The next day.
Saturday morning.
After going downstairs, Zhang Ye drove straight to a temporary newsstand at the entrance of his parents' neighborhood. He put on his sunglasses and got out of the car to buy some newspapers. The newsstand's boss already knew Zhang Ye and knew that he lived here. He often came here to buy newspapers, so even though Zhang Ye was wearing sunglasses, the boss could still recognize him just by looking at his silhouette.
"You're here, Teacher Zhang?" The boss smiled.
Zhang Ye nodded. "I'm here. Youth Daily, Morning Post, and Beijing Times. One copy each."
"Alright." The boss skillfully picked out three copies of the newspaper and handed it to him. "Are you working overtime today?"
"Yeah, there's a bunch of things waiting for me. I can't even rest on Saturday." Zhang Ye paid for the papers.
"I watched your documentary yesterday." The boss said excitedly, "Aiyo, it was so good that I can't describe it. I watched the second episode first, then replayed it and found the first episode. A few of my neighbors also watched it and said that they had never seen such an exciting documentary before. It was even more enticing than watching a TV series. When will the next episode be broadcast?"
Zhang Ye smiled and said, "It's next Friday."
"Alright, I'll definitely watch it on time."
"Thank you for your support, haha."
"It's only right. We're all neighbors after all!"
Across the street, a few uncles and aunties met Zhang Ye. They were all old neighbors, and some of them even lived in the same building as Zhang Ye, so they naturally recognized him at a glance.
"Hey, Little Ye!"
"Grandma Cui, Grandpa Sun, how many of you went grocery shopping?"
"Yeah, you went to work?"
"Yes, I'm working overtime today."
"Your A Bite of China was filmed really well!"
"Yo, you watched it too?"
"Of course. How could we not watch your documentary? It's good, it's really good! "
"Hur hur, thank you. I'll continue to work hard."
"Is there any content for the next few episodes? Let us watch it first. "
"Ah? This unit has rules that we can't take out the source footage. "
"You're the head of the program team, so what's not up to you? Isn't what you say the rules? Then, tell us what the second episode will be broadcast. "
After a while, Zhang Ye finally managed to extricate himself. When he got into the car, he took out a few copies of the newspaper and casually flipped through them.
"A Bite of China gains extremely high praise!"
"This is Zhang Ye's first time directing a documentary. His directing ability is astonishing!"
"Last night, Zhang Ye used his work to tell everyone in the industry: A documentary can also be filmed this way!"
"Famous documentary director praises A Bite of China, saying that all documentary directors should learn from it!"
"Yao Jiancai, Chen Guang, Dong Shanshan, and others support A Bite of China!"
"According to statistics, between 8 AM and 11 AM last night, the orders for several delicacies and ingredients that were broadcasted by A Bite of China increased by seven times! Many of the shop owners didn't even know what was going on. They even called overnight to ask if there was an error in the system!
"Will Documentaries Bid Farewell to the Downturn Era?"
"This golden signboard of Zhang Ye is still as resounding as ever!"
"Guessing A Bite of China's viewership ratings!"
"In the past five years, the best viewership rating for documentaries nationwide was 0.172%. The average viewership rating for nearly 1,000 documentaries was 0.034%. Will A Bite of China be able to create history?"
"Our reporter called the industry insiders. Professionals predict that A Bite of China's viewership ratings are not optimistic: Documentaries have been weak for a long time. The audience is too small, so we cannot hope for good viewership ratings. The most important thing for a documentary is its reputation. It is normal for viewership ratings to be low. In fact, A Bite of China has already succeeded!"
"An amazing large-scale documentary!"
"Just how much more capability does Zhang Ye have in him?"
Looking at the newspapers that were filled with news about A Bite of China, Zhang Ye was very satisfied. Although if he flipped through the pages again, he would see that the reports on Rise to the Dance were actually twice as much as before, but he wasn't too surprised. For a variety show with so many big shot celebrities, it was very normal for it to have this level of exposure. As such, Zhang Ye shifted gears and stepped on the accelerator to head for Central TV.
