On the same morning.
Several people came looking for Zhang Ye one after another to persuade him.
The first to come was a staff member from a relevant department of Central TV. He was probably in charge of advertising sponsorships. "Little Zhang, there's a problem with the pricing of your advertising fees. It's a very serious problem. It's way too high and far exceeds what the market can bear. A lot of people have already come to us to reflect on this situation. Although your program is the one that receives sponsorships and is not under our responsibility, I still have to give you a piece of advice. If you don't even want what's in your hands, what else do you want? Am I right? Let's just get the sponsorships first. It's better than nothing. "
"No way."
"Little Zhang!"
"The price has already been set."
"You, what's wrong with being flexible? Besides, even if your program team is not short of money now, Central TV Department 1 is still short of it."
"The Voice will definitely make money, but the way it earns money is not limited to just a few advertising rights. This is just a drop in the bucket, and the big bucks are still waiting for us. If we were to disappoint the other advertisers because of this small amount of money, we might end up losing our reputation and money. Wouldn't that be a huge loss?"
"Think about it again."
"There's no need to think about it. Chief Zhou, please go back."
Persuaders came one after another. It was unknown who they were from. Could it be Department 1's Deputy Director Jiang Yuan? Or could it be another Central TV Department 1 leader or station leader?
Finally, the program team's Executive Producer, Fu Sihong, came to Zhang Ye's office. He pushed open the door and came in. "Little Zhang, the boss of Heehee Dairy has worked with Central TV before and is also acquainted with me. Can you lower the price for them? I think we can make it 2 million RMB and sell the advertising slots to them. As for the other companies that have already signed on with us, they won't know what the other companies' advertising fees are. We can keep it a secret internally and not announce the contract to the public. If that doesn't work, we can compensate them a little by placing the name of the company that signed on with 3 million RMB in front of the other companies, or use some other methods."
Zhang Ye retorted, "A difference in order would result in a difference of a third of the price?"
Fu Sihong said, "Let me tell you, every program does it this way. It's impossible for every advertiser to buy the same type of advertising slots at the same price. It's all subject to change."
Zhang Ye said, "I don't care what others do. I only care about myself. Since I've already said that there will be a fixed price, then there will be a fixed price."
"Little Zhang!" Fu Sihong was a little annoyed.
Zhang Ye waved it off. "Don't say anymore, Brother Fu. This won't work."
Finally, Fu Sihong made Zhang Ye pout and walked away with a black face!
Fu Sihong was nominally the executive producer of The Voice and was sent by Central TV Department 1 to oversee this program. He had a lot of authority, but if Zhang Ye was still new to Central TV, it would be hard to say who would have the authority to set the price for the advertisements. After all, Zhang Ye was still a newcomer to Central TV.
But after so many days, from the program planning to the equipment, the stage, the coaches, the title sponsorship, and even the selection of the contestants, all of that had been handled by Zhang Ye alone. Fu Sihong did not even help much as he was not in the program team every day, probably because he had more important work to do in another department. So in the current situation, it could be said that Zhang Ye was in control of the entire situation. Naturally, he did not need to do things according to other people's wishes. How much money was paid and how the rules were set was all decided by him. This was because this was a program that he had poured all of his heart and soul into. You bunch of outsiders who usually did not help or care about anything, were all not around when the program was facing difficulties. Now that you guys heard that there was money to be made, all of you came over to give orders?
Nonsense!
You only know how to make trouble!
Zhang Ye was not in the mood to tease them. To be honest, he really did not care about this small amount of money. To him, rather than wasting his time arguing with Fu Sihong and those advertisers, he might as well go down the streets and find a contestant with a good voice. That would be more worth it. In order to get some peace and quiet, he went downstairs to the recording studio. After supervising for a while, he found a place with no one around and started to write down the work schedule that he was going to assign. For example, the principles for the recording of the contestants' intro clips, the logo for The Voice, etc.
Some of the progress was considered smooth.
The advertisement issue was actually just a small interlude that did not affect the bigger picture.
However, just as everyone in The Voice's program team was intensely preparing for the broadcast in 20 days, a piece of bad news came without any warning!
Zhang Ye was the first person in the program team to receive the news!
Then, Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, Wu Yi, Little Wang, and the others also received a shocking notice — The Voice would be airing ahead of schedule! It would be next Thursday!
Hearing that, everyone was dumbfounded!
Next Thursday??
Our venue isn't even ready yet!
… …
Central TV Department 1's floor.
In the Deputy Director's office.
Zhang Ye was a little confused. "Director Jiang, what's the meaning of this?"
Jiang Yuan was very depressed. This matter had also caught him off guard. "Can you all start recording the program this week? It has to be broadcast on time next Thursday. "
Zhang Ye said in a speechless manner, "When I took over this program, the production time was about a month and a half. Not even two months have passed, yet you're telling me that it's going to be broadcast soon? If it was three days earlier, I wouldn't have said anything. If it was a week earlier, I would still be able to accept it. But to bring it forward by almost a month? We haven't even prepared anything yet, so how are we supposed to broadcast it? "
Jiang Yuan said, "We've also just received the news. The program that you're going to be taking over was supposed to end in less than a month's time. At most, there would still be four to five episodes of recording left. The plan was for you all to take over after they were done, but now there's a problem. That program's host, Zhao Yuzhuang, has encountered some problems in his private life. You can find out if you check it online. Central TV has decided to temporarily remove him from the program and won't let him appear onscreen for the next year."
