Superstar K4 () is the fourth season of the South Korean television talent show series

Superstar K ''Superstar K'' ( ko, 슈퍼스타 K) is a South Korean television talent show series which is held yearly. First held in 2009, Superstar K has increasingly gained more attention, considered the biggest audition program in South Korea. Superstar ...

, which premiered on 17 August 2012 on

Mnet M-Net (an abbreviation of Electronic Media Network) is a South African pay television channel established by Naspers in 1986. The channel broadcasts both local and international programming, including general entertainment, children's series, ...

and airs every Friday night at 11PM KST.

Lee Seung-Chul Lee Seung-chul (; born December 5, 1966) is a South Korean singer best known for the hit songs, "My Love", "Never Ending Story", and "Girls' Generation". Currently an artist of Kakao Entertainment's label Flex M, he debuted in 1985 as the vo ...

and

Yoon Mi-Rae Natasha Shanta Reid (born May 31, 1981), better known by her Korean name Yoon Mi-rae (), often stylized as ''Yoonmirae'', is an American-born South Korean-based solo rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer, who is also a member of Korean hip ho ...

returned as judges, and were joined by singer/songwriter

PSY Park Jae-sang (, ; born December 31, 1977), known professionally as Psy (stylized in all caps as PSY) (; ; ), is a South Korean singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Psy is known domestically for his humorous videos and stage per ...

who replaced

Yoon Jong-Shin Yoon Jong-shin (; born October 15, 1969) is a South Korean singer-songwriter, record producer, and the CEO of Mystic Story. Early life and education Yoon completed high school at Daewon Foreign Language High School and studied Korean Language ...

who had been a judge in the last two seasons. 2,083,447 applicants were recorded for this season, surpassing the record set by the previous season. This program ended on November 23, 2012 with the announcement of

Roy Kim Kim Sang-woo (; born July 3, 1993), known professionally as Roy Kim (), is a South Korean singer-songwriter and radio presenter. He began his singing career after winning the television talent show ''Superstar K 4'' in 2012. Kim officially deb ...

as the winner and

DickPunks DickPunks ( ko, 딕펑스) is a rock band based in South Korea, consisting of four members. The band was formed in November 2006, without a guitarist because the keyboard player, Hyunwoo, wanted the band to be considered a piano-driven ensemble. ...

as the runner-up.

Selection process

As with the previous seasons, applicants were able to apply via the internet, phone or in person. However, with this season, the options of applying via KakaoTalk and karaoke also became available.

Auditions

Preliminary Auditions for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regionals were held in these cities: *The Daegu, Daejeon and Jeju audition episodes were not aired due to scheduling changes. *The 3rd Regional auditions for the Los Angeles and New York were held together. *Participants of the Sydney audition who made it to the 3rd Regional's were judged at Seoul instead.

SuperWeek

Finalists

TOP 12

Finals

Due to the adoption of 12 finalists in Superstar K4 compared to 10 and 11 finalists in the previous seasons, the format was changed by which three finalists are eliminated in the first week, and two in the following three weeks till the Top 5 is reached (exceptions including the judges decision to save DickPunks in the Top 7 week). Judge

was replaced from the Top 9 week by singer Yoon Gun, due to his decision to commit to promoting his song ' Gangnam Style (강남스타일)' overseas. The elimination of a contestant will be determinant upon who has the lowest number of points: with 60 percent of the points from a live text poll, 30 percent from the judges' decision and 10 percent from a pre-broadcast online poll.

Top 12 – First Love

* Group performance: "사랑 만들기 (Making Love)" ( Papaya)

Top 9 – Rivalry

* Group performance: "마지막 승부 (The Last Game)" (

Kim Min-kyo Kim Min-kyo (, born April 15, 1974) is a South Korean actor and director. He is well known as a cast member ('crew') on the tvN entertainment show ''Saturday Night Live Korea'. Career He has been performing as a stage actor on several Korea ...

)

Top 7 - Go Back

* Group performance: "고백 (Confession)" ( Delly Spice)

Top 6 - My Style

* Group performance: "그대에게 (To You)" (무한궤도)

Top 4 - Audience Song of Choice

* Special Stages: DickPunks and Hong Dae-Kwang: "Girl" (아스피린); Jung Joon-Young and Roy Kim: " Creep" ( Radiohead)

Top 3 - Judge's Mission / Contestant's Favourite Song

Each contestant performed two songs: a song from the judge that each had been assigned to be coached from, and a song of personal choice. For the judge mission,

were assigned to the mentorship of

, Jung Joon-Young to

and Roy Kim to Yoon Gun.

Top 2 - Song Rendition / Self-Written Song

Ratings

* TNmS * AGB Nielsen Media Research

References

External links

* {{Superstar K 2012 South Korean television seasons