...
At the office.
Today was a rest day, but there were still quite a lot of people at work. This was usually the case for organizations like television stations. Sometimes, the holidays were even busier than normal working days.
He got out of the car and walked towards the main entrance.
Along the way, Zhang Ye received the treatment of being surrounded by onlookers. Countless people looked at him in amazement, pointing and discussing him from time to time.
"Look, it's Zhang Ye!"
"Which one of you watched A Bite of China yesterday?"
"I watched it! It was so awesome! "
"I didn't want to watch it at first, but when I got home after working overtime last night, I saw my parents and aunt watching A Bite of China. I could only follow along and watch it until it was already 10 PM. I have to admit that Zhang Ye has brought the documentary to life!"
"The reviews online are especially good."
"I saw it. They're all Likes."
"Central TV Department 1 is still thinking of shelving Zhang Ye? How can such a fierce person be shelved! "
"Yeah, this fellow seems to be able to shine no matter where he goes!"
"You can't say that. There won't be that many people watching A Bite of China anyway. It's just that the reviews are good, but there aren't many viewership ratings. With a viewership rating of 0.0-something, how is that any different from being shelved? It's completely out of proportion to the popularity of a B-list celebrity like Zhang Ye, so it won't be able to support him to continue climbing up the ranks. "
"Of course it can't be compared to Rise to the Dance. But if a documentary can already be filmed to such a level, what else can you expect from A Bite of China? What if they really let a documentary defeat a large-scale talent show like Rise to the Dance? Then the entire world would go crazy! "
"Yeah, this result is already pretty good."
"Right, don't use the standards of a variety show to ask a documentary. That's not fair either."
"Come to think of it, it's actually Rise to the Dance that's popular! Although the reviews are mixed, there's no doubt about its popularity. There's no problem with the quality of the show either. I watched it yesterday and it was very good! "
"Chen Ye has also become popular this time."
"Yeah, his luck is really good. He managed to catch up to a good show at a good time."
"If this carries on, when Rise to the Dance finishes its broadcast, Chen Ye's popularity will probably catch up to Zhang Ye's. Even if he can't catch up, the gap between them won't be that big."
"Rise to the Dance has set the trend again!"
"Central TV Department 1 is still the biggest winner."
"No matter how fiercely Zhang Ye does it, a documentary is still a documentary. It depends on the popularity, the influence, and ultimately the viewership ratings. Everything else is just a facade!"
"Now, let's see if the premiere episode of Rise to the Dance can break 1%."
"There shouldn't be any suspense in the viewership ratings of 1%!"
"The continuation of The Voice's popularity has still added a lot of viewers to Rise to the Dance."
...
Upstairs.
Department 14. In the program team office of A Bite of China.
As Zhang Ye had been delayed on the road, he arrived at work a little late. When he arrived, he saw Yan Tianfei and his secretary standing in the office of his program team.
"Little Zhang, you're here?" Yan Tianfei turned around and said with a smile.
Ha Qiqi and the others also greeted him.
"Director Zhang."
"Good morning, Director Zhang."
"Good morning, Director Zhang!"
Everyone was very excited and in a good state of mind.
Zhang Ye hurriedly said, "Director Yan, you're here?"
Yan Tianfei nodded. "Your program team has worked hard these past few days. Everyone has put in a lot of effort. The response to the broadcast of A Bite of China this time has been quite good, so I came over to express my condolences to everyone, especially to Teacher Little Zhang. You deserve the most credit for the smooth broadcast this time."
Zhang Ye chuckled and waved it off. "I wouldn't dare to. It's all because of Director Yan's leadership and everyone's collective efforts."
Yan Tianfei asked, "The show's reputation is very good. What are your plans for next week's broadcast?"
Zhang Ye said, "We won't broadcast it in one day next week. I would like to broadcast one episode on Friday and one episode on Saturday. Let's do it over two days so that we can consolidate the popularity of the show."
