 Twice just hit their fifth year anniversary making them one of the senior groups in the industry since getting their star in 2015 They have been the most commercially successful Korean girl group of all time with nine million total sales But before the worldwide dominance and before they made you feel special wanting more and more before the nine girls were global Superstars there were 16 of them on a small survival show fittingly named 16 and although the show itself wasn't the most commercially successful survival show It has evolved to become the show with the most successful alumni to come from a survival show But to understand what made 16 so special we have to go back No, no wait, that's too far Stop right here early in 2014 JYP had two prominent girl groups Wonder Girls and Miss A Wonder Girls was at the tail end of their career with the departures of Megastar and now soloist Sunmi and departure of Sohi to follow her acting dreams The future of Wonder Girls was met with a lot of uncertainty Hot Felt would also follow suit and focus on her solo career all the attention was turned to Miss A In 2015 Suzy and the girls of Miss A had a great single in Only You But their album colors as a whole only managed to come away with a mere 12,000 sales With Suzy wanting to focus on her acting career and the Chinese members well looking to dip Miss A was put on an indefinite hiatus Until eventual disbandment JYP needed to fill the void left by Wonder Girls and Miss A This new girl group was going to be JYP's biggest debut in years He needed something big that would draw the attention of the nation to his new girl group JYP was to debut a group called Six Mix, but this was canceled in early 2015 This is where he came up with the idea for his survival reality show a show where JYP himself would guide the show Now survival shows are not new at all Are you serious? Well just in the last year in 2014, Monsta X had no mercy Icon and winner had mix and match but nothing as expensive or promoted as 16 Also nothing that had such a diverse cast featuring three Japanese contestants One Thai contestant, one Taiwanese contestant and one Korean-Canadian contestant So who exactly were the contestants of 16 and where are they now? Well first all of the former members of Six Mix were added to the show Im Nayeon, Yu Jeongyeon, Japanese contestant Minato Zaki Sana, Park Jihyo and Song Minyoung Additionally we had Japanese contestant Hidai Momo, Japanese-American Mioi Mina Park Jiwon, Kim Pahyun, Sun Chae Young, Taiwanese contestant Cho Tzu, sisters Lee Chae Young and Chae Ryung Kim Munso, Korean-Canadian Chon Somi and Thai contestant Natty And of these, seven girls would be chosen to debut in the girl group twice Yeah, you heard me right, seven members How it works is in each ranking episode the girls would be sorted to either a major or minor team The major team had seven girls, if you were on this team in the final episode you would debut in twice And well the remaining girls would be sorted on the minor team and would be in danger of elimination And this is what happened to all the girls, sorted by order of professional debut The girls Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Taeyun and of course Chae Young were chosen as the final team major and would graduate to debut as twice But wait wait, what about Tzuyu and Momo? Well, Tzuyu was actually meant to be eliminated in the final episode as she was on the minor team However JYP stated due to the viewers choice and opinion she was miraculously added to the final line-up She debuted as a maknae and visual of twice And finally we had Hirae Momo Momo had an interesting situation, she was actually eliminated way back in episode 6 Four episodes before the finale However she was brought back in an incredible, unpredictable reversal JYP brought back Momo because he saw how great of a dancer and how hard of a worker she was Momo, Jihyo She debuted as the main dancer and sub-rapper of Twice And these were all the members of Twice Next to debut was Jeon Somi At 14 years old, she was one of the most popular contestants on 16 However she was eliminated in the final episode but chose to stay with JYP Entertainment She went on as a sole JYP representative in the insanely popular survival show Produce 101 Somi was easily the most popular contestant on the show Finishing first place and eventually debuting with IOI at 15 years old in May of 2016 Less than a year after 16 IOI was a very successful but temporary group After the disbandment of IOI she was set to debut in ITZY JYP's newest girl group However due to reasons that are still unclear till now She left JYP and joined the black label under YG Entertainment She then debuted again as a sole artist in June of 2019 That's four years after 16 all before even graduating high school And meanwhile the rest of us are crying in student debt and watching reruns of the office for the fifth time Anyways, Park Ji-won was noted for her strong powerful vocals But unfortunately was eliminated in the fifth elimination episode of 16 Eventually she made her way onto yet another survival show IDOL SCHOOL She was in the top nine for the entirety of the show except for one episode But eventually