[theqoo] "SM ONLY LOOKS AT TRAINEES' FACES? THAT'S NOT TRUE" 0.00867% SELECTION RATE CRITERIA REVEALD

On the 333rd episode of the tvN entertainment show 'You Quiz on the Block' (hereafter 'You Quiz') aired on March 4th, Yoon Hee-jun, the director of SM Artist Development Center who has produced idols for 22 years at SM Entertainment (hereafter SM), appeared as a guest.

On this day, Yoon Hee-joon responded to a question from Yoo Jaesuk, who asked, “There’s a rumor going around that there’s a certain ‘definite SM look’, a face that SM Entertainment prefers. Is that true?” Yoon denied it, saying, “Internally, we don’t have any specific standards or guidelines regarding appearance.”

She continued, “As a staff member, I'm honestly a bit hesitant to appear in front of the camera, but I thought that if I talked with Yoo Jaesuk on You Quiz on the Block, long-standing misunderstandings might be cleared up. People say SM only selects based on looks, but that’s absolutely not true.” She added that he had even heard from some people who said they didn’t apply to SM because of that rumor.

In one year alone, there are roughly 150,000 applicants for SM trainees. Out of those applicants, about 2,000 are selected in the first round through video screening, 500 advance in the second round, and in the end only around 10 become trainees. On average, about 13 trainees pass each year, which is only about a 0.00867% acceptance rate.

When asked what criteria are actually used to select trainees if not appearance, Yoon explained, “The thing we look at the most is potential for growth. The next is perseverance, whether this person can really make it. Those are the two things we look at the most.”

She also named idols she personally believes show exceptional perseverance: Kai of EXO, Doyoung of NCT, and Wonbin of RIIZE.

Speaking about Kai, she said, “You really feel how tough he is mentally. The staff actually get exhausted because of him. He doesn’t go home. The staff end up giving up on leaving work. When he practices, he hardly comes out of the practice room and just keeps repeating the same thing over and over. Even when we tell him to go home, he says, ‘Just one more time,’ but that one more time turns into 10 or 20 more.”

About Doyoung, she shared, “Just the other day he came out on leave from the military and came to the company the very same day to practice singing. He said it was a big problem that he hadn’t sung for about 50 days, so on the first day of his leave he came to the company and practiced vocals in the vocal training room.”

As for Wonbin, she explained, “He was cast through a photo and then joined the company. He had basically never properly learned singing or dancing before in his life. But he improved at an incredibly fast rate. In the early videos, you see him standing quietly in the corner, watching the older trainees, and then suddenly stepping forward almost like he teleported. That’s not easy to do.”

source: https://v.daum.net/v/20260305055005295

original post: here

1. Who believes her

2. More like the face first, then the spirit

3. It's because she takes for granted the handsome and pretty part and ads the spirit to it. Why is she acting like this is completely false ㅋㅋㅋ

4. But everyone can tell that they've rejected people just from their faces too..

5. Huh? Just look at the idols coming out nowadays, and I we can all tell that face isn't the only thing they look at

6. It's because the face is taken for granted, that's why they only look at diligence and sincerity

7. They're basically saying they look at the face, but not ONLY the face

8. ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

9. Of course it would be weird for them to pick people solely for the face. Do you know how much risk it entails?

10. It's because they've gotten so much hate about it that she had to clarify. She's in charge of it, so she knows best