Physical: Asia Faces Backlash Over Viewer Accusations That It Was "Rigged" To Favour The Winning Team

Popular Netflix reality competition show Physical: Asia aired its final three episodes earlier this week, and it's been the talk of the town since. 

Over 12 episodes, teams from South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Mongolia, and Turkey battled it out in a series of physically gruelling challenges, vying for the prize pot of one billion Korean won (S$890K). 

*Spoilers ahead: Do not read on if you've not watched the finale. 

The South Korean team emerged the winners, beating Team Mongolia in the last quest. Though the show's host country claimed the championship title, the finale has ignited a wave of online backlash, with some fans questioning the fairness of eliminations.

Some viewers even felt the Korean organisers "rigged" the contest to favour Korea, and that the results were "staged". 

Fans of the show have gone online to point out moments they felt were suspicious, such as the way certain challenges were edited, and decisions that seemed to favour specific contestants. Speculation grew as viewers compared slow motion clips and analysed judges comments, with some saying the outcome was "way beyond their expectations". 

One netizen on Reddit even suggested that earlier challenges prior to the finale also had their fair share of doubtful moments, specifically, a totem challenge where each team had to send a pair of contestants to hold up giant totems.

They wrote: "How are we to know that each team is holding the same weight? And when Japan said there was an issue with the lever that prevented the release of the weights, it confirmed my suspicions that Korea is cheating. Korea didn’t raise the lever issue when they used the totems, how convenient that they had no issues but immediately after Japan has issues."

They also argued that Team Australia was the rightful winner of the fourth quest, the battle ropes challenge, which ultimately saw Japan beating Australia. Said netizen opined that "the win was given to Japan so not to make it obvious that Korea is being pushed to the finals". They also raised suspicions that Korea had "insider information" as their strategy heading into the death match that followed, the pillar push challenge, worked well for them.

Others called the outcome "fishy" and accused the show of "lacking fairness". 

Producers of Physical: Asia have yet to respond to these claims and conspiracy theories.

However, in a radio interview with a representative from Mongolia's production team, it was also revealed that the countries did not have a hand in picking the final participating teams. Rather, the decision was made by Netflix Korea's production team. 

Physical: Asia producer Jang Ho‑gi also said in a previous interview that the teams were anchored by traditional-sports “legends” before being selecting other athletes to form the final line-up. Participants from the eight countries were also picked partly for their distinct sporting cultures and traditions of their respective countries, such as Mongolian Bokh wrestling, Turkish oil wrestling, and Muay Thai.

There are also viewers who are of the opinion that the show's editing may have amplified tension, or made certain results appear unexpected, which is not uncommon in reality competition shows.

"What's the point of making it bigger, including representatives of Asian countries, if they're just going to keep rigging it so Korea wins??? This was so unfair to watch," ranted one netizen. 

"You don't even need to watch the show to know Korea was going to win," added another. 

As of now, complaints about the show being "rigged" continue to fuel debate on the internet, keeping the show in the spotlight even after it aired its last episodes.

Fans of Physical: Asia — any thoughts?