iKON Talks About “Kingdom” Being Their Fourth Competition Show That They’ve Been In

For a few members, this will be their 5th!

The highly anticipated Mnet show, Kingdom has finally aired its first episode and the boy groups are making headlines for numerous different reasons. In particular, YG Entertainment boy group, iKON has started to make headlines as it has been revealed that Kingdom will mark their fourth competition show participation.

iKON | YG Entertainment

Member Donghyuk brings up this fact during their interview portion for the show.

“This is our fourth survival show participation.” | Mnet

The members of iKON are no strangers to survival programs, as they are a group that was created through WIN: WHO IS NEXT. Boy group, WINNER ended up winning this competition, leading them to their official debut. The remaining members would eventually go on to become a part of iKON, but not before featuring on another competition show.

Members of WINNER (top) and iKON (bottom) on “WIN:WHO IS NEXT” | Mnet

The remaining members of WIN:WHO IS NEXT were also on Mix & Match, which was another Mnet survival program catered around the members of the iKON and their future debut. This survival show focused on getting the current members of iKON ready for their official debut.

Still from “Mix & Match” | Mnet

The group’s survival show resume didn’t end just in South Korea. The group made their way to China to compete in a dancing competition show called Heroes of Remix. While they had the most victories during their time on the show, due to THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) and other China-South Korea tension issues, they were completely edited out from the show.

iKON on “Heroes of Remix” | Mnet

iKON member Bobby brings up his participation in Show Me The Money, revealing that Kingdom would actually mark his fifth competition appearance.

“If I count my appearance in ‘Show Me The Money’, this will be my fifth competition.” | Mnet

While it may seem like a lot, member Jinhwan explains why they decided to come out and compete on another survival program.

While we contemplated our decision for a long time due to the word ‘competition,’ we decided that in our current times, this was a great opportunity. That is why we decided to participate.

— Jinhwan

We are excited for the boys of iKON to show us what they’ve got on Kingdom, along with all the other boy groups! You can watch iKON’s interview segment talking about their competition show experiences down below.

iKON