Daisy personally revealed to KBS how Finding MOMOLAND was rigged in her favor, and how she had to repay production fees for the survival show.
An internal accusation was made against Finding MOMOLAND, stating that the producers of the show deceived the viewers. The person who filed the internal complaint was Daisy herself. While she was eliminated from the show, she was added into the group on March 28, 2017.
Finding MOMOLAND was a survival show that was marketed to have viewers select the members of MOMOLAND, and aired starting in June 2016. 7 members our of 10 were selected to join the initial lineup of MOMOLAND, while 3 were eliminated. Members were selected through a combination of 60% Producer’s judging, 20% online viewer votes, and 20% audience voting on the final performance.
On the day the final members of MOMOLAND were to be chosen, Daisy told KBS she was offered a position in MOMOLAND.
The agency called me on the day of the eliminations and asked to meet me the next day. They told me that regardless of what happened in the eliminations, I was going to join the group. They said to wait until after the first album promotions were completed, and that I would make my debut with them in the second album, Wonderful Love.
— Daisy
However, MLD Entertainment countered by saying Daisy agreed to such a decision.
It’s true that we offered Daisy the proposal of joining MOMOLAND at their next album, but she ended up joining MOMOLAND because she accepted the offer.
As an agency, it’s only right that we should try to reinforce our group if there are areas it is lacking in.
— MLD Entertainment
In 2017, Daisy received her first statement of accounts, but part of what was included was nearly 70 million KRW (₩65,899,912 KRW) she owed to the company, due to the production of Finding MOMOLAND.
MLD Entertainment forced Daisy, as well as the other MOMOLAND members, to pay for the production costs of Finding MOMOLAND.
In 2017, when I received my first statement, I found that I owed nearly ₩70 million KRW for 2016, when I didn’t even have any promotions. That debt was from the production costs of Finding MOMOLAND. I heard that the costs of that were split amongst all of the members.
My dream was to debut in an idol group, and I paid off that debt because I thought it was normal for idols to do that.
— Daisy
KBS checked with MLD Entertainment and confirmed that all of the members paid tens of millions of KRW in production costs related to Finding MOMOLAND. However, MLD Entertainment stated that these terms were already told to the members.
It was already explained to the members that they would be covering some of the production costs, and all of them agreed to the terms, and signed the contract.
— MLD Entertainment
In relation to the program, which was broadcast on Mnet, CJ ENM stated that they had no influence at all on the show or its outcome.
Finding MOMOLAND was not produced by us, only outsourced to us by the agency. In the case of an audition or survival program made by an agency, we do not know anything about the selection or debut of members, or the production cost.
— CJ ENM
Contrary to CJ ENM’s claims though, KBS reported that Mnet’s Main PD participated in the press conference for the show, and the PD even personally helped design the stage for the performances on the show. In addition, Mnet decided to re-broadcast Finding MOMOLAND after MOMOLAND exploded in popularity in February 2018.
Daisy has been absent from MOMOLAND promotions since February 2019, and is in the process of terminating her contract. Since then, MOMOLAND has been promoting as a 6 member group.
In response to the accusations from Daisy, MLD Entertainment has released a brief statement.
We are trying to confirm the details.
— MLD Entertainment