winning sixth place in IDOL SCHOOL And finally debuting in January of 2018 as the main vocalist of FROMIS9 Two and a half years after 16 Now FROMIS9 had a rocky start in the beginning But are now a legitimate popular group in the industry Selling 107,000 in their last two albums Lee Tae-yeon, the older of the Lee sisters In my opinion had the craziest journey to debut Tae-yeon was noted for her great fluid and technical dancing But unfortunately was eliminated in the first elimination episode of 16 She left JYP Entertainment to sign with WN Entertainment And she then joined yet another survival show, PRODUCE 48 This would be Tae-yeon's third survival show as she was also on K-Pop Star 3 in 2013 Tae-yeon proved herself to be easily the best dancer in the competition by miles She was consistently ranked among the top 12 and seemed like she was a shoe-in for debut for IZONE But in the final episode 11 names were announced And there was no mention of Lee Tae-yeon It seemed as if her idol dreams would be dashed for the third time in a row Sparking this response from second place winner Sakura However, the final member was finally announced After what seemed like hours of suspense Lee Tae-yeon won 12th place in PRODUCE 48 And she finally debuted as the main dancer of IZONE This was in October of 2018 Three years after 16 Days later in their first music show, IZONE was pitted against Fromis 9 Twice was also present as the show's MCs And IZONE won their first music show Giving us this touching sweet 16 reunion Next set to debut was the younger Lee sister There must be something up with the Lee family Because both of them were great dancers So Choi made it to the final elimination round in 16 But unfortunately did not make the top 7 After the departure of Somi She became the last 16 contestant to remain with JYP However, her future was pretty much set in stone As she was chosen to debut with ITZY In February of 2019 Choi debuted as the main dancer of ITZY Three and a half years after 16 And of course, it's an understatement to say ITZY has been phenomenal They are the future of girl groups in the industry Shortly after her debut, we got this sweet Lee sister reunion And finally, in what felt like a decade We have possibly the last contestant to make their professional debut With Natty Natty was a strong contestant and a capable dancer She was also the youngest contestant Only 12 years old when the show started She made it very far but was unfortunately eliminated in the final episode In 2017, she left JYP and joined another survival show, Idol School Along with Park Ji-won In one episode, we were gifted with this reunion with TWICE's Mina and Momo And although Natty started off very strong in Idol School She was eliminated once again in the final episode Finishing at rank 13 And for three years, Natty pretty much disappeared It was very doubtful that she would ever debut at all But many of her fans never gave up hope Finally, in April of 2020, it was announced that she would make her solo debut Under Swing Entertainment She finally debuted in May of 2020 at 17 years old Almost five years after 16 So out of the 16 girls, 14 had their professional debut Leaving us with two names, Sang Min-young and Kim Eun-seo Now Min-young was one of the original members of 6mix And was just about to have her debut until it was canceled by 16 She was noted for her amazing vocals But was eliminated in the final round She left JYP shortly after saying I will be pursuing my dreams somewhere else I haven't given up It's rumored she returned back to her home in Washington State To continue her studies It's improbable that she'll be making a professional debut soon Which is a shame because she's definitely got some pipes But then again, nothing is impossible Lastly is Kim Eun-seo Eun-seo was eliminated in episode 4 of 16 Shortly after she left JYP She then joined Idol School with Park Ji-won and Natty She reached a final episode But unfortunately, she was eliminated at 14th place Since then, she's remained outside the professional spotlight She still continues to dance But it is unclear if she will debut in the near future She is still only 19 So she still has time to make one last final push to becoming an Idol And well, these are the contestants of 16 Now the show itself wasn't an amazing monumental success But the alumni to come out of the show Have come to have some of the most illustrious careers in the industry Giving us four amazing sister groups if you will And two soloists Twice, Fromis 9, Aizwon, Itzy, Somi, and Natty 14 out of the 16 girls debuted That's an 87.5% Not sure if any other survival show can boast such a high contestant success rate So what do you guys think? Are you guys happy with the way these girls' careers turned out? Do you think Jiwon or Minhyun would have been great on Twice? Would Somi or Taeyeon have been a good fit for Itzy? Or do you think Natty or Eun-seo would have thrived in Fromis 9? Let me know in the comments And please remember to subscribe We are so close to 100K And if you want to support this channel in any way Buy us a coffee and coffee There's a link in the description below And until next time Remember to keep your eyes wide open