Journey Through SEVENTEEN’s History
It has been 4 years since 13-member group SEVENTEEN has debuted. I became a fan of SEVENTEEN from their pre-debut show and wanted to make this post to look back at the good and the bad times to show how much they’ve progress to celebrate their anniversary!
2012
In June 2012, Pledis Entertainment, which is home to Son Dambi, After School, and NU’EST (also Hello Venus, who was also under Fantagio Entertainment) announced that they would debut a group called Seventeen in the early months of 2013. Seventeen at the time was said to have 17 members who would be divided into 3 sub-units that would promote in Korea, China, Japan. Many fans thought that Seventeen debuting in 2013 was the result of the original group “Tempest” not getting to debut. Tempest was supposed to debut in 2012 around the same time NU’EST debuted, but two of the members, Youngwoon and Yusang, left Pledis.
In December, Pledis decided they would make a pre-debut show, SEVENTEEN TV, to help the members gain fans before their debut, but it was also a show that fans and watchers would sort of judge the members as well.
2013
In January, Pledis explained that who we saw in 17TV weren’t official members and were still training to get into the group. Pledis said the main reason they started SEVENTEEN TV was so that Pledis could see which boys the fans enjoyed seeing and those trainees would eventually make up SEVENTEEN. At this time, the trainees hadn’t revealed their names and were using nicknames: Mr. Wristband, Mr. Mic, Mr. Hat, Mr. Orange Sneakers, Mr. Blue Earmuffs, Mr. White Earmuffs, Mr. Dumbbell, Mr. Beanie, Mr.Backpack, Mr. Headphones and Mr. Teeny’s Dad.
SEVENTEEN TV was streamed on Ustream about 1 to 3 times in a week period and each “season” was about 15 episodes which could have ended in a LIKE SEVENTEEN concert. While live streaming, you could change the camera whenever you wanted (unless it was broken, which happened often). Every week, fans would vote for a trainee to be “MVP” which would reveal the members’ profile, for example: If Mr. Hat was voted that weeks’ MVP, his full profile would be released. After the end of the 1st season, the rest of the members not voted MVP would be released as well. At the end of season 2, official photoshoots and self cams and special episodes (like the Christmas Episode)were released.
Unlike what many may think, there was never 17 members at one time. The most members the group has had at one time was 16.
Here’s the list of members from when they were first introduced up until the final lineup:
First Lineup: Dec. 24, 2012
Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Samuel
Second Lineup: Apr. 10, 2013
Seungcheol, Doyoon, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Samuel
Third Lineup: Apr. 17, 2013
Seungcheol, Doyoon, Jisoo, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Samuel
Fourth Lineup: June 10, 2013
Seungcheol, Doyoon, Jisoo, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Dongjin, Samuel
Fifth Lineup: June 18, 2013
Seungcheol, Doyoon, Jeonghan, Jisoo, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Dongjin, Samuel
Sixth Lineup: July 25, 2013
Seungcheol, Doyoon, Jeonghan, Jisoo, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Mingming, Seokmin, Mingyu, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Dongjin
Seventh Lineup: July 11, 2014
Seungcheol, Jeonghan, Jisoo, Junhui, Soonyoung, Wonwoo, Jihoon, Seokmin, Mingyu, Myungho, Seungkwan, Hansol, Chan, Dongjin
Final Lineup: May 26, 2015
Seungcheol (S.Coups), Jeonghan, Jisoo (Joshua), Junhui (Jun), Soonyoung (Hoshi), Wonwoo, Jihoon (Woozi), Seokmin (DK), Mingyu, Myungho (The8), Seungkwan, Hansol (Vernon), Chan (Dino)
There was a point were there wasn’t any 17TV for about 8 months (which is why there’s almost a year’s gap in the lineup list seen above) because Pledis stated they wanted the members split into units by countries. Many fans thought that Seungcheol, Doyoon/Junhui, and Soonyoung would be the leaders for the Korean, Chinese and Japanese teams respectively. Due to the sudden disappearance and the departure of Samuel, many fans lost hope on SEVENTEEN debuting at all.
But thankfully, on April 19, 2015, Pledis began releasing teasers for SEVENTEEN Project: Big Debut Plan and the first episode aired May 2, 2015.
Present: June 2019
Unlike you may think, this journey with SEVENTEEN was not all laughter and fun. There were many times fans would have to see the boys get scolded, internal competition with other trainees, members leaving and entering at a rapid pace, being away from family for long periods of times all while not being sure if they’d get to debut.
Since debut, the 13 members of SEVENTEEN have 28 music show wins, multiple best performance awards and are about to embark on their 2nd world tour later this August! The hard work from the boys has definitely paid off and this is only the beginning for them!
Made by Sam (thughaotrash)
For more information of SEVENTEEN, check out their profile!