News?
Private life?
Zhang Ye took out his cell phone to have a look. After scrolling through a few pages, he found it. It was a selfie that a woman had posted. The woman was wearing a bathrobe and lying on the bed. Beside her was Central TV's host, Zhao Yuzhuang, who was snoring away in a daze. His lower body was covered with a blanket, but his upper body was bare. That woman was clearly not Zhao Yuzhuang's wife. Zhang Ye suddenly understood. Although this photo could not fully prove anything and could be real, it was still a host of Central TV. If such an indecent photo was posted on the media, it would definitely have a negative impact. If it were any other television station, they might have tolerated it, but for a place like Central TV, their tolerance would definitely not be that high. What did it matter how much money they earned or how high the viewership ratings were? Those were all secondary in Central TV. Central TV was more concerned with the political impact.
Zhang Ye put down his cell phone and said, "Can we switch to another program to salvage the situation?"
"There's no chance." Jiang Yuan said, "Recently, the only program that has been taking over at Department 1 is The Voice. There's no one who can replace it. It's too late to even come up with a program to mess things up at the last minute!"
Zhang Ye said, "But we can't make it in time either!"
Jiang Yuan tried his best to persuade them, "You guys have been preparing for half a month now. I know that time is tight, and I also know that no one has ever been able to prepare such a large-scale singing talent show in half a month, but there's no other way now. Let's not even talk about a mule or a horse, even if it's a block of wood or a block of stone, we still have to pull it out!"
"Time is too tight. Our stage, the contestants' rehearsals, the intro clips, the program clips, and a series of other things are not ready yet," Zhang Ye said.
Half a month?
Not even a month would be enough!
Just like The Voice from Zhang Ye's previous world, from preparation to production to broadcast, it took at least half a year, or even longer. Zhang Ye had directly grabbed The Voice from his previous world, but that only saved him the time for planning and conceptualization, which allowed him to speed up the production by several times. But other things like setting up the stage, making the short clips, and selecting the contestants, all of that could not be saved! There was no way to save that either!
Jiang Yuan said, "I know that you guys are facing difficulties, but this is the situation now. Even if you don't want to do it, you still have to do it. Little Zhang, I don't believe that you can't do what others can't do. You're a legend in the industry, someone who anyone would give a thumbs up to. You can definitely do it! I have confidence in you, and I also have confidence in your team! "
Whoa, don't flatter me at a time like this.
You were still saying that I have a bad temper, but now I'm giving you a thumbs up?
Zhang Ye said repeatedly, "It's too difficult, too difficult!"
Jiang Yuan looked at him and said, "Right now, I and the station only want one thing from you. Can your team from The Voice save this situation?"
Zhang Ye did not say a word.
Jiang Yuan said, "Whatever you guys need, we will provide. This includes equipment, personnel, and a large amount of resources from Central TV Department 1 and even the other channels of Central TV. As long as you guys can name it, even if I have to sacrifice this old face of mine, I will help you get it done! Oh yes, there's also the advertising resources. Didn't we give you guys 75 seconds of free publicity in the past? Just now, after a meeting with Zhao Yuzhuang, the station also said that if necessary, we can give you guys another 75 seconds of free publicity as compensation. You don't have to worry about where this advertising time will be squeezed out from. We will arrange it for you on our side. All you need to do is to submit the time and date of the commercial to us. How does that sound? "
Zhang Ye: "…"
Jiang Yuan said, "The station can lower our expectations for the viewership ratings a little. As long as it reaches 0.7%, it will be enough. If the production is rushed and broadcast hastily, the viewership ratings will definitely be discounted. We have already taken all of this into consideration, so we have no other choice but to force you to do something beyond your capabilities!"
When Zhang Ye saw this, he realized that Central TV was also at its wit's end. They probably couldn't even give them another day of preparation. This kind of sudden situation was indeed something that no one had expected. After thinking about it, what else could Zhang Ye say? He could only clench his teeth and say, "Alright then, I can only say that I will do my best!"
But Jiang Yuan said, "It's not that you will do your best. What I want to hear is whether you can or can't?"
Zhang Ye held it in for a long time before saying, "… Yes!"
Although he hesitated for a long time, the word "yes" that he said was very firm!
Jiang Yuan said loudly, "Alright, that's what I wanted to hear from you!"
Coming out of Jiang Yuan's office, Zhang Ye thought to himself that this was really an unexpected disaster. The production progress was just right and all the preparations were going smoothly, but in the end, this happened. But Zhang Ye was not prepared to give up. If he did not agree to it, then so be it. Since he had promised it, he would definitely do it!
Next Thursday?
There were still six more days?
Zhang Ye kept track of the time in his mind as he did the accounting over and over again. Where could he go any faster and where would he need to increase the manpower to work overtime?
As for cutting corners?
Zhang Ye had never thought of that before!
There must not be any "discounts" for The Voice — this was Zhang Ye's principle and bottom line!
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