Before their debut, all of the iKON members competed against Winner on 'WIN: Who Is Next.' Although they were unable to debut through this program, the fans' love and support for Team B prompted YG to give the iKON members another chance in 'Mix and Match.' In this new show, new trainees were added to create the final lineup of members. iKON debuted with "My Type" in 2015.

Alongside their fellow label-mates, the WINNER members competed on 'WIN: Who Is Next,' an extremely popular survival show, in 2013. After competing against Team B (iKON), the WINNER members officially debuted with "Empty" in August of 2014. Their debut song was actually composed by iKON's B.I.!

SF9 became the first FNC dance boy group to debut after their participation on FNC Entertainment's program, 'D.O.B,' short for Dance or Band. In this survival show, two different groups competed with each other. Rather than one group being eliminated at the end, the two groups went against each other to either be a dance-themed group or instrumental group. After their success on the show, the SF9 members debuted on October 5, 2016, with their first single album, "Feeling Sensation."

In 2015, JYP Entertainment launched a ten-episode season of a survival program called 'Sixteen.' Each contestant not only trained to improve their singing and dancing skills but also practiced living the difficult idol life. Despite the fact that seven of the sixteen members were chosen to officially become members of Twice, Tzuyu and Momo were added back into the lineup. TWICE officially debuted on October 20, 2015, with the EP "The Story Begins."

In order to debut a new boy group, Cube Entertainment created the program 'Pentagon Maker.' Each contestant on the show participated in individual battles to fight for a spot in the final lineup. In the end, three of the original ten trainees were eliminated, ultimately leading to the current seven member group, Pentagon! On October 10, 2016, Pentagon debuted with ten members, including those previously eliminated on the show.

VIXX debuted through Jellyfish Entertainment's reality show, 'MyDOL.' A group of ten trainees participated in various activities and missions to become one of the lucky six members of VIXX. N, Leo, Ken, Ravi, Hongbin, and Hyuk became the official members of VIXX and debuted with their first single, "Super Hero," on 'M! Countdown' on May 24, 2012.

In 2014, Starship Entertainment gathered twelve male trainees to participate in a survival show called 'NO.MERCY.' These trainees battled each other in various missions to obtain a spot in the seven-member lineup. During the middle of the show, I.M., who is currently the maknae and rapper, was added into the competition. Monsta X debuted on May 14, 2015 with their EP "Trespass."

Momoland was formed by MLD Entertainment through Mnet's reality program, 'Finding Momoland.' A group of seven trainees was selected from ten trainees to debut. On November 10, 2016, Momoland released their debut EP "Welcome to Momoland." After their debut, two members, Daisy and Kim Taeha, were added to the group, officially making Momoland a nine-member group.

Wanna One participated in Mnet's Produce 101 Season 2 before their debut. Out of an initial 101 trainees, eleven were chosen to debut under CJ E&M after multiple rounds of audience voting. Wanna One debuted on August 8, 2017 with their title song, "Energetic."

Even before their debut, Seventeen appeared in live broadcasts of 'Seventeen TV' in 2013. On this show, the trainees were first introduced to the public and were filmed practicing. Seventeen also participated in a reality program, 'Seventeen Project: Big Debut Plan' in 2015 prior to their debut. On May 29, 2015, they released their debut EP '17 Carat.'

CJ E&M narrowed down around four thousand applicants to 49 contestants who competed as groups on the program 'Boys24.' Contrary to some other survival shows, 28 people were selected to be a part of Boys24. Even after the show ended, the competition was not quite over. Each group held a concert three to five times a week in a rotation and continued to participate in promotions. In August 2017, fans voted Hwang Inho, Jung Yeontae, Kim Jinsub, Kim Sunghyun, Yoo Youngdoo, Isaac Voo, and Jin Sungho were announced as the final group members. The company selected Lee Inpyo and Han Hyunuk as Wild Card members, completing the final lineup of Boys24.