General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 202610 min read

&AUDITION - The Howling -

&AUDITION - The Howling - (エンオーディションザ・ハウリング) was a 2022 Japanese audition program produced by HYBE LABELS JAPAN as the first installment of the HYBE LABELS JAPAN Global Debut Project, a project to develop artists from Japan who could work on a global stage¹. The show centered on four pre-selected debut members, K, NICHOLAS, EJ, and TAKI, all of whom had appeared on the 2020 audition show I-LAND, which created ENHYPEN, competing alongside eleven trainees for the remaining places in the final lineup². The program aired from July 9, 2022 on Nippon TV in a 30-minute version, with a 60-minute full version including footage that could not fit the terrestrial broadcast (over-the-air TV channels, not cable or internet streaming) streamed on Hulu in Japan and released on the HYBE LABELS official YouTube channel¹^•³. On the September 3, 2022 finale, the five remaining members were selected and the nine-member group &TEAM was formed⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Format	Japanese and South Korean reality competition program following the formation and debut of the first boy group under HYBE Labels Japan; also known as HYBE LABELS JAPAN Global Debut Project⁵
Broadcast	From July 9, 2022 on Nippon TV (30-minute version) and Hulu (60-minute full version, Japan only), with new episodes added weekly on Saturdays from 13:30 JST¹^•⁶
Cast	15 participants: debut members K, NICHOLAS, EJ, and TAKI (I-LAND alumni) plus 11 trainees²
Progression mechanic	Performances earned "&Balls" that were added to the "&Ring"; filling the &Ring sent all 15 participants to the final round⁷^•⁸
Final-round scoring	Producer evaluation 40%, special producer evaluation 30%, preliminary global voting 20%, final global voting 10%; the five highest-scoring trainees debuted⁹
Finale	Broadcast live on September 3, 2022 simultaneously on HYBE LABELS' YouTube, Nippon TV, and Hulu Japan; nine debuting members announced, forming &TEAM⁴^•¹⁰
Resulting group	&TEAM released the debut song "Under the skin" on November 22, 2022 and its first mini album First Howling: ME on December 7, 2022⁴

Spoilers

Plot

Rounds 1 and 2

The series opens at HYBE's headquarters in Korea, where Bang Si-hyuk explains the premise: the & symbolizes connecting people with people and people with the world, and the subtitle refers to a werewolf's howling, tying the show to HYBE's DARK MOON: Altar of the Moon fictional universe. K, Nicholas, EJ, and Taki, the four members already guaranteed a debut spot from I-LAND, meet the eleven newcomers who will compete alongside them.

Round 1 is a group mission: all fifteen perform the signal song, a cover of Europe's "The Final Countdown." Before it even airs properly, a formation change cuts the number from fifteen to fourteen, and the trainees have to absorb the shock of a suddenly reshuffled lineup. Judges score each trainee on vocals, performance, and a special per-round criterion, handing out &BALLs as individual scores. Round 4 is the BTS mission: Team A (Nicholas, EJ, Harua, Hayate, Jo, Junwon, and Yuma) performs "Film Out" and "Run," while Team B (K, Taki, Fuma, Gaku, Hikaru, Maki, Minhyung, and Yejun) performs "Lights" and "Black Swan." The stakes of the whole format land here: at this point the &RING is only 30% full, and if it is not filled by the end of Round 4, nobody debuts at all.

Round 3

SEVENTEEN themselves appear to announce the third round, the "SEVENTEEN Legendary Mission," in which three teams perform the group's songs with choreography they create themselves, and it becomes the round the show is remembered for. Creativity is the special criterion, so the teams cannot simply copy the original dances; they have to reinvent well-loved songs while the group that made them famous watches. Episode 5, broadcast August 6, 2022, shows the three performances. To pad the starving &RING, episode 4 also adds a variety-contest special mission handed down by SEVENTEEN for extra &BALLs, and a campfire scene in which the trainees receive surprise letters from their families, the show's designated tearjerker.

Episode 6 and Round 4

Episode 6, on August 13, 2022, is the celebrity episode: BTS and TOMORROW X TOGETHER make surprise appearances, and Bang Si-hyuk sits in as special advisor, connecting the rookies to the labels they hope to join. Round 2 was the concept mission, splitting the fourteen participating trainees into four teams performing four songs by TXT, Monsta X, TVXQ, and Taemin.

Final round

The &RING is filled, so all fifteen advance to the final round, staged live in Japan. Two original songs are performed: "Melody," by K, Nicholas, EJ, Taki, Gaku, Yejun, Harua, Hayate, and Hikaru, and "Running with the Pack," by Fuma, Jo, Junwon, Maki, Minhyung, and Yuma. Scores combine producer points, special guest points, and global voting. Jo wins first place with 76 points, followed by Harua with 72, Maki with 70, Yuma with 70, and Fuma with 66. Gaku (56), Hikaru (45), Junwon (44), Hayate (26), Yejun (14), and Minhyung (11) fall short. The nine winners debut as &TEAM on December 7, 2022 with First Howling: Me, and both final-round songs are later re-recorded by the group.

