“It’s me who will steal your heart,” sang the 101 contenders of the second season of Mnet’s idol competition show “Produce 101.”

And steal hearts they did, as Wanna One, the project group formed with the 11 finalists, has since become one of the hottest K-pop acts of 2017.

The viewers, or so-called “national producers,” voted for their favourite trainees to release “hidden” photos of them, to perform specific songs for the competition and to get a spot in the finalist group.

The “producers” even got to decide the lead track of Wanna One’s debut album through voting.

While some expressed their fatigue to vote for almost everything, it was the voting which gave the rookie group the market-dominating power. The strong fandom built through the voting system guarantees the concrete support for the new group even before its official debut.

Having seen the success of both the show and the idol group, broadcasters, craving high viewership ratings, have set out to team up with entertainment agencies to produce similar shows.

Later this month, KBS is set to air “The Unit,” alternatively dubbed the “Idol Rebooting Project,” which brings together singers who have already debuted professionally, but failed to gain public recognition to compete for a spot in project groups — one girl group and one boy band.

Around the same time, JTBC will air “Mix Nine” which shows Yang Hyun-suk, CEO of YG Entertainment, visiting 75 entertainment agencies around the country to look for new talent. The show teased its 400 participants which included some of the already-debuted singers.

Korea saw a similar phenomenon when Mnet’s survival audition show “Superstar K” made a splash in the early 2010s. Major broadcasters, eager to cash in on the show’s success, unleased a wave of talent audition programs.

With such a saturated market the trend came to an end earlier this year with shows not being renewed.

After years of increasingly scant viewership ratings, Mnet announced in March that there is no “Superstar K” in this year’s lineup, which many consider as the end of the show. SBS’ “K-pop Star,” which had still enjoyed some popularity, also finished its six-year run in April.

According to music critic Noh Joon-young, the revival of the audition format is thanks to the public’s voluntary participation. “It seems that now the public feels interested in directly participating in producing an idol rather than just passively consuming already-produced idols,” he said.

Though the previous idol competition shows did take viewer voting into account, the results were mainly decided by the judges. In recent shows, however, the cast remains as “mentors” and the medium which connects the viewers and the audition participants rather than judges actively influencing the competition results.

Previous audition programs such as “Superstar K” and “K-pop Star” focused on discovering a hidden talent, especially vocals, among ordinary people. Culture critic Jung Duk-hyun says such character is no more competitive in broadcasting industry.

He said the recent shows provide a new angle to the saturated format by featuring trainees competing for debut. “Trainees are, in some sense, those who are half-prepared (to debut). The shows capture the fresh stories from the competition among the prepared, half-proven ones.”

Jung still pointed out that “While drawing the trainees into the shows can be considered as partially overcoming the limitations of audition shows, it can also be considered as (the broadcasters) have tried all they can do.”

“(The change of audition programs) is a natural course but at the same time it is a course that has no novelty,” he said.

U-Kwon is not the first name that pops into your head when you think about Block B. Odds are that it is not even the second or third.

But the 25-year-old K-pop star says he wants to be remembered as more than the top dancer of his group, seeking to establish himself as an artist by honing his skills as a musician.

“When I look back at the past seven years, I wasn’t the most notable member of the team. I’ve never been the leader,” U-Kwon said, in an interview a month before Block B’s next release, slated for November.

“Now, I want to discover my own distinct colour (as an artist) and do what I want to do, instead of doing what I am told to do.”

Block B is widely considered to be Zico’s group to public eyes, with bandmates like Park Kyung and P.O. also popular.

Previously content with taking a backseat since the group’s 2011 debut, U-Kwon said he now seeks the spotlight.

The yearning stems from his appearance last year in “Hit the Stage,” a TV dance competition for idol singers on Mnet.

“A lot has changed since the show. At first I refused because I thought I couldn’t pull it off. … It made me think, ‘Wow, you never known unless you try,'” he said. He went on to become one of the finalists of the competition.

After the show, he embarked on a six-city tour in Japan from August 2016 to September of this year with Block B bandmate and friend Taeil forming special subunit T2U.

