Chapter 1223: Central TV Department 1 turns green with anger!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
On this day.
At Central TV Department 1.
The Sing! program team started work early in the morning.
Jiang Yuan, the Deputy Director of Department 1, had come to check on their work. This was the tenth time he had dropped by to Sing!'s production office in recent days. For any of the other shows, the higher-ups would usually just check how everything was going at the start of production before approving the show's executive director and staff to handle the rest of the work. It wasn't feasible for the executives to come over every day to check on how everything was progressing. But Sing! was obviously different. Central TV Department 1 had a great deal of expectations for the show. The executives were also paying a large amount of attention to it with a "can't lose" attitude and determination. This was because it would be Central TV Department 1's biggest variety show this year, and it would have to get the results expected of it by sweeping away the rest of the variety show industry. That was the command issued from the top, which Central TV Department 1 would have to execute!
"Boss!"
"Director Jiang."
"Good morning, Director Jiang."
Jiang Yuan walked in with his hands behind his back.
The program team staff immediately stood up to greet him.
"Good morning, how's everything going?"
"Everything is proceeding smoothly."
"Has Fan Wenli agreed to join us yet?"
"We've already signed the contract with her. She's been secured!"
"Good, very good."
"But Chen Guang and Zhang Xia won't be joining. As for Sister Zhang, we've just contacted her manager, Fang Weihong. She says that Sister Zhang doesn't have a free slot in her schedule."
"It's good enough that we have a guest coach from the first season of The Voice. How about the promo work? Are you guys going all out on it?"
"We've already gotten started."
"How's the public's response?"
"The people are really looking forward to it. There are a lot of discussions regarding the show, and the Weibo topicality has already reached 200,000. That's never happened before!"
"Hur hur, that's good. Great job, everyone. As long as we get to the top spot of the nationwide viewership ratings, I'll personally apply to management for everyone to get recognized for their contributions!"
"Thank you, Director Jiang."
"We guarantee that we'll do a good job!"
"In the current climate of the variety show industry, no one is a match for us!"
"Yeah, the latest variety shows that Shanghai TV and Hunan TV did are no competition for us. After all, The Voice is exceedingly well-known for a TV show. After a year's break, the previous viewers will surely be anticipating it even more. Once the show starts broadcasting again, we've reason to believe that the old viewers will return and that there will be an influx of new viewers as well. Based on past experience, Sing! should do even better than the first season of The Voice in terms of viewership!"
Everyone felt loose and relaxed as they talked and laughed without pressure.
Why?
Because they had no opponents!
Not a single one!
Within the industry, in the entire satellite television market and variety show industry, there weren't too many shows as hot and phenomenal as The Voice. With its reputation out there, even if they filmed the show with their eyes closed, even with a change to the show's name, there would be no lack of viewers. The people would sit down at their televisions and wait for the show to be broadcast. This was the charm of having reputation and also the result that accumulated popularity could bring about. In the whole of the country, there was no one who could stop them! Unless some other phenomenal variety show were to suddenly emerge at this time, they would not be stopped. But no matter how they saw it, it was impossible for that to happen. King of Masked Singers had just ended a few months ago, so the second season couldn't possibly happen so soon. With such circumstances and without any opponents, they were simply invincible.
In this situation, the program team staff were all humming a song inside their heads.
How lonely it is to be invincible!
How empty it feels to be invincible!
The executive director of Sing! was even more exultant and in high spirits.
However, when they remembered that "Invincible" was written by Zhang Ye, they felt like they shouldn't be singing it in fear of bringing bad luck upon themselves. Zhang Ye's name was basically taboo in Central TV Department 1, and no one would dare mention it in front of the higher-ups without good reason. His name represented the biggest enemy Central TV Department 1 had and was also a sore spot that could never be healed.
Everyone went back to discussing the follow-up production.
They talked about issues like the recruitment of the guest coaches, who were still missing two people.
Everything was progressing smoothly, and they could almost see Sing! sweeping across the entire country. However, it was at this moment that a staff member came running in panic!
"Something's happened! Something's happened!"
"What's wrong? Why're you in such a rush?"
"What's happened?"
"Aren't you the one who's responsible for inviting the guest coaches onto the show? Which celebrity has declined to join us this time?"
"If they don't wish to join us, so be it. What are you so alarmed about?"
Everyone looked at that employee, unsure of what had happened.
He didn't manage to invite someone as a guest coach?
Then just approach someone else. There were so many others in the music industry anyway. With their reputation and offering price, there shouldn't be too many people who would reject them. So was there any need to worry about having no big names for their guest coaches?
But for some reason, that employee was looking really flustered. Just as the program team members were looking at him impatiently and wondering what was going on, he brought them an earth-shattering piece of news!
Flustered, the employee said, "I just found out from a big shot of the music industry that other than us, another television station has approached him as well!"
Jiang Yuan was amused. "There's someone else who dares to produce a singing variety show at this time?"
The program team's executive director also smiled. "Who has the balls? They dare compete with us?"
The employee wiped away his sweat and said, "It's Beijing TV!"
An assistant director was taken aback. "Them?"
Another assistant director said, "So what? Must we make such a fuss?"
But the employee's next words gave everyone a fright!
Pulling a long face, he gulped and replied, "It's Zhang Ye's new show and Beijing TV has secured the rights to broadcast it! They intend to broadcast it at the same time as us!"
"What?"
"Say that again?"
"Zhang Ye is producing another singing show?"
"They're going to broadcast at the same time as us?"
Jiang Yuan blanched!
The executive director was dumbfounded!
A few of the assistant directors looked infuriated!
The entire program team of Sing! fell silent!
Then, this news galloped through the internal departments of Central TV!
…
Central TV Department 1.
"What?"
"Zhang Ye is coming back with a new show?"
"Holy shit! Damn!"
"Is he crazy? Why does he want to clash with Sing!?"
"Oh my god! That madman!"
"This is bad! This time, it's really bad!"
"No opponents? Looks like we've just gotten ourselves an opponent, fuck!"
"Is this for real? Isn't he busy receiving awards? Isn't he trying to get into the Chinese language textbooks? Isn't he off writing novels? Then why has this great demon king returned to the variety world?"
"He's doing this on purpose! He's definitely doing this on purpose!"
…
Central TV Sports Channel.
Yu Yingyi and her colleagues were also shocked at the news!
"Fuck, I have a bad feeling about this!"
"Me too, why do I have a feeling that Department 1 is going to flop hard!"
"Zhang Ye is back?"
"Pfft!"
"Teacher Yu, why are you laughing?"
"Did I laugh?
"You did."
"Alright, I did. It's just that I am absolutely tickled by the way that my old classmate is behaving!"
…
Central TV Documentary Channel.
Zhang Ye's old colleagues here also didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"Central TV Department 1 is gonna be in serious trouble this time!"
"They're too arrogant! It's good that this has happened!"
"Director Zhang has returned! Let's see how they'll deal with this!"
"I bumped into an assistant director of the program team from Central TV Department 1 yesterday. You should have seen that condescending look on his face thinking that they're unbeatable. I can't help but laugh at it now!"
"Me too, hahahahaha!"
"Good one, Director Zhang!"
"Beautifully played!"
"The faces of those people from Central TV Department 1 have probably all turned green!"
"What else! Bumping into Zhang Ye, who wouldn't turn green!"