Chapter 83: Jiangsu Satellite TV Follows Up with Go! Boys! and Absolute Singing
Mango TV’s Little Apple: 【Last night, after the Super Girl competition concluded, comrades from relevant departments in Jinmen called our station to inquire about Zhang Liangying’s situation. 】
An hour after the post, there were over 200 replies!
It’s only eight in the morning.
In 2005, when the internet and computers weren’t very common, this reply speed was considered a hit post.
The junior moderator immediately pinned it.
【Little Apple, are you saying that Jinmen wants to invite Zhang Liangying to participate in the large-scale art gala for the 60th Anniversary of the Victory of the Anti-Japanese War? 】
【Damn! Liangying is invincible… even the national team recognizes her! 】
【《Myriad Lands》 is suitable for the gala; this leader truly understands music. 】
【… 】
After posting, Xiao Sun went to work overtime.
Last night, after Super Girl just ended, the station had a lot of work to do, and their public relations department was never idle.
It wasn’t until ten in the morning that he had time to log into Tieba, read all the replies, and then replied: 【Jinmen does indeed want to invite Liangying to participate in the gala. They are currently researching feasibility plans and expect to contact her soon. 】
This caused a huge stir.
Liangfen fans excitedly spread the news everywhere.
“This is the true champion!”
“Liangying is too strong.”
“I’m a supervisor at a factory in Suzhou. When I was walking around the workshop today, they were all discussing Super Girl. I scolded the workers who weren’t Liangying’s fans.”
“It would be great if Liangying could really participate in such a gala; it would be a solid protective charm, and no one would dare to cause trouble for her easily in the future!!”
“The value of the championship is still rising!!”
…
Indeed!
She was up all night, and it wasn’t enough. She woke up at eight or nine in the morning and started acting spoiled on me.
Liangying, you’re really hungry.
Shen Qing didn’t want to move or even open his eyes, so he simply covered his face with Liangying’s torn lace nightgown and continued to doze off.
And while his face was covered by clothing, the rest of him was entirely…
In the end.
Liangying didn’t want to get up, but Shen Qing wouldn’t allow her to take maternity leave.
Suddenly, he flipped over and pinned her beneath him, “You little Second Class Private, trying to sneak maternity leave, huh? It’s still early, you’ll practice hard and release an album next month!”
Zhang Liangying: “Wuwu~”
After Liangying had her fill, the two continued to nap for a while, as there was nothing else to do.
As for media interview invitations, they decided to ignore them for now and let the post-championship buzz settle a bit.
…
Meanwhile~
Across the country, a Super Girl craze, or rather, a “national talent show craze,” had erupted.
Dragon TV, Jiangsu Satellite TV, and Zhejiang Satellite TV, three affluent television stations in the Yangtze River Delta region, were all holding emergency meetings to discuss the possibility of hosting talent shows.
The Super Girl competition last night was simply too amazing!
Zhang Liangying, with three songs, propelled it to a height it didn’t originally belong to, sparking nationwide discussion.
This morning, you could hear young people everywhere discussing the term “Super Girl.”
Countless people saw an opportunity for overnight fame.
Starting at eight in the morning, many men were calling Mango TV, strongly demanding that Mango TV relaunch Super Boy.
Many people don’t know~
Actually, the first talent show Mango TV created was Super Boy, planned by the Entertainment Channel.
Why Super Boy first?
Because in many people’s minds, the main force of chasing stars has always been women; they are passionate enough and willing to spend money!!!
Men, on the other hand, are relatively rational and harder to fool!
Therefore.
It was natural to hold a male talent show to attract a large number of female fans.
However, the leaders at Mango TV at the time didn’t pay much attention and didn’t allocate resources to fully support Super Boy, resulting in very few people knowing about the program.
Let alone signing up.
Later, the production team, unwilling to give up, simply renamed it Super Girl.
Then the leaders became interested and began to support the program’s “satellite broadcast,” allowing it to air on Mango TV.
This change directly led to an exponential increase in attention. The 2004 Super Girl was very successful, selecting two beautiful women, An Youqi and Zhang Hanyun.
Mango TV expected the top three this year to also be beautiful women, but they were completely mistaken.
They completely underestimated the changes in popular trends.
Among the top ten this year, only Zhang Liangying was a long-haired girl; the others were short-haired tomboys.
The show went off track!
Caught off guard.
Fortunately, it was very successful. This neutral style seemed to attract more passionate female fans.
Now.
Mango TV has thoroughly tasted the benefits of talent shows, and there will only be more, not fewer, talent shows in the future.
But this also brings a problem~
That is, having selected girls for two consecutive years, all female contestants over 18 with good singing skills, appearance, and personality have already been snapped up.
Moving forward, can outstanding contestants still be found?
It’s difficult!
Firstly, the path of selecting beautiful women has been proven to be a failure.
The 2004 champion, An Youqi, was quite attractive, but after just one year, she’s practically invisible.
The third-place winner, Zhang Hanyun, would have been a nobody if not for the song “Sweet and Sour is Me” saving her.
Secondly, the neutral tomboy style contestants were also all snapped up this year. Next year, if judges select this type of contestant again, the buzz won’t be as strong as this year.
