I’m Really a Superstar

Afternoon.

After lunch.

The morning was spent taking the child around, unpacking personal belongings, and familiarizing himself around the place. After getting lunch at Central TV’s cafeteria, he went back to the program team’s new office. Today’s main work was finally going to be officially started. The first round of transfers to the new staff of this program team were all finally here.

In the meeting room, more than a dozen people were seated, and fully filled the room.

Fu Sihong kicked off the meeting first and said, “From today onward, our new program team has been officially formed. Many of you were transferred here from the other departments of Central TV Department 1, while some others came here from the other channels. We also have two new members of Central TV who have many years of experience at their previous job. Some of you know each other from before while some of you are meeting for the first time, but overall, our new program team is still quite young and there is a lot to work on together to deepen your mutual understanding. I hope that—in the course of our work from now on, with the guidance of Teacher Zhang and me—everyone can get along well and work seriously so that our new program will flourish and be good.”

Bba bba bba.

Everyone clapped softly.

Fu Sihong looked to his side and said, “Teacher Zhang, why don’t you say a few words as well?”

In this newly set up program team, the core leaders were in fact made up of just two people. One was Fu Sihong, the other was Zhang Ye. As for the others, like the assistant directors and assistant producers, they were not considered to be leaders in the team yet. Even though the positions were only different in that one had the word “executive” in it, the differences were as wide as the distance between the sky and the earth. Whether it be at a television station or in a film crew, an assistant director had little authority and would be managed like they were just a clerk or assistant handling administrative duties.

Zhang Ye nodded and gave his first speech as a leader. “Since I am in charge of the production, let me talk about the program. The station has given us a direction already and we are allowed to do any type of variety program without restriction. The station head has very high expectations of us and is willing to provide us with very good funding for the program too, so I would like to hear about everyone’s opinions and discuss the kind of a program we should be making.”

Zhang Zuo said, “According to the market trend, the audience still leans toward the singing shows. At the very least, if we did that, we would not have to worry about the viewership ratings at all. It is definitely a safe choice.”

Ha Qiqi said, “But the viewership ratings won’t be high either.”

Zhang Zuo nodded and said, “That’s true. That is a difficulty facing new programs nowadays. The genres of shows that have already been acknowledged by the market and audience are all highly sought after by the various larger television stations. The competition is tough and the audience base is also scattered as a result of this. But even if we do some other type of lesser-known program, the audience would not really accept it.”

Wu Yi said, “The singing shows are really getting more and more difficult to make.”

A female staff member said, “But the program that Teacher Zhang planned, that Do You Remember, has received very favorable ratings. It has always been the first or second place program in the same time slot for nationwide viewership ratings.”

Ha Qiqi nodded and said, “I’ve watched Do You Remember before and it’s really good. It’s something innovative and has entertained the audiences to its best potential. If we could get the copyright for that program, then we could also do a similar type of show.”

Similar type?

This was obviously not what Zhang Ye was going after.

Zhang Ye said, “Is there anything else that anyone wants to bring up?”

Everyone freely spoke their minds. The overall consensus was more inclined towards a singing program. However, they were also very wary and hesitant of the potential pitfalls of such a show, so there was also quite a lot of disagreement over it. They were unable to come to a conclusion about it at this moment. Actually, what many of them had on their minds was how Central TV should have signed Zhang Ye earlier. If that were the case, then Zhang Ye would not have sold Do You Remember to Beijing Television and it would end up as a program on their own Central TV Department 1’s channel instead. However, they didn’t know that—even if Zhang Ye had joined Central TV Department 1 earlier—he would not have gone on to produce Do You Remember. But if he did, he would not have made himself the host of the show or treated it as a hit program. Because to Zhang Ye, although Do You Remember was a rather good program with rather good viewership ratings, it was still at best described as “rather good” only. What Zhang Ye was chasing after was not to be “rather good” but to be the best. He wanted to make a successful program that would break the viewership ratings, something that would be a blockbuster-type of a program. Do You Remember did not qualify as that to him.

Zhang Ye had a limited amount of energy and time. His year also consisted of 365 days like any other person, so if he wanted to replicate every idea of a program that he had in his mind into this world? That was obviously impossible. If Zhang Ye wanted to produce and host a program all by himself, he would surely use the most successful and blockbuster-type of program from his previous world and produce it for this world’s audience.

The meeting ended.

Zhang Ye and Fu Sihong were walking together, discussing the meeting and the new program. It could be determined from their conversation that Fu Sihong was also inclined to do a singing show as the market demand of variety programs in current times was quite poor, with the viewer ratings often averaging quite low. It was no longer like five to ten years ago when the genre was enjoying its peak with high viewer ratings. So if they were forced to pick the best out of whatever was given to them, they would surely end up choosing a singing show that was also the biggest slice of the pie left, followed by reality television programs, and other types.

Gathering everyone’s opinions and viewpoints, Zhang Ye had formed a general idea in his mind. They all preferred a singing show? Alright, let’s make one of those then!

Difficult to innovate?

This was clearly not a hurdle that would trouble Zhang Ye.

After Zhang Ye came out from Fu Sihong’s office, he announced to those outside, “Who can help me with a few surveys? I would like to know about the other satellite channels’ singing program’s viewership ratings and market share, from their first episode to their latest one. It would be best if we could do up concise research on this. Oh, yes, I’ll also need information about their celebrity guests and key contestants, or champions and runner-ups. Best case would be video clips of them.”

Ha Qiqi was a little taken aback. She said, “You’re sure that you want to do a singing program?”

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Tentatively, yes.”

Ha Qiqi said, “Alright then, I’ll go and prepare the data.”

Wu Yi said, “I’ll help you, Sister Qi.”

