FNC ENTERTAINMENT

Going in the order that they were introduced, let's start with the FNC girls! Here, a great tragedy befalls us. I was so sure that FNC would just wrap these girls up and debut them as is, they were such a complete package in the show! Unfortunately both Yoonseo and Yeji got cut and only the 5 of them debuted in NOTLIKE. I do feel like they're lagging behind some of the other post-99 groups though, they get kinda middling sales. I guess that's cause none of them really got all that far aside from Sungsook :/

Yoonseo tho... Who would have guessed she of all people would show up at SMTM8?? Sure, she didn't get very far, but who even knew she could rap like that?? She sure never did on produce! Like just listen to this bull:

So that was the entrance of our Queen Yoonseo into memeworthiness! She's been on some shows here and there being an absolute meme queen and there's talk of her going on some girl hip hop show this summer!

BLOCKBERRY CREATIVE

Oof, who can remember the second trainees who came out and showed exactly how bad trainees could be too xD I do still think they were absolutely legendary! Eunbi and Jisoo left BBC pretty quickly after P99. Eunbi signed with a modelling agency and I think she's been doing some modelling like before the show. I never heard anything about Maki leaving so I think she's still a trainee? Which is pretty impressive with the hate she got, this girl definitely has perseverence, I'll definitely be looking out for her if she does debut.

INDEPENDENT

Oh Bitna is doing just fine as probably everyone knows. She signed with P Nation, topped the charts with her solo releases, surprising everyone with the more cute/fresh sound and then she buckled down and decided to become MMC's new favourite feature artist. Homegirl is doing just fine thank you.

She's been active making songs for others as well like Kyungmi's Bird and generally it's already started to feel weird thinking of a time where Bitna hasn't wormed her way into every nook and cranny on the industry. God, she's so cool. Homegirl set out to prove herself and make a name for herself and now that name is probably bigger than she ever dreamed of. I stan. I stan so hard.

Inree signed as a trainee with Mystic Entertainment alongside Haesung! They're preparing for what should be a 2020 debut! I'm really looking forward to them especially, they've been doing these regular vocal showcases on Mystic's YouTube channel and Inree has improved so much while Haesung has just been showing everyone exactly what she's capable of. So stoked for this group!!

 

Okay but I am so happy Jiho got signed by WM to debut in SEALIE! I always felt so bad for her, she's working so incredibly hard to debut and even if she has issues with her singing voice, guess what she makes for a really decent rapper. She's such a good leader to the group too ;A; You've really made it now Jiho <333

HELIX ENTERTAINMENT

Lucy is whisked away to Helix who've acquired some new trainees in the time she's been away and gone shopping in the Produce basket to finish it off. They debuted in a gropu called GIRLBOSS very quickly after Produce99 definitively ended, debuting with I'm So Hot which managed to actually top the chart for quite some time.

They released two follow-up songs in the same mould as I'm So Hot which saw strongly dimishing returns as they got criticized for a samey sound and trying to replicate I'm So Hot's success. 

The group itself was strong Lucy and the others as Lucy with her natural charm and ditzy foreignness got very popular on variety shows (her Running Man episode is legendary, she managed to get completely lost with her camera man and end up in a totally different town from the filming location) meanwhile the rest of the group is only really known to the fandom and is simply known as Lucy King's Group.

Lucy starter her own YouTube channel too where she does interviews or just explores Korea as a gyopo, a vlog that's super popular internationally.

(Tldr a lot like the Gugudan/Pristin/Momoland situation where they had one hit song that charted like crazy but the rest falls flat and Lucy is really the only one anyone knows or cares about. Small fandom, low album sales, and dwindling real time charting means the company is close to giving up on them)

WOOLLIM ENTERTAINMENT

Fen's situation is where I most would love to know what happened behind closed doors. Here we have this undeniably gorgeous girl who did decently well even though she seemed held back by her own insecurities. Certainly Woollim would have a team ready to debut with her, right? With some polish she could become a visual of the generation. And then she gets poached by WM right under their nose! Or I imagine so, why else would they just let her go? 

