Queendom Puzzle

Queendom Puzzle(Korean:퀸덤 퍼즐) is a 2023 South Koreanreality competitionshow created byMnet. It premiered on Mnet on June 13, 2023, airing every Tuesday at 22:00KST.The show concluded on August 15, 2023.
The show serves as a spin-off series ofQueendom, however it does not share a similar format with the previous seasons, only taking the name of the series.
On January 26, 2023, it was announced that theQueendomseries would have a third season, but would be different from the previous two seasons.
The show will focus on forming a global project girl group by taking members from currently active girl groups as well as solo female artists and piecing them together like a puzzle. It will take on a completely new format from the pre-existingQueendomseries, with individual competitions taking place rather than team competition.
Out of the initial 28 contestants, they will compete through performances to finally become a 7-member supergroup,El7z Up(Korean:엘즈업;RR:eljeueop).
On April 10, 2023, Mnet released the first teaser video on their YouTube channel. In the teaser, iconic girl group songs play in the background as well as the silhouettes of seven female celebrities are shown. Along with the confirmation that the first lineup will be revealed in May, the teaser includes the mysterious code on the bottom, "IURP WZHQWB HLJKW WR VHYHQ", which deciphers "from twenty-eight to seven".
On April 24, Mnet confirmed thatGirls' Generation'sTaeyeonwill host the show.The first six contestants were also revealed,as well asWeeekly,andH1-KEYwhere its agency, GLG, confirmed two of their members' participation in the show.
On April 25, it was revealed thatWJSN's Yeoreum would be a contestant in the show.On April 26, it was revealed that members Jiwon, Chaerin andBorafromCherry Bulletwould participate in the show.On April 27, it was revealed that Yuki fromPurple Kisswould also be a contestant.
On May 2, the remaining member ofAOA,Chanmi, now known as Dohwa, was revealed as a contestant in the show.
On May 9, Mnet released a second teaser to officially announce the program's premiere date of June 13, 2023, at 22:00 (KST).In the teaser, silhouettes of the cast members are revealed as well as Taeyeon standing in the center.
On May 18, Mnet released teaser photos of the first 13 contestants in silhouettes, as well as two teams created, Pick on the top and Pick-Cat. The two teams also released two theme songs titled "Charismatic" and "Snap" respectively on the same day, accompanied by two performance videos shown onM Countdown.It was also shared that the rest of the contestants would be revealed the week after, and that they would be releasing and performing the same two songs onM Countdownin their own versions.On the same day, Lee Chae-yeon and Haein were reported to have withdrawn from the show. They would not be replaced and the show would continue with 26 contestants.On May 19, Mnet released individual teaser videos and posters previewing the first 13 contestants revealed.
On May 25, Mnet released a second set of teaser photos of the remaining 13 contestants in silhouettes, as well as the two teams, Drop The Beat & Athena.The two teams also released different versions of the two theme songs on the same day, accompanied by performance videos shown onM Countdown.On May 26, Mnet released individual teaser videos and posters for the remaining 13 contestants.
On May 29, Mnet released a group poster containing all contestants and MC Taeyeon, as well as the profiles of the 26 contestants.On June 2, Mnet released the first teaser trailer.
On June 6, a behind-the-scenes video was released, showing the contestants meeting each other for the first time.An exclusive preview, also known as Episode 0, was also released, showing the first hour of Episode 1 that was to be aired in the following week.
On June 8, a special stage of the contestants was aired onM Countdown.
All of the contestants have previous experiences in the K-pop industry, either as a current or former member of a girl group or as a soloist. The lineup of contestants includes members ofCherry Bullet,Rocket Punch,Weki Meki,H1-Key,AOA,WJSN,Purple Kiss,Weeekly,Woo!ah!,Lightsum,TripleS, and former members ofLovelyz,CLC,Momoland,BNK48, andNMB48. The show originally had 28 contestants, thoughChaeyeonand Haein ofLaboumboth left the show prior to its airing for personal reasons.Both made appearances in the first 2 episodes.
The final group will be decided based on votes through the Mnet Plus and Twinkple applications, where each voter choose 7 contestants to vote as an ideal final group.
First Voting Period
Second Voting Period
Final Voting Period
The 28 contestants are split into four tiers, based on the following criteria (as at April 24, 2023):
The two scores are added up and each contestant would be placed in Tiers 1 to 4.
Each contestant would then have a solo performance, and the remaining 27 contestants would each vote for the contestant. "Up" would be pressed if the voters each think that the performing contestant has performed better than the voter, and if otherwise "Down" would be pressed. After the performances, the contestants would be rearranged into their new tiers based on the results of the performances.
After Performances
For this round, each contestant would choose one of the 2 signal songs, "Charismatic" and "Snap", in order of the number of Ups received from the Up-Down Battle, and there would be 14 contestants per song. In the event when there are already 14 contestants in one of the songs, the remaining contestants that have not chosen would be automatically allocated to the other song. Each song would consist of 2 teams: "PICK" and "DROP". After the contestants choose, in the Puzzle Room, Jiwon would form the 2 teams for "Charismatic", while Bora would form the 2 teams for "Snap". The formed teams would practice and then record performance videos for the songs.
The contestants would form new teams and recreate top K-pop songs by various K-pop acts.
The contestants would be split into Team Queendom and Team Puzzle immediately after the Remix Battle performances, starting from contestant Yeonhee being picked into Team Queendom and contestant Kei being picked into Team Puzzle, with the rest of the contestants choosing Team Queendom or Team Puzzle afterwards. As part of winning the Remix Battle, contestants Jihan, Dohwa, Nana and Suyun can bring contestant(s) from one team to another. Lastly, if one team does not have 13 contestants, through voting among the team with more than 13 contestants, contestant(s) would move to the team without 13 contestants.
Teams
Final Score
Five (5) contestants will be eliminated during the first live broadcast, wherein the votes starting from the start of the show until the airing of the episode will be tallied. The benefit points earned from the previous rounds will also be combined, and the Top 7 members will be announced. Subsequently, the Bottom 5 who will be eliminated are also announced.
The following contestants from the three songs are eliminated before the performances:
The Semi-Final voting assembly-choice voting began from July 4 to 7, 23:59 (KST), via the Mnet Plus application, where voters listen to snippets of three newly produced songs and for each song, they pick 7 contestants they want to put in. The three teams would then be formed based on the votes. Subsequently, elimination of 5 contestants would be conducted on Episode 7 (special live broadcast), followed by member adjustments to the teams, such that each song would only have 7 contestants. The eventual performances of the three songs would be held in the Semi-Final, which is Episode 9 (live broadcast).
Through live text votes in Episode 9, the winning team is decided. The members of the winning team would each get a benefit of 30,000 votes. Subsequently, 7 contestants would be eliminated.
The 21 contestants would choose one of the two newly produced songs. After the elimination of 7 contestants that happened in Episode 9 (Semi-Final Round & Second Live Episode), the remaining 14 contestants would be split into 2 teams, through the grouping by the top 2 as at Semi-Final, Hwiseo and Nana.
The following contestants from the two songs are eliminated before the performances: