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But, it is what it is. They've chosen already.

AHOF. Someone get me a cough medicine, please. AHOF.

Let's talk about the name. AHOF, seriously? 😳

Should've gone for "Hall of Famers" instead. There's a group "The Boyz", so why not "Hall of Famers"?

Or, 9ers / Niners?

AHOF? Did someone cough?

They could've chosen AHOO or Spartan. But I think 9ers / Niners is better.

By the way, this is about the English name of the group not the Korean name 아홉. A good example is 소녀시대 (SNSD), their English name is Girls' Generation.

Names should be appealing and lovable, and like it or not, AHOF is not for the English market.

Oh. Don't hate us Filipinos. If someone is talended, shows growth, is humble, we support them. Half of it has something to do also with being a Filipino. Half only. Why? When Sandara Park joined a talent search show survival here in the Philippines back in 2000, we gave her no less thae 6 million SMS votes (that's more than 6 million Pesos of SMS texts), and Sandara still came second. The 1st was Heero (I think Japanese?) who got more than 6 million votes.

So no, we voted for Gehlee Dangca, Elisia, and now JL Gaspar, not purely because they're Filipinos (as many people accuses us) rather because they truly deserve it. If what we're being accused of is true, Heero and Sandara wouldn't have gotten no less than 6M votes each. The other members of UNIS wouldn't have suddenly increased in voting. Park Han and Cha Woongki wouldn't have secured their ranking. 😝

And well, spending money, even though we're "poor", is not new for us. Poverty is high here, yet, we're one of the highest ranking consumer country in the world. Ironic right? 🤣🤣🤣

Anyway, I just have to say that again because we're definitely going to get accused of the same thing all over again.

Well, with the way the Final voting was set up "1 member vote per day per account = 1 team vote automatically".

JL received 4M votes. Even if we total the 6 other members of Rhythm, they won't come close to 3M. The way the Final voting was set up guaranteed that the team JL is in will surely win.

Imagine what's in the mind ot Team Groove, "I should've have stolen JL when I had the chance". (But in fairness, he respected JL's decision to be with his favourite group, NCT, so he did not steal him.)

They really shouldn't have had locked Member voting with Team voting. If thos was the case, Team Groove would have had won, and JL & Woongki would've joined Groove.

Oh, by the way, like half of Team JL voters voted for Park Han and Cha Woongki instead of JL to guarantee their win. Someone knew they will debut 9.

Yes, someone leaked they will debut 9 and will pick the Rank 1 in the losing teams. So, half of Team JL voters stopped voting for JL and split up to vote for Park Han and Cha Woongki. Those two are actually top choices here in the Philippines. 😝

(I was disappointed with Woongki after their little skirmish was revealed. No idea if he ever apologized off-camera. I never voted for him because of that. I hope he won't create drama in his new team and then leave early like he did before.)

Viu. They're working on the English sub, should be out within 6–12 hours.

No. AFAIK, similar contract with UNIS, 2.5 (2 and a half) years.

Yep. Rhythm and Red definitely are the best. Then they combine the Top 7 of the directors and voters. I hope it's 50-50, because online voting scores are just too uncontrollable. All it takes is to have Whale supporters and a huge fandom already to change the rankings.

It's SOP in the Asian entertainment industry. And again, he's the main host since RM started. As I've said, even spin-offs of RM have the same format, with a main host, because SBS said it is the format of the show. Unless of course you are saying that the spin-offs were tricked by SBS or something.

Again, it is what it is. Just accept it.

The point is, the English title is not in any way related to what the show is about. From the Korean title itself, it's clear it's about education. However, the English title gave an incorrect expectation, that is why people are rating it badly. You can see it for yourself, "there's no romance". Of course there isn't because that's not the theme of the show, it was only the English title that gave tht impression.

Secondly, it isn't because it isn't everyone's cup of tea. As E12 of this very show explained, people, not just Korean students, doesn't even consider the author's point-of-view. You can, in fact, see a lot of comments about "the writer should quit writing" or "it's not realistic" (even though it is), and so on, in many shows posted everywhere. It's like how in E12, the Korean students fail to understand Korean literature because they're looking at it from their own lense.

It's not because it is "unique". There's nothing unique in literature and fiction these days. Same plots. Same scenes. Same literary devices. Same backgrounds. Same tropes. It's getting low ratings because of that English title _and ironically_ because of what was explained in E12.

And the one's suffering is the author, and in this case, the entire crew who worked hard for it.

If it's bad, it's bad. But this show? It isn't. It is a 10.

Because the show is about education not romantic love.

The Korean title is 졸업 which literally means "Graduate" or "Graduation".