Either way she debuted in WM's SEALIE! While Jiho and Midori are still the most popular members, I can tell with every performance that her confidence is rising just a little and I think she'll be one to watch in the future. 

Also it was so sweet when she defended Haeun from those bullying rumours, she was the only one to publicly come to her defense. I had no idea the two of them trained together at Woollim but there you have it! I definitely trust her testimony over anyone else's, what reason would she have to lie? Haeun posted some new pics of them having coffee together on instagram too just last month, it's nice to see that they're keeping in touch!

BRAVE ENTERTAINMENT

Nothing from Brave, though I have to admit I am rather relieved they didn't push to debut Yuka at 14. She needs some time to grow and mature before she can get tossed to the industry wolves so I, for one, am happy that she appears to remain just as a trainee.

SONY JAPAN

The Nogizaka girls! So unsurprisingly Yuki was welcomed into the new generation, though she's still mostly on the b-sides. Chiyo, meanwhile, has graduated to the title track group! I'm so happy she finally stopped being the b-side queen and is getting the recognition she deserves.

And Midori, well, she graduated from Nogizaka46 just a few months after and we've absolutely been BLESSED when she chose to sign with WM and debut in their Produce99 all-star group! I'm so so happy that she didn't disappear from the kpop scene forever, she seems so happy in the group performing their concept songs. There was one moment at a fan sign when she was talking about how she really enjoyed the kpop style of dancing and she loved embracing a bit of her y side which she'd never done before, it was just so charming! Like did you see her in Hands Up? She was incredible!

PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT

Kayeon has since left Pledis, I hear she's with an acting company now but she hasn't yet been cast in anything. Still, I have hope she'll start her career soon, what casting director could ever say no to that face??

Siryung, meanwhile, got poached by Starship! I don't think Pledis ever seriously considered debuting them after the mess that was Pristin, so it was probably just as well that she left them before she could become a full-time model or something. I'm really happy to see her thriving in U-GIRLS!

WM ENTERTAINMENT + RAINBOW BRIDGE WORLD

+

Coming out of this I don't think anyone really expected WM and RBW to deliver on of the post-99 super groups, what with both sets of their trainees doing middling at best, but these guys banded together and shopped and shopped smart.

They were one of the slower groups to debut, debuting in June 2019, but it seemed the world was waiting for them. Well, except for Jisun :< I don't know what went down behind the scenes but she was ultimately cut from the lineup, I guess she didn't shine enough in the show. I mean I get it she kinda disappeared but it's still sad when the ruthless ways of the industry poke through.

And thus Dohee, Seulgi, and Bitna debuted with Fen, Midori, Jiho, and Sohyun to form the unexpected p99 master group SEALIE en they absolutely thrived! And they show such versatility going from Love So Sweet to Hands Up in one year! They're probably doing the best out of all groups with a solid fanbase and decent chart performance. These girls got it all!

(TL;DR: foreshadowing the RBW/WM merger, they teamed up and snatched all the most promising free trainees and launched a super gropu that is the most balanced in terms of chart performance and album sales.)

CUBE ENTERTAINMENT

Riddle me this: how does one waste the potential of what might have become the winner of the danged show? Sure, she got some of the heat from the speculating on who got rigged and who didn't (a lot of the heat actually), but how are you so incompetent as a management company you just tuck away your star for over a year? Yeah, I get that they're focusing on GIDLE right now, but Hwari at least deserved a solo release or SOMETHING.

I don't know when Cube will finally deem her ready for debut but I'm waiting with bated breath for Min Hwari to return to us ;A;

MMC ENTERTAINMENT

Gaeul is another one that slipped through the cracks. She left MMC almost immediately after the show stopped airing and I think she tried again at a couple different companies but one went bankrupt and she left the other shortly after. I have no idea what she's doing now but I really hope she hasn't given up on debuting. She was our center and the Prodice center always debuts ;A;

TS ENTERTAINMENT

AH TS. Tbh they are the only ones where I'm really happy TS didn't debut them, who wants to be stuck in a dead end at TS?? Taeyoung got poached by Helix almost immediately, I have to assume Lucy made them do it with how close the two of them were! While Taeyoung isn't exactly popular in GIRLBOSS, I'm still really happy she found a debut.

