It’s back-to-school season for girl-group hopefuls. Hybe, the label behind supergroups BTS, NewJeans, and Seventeen, teamed up with Geffen Records to open a school, The Debut: Dream Academy, for 20 girls from across the world to form the next big girl group. And you’ll be able to stream the final round of auditions on YouTube starting September 1. Fans will be able to vote for their bias alongside an experienced panel of mentors and judges. The series will span 12 weeks until the live finale on November 17. If that’s not enough content for you fiends, Hybe x Geffen Records will drop a docuseries, too. The joint venture teamed up with Netflix to release a chronicle of the yearslong process to form the group, out in 2024. Becoming director Nadia Hallgren is set to helm the project.
Contestants were selected after reviewing more than 120,000 submissions following the announcement of the Hybe x Geffen Global Girl Group Audition in November 2021. Hailing from Slovakia, the U.S., Argentina, Japan, Switzerland, Australia, Belarus, Sweden, Thailand, Korea, Brazil, and the Philippines, the finalists have been quietly training for the past year in Los Angeles under the K-pop training, artist development, and management system. It marks the first time the model has been used for a U.S.-based global group. Only those who earned magna cum laude in cunt-ometrics will debut.