Physical: 100 creators deny manipulation in final match
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Physical: 100 finale saw Woo Jin-young and Jung Hae-min each pulling a thick coiled length of rope until they reached its end.
PHOTO: NETFLIX
SEOUL – The production team of Netflix show Physical: 100 disclosed the original video recordings of the show’s final match and emphasised that “there was no manipulation of the results”.
The reality survival programme, which aimed to find the fittest among 100 contestants, crowned CrossFit athlete and snowboarder Woo Jin-yong as the winner after the final “rope pulling” match against Olympic cyclist Jung Hae-min on Feb 21.
However, controversy arose when runner-up Jung, speaking with a South Korean media outlet, said the finale had to be suspended twice and that his request to air the rematches was ignored.
Director Jang Ho-gi explained how the final match had been suspended twice during a press conference held at the MBC headquarters in Mapo-gu, Seoul, on Thursday.
“An unexpected noise problem occurred and the production team officially requested a halt due to safety issues for the contestants,” he said. “It is not true that Woo requested the first game to be stopped by raising his hand.”
In the original video shown to reporters on Thursday, a loud noise of the rope being pulled could be heard one minute into the game and continued for about nine minutes. The production team then announced that the game would be briefly stopped.
“A huge, frictional noise which hadn’t been heard in simulations continued for a long time. We didn’t want to stop the game and interfere, but the level of noise reached a point where we deemed that we could not use the recording and that this could be an indicator of a potential accident,” said Jang.
The video showed the game resuming and, after just 26 seconds, Woo’s rope got twisted inside the trolley and was completely stopped. The whistle was blown to let Jung know the game had been stopped.
“We judged that the accident was unrelated to the performers’ talent and requested an immediate stop.”
Jang explained that the trolley was designed to require extreme endurance and mental strength by pulling an infinite rope, the length of which was not disclosed to the contestants.
He continued: “Each situation was explained to both contestants and the way to resume the matches was negotiated and agreed upon by the two athletes.”
“I would like to say once again that our production team did not do any unfair manipulation to affect the match,” he added.
“We apologise to Woo and Jung, and other participants and viewers for such unexpected incidents.”
Jang said he hopes to meet the two contestants in person and apologise to resolve the misunderstanding. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