I have no idea what happened to the others. Hana left TS shortly after Taeyoung did, supposedly to go back to studying. Junghwa is still there but I can't imagine TS has much of a future for her when they don't even have a future for their own groups :/

YNB ENTERTAINMENT / PARADISE

Ahhh the Paradise girls, they never could catch a break. After Produce 99 some of their songs did rise up on the charts, especially Journey to Atlantis which actually manage to stay in the Melon top 100 for about a month after, but YNB went bankrupt before they could take any kind of advantage of them. They did get to perform Journey to Atlantis one more time though, remember that? 

I think that's the last time I've seen them stand on stage together :(

Afterwards Liling signed with acting agency SidusHQ and she was in that drama The Rich Son right after Produce, and then there was that web-drama One Fine Week so I think she's doing well!

Juri has quit idol life but she's still involved in the industry with song-writing! Did you know she wrote ONEUS' Lit and SEALIE's Love So Sweet? Yeah she did that!! There's a bunch of B-sides here and there she's done too, really check out her wiki page Juri has been very prolific. She's also done some youtube interviews talking about what it was like behind the scenes at P99 and the bull they pulled like how they wouldn't let her re-arrange Flower Road like she actually wanted and instead just provided that really ty version and it's taken her a while to clear her name from the stain of it. Man, MNET.

Kyungmi though, she's been around! She's a soloist now under J&Star Entertainment and finally debuted with the song Bird in November! She sold about 25k and peaked at #71 which is really not bad for a female soloist, I really look forward to when she comes back! I think Kyungmi is really obviously the most successful of the three, though Liling's acting career might still overtake her when she grows. I really hope Kyungmi can finally be recognized for her skills ;A;

BRAND NEW MUSIC

The BNM girls debuted February 2019 after taking the time to perfect the song and concept, and debuted alongside two unknown trainees in the group ALFA6 with the song Adios which they followed up later in the year with Dun Dun. The group is astronomically popular internationally, though lags behind some of the other post-99 groups domestically. Still, their sales are nothing to sneeze at and they're definitely one of the top new girl groups.

That being said, they're plagued by disgruntled fans claiming Lexi is pushed for more than is fair and they haven't been able to pierce through to the general public as of yet, still waiting for a hit song that can top the charts.

(They're a better performing Everglow, where their fandom is mostly international and they sell a lot of albums (60-80k level) but the GP has no interest in them musically just yet. Second best album seller of the post-99 groups)

AVEX TRAX

The second set of Japanese girls! I expected both of them to just return to Japan, Mai certainly did though I don't think she's found a spot for herself yet. Sora, though, went back to Japan briefly and before anyone knew it she was announcing her split from Avex Trax and returning to Korea to sign with Cre.Ker! Hopefully she can debut with Jeongha and Gayoung!

MMO ENTERTAINMENT

There was so much talk around the MMO girls debuting in the couple of months after P99 ended! With Dain being pretty popular everyone expected a swift debut and by all accounts they were working on it and had even recorded a song. Then talk just stopped, no teasers were ever released, no song came. To this day I think they're still signed with MMO but no rumours have cropped up of their debut after so I'm not super optimistic :( Dain and Minji deserved better.

CRE.KER ENTERTAINMENT

Still no debut :< They've been posting tons of trainee videos featuring both of them prominently alongside Sora so I'm still hoping we'll get those debut teasers sooner rather than later. Jeongha has shown so much talent and resillience and even leadership (remember Love Whisper??) she deserves to debut! Even if Cre.Ker is focusing on The Boyz who deserve all the success, I really need them to debut their girls soon!!

