Momoland, a girl group formed out of yet another survival show, debuted with "JJan! Koong! Kwang!" on November 9, 2016.
After the success of Sixteen and Produce 101, MNET created another girl group survival show called "Finding Momoland." This show involved less girls than Produce 101 and had a format similar to JYP's Sixteen.
MNET has been milking Produce 101 hype for good reason. However, the growing amount of kpop groups debuting from survival shows is enough to overdo it. MNET has also made a boy version of Produce 101 called Boys 24 where 50 boys competed and were placed in different units based on their popularity and skill. The problem with Boys 24 is its inability to gain public favor.
Produce 101 grabbed much of the public's attention because of the massive amount of girls involved as well as the novelty of making a survival show with trainees from different agencies. Boys 24, one of the first attempts to remake that popularity, didn't receive as much popularity as anticipated. "Finding Momoland," another attempt at remaking that popularity, has achieved more recognition.
The girls who debuted from "Finding Momoland" into the official girl group Momoland were able to gain enough fans from their survival show to have a decent amount of views on their debut music video as well as pretty loud fanchants during their debut stage.
In my eyes, Momoland is to I.O.I. as F(x) is to Girl's Generation. They're going to be remembered as something akin to a little sister group, but they're not going to have the same impact that their older sister had because of the timing issue. "Finding Momoland" occurred right after Produce 101 and I.O.I. had already won over the nation's hearts, so they will only have enough popularity to attract mania fans, fans who know them through their show, or fans who know them because they know of MNET's survival shows.
Moving forward, I think the way for Momoland to maintain a permanent position in the public's hearts is to take advantage of I.O.I's approaching disbandment and try to attract the fans of Produce 101 into their own fandom. Their debut concept is strong enough for them to keep their fans around and possibly attract new ones, so hopefully they solidify their image in the upcoming months.
