Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Ge Guangzhen scoffed arrogantly, “Ever since Singing Voice became popular, which station hasn’t come up with a singing variety show? Quite a few even tried to imitate us. But has any one succeeded?”
“That’s true. None,” Chen Xinghan smiled, eager to please, “Singing Voice, true to its name, has always been imitated but never surpassed.”
Ge Guangzhen nodded, “So, what’s the big deal that you should come to me and make such a big fuss?”
“This time, it’s a collaboration between Kefeng Films and Donghua Station. Kefeng Films is in charge of production, and then Donghua Station will broadcast,” Chen Xinghan said.
“Donghua Station. They actually haven’t given up,” Ge Guangzhen sniggered, still looking down on Donghua Station. “Just based on this program of ours, without comparing anything else, Donghua Station actually wants to compete with us? Looks like they didn’t lose badly enough the last time.”
“Back then, Donghua Station was utterly defeated. They lost all face. And now, they dare to actually try again,” Ge Guangzhen sneered. “If they dare to broadcast their show, we’ll buy a marketing account and mock the lousy program they launched back then all over again. Let’s see what will be left of their
pride.”
“Ido admire this indomitable spirit of theirs though,” Ge Guangzhen mocked them, as he casually clicked on the link shared by Chen Xinghan.
He did not read in detail, and only clicked on the pictures.
Two of the pictures were of a big screen displaying the list of invited guests during the press conference.
The pictures and list of names were both incomplete.
Ge Guangzhen was very familiar with this strategy.
Release an attention-grabbing name list, stir up discussion among netizens and most importantly, attract investment.
But those were merely invitations, and not the official confirmed list of participants.
‘When the official list was released, it was often vastly different from the list of invitations.
But it would have achieved its goal of creating the initial buzz.
Ge Guangzhen casually browsed through a few pictures, but they did not contain any useful information.
Then again, rather than breaking news like that online, he would probably get more accurate information if he just sent someone to find out.
But judging from the reactions to the news, it seemed that netizens were actually looking forward to it.
“Just based on the popularity of Singing Voice alone, it’ll be futile for them to do a similar singing variety show,” Ge Guangzhen was completely unbothered.
But that was not Chen Xinghan’s concern.
Chen Xinghan reminded him, “Director, Kefeng Films will be in charge of production, and then it’ll be broadcast on Donghua Station. Do you think Tan Jinsheng will participate in the show? Tan Jingi and Tan Mo work well with Kefeng Films. Broken Continent has had great results, and brought in lots of
revenue for Kefeng Films. If Tan Jinsheng wants to take part, it won’t be an issue for Kefeng Films. It’ll simply be adding another person.”
“So what?” Ge Guangzhen was not bothered. “Adding just him won’t be able to change the program’s results. If the program does not do well, even Tan Jinsheng’s participation will have no effect.”
In the past, he did want to ensure that Tan Jinsheng would not be able to participate in any program.
But Ge Guangzhen knew that with Liu Shengtai as his master, and his three seniors, Tan Jinsheng definitely did not lack the resources to do so.
So Ge Guangzhen had immediately dismissed that idea.
It was just that there was only a handful of popular variety shows these days.
Even if Tan Jinsheng participated in all those shows, that would only be five appearances, only enough for a superficial introduction to viewers.
It was highly unlikely for him to become popular just by going on a few variety shows.
Unless he decided to specialize in variety shows, and rely on his own wit and humor. He could become popular that way.
But explosive popularity was out of the question.
Moreover, there was no way Tan Jinsheng could specialize in variety. He was a singer.
Ge Guangzhen knew, this meant that Tan Jinsheng could not rely on variety shows to become popular.
Unless he was outstandingly brilliant on a singing variety show.
But right now, the hottest singing variety show was their station’s Singing Voice.
Ge Guangzhen was certain that Kefeng Film’s program would not be popular.
Even if Tan Jinsheng went on the show, it would be useless.
1 Sing had also decided on its official name – the one it had chosen from the very beginning.
After holding a press conference, the program suddenly went radio silent, as if it had disappeared without a trace.
It was left to the internet to guess who I Sing would be inviting.
There were even a lot of leaked invitation lists, and yet nothing was announced by the program team of I Sing.
Kefeng Films had its own publicity department.
According to Manager Liao of the publicity department, not every post from the marketing account was paid for.
They also needed to post on Weibo more to retain fans.
There were many Weibo posts that were either jokes, or breaking news from unknown sources that were most likely fake.
Some were even made up.
Just like the list of invited guests for I Sing – almost every one of them was fake.
A few of them were actually spot on.
But that was because those names had appeared on the list of invited guests announced at the press conference.
Kefeng Films had always done well in variety. And now with Broken Continent, it had gained a lot of popularity.
That was why I Sing was now receiving a lot of attention.
Although I Sing had been lying low, it had already been compared to Singing Voice.
Manager Liao had meant that with such heated speculation on the internet, they did not need to do any other publicity.
They would wait until the day before the show’s premiere, release the names all at one go, and catch netizens off guard. That would have a positive effect.
Moreover, this would best help them keep the production team’s recordings a secret.
“I Sing is different from other programs. We want to open up a channel for audience voting at the same time. So it’ll be impossible for us to pre-produce several episodes like other programs. We will only be able to pre-produce three to four episodes at most.”
Of these three to four episodes, two would be on-stage performances, while the other two would record the daily lives of the artistes off-stage.
It was fortunate that this arrangement was in place. It allowed the program to have buffer time between recording and broadcasting.
Otherwise, with constant competition, voting and recording, and having to make adjustments after each week of voting, the program team would be under a lot of pressure.
It might appear as if four episodes had been recorded.
But it was actually only two episodes. The other two episodes on the artistes’ daily lives had also been derived from the previous two episodes.
Apart from the heavier post-production workload, all other areas had significantly less work to do.
Therefore, Singing Voice started recording first. While Singing Voice was recording, I Sing was still making a few revisions to its proposal.
After that, they had discussions with Donghua Station, and then held a press conference, before officially starting to record. They were indeed several steps behind Singing Voice. And yet they were still in time to broadcast at the same time as Singing Voice.
Donghua Station was obviously fired up, and had very early on found out when Singing Voice would be broadcast.
It had intentionally left that timeslot vacant for I Sing.
Recording for the program officially started. Tan Jinsheng packed his luggage and went to the recording site.
The program team had done a good job of keeping it a secret. They were even recording in B City, just like Singing Voice..
