A new show called
Idol School started a few weeks ago. It's a reality-competition program where 41 girls receive singing, dancing, acting, etc. lessons in a 11 week semester. One application requirement is that the student cannot be a current trainee or part of an entertainment company. There are, however, some notable participants: Lee Haein (
Produce 101 (2016), IBI,
God of Music 2 (2016)), Natty (
SIXTEEN (2015)), Kim Eunsuh (
SIXTEEN), Park Jiwon (
SIXTEEN), Tasha (Skarf), and Kim Myungji (Tiny-G). See the
full list of students on the official site.
The top 9 students at the end of the semester will debut as a new girl group. The ranks are determined by public voting, weighted 10% weekly online votes and 90% live SMS votes. (Note that voting via SMS does incur a 100 KRW fee, which is donated to
CJ Donors Camp, an organization that helps underprivileged children.)
Idol School Subs will be English subbing the show, and they recently released
the first episode. Even though the show focuses more on the development of the students, I would recommend watching if you do enjoy music competition shows, particularly if you liked
Produce 101.
The music video for the show's theme "
Pretty" (
live) was released to promote the show.