Wednesday.
In the morning.
The barrage of advertisements had come to an end. Zhang Ye's dozen or so endorsement deals had returned to normal airtime and were no longer as intensive. With his mission completed and his popularity gained, Zhang Ye's full attention returned to I Am a Singer. He had been too busy taking on endorsements and filming them these days, so he had too many distractions. Now that things had come to an end, he definitely had to do a good job with the show.
Beijing Television.
Zhang Ye arrived at work.
"Director Zhang."
"Good morning, Director Zhang."
"You're here?"
"Have you eaten yet?"
"Director Zhang, can I get a discount on my diamond rings if I mention your name?"
When Zhang Ye arrived, everyone was chatting and laughing.
The advertisement issue was also brought up by everyone. After teasing him for a long time, Zhang Ye did not get angry and just chatted with them.
Hu Fei also arrived. "Director Zhang, you're here?"
Zhang Ye nodded. "Brother Hu, shall we have a meeting?"
Hu Fei nodded. "Alright, is everyone here?"
Zhang Ye said to Xiao Lu, "Go and greet them."
"Alright." Xiao Lu acknowledged the order.
Five minutes later, the conference room was filled with the program team's staff. Tomorrow, the new episode's recording would officially begin. Every time around this time, the program team would hold a meeting beforehand to communicate with each other and set the tone. This was already the norm. The atmosphere of the meeting was always very good. Usually, it would be Zhang Ye assigning tasks and Hu Fei supplementing. Then, the others would take notes, discuss, and raise questions for Zhang Ye to answer.
Today was no exception.
Zhang Ye said, "Everyone has worked hard these past few days. I Am a Singer's recording is already more than halfway through and we've handed in an outstanding result. You can take a look at the projector. This is the comparison between our show's viewership ratings and Sing!'s after their broadcast time was changed."
I Am a Singer:
Fourth episode's viewership ratings: 3.08%
Fifth episode's viewership ratings: 3.22%
Sixth episode's viewership ratings: 3.19%
Sing!:
Fourth episode's viewership ratings: 1.58%
Fifth episode's viewership ratings: 1.62%
Sixth episode's viewership ratings: 1.55%
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "As everyone can see, after Sing!'s broadcast time was changed, the viewership ratings have clearly gone up. 1.5 is already a very outstanding result in the industry and can even be considered as one of the top programs in history. But compared to us, it's still a little lacking. With them gone, there's no one to compete with us in the same time slot. Our viewership ratings for every episode are stable at 3 and above, but I feel that we can still go higher."
Hou Di said, "Director Zhang, we've already broken the record."
Xiao Lu clicked her tongue, "Higher? That would be difficult, wouldn't it? I think I'm already at my limit. "
But Hu Fei said, "In the past, no one believed that a TV variety show could break the 2% viewership rating threshold, but Director Zhang did it. Later on, everyone felt that the 3% threshold couldn't be broken, but Director Zhang did it again. Recently, there's another voice in the industry saying that 4% is definitely the limit and that it's definitely the ceiling for variety shows in the current environment. But I don't believe it. I have the same opinion as Director Zhang.
Hou Ge analyzed, "Then we'll have to increase the excitement of the show. Right now, the audience is slowly becoming familiar with the routines and rules of our show, as well as the seven singers onstage. It's very likely that they've entered a temporary period of fatigue. Last week, after the elimination round, the replacement singer was directly eliminated. He had a lot of fans, and it affected our show quite a bit as well. That's why the sixth episode's viewership ratings were slightly weaker, basically the same as the fifth episode's. If we want to go up another level, the replacement singer for the new episode's recording will be especially important."
Dafei said, "Who will fill in first?"
Han Qi said, "We don't have many cards in our hands."
This was a difficult problem.
Who should go first?
Who should go next?
All of these factors had to be considered.
The current stage had been divided into two groups.
The first group: Chen Guang, Zhang Xia. This was the most stable group. The two of them were always able to get into the top three every time and were the true powerhouses. Xiaodong could also barely be considered as part of the first group. She would occasionally get good results, but it still depended on what songs she sang, so it wasn't very stable.
The second group: Huang Cheng, Zhao Wuliu, and Amy. Huang Cheng was an artist, so his song style was more personalized. He did very well in the first episode when he took part in the replacement singer competition, but the later few songs he sang were quite average, with his results fluctuating. Zhao Wuliu was similar to him. His results were also not very stable, sometimes high and sometimes low. It wasn't that there was a problem with their singing, but that there were too many experts on this stage. Everyone was bringing out their trump cards and giving it their all. As a result, the results would fluctuate quite a bit, and no one could say for sure.
On the contrary, Amy was the most stable one. Her stability stemmed from the fact that she was always in the last two places, either sixth or seventh. Every time there was an elimination round, Amy would always be the one in the most danger. However, she would always come back from the dead. As a result, even after three rounds of elimination, Amy was still able to remain on stage as one of the starting singers. Later on, this became a highlight that many of the audience loved to see.
