Pledis Entertainment announced that they would debut a group called Seventeen in the early months of 2013. Seventeen at the time was said to have 17 members who would be divided into 3 sub-units that would promote in Korea, China, Japan.
In December, Pledis decided they would make a pre-debut show, SEVENTEEN TV, to help the members gain fans before their debut, but it was also a show that fans and watchers would sort of judge the members as well.
In January, Pledis explained that who we saw in 17TV weren’t official members and were still training to get into the group. Pledis said the main reason they started SEVENTEEN TV was so that Pledis could see which boys the fans enjoyed seeing and those trainees would eventually make up SEVENTEEN. At this time, the trainees hadn’t revealed their names and were using nicknames: Mr. Wristband, Mr. Mic, Mr. Hat, Mr. Orange Sneakers, Mr. Blue Earmuffs, Mr. White Earmuffs, Mr. Dumbbell, Mr. Beanie, Mr.Backpack, Mr. Headphones and Mr. Teeny’s Dad.
Member - Nickname
Mingyu - Mr. Wristband
Jun - Mr. Blue Earmuffs
Seungkwan - Mrs. Mic
Woozi - Mr. Flurorecent Colored Sneakers
Wonwoo - Mr. Beanie
Hoshi - Mr. Dumbbell
Vernon - Mr. Headphone
Dino - Mr. Backpack
DK - Mr. Hat
MingMing - Mr. White Earmuffs
Samuel - Mr. Teeny's Dad
SEVENTEEN TV was streamed on Ustream about 1 to 3 times in a week period and each “season” was about 15 episodes which could have ended in a LIKE SEVENTEEN concert. While live streaming, you could change the camera whenever you wanted (unless it was broken, which happened often). Every week, fans would vote for a trainee to be “MVP” which would reveal the members’ profile, for example: If Mr. Hat was voted that weeks’ MVP, his full profile would be released. After the end of the 1st season, the rest of the members not voted MVP would be released as well. At the end of season 2, official photoshoots and self cams and special episodes (like the Christmas Episode)were released.
In Seasons 4 and 5, it included concerts called "Like Seventeen".
