02/03/2025
Are I.MET.U DOOMED to Fail?
As unfortunate as it is, Time Turner didn’t really live up to its promises and people’s expectations. What was supposed to be a revolutionary K-Pop survival show taking place entirely on TikTok turned into a huge fiasco. From low-budget productions, lackluster performances, and widely disliked members, I.MET.U are likely to pay the price.
Table of Contents
- Time Turner and Its Promises
- Early Shortcomings
- The Voting System Controversy
- The Final Lineup: I.MET.U
- Controversial Members
- Accusations of Rigging
- Lu Yuting’s Departure
- Conclusion
Time Turner and Its Promises
Time Turner was supposed to revolutionize K-Pop’s survival shows by taking on the format of a live group survival show that officially kicked off on TikTok on November 8th, 2024. Due to its never-seen-before format, many fans were excited to tune in, and Time Turner was expected to be a huge hit. The show promised to be based only on global fan votes which stirred a lot of anticipation among fans. On top of that, many official contestants in the survival show were already well-known in the K-Pop industry.
One of them was Lea Navvab Huening, the oldest sibling of Huening Kai from TXT and Bahiyyih from Kep1er who are both very well-known idols. What many fans probably didn’t know was that Lea was the first out of the siblings to make her debut in 2017 as a member of the girl group VIVA. Despite the group disbanding in 2018, Lea continued her career on YouTube and TikTok, as well as taking up many singing and modelling opportunities. She made her solo debut in November of 2022 with the song “A Good Day To Love,” and when the news about her participating in Time Turner was released, Lea’s fans were ecstatic to see her perform on stage again.
Early Shortcomings
Unfortunately, Time Turner fell pretty flat from the very beginning. Many viewers thought it was strange that the survival show ended in November, the same month it began, since survival shows tend to go on longer than that. Some netizens claimed that the company was simply milking the survival show trend just to debut their girl group without knowing anything about what it takes to run a survival show. Many K-Pop survival shows build up tension and excitement to keep the viewers interested by placing eliminations further into the show but when it comes to Time Turner, the eliminations happened pretty early in the show.
Because of this, there wasn’t enough time for the viewers and fans to get to know all of the contestants and pick their favorites since they were eliminated so early on. Another thing that irked the fans a lot was the fact that only a handful out of the 18 contestants actually sang, with the remaining 12 girls opting to only dance. A user on Twitter pointed out the inconsistencies in the audio quality. The user noticed it when some of the girls who were singing didn’t sound so well but suddenly sounded amazing when they were introducing themselves. Some netizens compared the group to a bunch of influencers lip syncing and dancing to songs. Many fans thought that the show didn’t even feel like a real survival show.
The Voting System Controversy
What made the overall show seem very low-budget was the fact that during the performances, TikTok Live gifts appeared on the screen. It was also revealed that the votes that were the most crucial to the show came from the TikTok Live gifts, which viewers paid for with their real money. A user on Reddit alleged that some people spent hundreds of dollars worth of gifts during those streams, which is a monthly wage for a lot of people. This was kept secret from the contestants and when one of them, Dalia, found out about it, she apologized to her fans and assured them that they didn’t have to vote if they didn’t have the means to.
Additionally, many fans felt like the entire show was a huge scam since it didn’t even have an actual website to vote through. Instead, fans were made to vote through Google Forms, which are free to use. Overall, many fans thought that this show couldn’t even be considered a survival show due to the low effort and even lower quality and the fact that, even though Time Turner was supposed to be a survival show, there were no mentors to guide these contestants through the show and share their experiences and wisdom.
The Final Lineup: I.MET.U
Despite all the ups and downs of the show, the final episode of the show introduced the winning group: I.MET.U, consisting of the members Lea, Cleo, Lu Yuting, Sim Ye Rin and Kelly Kim. But what was supposed to be a joyous moment for the group was instead met with a lot of criticism from fans and netizens. Because of the disastrous show itself and the problematic members within the group, many fans and netizens are wondering if this group is even going to be able to withstand the pressure of the K-Pop industry and if they truly have what it takes to make it in the already saturated K-Pop scene.
