I’m Really a Superstar

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Jiang Yuan left.

Fu Sihong also went back to his own office.

Ha Qiqi suddenly said, “Teacher Zhang, are you really serious about making this program?”

“Of course I’m serious,” Zhang Ye said in frustration, “Do I look like I’m joking?”

Zhang Zuo proposed an idea, “I have a suggestion, but don’t take it in the wrong way, Teacher Zhang. Actually, we can modify the format of The Voice a little so that it looks to the audience that the gimmick of not seeing the contestants is real, but we will continue doing it the way we would for similar talent shows. We would still invite only the better-looking contestants to join the competition and secretly let the coaches know so that they have some idea of the contestants before choosing them, so that the ones who are chosen are the ones picked for their looks, attractability, and have a good talking point to them. That way, we would still be able to achieve our objectives.”

Wu Yi snapped his fingers and said, “That’s a very good idea!”

However, without even thinking, Zhang Ye immediately said, “When the television station does a program, we’re doing it to catch the hearts of the audience. We do that by leading them step by step into liking our program to achieve our objectives, but leading them in does not mean lying to them. Don’t think that the ways and means you believe are great would definitely be able to lead the audience in a certain direction. They are not fools and you should never look down on the wisdom and judgement of the masses. I should make myself very clear here: the singing programs now, and even the singing industry, are all not developing in a healthy way. My reason for doing this new program is not to make a statement, nor is it to lie to the audience by superficially reforming the industry. What I want to do is to make a program that will topple the traditional singing show and talent shows of the past!”

As their mindsets were too deeply ingrained in traditional thinking, Zhang Ye could not get it through to them even after explaining forever, so he decided to leave it at that and walked back to his office. He still had a lot of work to do, like planning the program trailers, making the designs of the set, and many other things, all of which he wanted to plan in advance. There was no time to waste on nonsense!

When he left, Zhang Zuo asked, “Do you think it’s feasible?”

Ha Qiqi shook her head and said, “I don’t know.”

Another director said, “This program is very dangerous to do.”

Wu Yi sighed and said, “Yeah, it’s too radical of a change, so I suppose it’s really risky as well.”

“But it’s possible that we cannot see what Zhang Ye sees.” Ha Qiqi added, “No matter what, Teacher Zhang is still a specialist at program production, so he’s surely looking at something bigger than we are. If Teacher Zhang can propose such a program and say that it is good, then he surely has his reasons and considerations.”

Zhang Zuo pessimistically said, “Hopefully.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Let’s wait and see how the leaders decide.”

Because this new show also determined the futures and careers of the program team’s staff, they were definitely worried about it and did not want it to be done sloppily.

……

At another place.

In a meeting room.

After Jiang Yuan went back to his office, he got his secretary to gather the planning team and related staff for a meeting. Everyone who was there were all veterans of Central TV Department 1 and were all very experienced, having done countless programs between them. They were all considered the core members of Central TV Department 1’s production team.

Jiang Yuan got his secretary to pass out Zhang Ye’s program proposal to each one of them and said, “Take a look. This is the program proposal written up by Zhang Ye. Let’s discuss it.”

Everyone started reading it in detail, and gradually, in succession, their faces formed some sort of startled expression.

“This…”

“What is this nonsense?”

“It’s very innovative, but this is too radical!”

“Other than the vocals, this singing talent show does not consider any other factors? Just what kind of bold person would dare to write up a proposal like that!? This would subvert the entire singing industry and related singing shows!”

“How audacious!”

“Only Zhang Ye would dare to do something like this!”

“The talented are bolder. I think this idea is worth a try.”

“What’s there to try? This is obviously not going to work. It is completely out of line with the market trends and practices. Do you think that just basing the show on vocals alone would attract the viewers? The gimmick of judging a contestant based on just their vocals would be able to prop up the entire talent show? This is not a variety program that would last one or two episodes; it’s a competition that stretches over at least two months. I won’t say that using vocals as an attraction is not innovative, but it is not strong enough to carry the show. The audiences might not be able to accept it either. We know that just by looking at the other singing shows. The hotly discussed champions and runner-ups always do well in the looks department! That has clearly shown where the audience’s taste lie at.”

