Korean ENHYPEN Fans Call Out “M!Countdown” For “Tricking Them” With A Bait-And-Switch Thumbnail

By Koreaboo on May 26, 2023

Korean ENHYPEN fans have been riled up recently due to the choreography for “Bite Me.” The chorus introduces a paired choreography with female backup dancers, leading to protest trucks and petitions.

Korean ENHYPEN Fans Continue to Petition “Bite Me” Choreography While International Fans Are In Full Support

Just as things were about to simmer down, a Korean fan who had attended the recording of M!Countdown posted a new realization about the performance.

I was wondering why I didn’t see this. Come to think of it, during the pre-recording when fans were present, the backup dancers were left out of the ending, and they did the ending with just the seven members. Just so they could use it in the thumbnail as in the second picture. F*ck so I also ended up thinking that they changed the ending to one without the dancers. Ah, insane. Then, they said that they had to record something without the fans present, so they f*cking rushed us out of the venue after two runs. Looks like they had to record the ending again with the dancers.

— Korean ENGENE

The original dance called for a group ending with the backup dancers in formation as below.

However, during the pre-recording with fans, the group filmed a version without the backup dancers during the ending. This was used for the thumbnail of the YouTube video.

But when one clicks into the same video, a different ending is shown. This was also the version that was eventually aired on M!Countdown.

Fans felt betrayed by the bait-and-switch move by M!Countdown. They called out the production team for their war of nerves with the fans.

• What’s the reason for going to these lengths? Anyway, it looks cleaner without the dancers at the end.
• Those kids saying that this is noise marketing are so stupid. What benefits do they gain from noise marketing to the non-K-Pop fans amidst the boy group market? Even if they had decided to noise market like that and managed to bring one person into the fandom through a post (like f*ck that it would work, though), hundreds of existing fans would leave the fandom.
• OP, if you can delete this post, please do. I think it’s possible that they didn’t film something separately…
• Why are they like that? I never even knew who they were, but now I do. I guess it’s marketing.
• I think it’s a habit of HYBE to get on the nerves of the fans or a portion of the consumers. Does it make someone an anti just because they are upset about something? It’s f*cked up. They’ve been looking down on fans since before.
• They’re so weird. There’s something about them that’s so thoughtless… I can’t figure them out. They’re definitely not within the boundaries of normal.
• No, but if they were going to be stubborn about it, they should’ve just done it with the fans there. They’re just fighting the fans at this point.
• Why are they going to that extent?
• Gasp.

Non-fans who have come across the issue are also taken aback by the situation and are calling the production team out for “childishly engaging in a fight with fans.“