"Vote for your girl."

Produce 101, which was first aired on Mnet last January, has recorded high ratings amidst a stream of controversy due to its provocative topic and settings. It particularly drew attention through steady interactive communication, releasing unaired clips on the Internet and having people to vote on their favorite contestants. Among the 101 female idol trainees, the show plans to select eleven by direct votes, so the show was expected to draw a number of male viewers, but in fact, it was the female fans that greatly contributed to the success of the show.

■Female Viewership Soars

According to the data on the target audience and viewership of the first nine episodes of Produce 101 (conducted nationwide by Nielsen Korea), the show had over twice more female viewers than male viewers among those in their teens through thirties, the main viewers of the show. In the case of teens, the viewer rating among the male target audience was 1.1%, but four times that, at 4.4%, among the female target audience. Among the people in their twenties, the ratings among the men remained at 0.9%, while it was 3.0%, more than a three-fold among the women. Usually, TV ratings are higher among the women than the men, but the latest numbers were significant even compared to Superstar K, an Mnet show with a similar format, which has a 2:1 ratio of female and male audiences in their twenties and thirties.

The ratings also increased faster among the women.

Among the women in their thirties, the viewer rating was 0.3% for the first show of Produce 101, only about a half of the ratings among men (0.6%), but for the ninth show which aired on March 25, the rating among women soared six times that of the men (0.5%) to 3.1%. This is a ten-fold increase from the first show. The ratings among teenage girls also increased more than four times from the first show by the ninth show, recording the highest ratings in all gender and age groups. During the same period the ratings only increased three-fold among the teenage boys. It appears the female audience, which had not been too favorable at first, was gradually drawn in by the show as the episodes continued.

A representative of the show said, "Voting and entering in an event is mostly done through the social network services (SNS), so it is difficult to identify accurate information on gender, but on site, we can feel that we have more female fans. In particular, more than sixty percent of the fans that visit the public audition site are women."

■How Did They Attract the Heart of Women?

When the concept of the show, with the appearance of pretty young girls trying to become idols, was first released, Produce 101 was the target of criticism for commercializing sex. Then how did this program manage to attract the female audience so quickly?

One thing that attracted the female viewership was that the show turned away from jealousy and enmity, which is usually expected in a competition among women, and stressed solidarity and friendship. Since this is a competition to decide the top eleven by the votes of the "public producers," the fate of the trainees depends on who stands in the center and who gets more camera exposure. Yet the camera captured trainees helping each other improve their skills and coming together to discuss and choose what's best for the team. The scene where Kim Se-jeong, who received a grade A in one of the competitions, helped Kim So-hye, who got an F, eventually left a good impression of both the trainees.

Media critic Kim Seon-yeong said, "The show often showed young girls crying in a brutal environment and triggered the empathy and protective instinct of the women. Also, in a media environment where stories of women succeeding by competing with their own skills are rare, Produce 101 allowed women to take vicarious pleasure in watching the show."