The next few performances are all very good, and one contestant was eliminated. This eliminated contestant’s story had too many loopholes and was exposed by Zhu Simao. It affected the judges’ impression of him, and they eliminated him.
Despite the contestant was eliminated, the audience cheered. All of them felt the judges had done the right thing. This contestant is not being honest and wanted to cheat them!
After the recording ended, the live audience discussed the performances as they were walking out. All of them felt this show is fantastic and would like to return to watch the next episode’s recording. But they wonder if they can get the tickets.
Someone complained the venue is too small as it can only hold 500 people. It should be held on a grand stage like the Spring Festival Gala Dinner.
On their way home, Li Na is also talking about the performance and contestants.
Li Na asked Feng Yu if this show’s concept is from him, and are all the contestants really selected from auditions?
Feng Yu laughed. “The contestants in this show’s first seasons are from the auditions. But it might change in the future. Also, don’t treat those contestants’ stories seriously. Although they are not lying, they had withheld some information.”
“Are you all going to decide on the winner beforehand or manipulating the contestants?” Li Na asked with a ‘you can’t fool me’ expression.
“We did prepare something as a backup plan, but we did not use it. We will give longer airtime for the contestants with the loudest cheers during the editing or remove the lousy performances. The winner will not be decided by us, and it will be decided by the contestants’ popularity.”
“The contestant’s popularity? What do you mean?” Li Na asked curiously.
“You will find out when the time comes. It will not be a surprise if I let you know now. This is like a magic trick. If you know how it works, will you still be surprised?”
“Alright. When is the next recording?” Li Na asked excitedly.
“The day after tomorrow. Do you want to watch the recording? I will ask them to reserve two seats for us.”
…….
One week later, The Super Talent Show was aired on Saturday evening, CCTV 2. One week ago, CCTV had advertised this show on all its variety programs.
Many viewers are waiting in front of their TVs for the program to start, and most of them are waiting to see the three judges.
Some had heard about this show from their friends who had watched it live at the studio.
But many more are watching because they had received an SMS, informing them to watch Songjiang – Super Talent Show on CCTV 2 on Saturday at 8.10pm!
SMS marketing. This is the first time SMS marketing is used in China.
Everyone is surprised by the SMS, and they are also curious about this show. Is it really that interesting? The winner will get high prize money and a car, and the program even invited Aaron Kwok to be the judge.
The show started, and the first performance shocked all the TV viewers.
This farmer can sing so well in a female voice?! After hearing the ‘touching’ story behind the farmer, they are hooked on this program.
The judges’ different views are another highlight of the show, and Aaron Kwok’s Hong Kong accent Mandarin also drew laughter.
After the first episode ended, this show blew up on the internet forums. No one had expected CCTV to air such a creative and interesting variety show.
Postings about this program are posted on Sina blogs, Sohu Forums, and Baidu. But there are still many people who didn’t catch it on TV.
“I am telling you all… this Super Talent Show is fantastic. There is this male contestant who is a farmer, but his singing is remarkable!”
“No. The acrobat’s performance is better. It was passed down in his family and was not performed on stage before.”
“No! That dancer is more outstanding. She had even broken her leg in her dance practice!”
“All of you are wrong! The most impressive is that guy who was caught lying by Zhu Simao. His performance was good, but he ended up getting three crosses! Serve him right!”
This is the first time a variety show had become the talk of the town. Of course, this is also due to the websites promoting it, and everyone likes this program.
This program quickly become popular, and it was much faster than expected. Of course, Feng Yu was the only one that had expected this.
The online reviews for this show are mostly positive, but there are some criticisms as well.
“What is CCTV thinking? Why are they not repeating such a good show? Fine… CCTV has too many programs, and there isn’t any timeslot for reruns. But I want to watch it again.”
“That’s right. Those variety shows in the past repeated at least three times a week, and yet they are not re-airing such a good show. Are CCTV’s leaders crazy?”
“I heard this program is not produced by CCTV. This program was recorded in the Beijing TV station’s studio. My Brother-in-law is working there!”
“What? This program is not produced by CCTV?! Are you kidding me? CCTV is our Nation’s major TV station. Why will they air someone’s else program?”
“I think it’s true. After the show ended, I saw the credits. The production unit is not CCTV.”
The internet forums exploded again, and many people felt the unit that produced this program is CCTV’s subsidiary.
But more people are interested to know if this program will be aired again on TV.
As the online forums are still discussing this program, someone mentioned that this program is available on Sohu Channel.
That’s when people realized Sohu has an online channel and has the broadcasting rights of this show.
Some people started to download the show on Sohu Channel, and some with faster internet speed watched it online. But they realized the quality is not good if they stream. The downloaded video is much clearer.
……
The day after the show was aired. Station Chief Jia is looking at yesterday’s TV ratings report. The overall top rating program is still the news, and the second place is Super Talent Show. It is also the top ratings among all programs in the same timeslot.
The first episode of a variety show getting the top rating in the timeslot has never happened before.
Station Chief Jia is overjoyed, and he made the right decision to work with Sohu!
He can’t wait to see how high the ratings will go for this program.