Characters

K (trainee, 24): the oldest contestant and a former marathon athlete, one of the four protected I-LAND members, carrying the pressure of a spot already won.
Nicholas, EJ, and Taki: the other three I-LAND veterans, guaranteed debuts but required to perform through every round alongside the challengers.
Jo: the frontrunner, first in preliminary global voting with 158,250 votes by August 28, 2022, and first overall in the final with 76 points.
Harua: second in the preliminary vote and second overall, one of the two contestants whose individual introduction videos drew overwhelmingly high views before the show aired.
Maki, Yuma, and Fuma: third through fifth in the final; Fuma had previously competed on Produce 101 Japan Season 2.
Gaku and Hikaru: fan favorites who finished sixth and seventh, eliminated, though both later debuted in the group aoen in 2025, Hikaru renamed Haku.
Yu Junwon: eliminated in fourth-to-last place, later won MBC's Fantasy Boys but left that group before debut.
Yejun: the youngest at 15 and a former child actor, eliminated with only 14 points.
Hayate and Minhyung: eliminated in the final round; Hayate later debuted with WILD BLUE in 2024.

Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations

The show draws on HYBE's DARK MOON: Altar of the Moon werewolf universe, which &TEAM's debut EP continues. Its success opened the door for other Korean agencies producing Japanese localized boy groups: JYP's Nizi Project Season 2 and SM's NCT Universe: LASTART followed in July 2023.

Broadcast and distribution

Nippon Television Network Corporation, HJ Holdings, and HYBE LABELS JAPAN jointly announced the program in March 2022 as the first installment of the HYBE LABELS JAPAN Global Debut Project¹. The terrestrial broadcast on Nippon TV ran as a 30-minute program, while Hulu carried the 60-minute full version with footage the terrestrial broadcast could not accommodate; Hulu distribution was limited to Japan¹^•⁶. The HYBE LABELS official YouTube channel also carried episodes, though not in Japan and some other countries or regions, and the HYBE LABELS + YouTube channel released behind-the-scenes content such as "Behind Sketch" videos and highlight clips⁶^•¹¹. A separate 30-minute cheering program, "&Audition," began airing Wednesdays on Nippon TV from July 13 for fans to show support³.

Episode counts differ slightly between listings. TVmaze records nine ordered episodes with the finale "The Finale" on September 3, 2022⁵, while the JoongAng Daily announcement described eight weekly episodes³. Hulu's catalog lists seven numbered "Hulu complete" episodes plus a 1 hour 39 minute FINAL ROUND program, alongside nine 22-minute terrestrial broadcast versions¹⁰^•¹².

Format and missions

The show was presented as a real documentary following the four debut members and the trainees under the keyword "&", depicting their efforts, growth, joys, and conflicts on the way to debut². Performances earned &Balls, which were added to the &Ring; if the ring was not filled, the debut of all 15 participants, debut members and trainees alike, would be voided. By the fourth round the &Ring was filled and all 15 advanced to the final round⁷^•⁸.

The first mission was a group signal song performance of "The Final Countdown," a song written for the program and later re-recorded as an &TEAM track⁷^•⁸. In the concept mission, the four debut members became group leaders: K's team (with Jo and Minhyung) performed TVXQ's "Something," Nicholas's team (with Gaku and Hayate) performed Monsta X's "Hero," EJ's team (with Fuma, Harua, and Yejun) performed TXT's "Blue Hour," and Taki's team (with Maki, Hikaru, and Yuma) performed Taemin's "Sayonara Hitori"⁷.

The Seventeen legendary mission split the trainees into three teams that performed SEVENTEEN songs with their own choreography and stage styling: C Riders performed "Call, Call, Call," Full Count performed "Home; Run," and Wang Wang performed "Oh My!"⁷. In the BTS mission, two groups each performed a vocal-focused and a performance-focused BTS song: Team A performed "Film Out" and "Run," and Team B performed "Lights" and "Black Swan"⁷. The fourth round, beginning with the episode distributed on August 13, 2022, was the BTS mission, in which the seven members of BTS made a surprise appearance¹³.

In the final round the trainees performed two original songs, both later re-recorded by &TEAM: "Melody," performed by the four debut members with Gaku, Yejun, Harua, Hayate, and Hikaru, and "Running with the Pack," performed by the debut members with Fuma, Jo, Junwon, Maki, Minhyung, and Yuma⁷.

Judging and the final round

The producers announced that the nine debuting members would be determined by combined producer evaluation and fan voting. Of the 11 trainees, the five with the highest total scores would debut. The weights were a producer evaluation (four people) at 40 percent of the total, a special producer evaluation (three people) at 30 percent, preliminary global voting at 20 percent, and final global voting at 10 percent⁹. Preliminary global voting ran from 15:00 JST on August 20 to 23:59 JST on September 2, 2022 through Weverse, with one vote per trainee per day per registered account, open worldwide⁹.

The FINAL ROUND was broadcast live worldwide on September 3, 2022¹⁰. ENHYPEN appeared live on the finale¹⁴. FUMA, YUMA, JO, HARUA, and MAKI were selected to join EJ, K, NICHOLAS, and TAKI, completing the nine-member group &TEAM⁴. Among the mentors named for the program were the BTS producer Pdogg and performance director Son Sung-deuk, and HYBE LABELS JAPAN producer Soma Genda was also involved¹⁵^•¹⁶.

Aftermath

&TEAM began working the day after the group was formed, practicing "The Final Countdown" and performing it on the Japanese morning show Sukkiri on September 4, 2022⁴. The group released the music for its debut song "Under the skin" on November 22, 2022, debuted with the mini album First Howling: ME on December 7, 2022, and later released its first full-length album First Howling : NOW⁴^•¹⁷. Several songs debuted on the show, including "The Final Countdown," "Melody," and "Running with the Pack," were re-recorded as official &TEAM tracks⁷.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Reality and competition franchise editions › Got Talent and other variety talent-show franchises

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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