Produce 48

Produce 48 (Korean: 프로듀스 48) is the third season of the South Korean reality competition series Produce 101. It was a large-scale project in which the public "produces" a girl group by voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants from South Korea and Japan, as well as voting for the group's concept, name and debut single. The show was a collaboration between the Mnet series Produce 101 and the J-pop idol group AKB48. The winning 12 contestants, with no nationality caps, as voted only by Korean viewers, would promote as a group for two years and six months. The show announced the final 12 members who made it into, as well as the official name of the group Iz*One during the finale on August 31, 2018. Produced by AKATV (the company that also produced the second season of Produce 101) for Mnet, the show premiered on June 15, 2018, and concluded on August 31, 2018, with 12 episodes. It was directed and produced by Ahn Joon-young, who also directed the first two seasons of Produce 101. Following irregularities in the patterns of votes, an investigation into Mnet in 2019 found that Ahn and seven others had pre-determined the lineups of Produce 101 groups, and subsequently manipulated vote counts to favor certain contestants, in exchange for financial favors. Ahn and the show's executive producer, Kim Young-bum, were sentenced to prison in 2021 on charges of fraud and bribery.