Zhang Zuo said, “Then I’ll get the others to search for the information about the celebrity guests and competitors.”

Zhang Ye said, “Great, thanks for the trouble, please get them as soon as possible.”

This program was very important to Zhang Ye and he also placed a good deal of focus on it. He couldn’t just handle this program proposal like he did for Do You Remember. Since that was meant to be sold to others, he did not put too much attention into it and could naturally leave all the work to the people at Beijing Television Station and not do anything himself. But this new program was meant to be done by himself with him as the host, so he definitely had to make the best preparations he could. This was the debut show of Zhang Ye at Central TV Department 1, he could not afford to slack or take it too lightly. That was the reason why he wanted to gather information and news on all the other television station’s singing programs. He needed to know in detail the overall setup of this world’s singing shows so that he could make the necessary adjustments to his program proposal.

As the proverb goes, know yourself as well as you know the enemy.

……

In the executive director’s office.

Zhang Ye came back in and saw Chenchen sitting in the genuine leather swivel chair. As she was still quite short, she had trouble holding the mouse and was awkwardly controlling and clicking it. Zhang Ye went around behind her to have a look and saw that she was playing games. It was some sort of a puzzle game, one that required the player to clear the bubbles from the game screen. Whatever it was, Zhang Ye did not really understand.

“Go away, I have work to do,” Zhang Ye said, trying to chase her off.

Chenchen did not look away from the computer screen and said, “Let me play a little while more.”

Zhang Ye rushed her and said, “Hurry up, I have serious work to do here.”

Chenchen did not want to listen and said, “Zhang Ye, I’m going to play for a bit more. I’ve already finished my homework.”

“Are you serious? Let me have a look.” Zhang Ye saw the workbooks beside her and picked them up, flipping through them. She had really finished them, so he said, “OK then, you did well. Alright, I’ll let you play for a while longer.” He could only go over to the guest sofa beside the door and sit there, taking out his fountain pen to work on the program proposal.

A while later.

Ha Qiqi came into the office and reported, “The data has all been gathered.”

Zhang Zuo had also finished his task and come into the the office. “The information you needed from me has also been collected.”

Zhang Ye took it from them and said, “That’s good, let me have a look.”

When Ha Qiqi and Zhang Zuo both noticed that Chenchen had already occupied and taken over the office desk, leaving Zhang Ye sitting in a corner. They couldn’t help but look at each other and laugh a little. From this alone, they could see that even though Zhang Ye kept complaining about Chenchen, he was actually also very generous to her.

After looking through the data and research, Zhang Ye’s heart was set. Having gotten to know this world’s singing programs better now, he knew that the singing shows’ development here was indeed quite different from his previous world’s. If he wanted to say who was doing it better, then there was really no way to give an answer to that, since both worlds had their positives. Zhang Ye’s previous world did better in that they had a better diversification of presentation and style. The same types of programs were all done differently by tweaking the sequence and formats. For this world, it stood out in terms of the audience numbers and their fervent support for singing programs. Even if there were four or five program slots a week that were packed with singing shows, no one got sick of them and continued watching. However, each program’s viewer ratings were not really high and were only at around 0.5% to 0.6%. But when all the singing programs’ market shares were added together, it became a frightening figure.

Overall, this world’s singing programs market and audience were considered to be enormous, with many people doing such shows as well. Inadvertently, the market share was also spread that way accordingly as its viewership ratings showed. This was what led to the embarrassing situation of having such average viewership ratings now. If—which was a big if—there were an incredibly outstanding singing program that could put to shame all of the other satellite channel’s singing programs, then that huge audience base would definitely come together and be reflected on this outstanding program’s viewership ratings!

But was there anyone who could achieve this?

The unification of all singing programs?

—This was actually what Zhang Ye was aiming for!

If he wanted to launch a singing program in this world, but was not bold enough, then the program would definitely be smothered and killed by all the other singing shows of the other satellite channels! Besides, just because others could not achieve it did not mean he could not achieve it. This market did not lack an audience base. In fact, the audience base was very large but what it lacked was a program that would shine in the eyes of everyone watching it; while back at Zhang Ye’s previous world, due to the critical tastes of the audience, there was a lack of audience base, but no shortage of wonderful programs!

If he had the program?

And there was an existence of a good audience base in this world?

Then these two worlds were surely made for each other!

And the matchmaker for the two of them was naturally going to be Zhang Ye!

His debut program on Central TV this time was going to be broadcast nationwide. It was a totally different platform compared to his previous platforms. This was Zhang Ye’s important step towards the A-list celebrity rankings, so then what sort of a program should he bring out this time? What sort of a singing program would be most suitable for this situation? Not only must the show have a good reputation and viewer ratings, at the same time, it also had to showcase Zhang Ye as a host. For most talent shows like that, the role of the host was usually minimal and negligible. The main focus would usually be on the contestants and celebrity guests, so that would mean Zhang Ye’s program of choice was even more limited now.

Which should he choose?

Which was the better option?

Suddenly, Zhang Ye looked towards Chenchen and said, “Chenchen stop playing already how long has it been since you’ve started don’t overdo it Uncle still has work to do!”

Due to the Fruit of Agility’s effects, as Zhang Ye did not control it well due to a lack of concentration, the signals from his brain were fired too quickly which accelerated his speech, like a trace would be left behind. Even though he spoke extremely quickly, each of his words could be heard and were also enunciated very clearly.

Chenchen looked at him and asked, “Zhang Ye, why have you been talking so quickly for the past two days?”

When Zhang Ye heard this, he pondered for a moment and then suddenly slapped his thigh with a loud laugh!

I got it!

It’s gotta be you!

My The Voice of China!