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On Friday, December 22, fans were angered by Ricky's exclusion from ZEROBASEONE's latest ZBTV episode. Given that the show stands as the group's variety show, fans have grown immensely fond of it and are eagerly looking forward to it every week. The latest tenth episode was no different, and fans rushed in to tune in.
However, they were soon disappointed that the member, Ricky, was treated unequally in the episode. During the episode, the members were asked to read the letters they wrote for one another. While every member's narration of their letter was included in the episode, the idol's letter alone was excluded, naturally angering fans about the biased treatment.
However, after fans pointed out the exclusion, ZBTV's official Instagram account posted a picture of the idol's letter.
Regardless, fans were still enraged that the editors failed to pay closer attention to their mistakes and called out their mistreatment of Ricky. They've also been bringing more awareness to the issue by trending "ZEROBASEONE IS 9" on X.
Fans angered as the recent ZBTV episode fails to include ZEROBASEONE Ricky's letter
ZEROBASEONE is a nine-member K-pop boy group that debuted through Mnet's recent reality survival show, Boys Planet. Following four rounds of vigorous elimination and tasks, the group, consisting of Kim Gyu-vin, Kim Tae-rae, Kim Ji-woong, Sung Han-bin, Ricky, Zhang Hao, Han Yu-jin, Seok Mattew, and Park Gun-wook, was formed on April 20, 2023, during the show's final episode.
Given that members' talents and skills were showcased during the survival show, fans were naturally excited for the group's debut, which rolled out in July this year.
However, despite the group's impressive performance in the music charts with the releases, fans couldn't help but notice the evident mistreatment that the Chinese member, Ricky, has been facing at the hands of the group's agency, WAKEONE Entertainment.
While fans have been pointing out the biased treatment that the foreign members were facing in the survival show, Boys Planet, the continuation of the same even after its debut has been a hard pill for the fans to swallow. Adding to the long list of disappointing events of the mistreatment faced by Ricky is his recent exclusion from the group's latest variety show episode, ZBTV.
Given that Christmas is right around the corner, the ZEROBASEONE members went with a theme that was fitting for the festival. Naturally, they also included some traditional activities and one of them included the members writing a letter for their fellow members. Once they were done writing them down, they went around reading them out loud, and fans were quite heartened by the same.
However, they soon noticed that Ricky never got to read out his letter, and they were immediately enraged by the exclusion. Fans couldn't perceive it as a genuine mistake, and they believed it was deliberately done or was a result of the staff members' alleged bias against the Chinese member.
Meanwhile, upon seeing fans' rage, the ZBTV Instagram account posted a thread of images from the episode that also included.
Given that the post neither addressed the agency's mistake nor apologized for the same, fans' anger continued to be fueled. As their concerns and demands continue to exist, fans continue to trend "ZEROBASEONE IS 9" and other similar hashtags on the internet.
