I'm Really a Superstar

Wednesday.

Later that morning.

The barrage of advertisements finally came to an end. The volume of over a dozen of Zhang Ye's endorsement advertisements had finally normalized and were no longer shown as often as before. With that task complete and the popularity gained, Zhang Ye turned his attention back to I Am a Singer. In recent days, he had been too busy taking various endorsement deals and filming their commercials. That was too much of a distraction for him, so with that task complete, he had to get back to producing the show properly.

At Beijing Television.

Zhang Ye arrived at work.

"Director Zhang."

"Morning, Director Zhang."

"You're here already?"

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Director Zhang, do I get a discount for the diamond rings if I mention your name?"

The moment Zhang Ye came back, everyone was laughing and happily joking around with him.

The advertisements were also brought up by a lot of them. They teased him for a long time, but Zhang Ye didn't get angry and even played along with them.

Hu Fei also arrived at the office. "Director Zhang, you're here?"

Zhang Ye nodded and said, "Brother Hu, shall we start the meeting?"

Hu Fei nodded. "Alright, is everyone here?"

Zhang Ye turned to Xiao Lu and said, "Go and gather everyone up."

"Got it." Xiao Lu obeyed.

Five minutes later, the conference room was fully seated with the staff of the program team. The new episode's recording was scheduled for tomorrow, and the program team would always hold a meeting prior to it so they could communicate any issues and establish a direction for the recording. This was standard practice here. The atmosphere in the meetings was always good, with Zhang Ye usually assigning the roles and tasks while Hu Fei would add on with whatever was necessary. Everyone else would take notes and record the meeting, have discussions, and raise questions while Zhang Ye answered them.

Today was no exception.

Zhang Ye said, "Everyone has been working hard these days. I Am a Singer's recording is already halfway done, and we've achieved very good results so far. Let's have a look at the projector. These are the viewership ratings for our show against Sing!'s after their broadcast time was changed."

I Am a Singer:

Episode Four's viewership rating: 3.08%

Episode Five's viewership rating: 3.22%

Episode Six's viewership rating: 3.19%

Sing!:

Episode Four's viewership rating: 1.58%

Episode Five's viewership rating: 1.62%

Episode Six's viewership rating: 1.55%

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "As all of you can see, Sing!'s viewership ratings have obviously gone up after they changed their broadcast time. 1.5% is a very outstanding result in the industry and would also deserve quite a good ranking in the all-time historical viewership ratings. But compared to us, they're still lacking by far. With them stepping aside, we don't have anyone competing with us in the same time slot. Our viewership for every episode is now at a stable 3% or above, but I think that we can still do better."

Hou Di said, "But, Director Zhang, we've already broken the record."

Xiao Lu clicked her tongue and said, "Take it even higher? Wouldn't that be very difficult? It feels like we're already at the limit."

However, Hu Fei replied, "In the past, no one thought that current TV variety shows could surpass the 2% mark. But Director Zhang did it. After that, when everyone thought that the 3% mark could not be broken, Director Zhang did it again. There has been a general consensus lately in the industry that 4% has to be the limit and that it is definitely the ceiling for variety shows. But I don't believe that's true. I'm of the same mind as Director Zhang on this; I feel that we can still take it even higher."

Hou Ge analyzed, "Then we can only seek to increase the excitement of the show. The audience is starting to become used to the rules and routine of our show, as well as getting familiar with the seven singers onstage, so they might be beginning to experience short-term fatigue with regard to our show. In the previous episode, we just completed a knockout round with the latest replacement singer getting eliminated immediately. He has a large fan base, so it actually affected our show quite a bit. As such, the viewership ratings for episode six were slightly weaker, even though it was still basically the same as episode five's viewership ratings. If we really want to push it another level higher, the choice of the new replacement singer for the next episode will be critical."

Dafei said, "So who do we get for the replacement singer?"

Han Qi said, "We don't have that many options in our hands."

This was a difficult choice.

Who should they send first?

Who should they keep for later?

All these decisions had to be weighed carefully.

The singers on the current stage were divided into two tiers now.

The first-tier group: Chen Guang, Zhang Xia. This was the most solid group, and the two of them were consistently ranked in the top three. They were truly excellent singers. Xiaodong could probably be considered as part of the first-tier group as well since she also occasionally got rather good results. But that was still rather dependent on the songs she sang. She was not exactly solid in this area.

In the second-tier group, there were Huang Cheng, Zhao Wuliu, and Amy. Huang Cheng was someone who went by the artistic route, so the style of his songs was more niche. During the episode he first joined as the replacement singer, he got a very good ranking. However, his later songs only received lukewarm responses, with his results fluctuating. Like him, Zhao Wuliu's results were also very rocky, with him ranking high at times and low at other times. This was not a problem with their singing but because there were too many good singers on this stage. Everyone were bringing out their best tricks as they fought each round with their all, so the results were more across the board. It was really difficult to pinpoint who was better than the other.

Surprisingly, Amy was the most solid performer of all. He steadiness came from the fact that she was always ranked in the last two places, either sixth or seventh. Every time she was faced with the knockout round, she would always be the one in the most danger. However, she was always able to return from the dead and survive to the next round. As such, after three knockout rounds so far, Amy was still around even though she was part of the starting list of singers for the show. As the show progressed, this also became a highlight of the show that the viewers were delighted to see.

