I'm Really a Superstar

The next day.

Saturday morning.

After he went downstairs and got into the car, Zhang Ye drove straight to the newspaper stand near the district's entrance. He put on his sunglasses and got out of the car to buy some newspapers. The newspaper stand's owner already knew that Zhang Ye stayed around the area and would come here very often to buy newspapers, so even though he was wearing sunglasses, the owner still recognized him immediately.

"You're here, Teacher Zhang?" The owner smiled.

Zhang Ye nodded."Yeah, give me a copy each of Youth Daily, Morning Post, and Beijing Times."

"Alright." The newsstand owner adeptly picked out three copies of newspapers and passed it to him."You're working today?"

"Yeah, there's a bunch of things waiting for me to do. I can't even rest on Saturday." Zhang Ye paid him the money.

"I watched your documentary last night." The newsstand owner said excitedly,"Aiyo, it's so good that it's indescribable. I started watching from the second episode, before playing and watching the first episode after that. It was the same for my neighbors who watched it. All of them said that they'd never watched such a good documentary before. It's even more enticing than watching a television series. When is the next episode going to be?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said,"Next Friday."

The owner:"OK, I'll definitely catch it."

Zhang Ye:"Thank you for your support then."

The owner:"No worries! We're all neighbors!"

Across the street, a few grandpas and grandmas walked in the opposite direction of Zhang Ye. They were all old neighbors with Zhang Ye. There was a person who stayed in the same apartment building as Zhang Ye's family too. Naturally, he got recognized immediately.

"Hey, Little Ye!"

"Grandma Cui, Grandpa Sun, you're out buying groceries?"

"Yes, you're going to work?"

"Yes, I have some overtime to clock today."

"Your A Bite of China was really well made!"

"Yo, you all watched it too?"

"Of course, how can we not watch a show of yours? It's good, it's very good!"

"Hur hur, thank you so much. I will continue to work even harder."

"Do you have the later episode contents with you? Let's have an advanced screening of them."

"Ah? There are regulations set by the department about such things. I can't bring out any of the contents that have been lined up for broadcast."

"You're the program team's supervisor. Shouldn't everything be decided by you? Don't you have a say in the regulations? Then why not tell us what the next episode is about?"

Only after some hassling was Zhang Ye able to get himself out of there. After he got back to his car, he took the newspapers and sat in the car as he browsed through them.

"A Bite of China garners great reviews!"

"Zhang Ye displays an astonishing directorial debut in his first documentary series!"

"Last night, Zhang Ye announced to all industry insiders with his work: A documentary can be done this way too!"

"Famed documentary filmmaker praises A Bite of China. Calls for all documentary directors to learn from it!"

"Yao Jiancai, Chen Guang, Dong Shanshan, and many more give their support to A Bite of China!"

"According to figures from online vendors, from 8-11 PM last night, several of the dishes featured on A Bite of China received seven times the usual amount of orders from customers! Many of the eateries that did not know what was happening called the online vendor to check if there was an error in the system!"

"Could this be the end of the downturn for the documentary genre?"

"Zhang Ye's reputation and hallmark is still as loud as ever!"

"Guessing the viewership ratings for A Bite of China!"

"In the past five years, the highest nationwide viewership rating for documentaries was at 0.172%. The average viewership rating was 0.034%. Could A Bite of China rewrite history?"

"Surveyed industry insiders and professionals predict a pessimistic viewership rating for A Bite of China: The documentary genre has long been weak with a niche audience base. It cannot be relied upon to contribute to a good viewership rating. What is most important for a documentary is still whether it can garner good reviews, while a low viewership rating is a common outcome. In any case, A Bite of China has actually succeeded already!"

"A large-scale documentary that amazes people!"

"How much more talent can Zhang Ye produce from his mind?"

Seeing the newspapers filled with reports about A Bite of China, Zhang Ye was very satisfied at this. Even if he flipped through the pages to see that the rest of the news was all taken up by reports of Rise to the Dance, which numbered at least two to three times more than theirs, he did not feel very surprised by it. For a variety show with so many big name celebrities, it was very normal for it to get that kind of exposure. Hence Zhang Ye put the car into gear, stepped on the accelerator, and drove off to Central TV.

