Mnet's Superstar K is a hot mess right now. Will they be able to survive another season?

With Superstar K5 struggling to meet the expected ratings, Busker Busker's Brad (full name Bradley Ray Moore) has added fuel to the fire by exposing some of the strange modes of operations that he and others experienced while filming Superstar K Season 3. Producers CJ E&M has stated that it was a misunderstanding, but the viewers of Superstar K are not likely to accept such lax explanations.

Brad, in an interview with American music site Noisey, talked a little about his experience with Superstar K. He claimed that Chang Bum Jun, the lead singer of Busker Busker, was a contestant who failed to make it in Superstar K Season 2. When he formed Busker Busker after Superstar K Season 2 had ended, the producers of Superstar K Season 3 approached Chang Bum Jun and said, "We need a band to participate this season" and asked Busker Busker to come on as a contestant.

Brad furthermore stated, "We were eliminated but were summoned as a filler for the live competitions after Yeriband decided to leave the program. When we sang SHINee's 'Juliet' with Togeworl live on stage, it was not a great rendition. We actually didn't sound very good. However, they re-recorded Togeworl's voices and used auto-tune to make them sound better when the performance aired on TV two months later. I also had one of the writers ask me to bring my girlfriend on stage after we lost to Ulala Session, which made me think about whether the competition was staged. During the program, they forced us to do many things like go on a diet and receive botox shots. We were constantly hounded to keep a tight 24-hour schedule including commercials and ads that we were not paid to do. We also didn't receive any financial compensation for our songs."

"The reason we were inactive for more than 6 months is because CJ E&M wanted us to make TV appearances that we didn't want to do."

CJ E&M is, of course, rebutting Brad's claims. They issued a statement to explain themselves, saying, "It was a misunderstanding. Brad doesn't know about the ins-and-outs of broadcasting and filming an entertainment show. Financial profits were shared as explained in the contract for the first two albums. The songs that were sung during the competition, however, are not sung as a singer or a band but as a participant, so we do not offer compensation for those songs."

"For advertising, we gave financial compensation to all individual ad appearances. However, per our deal with Coca Cola, we have some participants indirectly advertise Coca Cola items without offering individual compensation."

"On the re-recording and using auto-tune, we felt that it was necessary because of bad quality of the music that we had on file. We did not want to air the show with music that's hard to listen to, so did what the situation required. On Brad's statement about bringing up his girlfriend to support him for his loss, we want to let everyone know that we ask this of all the participants that compete, because it makes for a good, heartwarming picture for the program."

"Brad and CJ E&M have made peace. Brad was also surprised by the backlash of what he said."

Yes, this clears up some of the issues that Brad was raising, but it doesn't resolve the problem at hand of Superstar K's downward spiral.

What caused their downfall? It can be largely traced to three main errors. The first one is the fact that most of the voting is highly subjective and dependent on the whim of the judges. Their revival round allows the judges to bring back eliminated contestants through a competition. That competition, however, is based on the judge's decision. There was so much complaint about these that Superstar K stated that they would not bring back the revival round because of the viewer's complaints, but they went back against their words and brought back the revival round.

The way they score the participants has also been a point of concern. A good looking participant could survive via paid viewer voting multiple times. Don't count on CJ E&M to make things right by making the votes free. There is no way that they will let go of a sure profit.

Even the show's severe editing is no longer fun. Producers advertise every year that they will come back with a new Superstar season. But when we actually take a look at the season, they recruit one or two unlikeable characters, delay the elimination announcement, and focus on the tears and humiliation of the participants. Since it's been 5 years of the same type of content, viewers have a good idea of what's bound to happen in the show. It's become too predictable, and the show is no longer fun to watch.

External factors always play a part. As other audition programs like SBS "Kpop Star" started to rise in popularity, expectations and tensions for such programs has decreased. Moreover, viewers who once watched "Superstar" would turn their eyes and tune into other shows. Talented figures on the show would get disbanded, and the number of participants dropped as well.

But the biggest problem here is CJ E&M itself. Just as Brad pointed out, CJ gave the participants of the program a busy schedule, filled with commercial shoots. They package it up nicely by calling it an "incubating system," but in those 6 months, the only music activity they have is the "Superstar" national tour. There's even talk that it's difficult for participants to get recruited by an agency. When compared to its rival program SBS "Kpop Star," which makes it easy to get into the Big 3 agencies and receive professional training, "Superstar" is not the most appealing, and there's no real reason to pick CJ.