For a television station that demands year-on-year performance growth, this is unacceptable; a decline is a damn original sin!!
Perhaps some might say that if Super Girl is held again next year, there will surely be a large number of talented newcomers applying, and maybe a third type of contestant will emerge?
For example, a contestant like Jolin Tsai who is skilled in both singing and dancing.
This idea is too naive~
Can one such contestant be found in a million people?
Mango TV won’t risk trying.
Moreover, after two years of selection, most eligible girls have already applied, and there’s no fresh blood left.
Taking the 2006 Super Girl from my previous life as an example, the only notable contestants were Shang Wenjie and Tan Weiwei; others were basically nobodies.
Among the top ten, there was even Han Zhenzhen, who was participating for the third time, and she still got seventh place!!!
This contestant’s strength wasn’t high; she was eliminated by Ji Minjia in the top 10 to 7 competition in the Hangzhou Division this year.
She couldn’t even make it into the top 5 of the Hangzhou Division, yet she got seventh place nationally in 2006.
This is enough to show how weak the 2006 Super Girl was.
It’s because all the good contestants were selected in the previous two years; how many leftovers could there be?
Therefore.
In 2007, Mango TV learned its lesson.
Instead of holding Super Girl, they held Super Boy.
The popularity of the competition that year far surpassed that of the 2005 Super Girl, and its influence was immense.
Chen Chusheng, Su Xing, Zhang Jie, Wei Chen, Yu Haoming… were all outstanding contestants who emerged that year.
…
Two o’clock in the afternoon.
Mango Building Conference Room.
A high-level meeting, personally presided over by Mango TV’s top executive, Director Ou, was underway. The meeting’s theme: 《Special Seminar on 2006 Singing Talent Shows》
And this morning, Jiangsu, Dragon, and Zhejiang Satellite TVs had already held related meetings.
Around 11 AM, Jiangsu and Dragon TV had already reached conclusions, which were immediately leaked to Mango TV by an insider.
It is reported that~
Jiangsu Satellite TV will host Absolute Singing next year, with a style different from Super Girl, using male-female paired combinations.
Dragon TV’s program next year is called Go! Boys!, which, as the name suggests, is a pure male talent show stage.
The battle has begun.
The talent show market is only so big; if you take a piece, I have less, so the competition is bound to be fierce.
As the originator and leader in singing talent competitions, Mango TV must defend its territory and certainly won’t sit idly by.
Therefore.
The meeting this afternoon started with a lot of tension.
The first speaker was Wang Peng, who first reported on the work situation of the 2005 Super Girl and took great credit for it.
Director Ou: “Mm, I watched some of this year’s program. It was indeed held very well, especially Zhang Liangying, who was praised by Central Media. The song 《Myriad Lands》 she sang last night was excellent…”
Wang Peng and Vice Director Li broke out in a cold sweat.
Both were praying that they wouldn’t be asked about Zhang Liangying.
But what they feared came to pass.
Director Ou leaned forward and asked with a smile, “How do you plan to cultivate Zhang Liangying? When will her first album be released?”
Silence fell over the room.
Everyone looked at Wang Peng.
Wang Peng thought to himself, ‘This is tough,’ and mustered the courage to reply, “Director, Zhang Liangying, she, she has terminated her contract with our Tianyu…”
Director Ou instantly performed a smile-disappearing act.
He leaned back in his chair, tapping his fingers on the table. Without blaming Wang Peng, a mere nobody, he turned to Vice Director Li and asked, “Director Li, why was the contract terminated? Did you report this to me?”
Vice Director Li wished he could tear Wang Peng apart…
But at this moment, he had to provide a reasonable explanation to the leader.
“Director, not reporting this to you is indeed my work error. I will definitely write a self-criticism for you afterward.”
Vice Director Li lived up to his reputation as an old hand.
He first took on some of the responsibility to calm Director Ou’s emotions and prevent him from getting angry for the moment.
Then, he began his explanation.
“At the time, Zhang Liangying, instigated by her manager, refused to sign the supplementary contract. We cherished her talent and didn’t have the heart to eliminate her early, which led to her being unbound by any contract…”
After listening, Director Ou, though displeased, didn’t say anything further and turned to ask the Entertainment Channel to report on next year’s work plan.
As expected, the older the ginger, the spicier it is!
Vice Director Li managed to appease and temporarily deceive them.
…
Subsequently.
The head of the Entertainment Channel’s planning team first reported on the information they had gathered about the meetings held by Jiangsu Satellite TV and Dragon TV this morning.
Then, they presented two proposals: 《2006 Super Girl》 and 《2006 Super Boy》.
After listening to the report, Director Ou remained silent for a few minutes, then tapped the table and asked, “Director Li, you are in charge of the Entertainment Channel, so tell me your thoughts.”
Director Li quickly nodded, secretly resolving not to displease Director Ou again.
After being reprimanded by Director Ou just now, and now being asked to answer a question, it was clearly a test of his abilities.
If his answer was unsatisfactory, he might lose his oversight of the lucrative Entertainment Channel next year.
Therefore, Vice Director Li sat up straight and said earnestly, “Director, I thought carefully all night after returning home last night, and this morning I finally figured it out. I believe we should hold Super Boy.”