“How the other satellite channels are doing it does not reflect the problems at all. If the idea of only focusing on the vocals of the contestants were conveyed to the audience beforehand, the mindset of the audience would also be different when they watch the show and they might accept Zhang Ye’s selling point for the program. But of course, there’s no guarantee for that since there isn’t any precedent of something like this.”

“I don’t think it will work.”

“I feel that it might just be a thin line between failure and success. As there’s no way to predict this based on our experiences without any precedent to fall back on, if there’s something that we can learn from and judge upon, then it has to be that regardless of Zhang Ye’s character and temper, he really is a very capable person. The programs he handled previously have had no precedent of failure yet and have even gone on to do quite well. So from those examples, I have to admit that Zhang Ye’s vision is surely better than most people’s.”

“That’s true. If it were any other program producer who submitted this proposal, I would surely reject it. But because this proposal was written up by Zhang Ye, I am unable to make any judgment on it. Most of us here are professional program producers too, but if we compare the results of the programs that we’ve all worked on, then our results and qualifications are truly unable to match Zhang Ye’s. I’ve also heard that there are some foreign television stations who have shown interest in the copyrights for Zhang Ye’s Talk Show?”

“I’ve heard about that too. I think those foreigners are really interested in it, but then I don’t know if they have approached Zhang Ye regarding the copyrights yet. If he is really able to sell it to them, then this will be a historical first for foreign television stations buying our Chinese television copyrights. We would finally have foreigners approaching us to learn from us! How uplifting! This would also give our Chinese television and variety industry a boost, since we’d finally have a world-class program!”

“But The Voice and Zhang Ye’s Talk Show are different. The talk show cuts a figure of being Zhang Ye’s creative whim, but singing shows have already been heavily produced and are very well-established in our industry. Now that Zhang Ye is intending to defy the market trends and go against everything that we’ve known, will it work?”

Everyone here was also having their disagreements, some suggesting to give it a try while others rejected it outright.

Jiang Yuan looked at the program proposal and lowered his head in silence too. His viewpoint was the same as what someone had mentioned just now. If the proposal was submitted by anyone else, he would have rejected it directly without a thought. However, the problem here was that this proposal was submitted by Zhang Ye, who was known as the man who repeatedly created viewership miracles!

……

At around 4 PM in the afternoon.

Jiang Yuan returned to the new program’s office. He called out, “Little Zhang?”

Hearing that, Zhang Ye came out from his office.

Fu Sihong, Ha Qiqi, and the others were also beside him, knowing that the decision was probably made at the meeting.

Jiang Yuan’s first words to Zhang Ye were: “Are you very sure that this program will work out?”

“I am sure. In fact, I guarantee it,” Zhang Ye said without any sign of hesitation.

Jiang Yuan nodded and said, “You have been given the go-ahead to do The Voice, but if the average ratings fall below 0.8%, what would you say to that?”

Zhang Ye said, “0.8%?”

Jiang Yuan said, “Yes.”

Zhang Ye was amused at this question, so he said, “Then I will pack up and leave.”

That was exactly what Jiang Yuan wanted to hear. He said, “Alright then, from today onward, The Voice of China will formally begin its production. I hope that the final product that you all come up with will be something satisfactory.”

Zhang Ye laughed, “Just wait and see.”

Fu Sihong interrupted, “Director Jiang.”

Jiang Yuan stopped him and said, “Don’t bother saying anymore. It’s been decided.”

Thinking how Zhang Ye had already put his job on the line, Fu Sihong also did not say anything more. From his point of view, he believed that Jiang Yuan was also likely to not have too much confidence in this new program.

Jiang Yuan said, “I want you guys to come up with an application documentation later so that I can bring it to Finance and inform them. For the initial funding, I will be setting aside 20 million RMB for your team.”

When Zhang Ye heard this, he couldn’t accept it. He said, “Director Jiang, 20 million is definitely not enough. In fact, it’s far from enough and won’t be enough to support this program.”

