K-pop Survival Show: America2Korea Review

As the K-pop industry continues to expand, entertainment companies are pushing boundaries to achieve new heights. JYP Entertainment recently began a survival show named A2K, or America2Korea, with the end goal of forming an American-based global K-pop group. J.Y. Park, the founder and former head of JYP Entertainment, is looking to “find American talents to create a girl group through the K-pop system.” He is merging American culture with Korean culture to create a national sensation that will resonate worldwide.

The show started with regional auditions held in 5 different cities: Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, Dallas, and Los Angeles. A selected group of 11 girls were chosen to be contestants and were invited to the L.A. Boot Camp—the first step of their journey. There, they were evaluated on 4 criteria: singing, dancing, star quality, and character. Through these evaluations, the contestants who were deemed ready to begin the process of training at JYP were sent to Korea, where they receive professional training from the staff at JYP, continuously developing their skills until the final group is decided.

I found this new survival show very entertaining and enjoyable to watch for several reasons, including its engaging content, unique premise, and the girls themselves. The content of a show is the base on which special characteristics that make it unique can then be added—if the show has boring content, it’ll be a boring show. A2K has an incredibly strong base of content as I never felt uninterested while watching it, and I was always on the edge of my seat. The intense evaluations, the struggles, the performances—I loved it all. It was incredibly exciting to watch the girls receive difficult assignments and see how they tackled it, whether it be long hours of training or working together in groups. Being a huge K-pop fan myself, I loved watching them perform songs from some of my favorite groups and adding their own twists.

A2K is like no other survival show that I’ve ever watched, and it brings a fresh concept to the table. The first element that stood out to me was the cultural aspect. This aspect piqued my interest as many of the contestants come from different backgrounds such as Lexus (17), who is ethnically Hmong, and Kendall (17), who is half Vietnamese and half American. This element of varied cultures brings a level of diversity to A2K that other shows of its kind don’t have. It also raises a few questions—will they be a “true” K-pop group or just a group of girls singing in Korean? Are those the same? What even makes K-pop K-pop? By watching the show, you may find the answers to some of these questions. J.Y. Park is truly opening a door for future possibilities—the start of A2K might just begin a new era of K-pop.

Another element of A2K that differentiates it from similar shows is that the number of girls who made the final group was not determined from the start. Every contestant could debut or become a member if they were talented and skilled enough. This guideline surprised me because of how competitive survival shows tend to be. Usually, we see contestants acting very tense around each other, sometimes even fighting or arguing. This strained environment is nowhere seen in A2K, and all the girls are solely focusing on improving and enhancing their talents. They can help one another to achieve the same goal—debuting.

Lastly, the girls are also another reason why I love this show so much. The girls all have unique personalities, and I adored seeing their growth throughout this journey. Some of them are around my age, so I find them really funny and relatable. When they first arrived at JYP in Korea, they were all freaking out, which was just so similar to how I’d probably react in the same situation. After all, they were ordinary individuals before and now they could possibly be world-famous idols—it’s quite a drastic change. I enjoyed watching them improve through evaluations and criticism to become a better version of themselves, not only in skills but also in mindset. Overcoming the obstacles in their way was an essential factor for their pathway to success, and I was rooting for them the whole time.

In conclusion, A2K is a great show, and I thoroughly enjoyed every part of it. It combines compelling content with components that make it unique, such as a diverse cast and engrossing structure full of twists and turns. I’d recommend it to anyone as it was nothing less than an emotional rollercoaster.