"Alright, I'll leave it to you." Yan Tianfei deliberately paused for a moment, then suddenly smiled and said, "There's another piece of good news that I would like to inform everyone. This morning, someone from this year's TV Show Awards Committee contacted us to add A Bite of China to the list of nominees for the Best Documentary of the Year. It's only been a day and only two episodes have been broadcast, but the people from the selection committee are already making an exception and adding in the nominations. This has never happened before in history!"
"Ah?"
"Are you for real?"
"That's great!"
"Wow, we have a chance to win an award?"
Everyone was ecstatic. Hadn't they worked so hard for the past two months all for this day?
Zhang Ye smiled and was not as excited as the others. In his opinion, it would be good to win an award, but what he cared most about was still the viewership ratings. "Boss, when will the viewership ratings be released?"
Yan Tianfei was taken aback. "Viewership ratings? Oh, probably around 10 AM in the morning. " After some thought, Yan Tianfei still said to him, "Little Zhang, the nominations for A Bite of China this time are no ordinary awards. It's the most prestigious documentary award in the country and also the highest honor a documentary can receive in the country. Our main focus now is still to win this award. As for the viewership ratings, I don't think the selection committee would care too much about it. After all, the viewership ratings for documentaries are generally not that high and everyone is equally matched, so there's no point in laughing at each other. If we were to judge based on that, then no one would be able to come up with a good result.
Zhang Ye said, "I understand."
"That's why I have to give you a heads-up." Yan Tianfei was afraid that the disparity would be too great, so he said, "I'll say it again, don't get your hopes up too high."
Yan Tianfei's secretary also laughed and said, "That's right, Director Zhang. There's no need for our A Bite of China's viewership ratings to be compared to variety shows. As long as it's higher than the same genre of documentaries, that's good enough."
The outstanding reputation of A Bite of China had made everyone extremely excited. But when it came to the viewership ratings, everyone was more reluctant to talk about it. That was why they were always talking about getting an award or being nominated for the most prestigious award. This was because no matter how good the reputation of A Bite of China was, they did not think that it could be compared to Rise to the Dance, Do You Remember, and other variety shows. This was not a sign of a lack of confidence, but rather because they all knew that it was impossible.
...
Central TV Department 1.
Director Jiang Naixiong and Deputy Director Jiang Yuan were talking in the office.
"Are the viewership ratings out yet?" Jiang Naixiong asked.
Jiang Yuan said, "Not yet. The statistics are a little slow today. I've already called them a few times, but they still haven't finished it. It should be around 10 AM, or 9: 30 AM at the earliest."
Jiang Naixiong looked at his watch. "Then it shouldn't be that long."
Jiang Yuan laughed and said, "Yeah, when the viewership ratings are out, we'll know the results. Old Xu and Chen Ye are quite confident. Judging from the number of views and topics, the viewership ratings will definitely be very high. Of course, it might not be comparable to The Voice's premiere episode's viewership ratings for the time being, but there's a high chance that the latecomers will catch up."
Jiang Naixiong was also feeling relaxed. He smiled and said, "Very good. We must do a good job on this important project. The entire Central TV and the entire industry is waiting to see how we do."
Jiang Yuan said confidently, "Don't worry, there won't be any mistakes."
"I heard that Department 14's documentary has a good reputation?" Jiang Naixiong asked.
Jiang Yuan said without even thinking, "It's not too bad. It's just that there's a lot of hype about it, but there aren't many people who actually watch it. We don't even have the funds for the publicity or even the basic advertising, so who would want to watch a documentary? It's just those hardcore fans who are clamoring for it. At most, it'll only get 0.1% viewership ratings. That's the max. "
Downstairs.
In the program team office of Rise to the Dance, everyone was also discussing this matter. In the newspapers, their program had taken up almost half of the space. Everyone felt an unprecedented sense of confidence. In the office, many of them were already celebrating and preparing for a celebratory feast.
"Director Xu, treat us!"