Controversial Members
One of the biggest problems that people had with the group was actually the inclusion of one of the members. When Kelly Kim secured her first place in the show, most of the viewers and fans were shocked to say the least. Kelly’s dancing and singing skills were heavily scrutinized since the beginning of the show, and many people were sure that she didn’t even deserve to be in the group in the first place. A lot of the viewers didn’t like the vibe she was giving off during her performances, claiming that she seemed sure of her debut, even though she didn’t have the skills necessary to be an idol.
It’s being thought that this could potentially harm the group’s future as having a member who isn’t liked by many people isn’t ideal, and people don’t really tend to support someone they don’t like. A user on Twitter pointed out that Kelly would have to do a complete 180 transformation and work herself to the bone for them to change their mind about her. Additionally, a user on Reddit shared their thoughts on Kelly and wrote that while she is exceptionally pretty, she doesn’t really bring anything to the table and she hasn’t managed to showcase her true talents.
Some netizens even went as far as to wonder if Kelly ending up in the first place could be a case of favoritism. Kelly seems to be under the same company that took part in creating Time Turner, which is PI Corporation. Netizens thought it was quite strange that the girls who ended up in the final lineup all had a lot of followers on TikTok, which only added to the speculations that the production team decided to choose these girls to gather popularity and traction to the show. Another user on Reddit alleged that the show was only a way for the company to collect money for the group’s debut, adding that they invited former K-Pop idols, like Lea, to gain more publicity, as well as relying on popular members like Lea and Kelly to gather money to promote the group.
Speaking of Lea, netizens’ previous excitement of Lea being in the show slowly disappeared as the show progressed and the public sentiment shifted for the worse. Her singing skills weren’t met with a lot of enthusiasm as they fell a little flat for some of the viewers. Many of them kept their hopes up because Lea seemed to have a lot of potential and could train hard enough to become an amazing singer and dancer. However, most viewers weren’t so hopeful about Lea though and confessed that they regretted wishing for her to debut again.
Specifically, Lea and Cleo’s performance of ITZY’s “Untouchable” was the last straw for many. Despite her experience in the industry, many viewers of the show thought that she wasn’t prepared for her performances at all. A commenter on Reddit wondered if Lea’s debut was already guaranteed, which is why she didn’t seem to put a lot of effort into her performances. They also added that the show shouldn’t have been presented as a survival show, but making it a pre-debut show might have been a better option.
Accusations of Rigging
On top of the negative perception of the group from netizens, the show was also accused of being rigged and manipulated, and these accusations could do some serious damage to the group. A user on Twitter, who allegedly worked with the management team for the show, shared their side of the story, claiming they have experience in the entertainment industry and have many contacts who provided them with reliable information. Allegedly, the show used certain contestants to rank up views and popularity. The user went on to claim that the entire show was a set up that would allow them to debut a group under their own company. Apparently, if they hadn’t debuted the group through the survival show, the group wouldn’t have gained a lot of success as the company didn’t have enough funds and resources.
The user made another surprising claim in their statement: apparently, the contestants kept on coming and leaving, and the girls who made it into I.MET.U weren’t even in the official line-up and were allegedly just last-minute replacements. According to the netizen, the audio, microphones, voice pitches, and background tracks were all manipulated off-camera. They finished off their statement by claiming the show was a scam, and that both the production team and the show itself should’ve been canceled.
Lu Yuting’s Departure
Considering everything that happened, many fans expected that the girls would continue to work hard so they could make their official debut in the future. Unfortunately, on January 16th, it was announced that Lu Yuting would be leaving the group, which steered the debut off course. The decision came after long discussions between PI Corporation and Lu Yuting, who decided not to continue working with the group to pursue other dreams.
The announcement sparked a lot of buzz among netizens and most of them are not optimistic at all. Some fans are convinced that the group is not going to debut at all and that they were doomed to fail from the very beginning. A few of them even went as far as claiming the group was a money laundering scheme or that it was nothing but a huge scam for the company to cash people out of their money and bring attention to something that was never going to work out from the beginning. This is why it was generally thought that Yuting’s decision to part ways with the group and the company was a good decision for her and wished her lots of luck in the future. While it would be great if the girls managed to turn this situation around and make something great out of something bad, a lot of people are convinced that the group is headed towards its inevitable end.
Conclusion
Users on Reddit wondered if this group is ever going to be taken seriously and will be able to withstand the competitive K-Pop industry since Time Turner didn’t really set them up for a smooth and thriving career. Can the group push past these challenges, or will these issues hold them back for good? Share what you think in the comments!
