'Queendom Puzzle' to piece together the best of girl bands

Members of old and new girl groups will take another shot at stardom with Mnet's new survival program "Queendom Puzzle."

The program marks the return of Mnet's hit girl group battle "Queendom" with its third season.

A total of 26 members of active or defunct girl groups will compete against each other to become one of the final seven members.

Throwing its hat into the ring, the show's participants and the producers -- Chief Producer Yoon Shin-hye and Producer Lee Yeon-gyu -- held a press conference in Seoul on Tuesday afternoon. The show's host, Taeyeon, also attended the event.

The show is back with not only its name rebranded, but the whole concept revised.

The focus for this season will be on each of the members, and not the team. While the past two seasons pitted girl groups against each other, "Queendom Puzzle" mixes contestants into a completely new team for every mission.

"Girl groups have taken the main stage lately and the numbers have increased as well. But inside the group, the members are only viewed according to the set directions, concepts and plans of the team," Yoon said, adding, "We devised this show hoping to make a stage for the individual members to showcase each of their charms and talents that they couldn't as part of their teams."

The show aims to discover the best combination among contestants, which will be decided entirely through viewer votes.

"The final project girl group will be formed 100 percent through viewers' votes. After every episode, the viewers can vote on their own 'best combination,' and hopefully they will be able to discover the members' hidden charms on the way," producer Lee said.

Viewers will be able to vote once a week on which seven members they think make the best combination, and through these votes, the final seven winners will be decided.

The contestants were selected among the so-called third- and fourth-generation groups, whose debut years span from 2012 to 2023.

Dohwa -- previously under the alias Chanmi -- of now-defunct group AOA debuted the earliest among the contestants in 2012. The youngest of the participants are Yoon Seo-yeon and Lee Ji-woo of triple S, a multinational group that debuted this February.

Also competing are Rocket Punch's Juri, Suyun and Yeonhee; Cherry Bullet's Bora, Jiwon and Chaerin; woo!ah!'s Nana and Wooyeon; Weeekly's Lee Soo-jin, Jihan, Park So-eun and Zoa; H1Key's Riina and Hwiseo; WJSN's Yeoreum; Purple Kiss' Yuki; Lightsum's Sangah.

A handful of singers are from inactive or disbanded groups: Kei of Lovelyz, Elly of Weki Meki, JooE of Momoland, Miru of Japanese group NMB48 and Faii of Thai group BNK48.

Lee Chae-yeon and Laboum's Haein, who were participating initially, withdrew midshoot and were removed from the final line-up. The producers said the two members will still appear in the beginning of the show.

"Including Chaeyeon and Haein, the entire cast here has spent a long time preparing for the show, and we believed it a courtesy to disclose their (Chaeyeon's and Haein's) clips in the first two episodes," producer Lee noted.

The final seven members will carry out various activities as a team.

As all the participants are active musicians, they will not be subject to exclusive contracts, Yoon said.

"They will work together as a project team but we are still negotiating on the detailed plans," Yoon said.

Taeyeon, who is emceeing the survival show for a second time, advised the girls to enjoy themselves.

"Although this is a TV program, I hope the members consider it a great opportunity. We (idol band members) rarely get the chance to perform with artists from another team, and I hope the members can make a good use of this precious experience," Taeyeon, also a member of K-pop group Girls' Generation, said.

Mnet launched "Queendom" in 2019 and followed up with the second season last year. The series' spinoff for male groups, "Kingdom," aired two seasons in 2020 and 2021.

"Queendom Puzzle" is set to air its first episode at 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday.