The Controversy Surrounding Netflix’s ‘Physical: 100’ Season Finale

Written by: Ayna Ahmed

A surge of controversy has overshadowed Season 1’s final episode of ‘Physical: 100’, with some fans left underwhelmed with the tasks as well as disputes over whether the final challenge was rigged.

Warning: major spoilers

After nine engrossing episodes and five intense challenges in the hunt for the “World’s Most Perfect Physique”, the first season of Netflix’s new show Physical: 100 came to an end, but it wasn’t the exciting finale fans was hoping for.

This new survival show concluded with Cross-Fitter Woo Jin-Yong emerging victorious and winning the $300 million won ($230,000) prize money following the ‘infinite rope’ challenge. In this we saw him and runner-up, Jung Hae-Min, pulling a lengthy and evidently heavy rope (which was over 1,300-feet long) until it finally reached the end of the spool. It seemed that Jung was very close behind, but in the end, Woo just about won this final challenge.

However, after the final episode aired, rumours that the rope challenge was repeated three times began to surface. Jang Ho-Gi, producer of the show, took to his personal Instagram account to indirectly address the rumours which damaged his show’s reputation.

“A lie can become famous, but it can never be the truth” he stated in the post’s caption.

Source: Instagram

Having previously rejected all media requests for comment, Jang’s Instagram post seemingly triggered runner-up Jung Hae-Min, and he decided to speak up about the incident which he deemed unfair.

In his interview with Sunday Newspaper, Jung declared that there was actually a huge difference at the start of the match, and according to the other contestants who were monitoring the game, there was at least a three times difference in speed. Once Jung passed the halfway mark, Woo requested a rematch, claiming that his rope machine was making a strange noise and the wheel was not turning as smoothly as his opponent. Although producers found nothing wrong with the machine, they dealt with Woo’s request by lowering his machine’s tension as well as lubricating it to make it run smoother. After this, the tense game resumed… but not for long.

“As I saw the end right in front of me, the production team yelled for the game to pause again”.

This time, the production team revealed that there was an audio issue and will have to re-film the entire challenge once again – Jung had refused to re-shoot several times, but eventually succumbed to the producer’s request after feeling pressured by the crew.

Competitive track cyclist, Jung Hae-Min mentioned how he had to seek psychiatric counselling after the final episode was broadcasted. Speaking to a South Korean YouTube Channel President of Entertainment Lee Jin-Ho, Jung revealed how much stress he endured after people would approach him asking things like “Your physique is way bigger so why did you lose?”

The accusation led the production team to release an official timeline of events where they admitted to interrupting the final challenge twice, whilst denying attempting to intervene with the results.

According to Physical: 100’s production team, they had a long discussion with the two contestants to decide on the course of action following the repetitive stops. Jung was against the rematch due to already being in the lead by 148-feet (confirmed by the MBC crew); on the other hand, Woo was also against continuing, believing he was now at a disadvantage since Jung had enough time to rest and recover. After the two eventually decided to rematch, Woo’s rope was at the original 400 meters (around 1,300 feet) and Jung started at 355 meters (around 1,100 feet) to replicate the score just before the second interruption.

Due to the controversy surrounding his win, Woo Jin-Yong also took to Instagram to defend himself and his victory.

“Particularly the accusation that I was the one to raise my hand first to interrupt the game, that is not true,” said Woo. He continued, “I think that everyone was sincere and did their best”.

Jung also made it clear that him speaking out was not an attempt to devalue his competitor’s victory, telling Sports Seoul, “I am being careful in case athlete Woo gets criticized, but a lie is a lie”.

Not the only controversy?

The Netflix survival show received a few other complaints throughout the show’s running period, with fans disappointed with the final matches as well as complaints against certain contestants themselves.

After a strong start to the show, with exhilarating challenges such as the one-to-one death match and moving an entire ship which weighed two-tonnes, viewers felt rather bored when the final consisted of flipping over black and white boards and tapping a bell.

Source: TikTok

As well as this, some cast members, such as female contestant Kim Da Young, were exposed as being a school bully. Accusations that she stole and physically harmed her juniors were made against her – she has since apologised to the producers of the show as well as the public, although she denied having stolen or physically assaulted the juniors from her school. Kim said, “It’s true that I acted shamefully, cursing and saying hurtful words to my juniors, but I never physically hurt them or took their money”.

"I want to apologize and seek forgiveness, but I don't think it's a true apology if I have to apologize for something I did not do. I will self-reflect on the wrong I did."

As well as this, another contestant on the show is being investigated for physically assaulting his partner. The male contestant who has not been named is currently under investigation for alleged assault and battery according to Seoul Gangnam Police Station. This incident in itself caused Netflix to cancel its press conference on the 28th February 2023.

Evidently, there is a lot that the Physical: 100 crew need to address or fix before renewing itself for a second season, however, producer Jang Ho-Gi announced his high hopes for season two.

In a cryptic message, he stated: “Various physiques exist in the world. Our search for the perfect physique will continue”.