Contestant Kim Yohan from Oui Entertainment obtained the most votes at the end, becoming the debut group center.
The series will be broadcast on tvN Asia in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, 18 hours after the original South Korean broadcast from May 4, 2019, with English, Chinese, Malay, Thai and Indonesian subtitles.
[8] Other artists featured as cast members: Each contestant enters the studio chooses his preferred seat among chairs numbered 1 to 101, before being informed about several changes that will be applied in this season.
At the ending, the popularity ranking is shown with Jellyfish Entertainment's Kim Min-kyu taking 1st place The trainees react to the first episode along with Lee Dong-wook.
The episode ends with the popularity ranking showing Oui Entertainment's Kim Yo-han in 1st place.
The episode ends with the current rankings, with Oui Entertainment's Kim Yo-han maintaining his 1st-place position.
In between announcements of each trainee's ranking, events leading up to the elimination are shown, such as their dorm life and a hidden camera prank.
The trainees are tasked to perform live in groups based on positions they want to debut in: vocal, dance, rap, or "X".
The second round of eliminations takes place during the second half of the episode with the remaining 60 contestants from each company are seen entering the main studio.
Meanwhile, the contenders for 30th place were Joo Chang-Uk, Kim Dong-Yoon, Moon Hyun-bin & Won Hyuk.
"U Got It" was announced to be the first place team, with trainee Kim Yo-han taking the overall first rank spot, gaining the most benefit votes.
He mentions Plan A's Choi Byung-chan, who was absent during filming, has left the show and will not be advancing to the finals.
The segment for trainees choosing their fixed pick starts, and Hwang Yun-seong takes first place for the most votes and wins a brand new Samsung phone.
They then showed some behind the scenes recording and practices for "Boyness" and "To My World", even teasing who the group centers would be.
The ranking announcement started from the contestant who ranked at 10th place which was Starship's Kang Min-hee followed by Woolim's Cha Jun-ho at 9th, MBK's Nam Do-hyon at 8th, MBK's Lee Han-gyul at 7th, DSP's Son Dong-pyo at 6th, Yuehua's Cho Seung-youn at 5th, Starship's Song Hyung-jun at 4th, and Plan A's Han Seung-woo at 3rd, confirming them for debut.
The top 10 contestants will be determined by online and onsite voting, the results of which are announced at the end of each episode.
Several viewers suspected that Mnet had tampered with the total votes after noticing numerical patterns in the final episode.
In response to the allegations, Mnet admitted that there were errors in calculating, but they also maintained that final rankings were correct and had no intention of changing X1's member line-up.
[17] 14 representatives from entertainment agencies of the 20 finalists held a meeting on July 29, 2019, and agreed to support Produce X 101's outcome and X1's debut.
[19][20] Politician Ha Tae-kyung also condemned Mnet, stating that some of the numbers had a low probability of naturally occurring.
[20][21] On August 20, 2019, a search warrant was issued on CJ E&M offices and a text voting company by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.
[22] During their first search, the police uncovered voice recordings of the staff members discussing vote manipulation on the previous seasons of the show, resulting in them extending their investigation to all four seasons of the Produce 101 series,[22] Idol School,[22][23] Show Me the Money, and Superstar K.[24] Several brands cancelled their endorsement deals with X1 or put them on hold.
[31] Reportedly, per contract signed with CJ E&M, the entertainment agencies were paid ₩100,000 for every episode their talent appeared in.
[38] Following the report, on October 16, 2019, the police began investigating whether the producers had accepted money for manipulating the votes.
[39] On October 17, 2019, Korea Communications Standards Commission revealed that they may fine Mnet up to ₩30 million for violating the Enforcement Decree of the Broadcasting Act.
[40] On November 5, 2019, after approval from the Seoul National District Court, the police issued arrest warrants and travel bans for director Ahn Joon-young, chief producer Kim Yong-bum, a producer with the surname Lee, and Starship Entertainment's vice president Kim Kang-hyo,[41] after they had attempted to destroy evidence.
[44] Police also found that Ahn had been using services from adult entertainment establishments in Gangnam paid for by various talent agencies approximately 40 times beginning from the second half of 2018, estimating to ₩100 million.
[44] On May 29, 2020, director Ahn Joon-young and chief producer Kim Yong-bum have been sentenced to 2-year and 20 months of jail time respectively.
[45] On November 18, 2020, The 1st Criminal Division of the Seoul High Court sentenced CJ ENM's general producer Kim Yong-beom, who was charged with obstruction and fraud, to 1 year and 8 months in prison.
On the same day, the judiciary also directly disclosed the names of the trainees who were unjustly eliminated, which included Anzardi Timothee (61st), whose first voting results were manipulated, Kim Kookheon (21st) and Lee Jinwoo (22nd), who were eliminated due to the manipulation of the third voting, and Koo Jung-mo (13th), Lee Jinhyuk (14th), and Keum Donghyun (17th), who were supposed to be in the 6th to 8th places of the final rankings.