"Right, Director Xu and Director Chen are treating us!"
"It's all thanks to Director Xu and Teacher Chen's leadership this time. Otherwise, our show wouldn't have become like this. The entire country's media and online Weibo are all discussing our show."
"I heard that there are already television stations that want to follow in our footsteps. Tianjin Television is preparing to launch a dance talent show next year!"
"Our show is on fire!"
"Do You Remember? A Family of Joy? Go to the side!"
"Yeah, our viewership ratings will definitely crush all the other variety shows. We'll definitely be number one in the nationwide viewership ratings! Who else can compete with us? Who else can compete with us for first place? "
The group of people jeered and were all extremely excited.
Xu Yipeng smiled. "The viewership ratings aren't out yet."
A female staff member giggled and said, "Do we still need to wait for the statistics to come out? It's already set in stone! "
Chen Ye also said, "Among the variety shows in the same time slot, there really isn't anyone who can compete with us. Even if Do You Remember gets a revised version, there's still no chance of us winning."
...
On Weibo.
Countless people were participating in the discussion.
"What about Rise to the Dance's viewership ratings?"
"They're still not coming out?"
"With our Sect Leader Huo around, the viewership ratings will definitely be invincible!"
"Chen Ye, you can do it! I'm rooting for you!"
"There's no one who can stop Rise to the Dance anymore!"
"Central TV Department 1 has really risen in the variety industry!"
"I'm actually more concerned about A Bite of China's viewership ratings."
"Previous poster, you don't have to worry about that. Let's just compare A Bite of China's viewership ratings with other documentaries of the same genre. There's no way it can compete with the variety industry."
"But the person who filmed A Bite of China is Zhang Ye!"
"That's still impossible. You're just making things difficult for him."
"Haha, it's another A Bite of China. You guys have been spamming us since last night. Aren't you tired? Aren't you annoying? Is there any point in bragging about a lousy documentary? What viewership ratings? Even a fraction of Rise to the Dance's viewership ratings is several times higher than A Bite of China's. I'm just wondering, don't you guys understand? "
"Hey, it's out!"
"What's out?"
"The viewership ratings are out!"
"Wow, where is it, where is it? Let me go and have a look! "
At 9: 40 AM, the statistics were released!
...
The netizens were looking at the information posted online, while the Rise to the Dance program team staff were looking at the internal form. It was actually the same, just that they were looking at it a little earlier.
Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye were holding a form in their hands.
"It's out, it's out!"
"Just how much is it?"
"Phew, I'm getting a little nervous!"
"Director Xu, how much is it? Tell us quickly! "
"Aiyo, this is getting too anxious!"
Everyone was looking at the two directors anxiously.
Following that, they saw Chen Ye give a slight smile and say to everyone, "It's already very good."
Then Xu Yipeng waved the form in his hands and showed it to everyone. "The viewership ratings for the first episode of Rise to the Dance is 1.27%! Without a doubt, it's the best in the variety show category in the country! "
Hearing that, everyone cheered!
"That's great!"
"Haha, that's so cool!"
"I knew it!"
"1.27%? It broke 1% for the premiere episode! "
"That's really not bad. How many variety shows these days can break 0.5% for their premiere episode? In the past few years, other than The Voice, only Rise to the Dance has managed to break 1% in its premiere episode! "
"We can finally have a celebratory feast!"
"With this momentum, it can get even higher in the future!"
Although this viewership rating was not as heaven-defying as they had hoped, it was still much higher than the baseline viewership ratings they had expected. It could be said to be a satisfactory result, although it couldn't be said to be perfect.
Chen Ye suddenly thought of something and asked with a smile, "Oh yes, what's the viewership rating for A Bite of China?"
Xu Yipeng also smiled and said, "It's not in the form, but it should be available online, right?"
Chen Ye gloated, "I'll go and have a look."
Thinking back to Zhang Ye's "Rotten Fruit" poem, Chen Ye and the others were all waiting to see him make a fool of himself!
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