The next day.
The fifth day of the Olympics.
Zhang Ye did not sleep for the entire night as he did his homework alone in the studio. He listened to the commentary of a certain event from the previous Olympic Games. On his desk were the detailed schedules and rules of the various Olympic events, the standards of penalties given by the referees, the world records of the events, the best results of the athletes, how many gold medals there were, and so on. Zhang Ye spent the entire night going through all the information that was as thick as a small mountain. This was all gathered by the studio staff for him at the last minute. If he wanted to go on a live broadcast and commentate on the Olympics, it definitely wouldn't work if he didn't have some foundation. Zhang Ye definitely had to prepare for this. Since he had accepted this job, he wouldn't fight a battle he wasn't confident in.
The phone rang.
It was his mother. "You didn't come home last night?"
Zhang Ye said, "Ah, I'm busy at the studio."
Mom asked, "Why didn't you call? Are you coming back later?"
"Let's talk about it at night. I still have things to do during the day." Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Oh yes, Mom, tell Dad to watch the live broadcast of the Olympics at 1 PM this afternoon."
His mother asked in bewilderment, "What?"
Zhang Ye said, "Haha, you two will know when you see it."
In the morning, the official Weibo of Zhang Ye's Studio also posted a message.
Studio: Everyone, please tune in to the live broadcast of the Olympics this afternoon. There will be a surprise.
The netizens did not understand either.
"Live broadcast of the Olympics?"
"What surprise is there?"
"I don't understand. What do you mean?"
"Advertising for the Olympics? I heard that the Central TV Sports Channel's viewership ratings have dropped significantly over the past few days, and quite a few people from Central TV are getting anxious. A few of the hosts are also calling for everyone to pay more attention to the Olympics. After all, this is the first time our country is hosting an Olympic Games. If the viewership ratings are too low, it won't look good on us. "
"Sigh, who asked us to have bad results this year."
"Yeah, I didn't really watch it."
"I'm still watching. No matter how bad the results are, I will still support the Olympic athletes!"
"I wonder what Zhang Ye's Studio is up to?"
Everyone was confused.
Before noon.
At the Olympic venue.
Zhang Ye came to Central TV's live broadcast studio. The morning's match had already ended and they were taking a break at noon. The staff were all eating their lunch boxes, and some of them were reading their scripts as they prepared for the afternoon's match.
"Yingyi," Zhang Ye greeted.
Yu Yingyi, who was digging through her lunch box, looked up. "You're here? Have you eaten? "
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Not yet."
Yu Yingyi immediately said to the person beside her, "Give Teacher Zhang a portion."
A staff member hurriedly brought him a lunch box.
"Thank you." Zhang Ye did not say anything else. He pulled a chair and sat down to eat. He even ate with relish.
Everyone in the room was looking at Zhang Ye. For many of them, this was the first time they were seeing this legendary figure in person, so they all took a few more glances at him.
Yu Yingyi also looked at him. "You're such a big shot, yet you can still eat boxed lunches?"
Zhang Ye was amused. He waved the rice in his hands, "What's there not to eat? Your meals are considered pretty good. Back when I was filming A Bite of China overseas, we didn't even have anything like this. We had to eat with our fellow countrymen, and the pancakes were each harder than the other. I couldn't even swallow them with mineral water. Hur hur, if you find this packed lunch unpalatable, then I reckon that half of you would have starved to death if you had followed our filming team. "
Yu Yingyi laughed. "I thought that you've always been pampered."
"Oh come on." Zhang Ye laughed and said, "You've been suffering all these years."
At this moment, the Central TV Sports Channel's executives arrived.
The leader said pleasantly, "Teacher Zhang, we're counting on you this time."
Zhang Ye held the lunch box in his left hand and shook hands with him with his right.
Then, they briefly talked about work matters.
That executive asked, "Did Little Yu communicate with you? Are you familiar with the work? "
Zhang Ye said, "More or less."
Another executive said nervously, "Don't say more or less, Teacher Zhang. We're all counting on you to pull up the viewership ratings. You've never been a sports host before, so a lot of the basics are still a problem for you." He quickly took out a large stack of documents and said, "This is the situation and related data from this afternoon's competition. Who was the gold medalist and what was the best result in the world? It's all written here. Take a look at it quickly and don't make any mistakes."
Zhang Ye flipped through the documents and then returned them to him. "There's no need. I've already memorized all the information and data from the Olympics."
Yu Yingyi was taken aback. "How did you memorize it?"
"I just memorized it." Zhang Ye said, "When I'm a host, I never use a script."
Everyone around them looked at Zhang Ye with their mouths agape. Everyone at Central TV knew that Zhang Ye did not need a script, but this was not a show. This was the Olympics. There was too much data involved and it was too detailed. There were even a bunch of foreign names involved, so who could possibly remember all of them? Even a professional sports commentator like Yu Yingyi could not do it!
Yu Yingyi said in disbelief, "Who's the world record holder for the women's hammer throw?"
"Elena."
"How many meters?"
"81.05 meters."
"Who's the best result in the men's pole vault this year?"
"Robert, 6.10 meters."
"Who's ranked 11th in the world on the women's balance beam?"
"The Japanese contestant, Hinako Waiyama."
Someone quickly checked it out in disbelief!
"11th?"
"Which one is it?"
"Holy shit!"
"It's really Hinako Waiyama!"
Complete silence.
Yu Yingyi exclaimed, "Did you really memorize everything?"
Everyone looked at Zhang Ye like they had seen a ghost. If he had memorized the world record holders or the best results of the year, that would still be understandable. That was because those were the best of the best and would garner the most attention. But how the fuck did you even memorize someone who was ranked 11th in the world on the women's balance beam? Your memory is way too good!
Zhang Ye shrugged and finished the last few mouthfuls of his boxed lunch. "Why else do you think I didn't sleep last night? I'm a professional host, so don't doubt my professionalism. "
Yu Yingyi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "But you're way too professional! Are you saying that I'm an amateur? "
Everyone present was convinced!
That leader gave him a thumbs up. "Professor Zhang, you really live up to your reputation. You're indeed the smartest person in the world in the last century. I've really learned something today. We were worried that you might not be familiar with sports broadcasts, but it looks like we were worried for nothing. A professional is truly a professional.
Impressive! "Zhang Ye smiled and said," Don't worry, I'm just getting paid to do this. Since I've accepted the job, I will definitely do it well. Don't worry about that. If you have any requests for the commentary, feel free to let me know. "
That leader nodded and said, "The previous live broadcasts of the Olympics might have been too old-fashioned and traditional. Nowadays, the audience's expectations are getting higher and higher, and the things they like are also different from before. We've analyzed that this is also the reason why the viewership ratings have dropped other than our delegation's poor performance. We've invited you here because we want to make some changes and try to see if we can make some changes in the commentary segment."
Zhang Ye acknowledged, "I understand."
Central TV Sports Channel was taking a huge risk by inviting Zhang Ye to be an Olympic commentator. They held a meeting and discussed it for an entire day before finally coming to this decision! This was a bold attempt, but how would it turn out? No one knew!
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