SM Entertainment will sign a partnership with MGM Television, holding auditions to create an American-based K-pop group.
SM announced on the 7th that it will launch an audition program in Hollywood this year to discover new members of its boy group NCT. Auditions can be applied to any male between the ages of 13 and 25 around the world. The final selection of the audition will be performed under the name NCT-Hollywood after being produced by SM in Korea and mentored by existing NCT members.
It is not the first time that K-pop agencies and overseas entertainment industries have joined hands to create boy groups. BTS’s agency HYBE announced earlier that it would join hands with Universal Music Group to establish a joint label in Los Angeles and create a boy group through American auditions. CJ ENM, along with HBO Max and Endemol Shine Boomdog, is planning an audition program to form a boy band in South America.