Jiang Yuan said, “I’ve already pushed very hard for the go-ahead for this program at the meeting earlier. The disagreements over this new program proposal were raised by many people, so you must know that I’m also facing a great deal of pressure.”

Zhang Ye said, “20 million is not enough to invite a few proper guest celebrities as coaches, not to mention that we still need a budget for the set, stage facilities, and a live band for the show. Director Jiang, didn’t you say earlier that you have plenty of funding for us?”

Jiang Yuan said noncommittally, “That is all I can give for now. If you need additional funding in the future, we’ll talk about it again. What I need now is the promotional trailer for the show so that we can release it to the public and get some feedback. If it gets a warm reception, then we can discuss the additional funding.”

Only when he said that did Zhang Ye stop talking.

20 million?

It’s not too much even if its 200 million!

Forget it, it’s better to take it slow. If he were to ask for 200 million from the station now, the whole of Central TV Department 1 would probably vomit blood and treat him as a madman. After all, according to what Zhang Ye knew, the Central TV Department 1 of this world had never ever invested so much funding into a program before. 20 million was already considered to be a large investment into a program. Some of the other Central TV Department 1 programs only had a budget of several million RMB. For some interview programs, if not taking into account the host’s salary or not inviting any big shot guests, then even if it aired 4 times a month, it would only have a budget of 1 million, which was really cheap. But variety shows were not the same; those were part of a genre that basically gobbled up money. No matter how much was spent, it was never enough.

Jiang Yuan left.

Zhang Zuo, Ha Qiqi, and the rest were left in a predicament!

Zhang Zuo was feeling a little dizzy. “0.8% for viewership ratings?”

Ha Qiqi also did not look too good. She said, “Even the most outstanding and well-received singing program this year, Do You Remember, only received 0.8% for its highest-rated episode. When it was low, it only got 0.7% or less. To demand of our new program a viewership rating of 0.8% when it’s just going to start? And it’s even the average rating? Teacher Zhang, weren’t you promising to leave too easily earlier?”

If they could not hit the requested viewership ratings, then Zhang Ye would automatically quit?

Even though the team was supposedly led by Fu Sihong, everyone knew that the real leader was actually Zhang Ye. Everything revolved around Zhang Ye’s existence. If he went, then the program would be canceled as well. The team’s members would all face an uncertain future from here on out.

An average of 0.8%!

There hadn’t been any singing program this year that had hit that number yet!

Even if the later episodes of Do You Remember finished airing, the average would surely not hit 0.8%! At most it would be 0.7% or so.

Ha Qiqi said, “Teacher Zhang, you should have made a bargain just now.”

Wu Yi also added, “Yeah, a nationwide viewership rating of 0.6% was still possible to work toward, but 0.8% is really too difficult. If they really want a viewership rating of 0.8%, that would mean the program would have to place first in the same time period across the nation, and it’s even going to have a large lead over second place! Can we accomplish such a task?”

Everyone was feeling extremely stressed.

Fu Sihong also kept shaking his head.

However, only Zhang Ye looked like he was not bothered by it and even appeared very relaxed. He kept his smile without seeming the least bit worried because he did not feel that a viewership rating of 0.8% was demanding at all. Instead, he even felt that this was low, so low that he nearly laughed at it!

Hur hur!

0.8%?

Can’t hit that number?

You guys are insulting me! You’re all too looking down on me, Zhang Ye!

If The Voice really gets a viewership rating of 0.8%, then would I still have wasted so much effort to try to do this program? If you used 0.8% and doubled it, that would be more like it! That’s the figure that should be used as the estimate and goal. But of course, Zhang Ye would not tell them all this. Because only Zhang Ye knew of the logic defying viewership ratings of The Voice back in his world. Even if he told people that, they would definitely not believe him!

It was not a viewership rating that should be described with a zero point rating! The Voice of his previous world was to be described with a viewership rating that broke past the zero barrier!

Let’s wait and see!

When the viewership ratings for The Voice come out, all of you will understand just how expansive the sky is!

First place for the same time period? First place for the entire term of all variety programs—that was what Zhang Ye’s expectation for The Voice was!