Hu Fei gave it some thought and said, "For the new replacement singer, we will require a truly skilled singer. I hope that this replacement can break into that first-tier group and create some competition for the others."

Zhang Ye nodded. "That's what I feel too. Looking at the list of replacement singers, I would probably be more inclined to…" As he was speaking, a phone rang. It was Zhang Ye's cell phone. He had forgotten to silence his phone and did not intend to answer it since they were in a meeting. But just as he was about to reject the call, he saw the caller ID and was slightly taken aback. He really had to answer this call, so he said, "Sorry, I'll have to take this call."

Hu Fei said, "It's fine.

He exited the conference room.

Zhang Ye pressed the answer button and said: "Hello."

It was Wu Zeqing's secretary, Bai Li, on the other end.

"Teacher Zhang, are you busy?"

"It's OK, Secretary Bai, just speak."

"There's something that I need to give you a heads up on. Chief Wu is currently in a meeting and can't get away, so she got me to give you a call. Someone has reported your show."

"A report? Who?"

"It should be someone from Central TV Department 1."

"What was the report about?"

"That you've appointed an amateur host for the show."

"You mean Xiaodong?"

"Yes."

"That's just a guest role. She only has a couple of lines and shouldn't really be considered the show's host, right?"

"Strictly speaking, that is indeed not allowed. There's an article that was issued by the SARFT that prohibits an unlicensed host from hosting a show. It's just that this rule wasn't so strictly applied back then and was always something that we turned a blind eye to. Furthermore, the definition of 'host' is not that clear."

"Yes, I do know about that article."

"But the execs are watching this very closely because someone has reported you all. With the article brought up, Chief Wu can't really do much about it either. Because of your show getting too popular these days, the higher-ups are more cautious about how to handle it. They're currently holding a meeting to sort it out, but be prepared. The outcome should likely be decided by today, although it's already definite that I Am a Singer will no longer be allowed to have a guest in the host role. You'll probably have to change it."

"But we'll be recording tomorrow."

"Hai, I know."

"Is there really no room for discussion?"

"There isn't any. If there were, with the good relationship you and Chief Wu enjoy, do you think that she wouldn't speak up for you all?"

"Alright then, I understand. Thanks, Secretary Bai."

"You're welcome, Teacher Zhang."

After hanging up, Zhang Ye felt rather speechless. He understood quite well that this matter was indeed going to be difficult to handle. If the article had not been passed yet, Old Wu could certainly veto its passage. Or at least, she would be able to delay it until after I Am a Singer was finisher since there weren't even that many episodes left to record anyway. But the problem was that the article already existed. It had been passed a year ago, although it hadn't been enforced and there were also no precedents. But they had been reported on now, and the whistleblower was even Central TV Department 1. Importantly, the head of Central TV was a party member of the SARFT. Even if he was not higher ranked than Old Wu, he was still a member of the SARFT's Party Committee. He still had the right to speak against some issues and would be able to use the article to make sure this issue did not get ignored.

Blame me!

If only I had considered this more carefully beforehand!

In the meeting room.

Zhang Ye returned.

Hu Fei said, "Let's carry on then."

But Zhang Ye said to the others, "Let's adjourn the meeting."

Everyone was stunned.

"Adjourn?"

"Why?"

"What happened, Director Zhang?"

Zhang Ye did not say anything to them but told Hu Fei, "Brother Hu, let's go to your office."

Hu Fei immediately knew that something must have cropped up, so he quickly left with Zhang Ye and headed back to his office.

In the office.

Zhang Ye said sternly, "I've just received news that Xiaodong cannot host the show without a 'license.'"

Hu Fei was surprised. "Where did you get the news from?"

"The SARFT." Zhang Ye said, "It was Central TV Department 1 that reported us. It seems the program team of Sing! hasn't admitted defeat yet, nor are they willing to take it lying down. We've already forced them to change their broadcast time, so now that they've managed to find something against us, they'll definitely try to counterattack and take us on again!"

Hu Fei said heavily, "Then what do we do now? How are we going to carry on with the recording tomorrow?"

Zhang Ye sighed. "I'm still thinking about it."

Hu Fei said, "Why don't I try to get the Station Head to talk to them?"

"That won't work." Zhang Ye shook his head. "Is our Beijing TV more powerful than them?"

Hu Fei said, "Or we can let Dong Shanshan take over the hosting role."

Zhang Ye said, "How can she? She still has the role of the host-manager to handle."

"Then let me get a host from the station."

"That won't do either, it's too abrupt. The original direction of the show was for it to have no outsiders and only for the singers to host it themselves and also perform. The viewers are used to that, and at the same time, it's our selling point for the show. If an unfamiliar face were to suddenly come in and take over the hosting as a professional host, even if we can carry on with the show's recording, what of the show's effect? The effects are going to be really bad, and then what of the viewership ratings? Will we still be able to aim for 4% if we do that? Our show's reputation will surely drop as well!"

Hu Fei said anxiously, "But there's no more time, we're recording tomorrow!"