...

At the office.

It was a rest day today, but there were still quite a lot of people who came to work. An organization like a television station was usually like this. Sometimes, it would even get busier during the holidays than on a normal working day.

He got out of his car and walked toward the main entrance.

As he was walking there, Zhang Ye received a lot of attention from the people around. Many curious gazes fell upon him, as everyone occasionally pointed at him while they discussed and talked.

"Look, it's Zhang Ye!"

"Which of you guys watched A Bite of China last night?"

"I watched it! It was simply amazing!"

"I wasn't thinking of watching it at first, but when I got home after working late last night, I saw my parents and aunt watching A Bite of China, so I just watched it with them in passing. But somehow, I ended up watching the entire show until 10 PM. I have to admit that Zhang Ye really brought this documentary to life!"

"There's a lot of praise about it on the Internet."

"I saw that. Everyone's giving it Likes."

"Central TV Department 1 still wishes to freeze Zhang Ye? This guy is so amazing. How can they possibly keep him frozen?!"

"Yeah, no matter where this man goes, he's always able to shine!"

"We can't say that. There can't be too many people who watch A Bite of China. It's just that it's getting praised, but it won't have much of a viewership in the end. At most it would earn a 0.0-something percent in the viewership ratings, so how is that different from being frozen? It's totally disproportionate to Zhang Ye's popularity as a B-list celebrity and it won't at all help him advance further."

"Of course it won't be able to compete with Rise to the Dance. But they've produced a documentary to such a level, so what else do you expect from A Bite of China? If a documentary really outdoes such a large-scale talent show like Rise to the Dance, then the world must surely be crazy!"

"Well, their results now are already quite good."

"That's right, don't assess a documentary using a variety show's standards. That's unfair."

"Looking at everything, Rise to the Dance is actually considered popular! Even though there are mixed reviews about it, there's no doubt about its popularity. There aren't any issues with the show's quality either. I watched it yesterday and find it to be rather good!"

"Chen Ye is going to get popular this time as well."

"Yeah, he's incredibly lucky to be able to get this show at such a great time."

"The way it goes, when Rise to the Dance finishes its broadcast, Chen Ye might even end up becoming more popular than Zhang Ye. Even if he doesn't catch up to him, at least the gap between them won't be that big anymore."

"Rise to the Dance is leading the way again!"

"Central TV Department 1 will end up as the big winner here."

"No matter how great Zhang Ye does, a documentary is still just going to be a documentary. Even if it's popular or has good influence, it still boils down to the viewership ratings in the end. Everything else is pointless!"

"The only question left now is whether the premiere episode of Rise to the Dance can exceed 1%."

"A 1% viewership rating shouldn't be an issue at all!"

"With the popularity effect persisting from The Voice, it should've brought a lot of viewers to Rise to the Dance."

...

Upstairs.

Department 14, program team office of A Bite of China.

Zhang Ye had arrived a little late for work due to some delays on the way here. When he got here, he found Yan Tianfei with his secretary standing in the office area of his program team.

"Little Zhang, you've arrived?" Yan Tianfei turned around and greeted him with a smile.

Ha Qiqi and the others also greeted him as well.

"Director Zhang."

"Good morning, Director Zhang."

"A very good morning to you, Director Zhang!"

Everyone seemed very excited and were in good spirits as well.

Zhang Ye quickly said,"Director Yan, you're here?"

Yan Tianfei nodded."In recent days, it's been quite hard on your program team. Everyone climbed mountains and waded through seas, working tirelessly. The reactions to the broadcast of A Bite of China was rather good, so I came here to extend my regards to everyone, especially to you, Teacher Little Zhang. It was mainly due to you that we successfully broadcast the documentary this time."

Zhang Ye laughed and waved it off."I don't deserve that. It was due to Director Yan's leadership and everyone working hard together."

Yan Tianfei asked,"Since the show has garnered a lot of praise, what are your plans for next week's broadcast?"