The English title is the dumbest and most stupid English title this show could ever get. Whoever thought of it should never be allowed to join brainstorming sessions.

Well, the person who gave the English title did not bother to understand the plot so they ended up with a dumb English title.

This is wasn't the first time. Korean producers must take control of English titles for their projects instead of relying on their foreign partners. Their foreign partners only care about attracting attention, not ratings. Other shows with a such a disconnected English title also did poorly in the past because it gave people the wrong expectations.

Those people giving these Inglish titles should never be allowed to come into brainstorming meetings. They lack talent and logic.

"Ooh, romance. The official poster is midnight. It's in Hagwon. Okay, the title should be 'The Midnight Romance of Hagwon'!"

"But it's about education!"

"Who cares? We only need to get our subscribers to watch it."

Months later.

"Why are the ratings low?"

"People did not understand the show."


*Someone whispers* Because you gave it a stupid English title.

🤪

Because that's the theme of the show, the education system and their practices. The Koreae title is literally "Graduate".

Whoever gave the very misleading English title is an epic failure of a marketer and should never be assigned to think of English titles for non-English materials.

The English title missid the marked, which is giving the wrong expectations for many.

There's nothing "romantic" about this. In fact, it is not even the theme of this show.

From the Korean title itself, 졸업 (lit. Graduate), it is about education, schools, teachers, instructors.

Whoever gave that English title did not bother to understand what the show is about. LMAO. An epic fail marketing.

Lastly, about the genre "romance", that is correct. The genre "romance" has little to do about "romantic love" the way people today assume it (although "romantic love" can be present and is part of the genre). This show qualifies under the genre "romance". At least on that part, they got it correctly.

Rating it low, that was because of the wrong expectations the off-topic English title gave people. And also because people were not taught properly by their respective literature teachers in the past, watch E12 for that. 😝

Well, in the first place, it wasn't about the "romance". The Korean title is literally "Graduate". The teachers and education is the theme of the show not whatever romance. 😝

Secondly, E12 is the exact reason why many people today fail to appreciate literature and fiction. Why? Well, E12 explained it perfectly. 😁

I rarely give a low rating because my Filipino and English literature teachers back in the late 80s and 90s taught us exactly what E12 emphasized. Hence, to this very day, I always put myself into the shoes of the author and do my best to see it from their own perspective and experiences. That way of thinking is a skill that can also be used outside of literature and fiction. It's a shift in mindset that can be used in our daily life and yes, even at work. 🙂

E12 of the «The Midnight Romance In Hagwon» or «졸업» (lit. Graduate) tackled how to approach learning Literature and it is by entering the mind, life, situation, society, & time of the author.

I approach things the same way, hence, I see the beauty of novels & TV drama where few others did (and hence they rate them very low).

But E12 also reminded me that the reason I think this way was because of my teachers in Filipino and English literature. I'm Gen Xennial, or an early 80s baby, I could say we were blessed to have such teachers who taught us properly and imparted skills that can actually help us in our life instead of simply telling us to memorize this and that to pass the exams.

To our teachers, thank you. 🙇🏽 You taught us exactly what E12 of The Midnight Romance in Hagwon 졸업 was all about. It is a precious gift that I am still using today even at work.

Daniel should guest a lot. He's a natural comedian.

E736 was very enjoyable.

He is the main host since episode 1. There's nothing to it other than being given the task. All other Running Man spin-offs have the exact samu format as per SBS requirement. There is a main host, and that main host is also a member. The rest of the members can host too if they want, but the main host is the main host by contract.

Don't read too much into it. Instead think of it as the person with most say if things get out of hand. Like when everyone is arguing endlissly or having fun too much, it is the main host's job to control the situation. That is part of their job description while the regular members can do whatever they want.

In any case, there's a lot of movements right now. Now if the previous total scores since E01 are added, the final ranking might move.

What's important is to get to Top 7, just in case the Top 7 is the basis for the new group. And some of the favourites are below that.

At least based on Universe Ticket, Whale voters (the super rich) poured all their might in the final voting. Even fan clubs did.

I think that is happening again. The Whales are voting massively. The fandoms are spending all the money they collected to mass vote.

We'll probably see 500K to 1M new votes added from the final online voting for a few of them. 😅

And since we can only vote for 1 person, JL can even get dethroned, but will remain in the Top 7. Rank 2 was only 400k votes shy.

We can also see surprises. For example, Woongki fans are already voting massively instead of voting for JL (many of them were JL voters). They want to increase his final rank to secure a spot for him. Park Han whales and fandom are also massively voting now. We'll probably see 1 or 2 favourites to drop from ranking, potentially not debuting.