive feedback he was getting when compared to their own contestant,

Then, to make matters worse for those who weren’t his fans, Ari was ranked first overall, receiving the highest number of votes ever received on the show.

His full speech thanking everyone was displayed, but online, a battle was going on between contestants fandoms,

While viewers at home were scrambling to post online, the next challenge was announced by Areum.

A production challenge where contestants would produce a song and performance by themselves.

Since there were only 3 song producers, there would be three teams, and with dramatic editing, three names appeared on the screen.

Ari. Jamie. William.

The PD posted clips of the song that the 3 had created, as well as their most popular performances on the show, and Ari’s performances dominated.

Traffic Song. Swan. Supernova. Pirate King. Standing Next To You.

It was an offering of performances that had gone viral for one reason or another and been praised by Bing Yonsung himself, and when Ari’s Angels found out that he would be leading a team, they were a bit worried about the song creation and quite relieved about the performance aspect.

Still, the episode continued with team selection, and that’s when things soured even more, when different contestants weren’t grouped were people they thought should be grouped, and when Benjamin and Ari closed off their teams.

As if to enunciate the point, the text was displayed.

Benjamin: 4 teammates.

Ari: 4 teammates.

William: 9 teammates.

The watchers went wild with complaints!

└How is this fair! Poor William is stuck with a team of 10 losers! His back is going to hurt from carrying them. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

└└Typical royal family that can’t count. If it’s a 10-member team, aren’t you calling William a loser?

└└There’s nothing poor about William! Also, how dare you consider Alfonso a loser? Jerome? Insu? The disrespect!

└The PD should make the teams even! They stacked all the top-ranking contestants on 2 teams. How is that fair?

└ You’re talking about teams? Who the hell voted for William to stay in the competition?! He should quit as promised.

The communities were blowing up with post after post with a common trend of anger emerging.

As if guessing what the viewers were going to say, the episode panned to an interview with the team leaders, where they were asked about not choosing the other contestants to make the teams more even and fair.

Benjamin: Fair? This is a competition. The contestants remaining? No offense to the mandem, but of the people available, I got the ones I think would help me make a performance worthy of first place and suit the skill set that my group was lacking innit. Nothing more, nothing less, and I wish them good luck.

Ari: Fair? I’ll pretend you didn’t ask me that. I really want to be first as a group, so I optimized for the best teammates available from the people remaining and went for a streamlined approach. I think there’s a good mix, so hopefully everything works out.

William: Who cares about things being fair? I’m going to beat him. No matter what I have to do, I’ll beat him and show him that I’m better than him!

Production: [Who do you think is the person to beat?]

Benjamin: Ari. No doubt. His brain works amazingly when it comes to making performances, and he’s been working on song creation with Jamie, so I’m sure it will probably be amazing. Ahhhh, the more I deep it, the more my stomach is hurting.

William: Fish bo, I mean Ariel. Though it’s not a matter of beating him, I’ll just show him that I’m better. At every conceivable category.

Ariel: Benjamin’s team. Jamie and everyone else are really talented over there, so I think it will be a close battle

Production to Contestant Ariel: [But they both listed you as the person to beat.]

Ariel: Really? Wow, I feel like a villain or the final boss. Haha, then I have to make sure to live up to their expectations and blow them out of the water.

Production: [Do you think you can do it? Get first place. Or rather maintain first place?]

Ariel: Of course. I’m good at everything I work hard at. And I have good teammates and helpers around me. It might be difficult, but first place? I think I can do it.

The episode ended like that and the reaction online was a mess.