Zhang Ye said,"We won't do a back-to-back broadcast next week, but I would like to have one episode broadcast on Friday, followed by another one on Saturday. We will broadcast two days in a row so that we can consolidate the popularity of the show."

"Alright, I'll leave it to you to decide." Yan Tianfei purposely paused for a moment, and then chuckled,"There's another piece of good news that I want to inform everyone about. We received a call this morning from the selection committee of this year's television awards. They want to include A Bite of China as a nominee for Best Documentary. We've only broadcast it for a day and there're only two episodes, but the selection committee has already made an exception to nominate our program. This is the first time something like this has happened with the awards committee!"

"Ah?"

"Are you serious?"

"That's great!"

"Wow, we have a chance to win an award?"

Everyone was ecstatic. Wasn't all of the hard work they'd put in for the past two months just for a moment like this?

Zhang Ye laughed, but not as excitedly as the others. To him, getting an award was of course good, but his focus was still on the viewership ratings."Director, when will the viewership ratings be released?"

Yan Tianfei was taken aback."Viewership ratings? Oh, around 10 o'clock." Then on further thought, Yan Tianfei said to him,"Little Zhang, the nomination for A Bite of China this time is no ordinary award. It's the most prestigious award in the country for documentaries and it's also the highest honor that a documentary can get domestically. Our focus right now is to ensure that we can win this award. As for the viewership ratings, I believe that the selection committee is not going to focus on that. After all, a documentary's viewership ratings are usually not high, and every documentary performs similarly, so there's nothing to really compare. If the judging were to be based on that, then nothing could be judged. In the end, everything still depends on the reputation and artistic level of the documentary."

Zhang Ye replied,"I understand."

"So let me give you a heads up first." Yan Tianfei was afraid that the viewership difference would be too vast."It's still the same as I said before. Don't expect too much of the viewership ratings."

Yan Tianfei's secretary also said with a grin,"Yes, Director Zhang. The viewership rating of our A Bite of China does not necessarily have to compete with variety shows. As long as we do better than the other shows of the same genre, that should be good enough."

The outstanding praise for A Bite of China excited everyone to no end. But the mention of viewership ratings was avoided by everyone, while they only continued discussing about the nomination for the most prestigious award. This was because, even though there was so much praise for A Bite of China, no one believed that they could compare to shows such as Rise to the Dance and Do You Remember. This was not due to their lack of confidence, but rather because they knew that it was not a possibility at all whatsoever.

...

Central TV Department 1.

Director Jiang Naixiong and Deputy Director Jiang Yuan were talking in their office.

"Are the viewership ratings out yet?" Jiang Naixiong asked.

Jiang Yuan answered,"Not yet, today's calculations are taking a little longer. I've already called them up several times but they said that they were still preparing it. It should be ready by around 10 o'clock, or 9:30 if earlier."

Jiang Naixiong looked at his watch and mentioned,"It won't be long then."

Jiang Yuan smiled and said,"Yes, when the viewership ratings are out, we'll finally know the results. I am quite confident in Old Xu and Chen Ye. From the click rates and hashtag numbers, the viewership ratings will definitely be very high. Of course, it's not likely that we can match up to The Voice's viewership ratings for now, but there's a high probability that it will catch up from behind."

Jiang Naixiong was also looking very relaxed, laughing as he stated,"That's good. This key project must do well. The entirety of Central TV and the entire industry are all waiting to see how we would do."

Jiang Yuan reassured,"Don't worry, everything will be fine."

"I heard that Department 14's documentary is also receiving rather good praise?" Jiang Naixiong inquired.

Jiang Yuan answered without even thinking,"It's not bad, but it's just the echo chamber effect. There can't be anyone who watched it when they don't even have the money to do promotions for it. Since there were no advertisements for the documentary, who would watch it? It's only Zhang Ye's hardcore fans who are making a lot of noise over it. At most they'd get 0.1% of the viewership ratings, tops."

Downstairs.

At the program team office of Rise to the Dance, everyone was also discussing this. In the newspapers, headlines of their show took up at least half the front page, giving everyone an unprecedented sense of confidence. In the office area, many of the staff were already talking about holding a celebratory feast.

