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I wanna share my opinions regarding PDJ S2 and JO2 (let's just say this for JO1 soon-to-be little brother). I was hesitant to share because it'll be debatable, but these are what I've been thinking since the first announcement of the program.
Like everyone else, I was really shocked when they first announced it. I enjoyed living in an exclusivity (JO1 as the last PD group and the only permanent one) and I didn't want a new season at all. But a day after that, I started to see from another perspective.
JO1 already has everything. They have skills, visuals, personalities, as well as dedicated fans. One thing that they're still lacking is company power. Numerous media errors can prove that their company isn't strong enough.
Imagine if they're backed up by a stronger company, any media will be extra careful not to make a mistake since they're afraid of the impact. Also, the lack of consistency for their media appearances might indicate that there's something wrong behind what we've seen.
Why do some TVs want to invite them but the others don't? It's not like they're incompetent in skills or achievements, but it could be because there's a stronger force that prevents them to reach this.
Weeks later, lots of rumours and official announcements regarding the plans of new boy groups from K-pop big companies emerged. Now everything makes sense to me. Lapone could be aiming for company stans by becoming a boy group empire.
JO1 may already have a relatively strong fanbase now, but their new fans rate isn't fast enough. Mostly JAMs were also PDJ stans. It's hard to gain new fans if their chance to be on TV is low, let alone there are not many music shows in Japan to begin with.
To be honest, I'm still not 100% agree to hold a new season in the pandemic. The charms of PD are its format (but they change it to accommodate fewer people) and how it involves tons of contestants. And having two 11-member groups might not be varied enough for a company.
They can't determine the group vibes since the lineup will be decided from votes (not management picks), so I was hoping they would alter the final member number. With a different group size, at least we can have two distinct groups, even if their concepts could be overlapped.
I believe this trick is not impossible (Iz*One also doesn't have 11 members) and they can use this pandemic as the reason. Having another boy group can still be mutually beneficial to them. JO2 stans might be willing to check JO1 too and vice versa.
If they have a stronger fanbase, they can't be controlled easily by the upcoming new groups, which we all know bigger companies are behind them. But whatever the outcome will be, I'm always happy that JO1 is the pioneer of JK-pop revolution.