He also has been working on his songwriting, although it is as yet unclear whether he will have a song included on the upcoming Block B EP. The boy band’s agency Seven Seasons on Wednesday confirmed the new EP’s release for Nov. 7.

“I don’t know if I can call myself an artist yet, but I want to be. Members like Zico and (Park) Kyung have what they can call their own style, and maybe I have that, too,” he said.

“I’m a seventh-year singer and not many people know who U-Kwon is. That’s because I haven’t really shown myself.”

Many who have heard of him have only through controversy, namely via Block B’s reputation as the resident bad boy of K-pop.

U-Kwon’s became known for prank-like comments he would write for fans at the group’s autograph sessions. When a fans asked him what they looked like, he would respond with answers like a leaf, cement or a chair.

“I’ve always been shy to strangers and I wanted to make a joke. But I sometimes go overboard trying to be funny.”

Revealing his longtime girlfriend, model Jeon Seon-hye, also sparked mixed reactions from fans, as often do romantic relationships of K-pop stars.

“Fans always say, ‘If you’re to date someone, please tell us.’ I did and they all left,” he said. “That made me confused as to what to think about the fans, leading me to build a wall.”

U-Kwon said he and the fans have worked on such misunderstandings over the years, and now he is focused on building up his career.

A looming question now is how long Block B will last, with the contracts expiring in a year and a half and older members due to serve mandatory military service soon. Another factor is the band’s individual success, with Zico having become a rap star on his own, even overshadowing the group itself.

“Sometimes I wonder if seven of us could be as tight as we once were. We had a lot of talks between us, and I think we worked it out. The bottom line is that we all want to continue being part of Block B.”

No matter what lays ahead in his career, U-Kwon said he wants to be someone with an influence over people.

“To some degree, I achieved that goal; having an impact on fans and younger singers. But I like to influence even more people, by continuing to grow.”

Swarovski named South Korean actress Park Shin-hye as the jewelry brand’s new global model, according to Yonhap News Agency Thursday.

According to Salt Entertainment, Park has been modeling for Swarovski Korea since 2016 and was picked as the global representative recently.

Swarovski has been aggressively marketing its jewelry brand with world famous supermodels such as Miranda Kerr and Karlie Kloss.

For Swarovski’s global model launching event, Park Shin-hye was photographed wearing a red dress, holding Swarovski products in gift boxes.

She proposed Swarovski as the perfect end-of-the-year gift to the crowd.

Big Bang fans will get to wrap up the year with their favourite K-pop group.

YG Entertainment, which represents the group, announced Thursday that the group will hold the “Big Bang 2017 Concert in Seoul” at Gocheok Sky Dome from Dec. 30-31.

Its member T.O.P, who was stripped of his police post after receiving a suspended prison term for smoking marijuana, will not perform at the concert.

It will be the first Big Bang concerts since the group completed its 10th-anniversary tour in January.

At the time, the final tour concert was to be the last one they would perform as a group, as T.O.P was to enlist in February.

The upcoming concerts will mark the reunion of the members who have been focusing on solo activities.

Big Bang will kick off its tour of dome performance venues in Japan on Nov. 18. The group will visit four cities.

The new crime-solving drama series “Witch at Court” has topped ratings for the 10 p.m. time slot on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Tuesday’s episode reached 12.3 per cent of viewership, Nielsen Korea said Wednesday.

The drama series stars Jung Ryeo-won as Ma I-deum, an ambitious ace prosecutor renowned for her aggressiveness and ill temper.

Yoon Hyun-min stars as Yeo Jin-wook, a former psychiatrist-turned-rookie prosecutor who graduated at the top of his class in law school.

Ma is thwarted on her path to success due to a case gone awry and is demoted to the department for crimes related to women and children, where she works alongside Yeo, who volunteered for the department.

Penned by Jung Do-yoon (“The Time We Were Not in Love,” 2015) and directed by Kim Young-gyoon (“Like a Fairy Tale,” 2013), the show began airing on KBS on Oct. 9.