Hu Fei thought for a moment and said, "We need a good singer for the new replacement singer. Hopefully, we can break their previous group and bring some changes to the competition."
Zhang Ye nodded. "That's what I'm thinking too. Based on the names on the replacement singer list, I'm more inclined to …" As he was speaking, a call came in. It was Zhang Ye's cell phone. He had forgotten to mute his phone and was in a meeting, so he didn't intend to answer it. But when he took out his cell phone and was about to hang up, he saw the caller ID and was slightly taken aback. He really couldn't ignore this call, so he said, "Sorry, I have to take this call."
Hu Fei said, "It's fine."
He walked out of the conference room.
Zhang Ye pressed the answer button. "Hello."
It was Bai Li, Wu Zeqing's secretary, on the other end.
"Teacher Zhang, are you busy?"
"It's fine. Go ahead, Secretary Bai."
"There's something I need to let you know in advance. Chief Wu is in a meeting and can't get away, so she asked me to call you. Someone has reported your show."
"Reported? Who? "
"It should be someone from Central TV Department 1."
"What's the report?"
"You've used an unprofessional host."
"You mean Xiaodong?"
"Yes."
"That's just a guest appearance. He's just someone who speaks the lines, so he's not considered a host, right?"
"Strictly speaking, that's indeed not allowed. The SARFT has previously issued a document stating that unlicensed hosts are not allowed to host shows. But at that time, the enforcement wasn't as strict as it is now. They just turned a blind eye to it. Besides, the definition of a host isn't very clear either."
"Yes, I know about that document."
"But now that someone has reported you, the higher-ups are taking this matter very seriously. With the document in place, Chief Wu can't do anything about it. As your show has become too popular, the higher-ups are being very cautious and are currently holding a meeting to discuss how to deal with this matter. You guys should be mentally prepared for this. The results should be out by today. From now on, singers will definitely not be allowed to take on the role of a guest host, so we might have to make some changes."
"But we'll be recording tomorrow."
"Hai, I know."
"Is there really no other way?"
"There's really no other way. Otherwise, with your good relationship with Chief Wu, would she not speak up for you?"
"Alright, I understand. Thank you, Secretary Bai."
"You're welcome, Teacher Zhang."
After hanging up, Zhang Ye was at a loss for words. He knew very well that this matter was indeed difficult to handle. If the document had not been issued yet, Old Wu would definitely have been able to suppress it. If worse came to worst, delaying it until I Am a Singer's broadcast was not a problem. They only had a few episodes left to begin with, but the problem now was that the document was already in place. It should have been issued last year, but it had never been implemented. There was no precedent for it to be implemented. Now that someone had reported them, and it was even someone from Central TV Department 1, even though the head of Central TV was part of the SARFT's Party Committee. His ranking was definitely not as high as Old Wu's, but he was still a member of the Party Committee and had the right to speak.
It was all my fault!
I didn't think it through properly beforehand!
In the conference room.
Zhang Ye returned.
Hu Fei said, "Then let's continue."
But Zhang Ye said to the others, "Let's adjourn the meeting."
Everyone was taken aback.
"Adjourn the meeting?"
"What's the matter?"
"What happened, Director Zhang?"
Zhang Ye did not say anything and only said to Hu Fei, "Brother Hu, let's go to your office."
Hu Fei knew that something had happened and quickly walked out with Zhang Ye.
In the office.
Zhang Ye said in a serious tone, "I've just received news that Xiaodong doesn't have the 'license' to host anymore."
Hu Fei was shocked. "Where did you get the news from?"
"From the SARFT." Zhang Ye said, "It was Central TV Department 1 who reported it. It looks like the Sing! program team is not going to admit defeat or take this lying down. Last time, we forced them to change the show's time slot, but this time, they've found an opportunity to turn the tables on us and fight it out with us!"
Hu Fei said in a low voice, "Then what do we do now? How are we going to record tomorrow? "
Zhang Ye sighed. "I'm thinking about it too."
Hu Fei said, "I'll get the station heads to pull some strings."
"That won't work." Zhang Ye shook his head. "Can Beijing TV win against them?"
Hu Fei said, "Why don't we get Dong Shanshan to do it instead?"
Zhang Ye said, "How are we going to do it? She's also our manager. "
Hu Fei said, "Then I'll get a host from the station."
Zhang Ye said, "That won't do either. It'll be too sudden. The theme of the show has always been that there won't be any outsiders and it'll all be hosted and performed by the singers themselves. The audience is already used to it, and this is also one of our selling points. If we suddenly add in a new professional host, we can still do the recording, but what about the effect? If the effect is too bad, what about the viewership ratings? How are we going to break past the 4% record? Our reputation will also drop! "
Hu Fei said anxiously, "But it's too late. We're going to start recording tomorrow!"
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