Since news of iQIYI being ordered to suspend recording for the last episode of “Youth With You 3” (青春有你3), many rumors have been circulating about the fate of the show. Things got worse when state run news agencies reported on a clip of large groups of people discarding the milk from the show’s sponsor (Zhen Guo Li) after they had retrieved the QR code that is used to vote for trainees. iQIYI and Zhen Guo Li were heavily criticized by the state run news agencies for the show’s policies that sets a bad social example with food wastage, which was a violation of a new law passed on April 29.
Shortly after, both iQIYI and Zhen Guo Li issued statements apologizing for the “milk pouring incident” and had announced recording for the finale night was canceled. All voting channels were stopped and they would also refund all the customers who hadn’t used their milk cards yet.
Even with the statement from iQIYI, it was unclear whether a group would still debut. On what would’ve been the show’s finale on May 8, rumors went viral that “Youth With You 3” had already announced the final debut line up with just trainees and staff members present. There was no recording or elaborate stage set up. Because of this, rumors started going viral that the debut group name was called NINEVER with the line up as follows:
- Luo Yizhou
- JOJO (Tang Jiuzhou)
- Lian Huaiwei
- Neil (Liu Guanyou)
- Jerome.D (Deng Xiaoci)
- Kachine (Sun Yinghao)
- Jun Liu
- Duan Xingxing
- Sun Yihang
It’s suspected the name was accidentally leaked by former trainee, Cao Yuxue, on his DouYin. He uploaded a video of him dancing to the theme song, “We Rock”, and in the caption, he had said, “Congratulations, ninever brothers! Hope everyone can get better and better from now on!”, which was later deleted.
On May 9, “Youth With You 3’s” program team issued a statement on the show and the rumors looming about the debut group: “At the moment, the program team has decided to terminate recording the show and cancel the finale. The program team hasn’t announced any news so far. Some of the online news on the debut group and so called “Official Weibo” are false information.”
So where does this leave the trainees? There are some reports that the remaining trainees have already left Dachang, the show’s filming location. As it’s a sensitive time period now, there are all sorts of rumors going round claiming there won’t be anymore idol survival shows in the next three years. Many fans still feel it’s surreal with how everything went down from 0-100 in a matter of days that led to the show’s finale being canceled.
The outcome and quick downfall of this season has been difficult for the trainees as they’ve spent months of hard work and time to chase after their dreams. Trainees, LilJun (Liu Xin) and Jun Liu, experienced family deaths while competing on the show and weren’t able to accompany their loved ones during their last moments. Many trainees were often injured or hospitalized from over-exhaustion.
LilStar 
Jun Liu
Lian Huaiwei was trending once again with the same hashtag, “Heartbroken for Lian Huaiwei”, after “Youth With You 3” issued their statement on May 9. Fans and netizens expressed their sadness for Lian Huaiwei as he finished in 10th place in the first season of “Youth With You 3” and and was highly likely to have debuted in top 9 this season.
Its an embarrassment that BIG CHINA so powerful economically, military around the world cannot beat the Korean in forming a band boy, who say chines boy cannot sing, dance and RAP, the youth with you team proof the world wrong.. Let the boy form the boy band and ROCK the world musically.
Mr Xi, your wife is in music, show the world that the Chinese is not only good in business, but they are creative too.BIG CHINA need to show the world they are good economically, military, culturally.
Lets bring the boy to the finale.
its a shame that china with over 1.5 billion cannot produce a band boy when they were so good and better than the korean group..If tony leave they should still go for the finale. million of people round the world are watching the program and proud of china producing such talent better than Korea.
Who say Chinse cannot rap, dance, lie the K pop….Youth with you is proof….producer , what is your problem…let tony go settle his family problems and get the boys band set up…really an embarrassment that BIG CHINA dont have a band boy that storm the world like the k pop BTS and Backpink..
Show to the world what china is capable of
nooo youth with you come backk, I enjoyed watching this show so much. All the trainees poured their hearts and souls to debut 🙁
😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣👏👏👏👏👏
The trainees did nothing wrong, so it’s quite unfair that it seems like the people that are receiving the biggest punishment is them. Irrational fan behavior has been going on for years, and there was even more ridiculous amounts of fundraising for Chuang. Food waste video was from prior years. Many fan clubs this year actually donated the milk because the packages they bought have milk cards, and are not printed under the caps. The timing of how all these scandals were released is seriously suspicious. I hope the boys are able to rise above this and become a successful group in the future. Most of them come from humble backgrounds and just have a passion for the stage. Sun Yihang has been training for 7+ years, Liu Guanyou went to Korea since he was 13 to be a trainee, Lian Huaiwei was one again just one step away from his dream, Liu Jun did not get to say goodbye to his father, Sun Yinghao just wants to be able to give his family a better life, Luo Yizhou is dedicated to the arts, Duan Xingxing had a lonely upbringing and was able to channel his emotions through music. These boys deserve nothing but the best and worked hard to get here. Good luck trainees. I hope people will realize none of this is your fault and continue to support your amazing work.