PLAN A GIRLS

And now the Plan A girls! This is also one of the saddest ones though :( After the mess that was Produce 99, Plan A Ent (Now Play M Ent) just pushed them aside. Rumour has iot they had another trainee group ready to debut (you might know them as the FAVE GIRLS) and they decided to go ahead with those instead of the produce girls. WTF right?? Like they couldn't even at least debut our queen Sunisa?? She got in the top 10 and everything! People say it was because there was too much scandal attached to them but idk it just seems fishy. I would sell my soul to find out what happened behind the scenes there.

There's rumours the 5 of them stayed together and are trying to find a company to debut them but there hasn't been anything concrete. I know I'm sacrificing first-borns every day for it to happen. Come on KPOP, you saved Hinapia can't you save my Plan A girls too??

EM ENTERTAINMENT

Ahh EM :( I was rooting for Moonae but she got so much hate after the rigging scandal after rumours started circulated that EM had paid for a debut spot. I'm sure there was nothing to the rumours but her reputation never recovered and EM never debuted a new girl group after. I know Moonae left them at the end of last year, I think Bada is still a trainee but I'm not sure. Haven't heard any word of where Moonae has gone but I really hope she hasn't given up on debuting :( She has so much potential! It's so sad when prominent trainees just slip through the cracks, you know? Just like the Plan A girls.

CT ENTERTAINMENT

Omg there is SO MUCH TEA here that I just wish I knew the details of.  So Yeeun, who was predicted to be like the dark horse of the show before Hwari showed herself to be the hot pink horse of the show, leaves CT like a month after produce99 ends which shocks everyone (at least me) like I totally figured they'd have a group with her out within a fortnight right? There's talk that she told a fan she was stepping out of the industry, that she's had enough after MMC hung her out to dry and she didn't want to just become Yeri's struggling sister, like there's talk she got CANDID.

And then, 3 months later, this signs with YG's Black Label and nobody saw it coming, and then of all things come June she releases BIRTHDAY. And it freaking tops the charts.

And the rest of the CT girls? Cricket. It seems like Yujin moved to Brave Entertainment but there's not a peep of a girl group out of that one and the other two just disappeared.

(TLDR  Yeeun signed with YG to spite MMC and is surprisingly doing super well for herself (aside from the fact that she'll get a comeback only when the planets perfectly align. Doesn't do a lot of variety or anything but YG's name plus her own produce rep make her a soloist to look out for)

STARSHIP ENTERTAINMENT

It will of course have been hard to miss the Starship Girls. Well, most of them. Man their debut was such a mess. First Haeun had some bullying rumours surround her that I still don't believe are true but Starship wasn't taking any chances and cut her :< Then they said Huiyin had left to 'continue her studies' voluntarily but Huiyin popped up on the Chinese version of produce a couple months later. Yikes. But they did manage to snag the beautiful ballerina Siryung from Pledis. 

But they finally debuted in U-GIRLS or united girls or something like that, last September! You know how kpop group names be. Everyone was being so fake worried if they'd manage without power vocal Haeun but I think Sooyoung and Mosu manage perfectly well without her. They're doing decently for themselves, I think waiting so long did hurt them a little against the competition but they're Starship so I will always assume a steady grower, and they do have both Mosu and Siryung to bring in the fans. Speaking of! Mosu got signed onto the Chinese production of Running Man too! Oh, I do hope that won't delay their comeback though :<

I don't know if Haeun is still trying to be an idol, there hasn't been any news about her being a trainee but that kind of thing is difficult to find out sometimes. She has been posting a lot of dance covers on her instagram though so at least she hasn't given up on music entirely yet. I really hope she can overcome the bad rumours about her and do what is best for her
:<

(Hot mess of a debut but a solid group. Will continue to grow but they definitely stumbled upon entry. Mosu is super hecking popular esp in China)

URBAN WORKS

The Urban Works girls make me really sad, I don't think their company ever actually had the funds to debut them and just hoped that one of them might make it into the final lineup. And dang they might even have had a shot with Hyemi. The girls mostly split up one by one when months went by without any debut news.