"Director Xu, treat us!"

"Right, Director Xu, Director Chen, it's your treat!"

"It's all because of Director Xu and Teacher Chen that we could do this. The entire country's media and Weibo users are all discussing our show."

"I've heard rumors that there are already some television stations who want to follow in our footsteps. Tianjin Television already intends to launch a dancing talent show next year!"

"Our show has gotten really popular!"

"Do You Remember, Family Happiness, those shows can all take a seat!"

"Yeah, our viewership ratings are definitely going to crush all of the other variety shows. We will definitely get the honor of being number 1 in the nationwide viewership ratings! Who else is there? Who else can fight against us for the top spot?!"

The group of them were gloating, feeling extremely thrilled about it.

Xu Yipeng laughed."The viewership ratings are still not out yet."

A female staff member giggled,"Do we even need to wait for the statistics to be released? It's already guaranteed!"

Chen Ye also said,"Among the variety shows in the same time slot, there really are none that can compete with us. Even if Do You Remember has made some new changes to their show, it's not enough to stand up to us."

...

On Weibo.

Countless people took part in the discussion.

"What's the viewership rating for Rise to the Dance?"

"It's still not released yet?"

"With our Sect Leader Huo on the show, the viewership ratings can only be invincible!"

"Chen Ye, I'm cheering you on. You'll surely do well!"

"Rise to the Dance is unstoppable now!"

"Central TV Department 1 is rising quite unexpectedly in the field of variety!"

"I'm actually more curious about A Bite of China's viewership rating."

"Previous poster, there's nothing to worry about. A Bite of China's viewership rating should just be compared with other similar types of documentaries and not with variety shows."

"But A Bite of China is produced by Zhang Ye!"

"That won't make a difference. You're just asking for the impossible."

"Haha, yet another sheep from A Bite of China's camp. You guys must have been trying to contribute to the traffic and discussions the whole of last night, right? Are you tired yet? Isn't that enough already? What's the point of trying to inflate the numbers for a lousy documentary? You even think there's a chance for the viewership ratings? Even if we just take the fractional part of the viewership rating for Rise to the Dance, it would be several times more than A Bite of China's viewership rating. I really wonder if you guys understand anything at all!"

"Hey, it's out!"

"What's out?"

"I think the viewership ratings are out!"

"Wow, where is it? I want to have a look!"

At 9:40 AM, the statistics were published!

...

The netizens were looking at the online copy of it, while Rise to the Dance's program team staff were looking at the internally circulated copy. Actually, it was the same copy except that they received it earlier.

Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye were holding a copy of the viewership ratings table each.

"It's out, it's out!"

"How much did we get?"

"Hu, I feel a little bit nervous!"

"Director Xu, how much did we get? Quickly announce it!"

"Aiyo, you're really keeping everyone in suspense!"

Everyone stared at the two directors.

Then, they saw Chen Ye break out into a smile as he said to everyone,"It's quite good."

Xu Yipeng held the viewership ratings table in his hand and waved it at everyone."Rise to the Dance's first episode viewership rating is 1.27%! Without a doubt, we are the top-rated variety show in the entire country!"

Hearing that, everyone cheered!

"That's so great!"

"Haha, cool!"

"I knew it!"

"1.27%? The premiere episode has exceeded 1%!"

"It's really quite good. How many variety shows these days can break 0.5% with their premiere broadcast? Among those that could break 1% this year, other than The Voice, Rise to the Dance is the only other show!"

"We can finally enjoy the celebratory feast!"

"With this momentum, we can still get even better ratings in the future!"

Even if this viewership rating was not as logic-defying as they had expected, it was still much higher than their minimum expectations. It could be said that this was a satisfactory result, although not perfect.

Chen Ye, suddenly reminded by something, smiled and said,"Oh yes, what is the viewership rating of A Bite of China?"

Xu Yipeng also smiled and replied,"It's not stated on this table, but it should be available online, right?"

Chen Ye gloated,"I'll go and take a look."

Thinking of Zhang Ye's Rotten Fruit poem from back then, Chen Ye and the others were all waiting to see him make a fool of himself!