So Youri I know is still training somewhere, I think there were rumours about her training with Cube from the backdrop of her last instagram post. Hyemi Debuted in LU*GAL with Girim in MLD. Soomi transferred to Banana Republic. Saebom transferred to EM and might hopefully debut with Bada?? Sohyun signed with WM and debuted in SEALIE. Yejin and Joori quit the industry :< And Patitta returned to Thailand.

MLD ENTERTAINMENT

And then we come to our #3! Wow has Girim had a wild ride, I don't think anyone expected her to get that far and even with the rigging netizens were generally agreeing that if there was any rigging in Girim's numbers it's lower than it should have been. So it was no surprise that MLD had her out the door with a release within a month of Produce 99's implosion. I'm p sure the duo of Girim and Jinsil was the first post-Produce release of anyone, it was really kind of shameless.

I still think it's weird that Yona was never included, I thought she did pretty well. Certainly better than Jinsil who was booted in the first round. I mean I kinda get it with the later group stuff being more mature, but Eyez On Me is just a fun release she wouldn't have stoof out that much. Either way, Yona left the company shortly after while Girim became the variety darling she is now. 

Then of course the full group debuted June 2019. Rumour has it the debut was so delayed because MLD literally had no other trainees and had to scramble to find anyone to debut with Girim and Jinsil.

Of course nowadays the group is mostly Girim + some others. They don't have a lot of public recognition aside from Girim's fame, though boy do they have a LOT of male fans especially. They always sell tons of albums and then the fansign is packed with mostly dudes. Very popular at military concerts too or so I've heard.

(TLDR they're plagued with the post-IOI syndrome where Girim is the only one anyone even in the fandom really cares about and they're gearing more toward the y sound to use Girim's , eh, assets causing them to be more like an old-school y group with mostly male fans. Third best-seller of the new groups in terms of albums, not a good charter.)

SIDUSHQ

Reni was never meant to be an idol trainee but she starred in that webdrama The Guilty Secret last year which was pretty popular for a webdrama. I think she's probably just gonna stick to being an actress.

TOP MEDIA

Rachel hasn't officially debuted yet as a soloist but she's been doing OSTs here and there for dramas showing us exactly what she's missing. With Up10tion going nowhere fast I'm preeeetty sure Rachel is the only one keeping the lights on at Top Media, I really hope they debut her soon!

LEON ENTERTAINMENT

Chaerin has been really active on her YouTube channel, posting both Korean and English covers of songs. She's covered so many post-produce songs to support her friends it's really sweet! I don't know if she's still a trainee, tbh I know hardly anything about the company itself, so I'm very worried about her future but at least her channel has grown tons since the show so she must be getting crazy ad revenue, right??

C9 ENTERTAINMENT

I don't actually know what Bang Hyowon is doing now. She quit C9 soon after Produce happened and hasn't really been heard from since. There are rumours now that C9 will be re-debuting Cignature so my guess is she either wasn't chosen for the lineup or didn't agree with its sound or something like that but it's all conjecture at this point.

Those who found success:

SEALIE from WM/RBW
Gathered a bunch of popular contestants and is doing really well on the charts with pretty good album sales too
 

ALPHA6 from BNM
International darlings, lots of album sales, unimpressive chart performance

+ 2 others

U:GIRLS from STARSHIP
Rough start thanks to pre-debut chaos but slowly rising up with Starship's backing

YEEUN from YG BLACK LABEL
Very successful when YG actually lets her promote. You know, the usual.

Those who debuted but struggle:
 

GIRLBOSS from HELIX
Looked like they were gonna be the winners until their company fudged it up with repetitive releases. Low album sales, depends on charts and Lucy's CF and variety deals.

+4 others

LU*GAL from MLD
Girim is a star but the rest is kind of forgotten. Strong fandom due to their ier concept, but mostly male fans

+ 1 other

NOTLIKE from FNC
This gropu just never had enough star power from P99 left to really be successful. They're struggling in every asped, even Sungsook couldn't save them.

KYUNGMI from J&STAR
Does well enough to survive though doesn't quite thrive. Still, it's a step up from Paradise for sure.