Chapter 1234: The people of Central TV Department 1 are made to cry!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
At Beijing Television.
It was pure jubilation in the program team office!
Even the staff from the other program teams came over to congratulate them. Everyone was looking at Zhang Ye with a strange compelling sense of admiration!
Xiao Lu screamed, "We've won! We've won!"
Hou Ge put his arm around Dafei's shoulder. "It's 2.43%!"
Hou Di shouted, "That's so awesome, Big Bro!"
Hou Ge said, "Yeah it is, Little Bro!"
Dong Shanshan waved a thumbs up at Zhang Ye.
Everyone followed suit and gave Zhang Ye a thumbs up.
"Director Zhang!"
"You're awesome!"
"You're the best!"
"Central TV Department 1 has lost badly this time!"
"They didn't even pass 1%!"
"We must have snatched away all of their viewers!"
"I will only respect Director Zhang in this lifetime!"
"I could never have freaking expected this outcome!"
"Ahhh, this is great!"
"Producer Hu, Director Zhang, looks like treat's on you two this afternoon!"
"Haha, that's for sure. Let's have a celebratory feast later!"
Hu Fei was also feeling very excited. All of his worries and anxiety disappeared the moment the viewership ratings chart was released. Thinking back on their own analysis about having no audience base and the issue of the show's popularity getting divided, it was laughable now! They had Zhang Ye on their side! What did they have to worry about!
Zhang Ye was already making some calls.
He gave Chen Guang a call first.
"Hello, Old Chen."
"Is it out yet?"
"It's out. 2.43%, we're in first place."
"What? It passed the two-point mark? How much did Sing! get?"
"0.8-something."
"Ah?"
"Don't blame me for that, tell Old Fan not to come looking for me."
Then he called Xiaodong.
"Sister Dong, the viewership ratings are out."
"Boss Zhang! I saw it! I saw it already!"
"Alright then, that's all. I just wanted to tell you."
"Do you have to tell anyone? The entire entertainment circle has already blown up over the results! Everyone in the industry is talking about you. They're saying that you're the undisputed leader of variety shows. Not even a Heavenly King or Queen could beat you in this field. Haha, thank you so much, Boss Zhang. Because of your show, this girl has grown in popularity again. I only just got off the phone with Grandma Zhang Xia. She says that she didn't expect her song to get so popular. She wanted to give you her support for the show at first, but who could've guessed she would benefit from you instead. Grandma Zhang is already preparing her second song. She's really motivated for the show!"
"You should also prepare yourself."
"That's for sure, I'm going to vie for the top three!"
Next, he called Amy.
"Amy, do well on your second song."
"Aiya, I'm so stressed out!
"Haha."
"The show has gotten so popular, so I can't get eliminated just like this. I won't talk anymore, Director Zhang. I have to start choosing my song to prepare for the performance. This time, I'm gonna give it my all!"
Every singer was getting really motivated. In a basic sense, weren't they participating on this show just because of popularity? With the viewership ratings doing so well, everyone would get very excited!
Zhang Ye's Studio also found out about this news instantly.
Zhang Ye called Ha Qiqi. "Everything's proceeding according to plan. Let everyone know so that they don't have to worry."
Ha Qiqi laughed and said, I knew that there wouldn't be any problems!"
For the "Reach the Summit" plan to succeed, it was necessary for this step to proceed smoothly. From the viewership ratings of the premiere episode, as long as Zhang Ye didn't make a mistake in the production of the show from here on out, the viewership ratings would only get higher and wouldn't suffer a drop. Further, Zhang Ye's screen time on I Am a Singer was unexpectedly large and the amount of attention he received was as much as the singers themselves. As such, the popularity he could gain from the field of television shows would surely be maxed out now!
As Zhang Ye continued making several more calls.
The Beijing Television executives arrived at the program team office. It was usually Hu Fei who welcomed them since Zhang Ye wasn't good at dealing with higher-ups. The moment the executives came into the office, they simply made a promise to the entire team that their year-end bonuses would be tripled! This was the most practical reward that anyone could receive, so they applauded it loudly!
…
Online.
The netizens were also exclaiming in surprise.
"I really didn't expect this!"
"Yeah, the disparity is too great!"
"How the hell are they going to compete like this?"
"I Am a Singer is too awesome!"
"It's another phenomenal variety show! The premiere has done so well even with Sing! as its competitor. If they could knock Sing! out later, the viewership ratings could even break records again! King of Masked Singers won't be able to hold its viewership ratings record!"
"Sing! isn't that bad, I actually found it quite good. But the problem for them is that they had go against Zhang Ye, so it's quite unlucky that they had to lose this way. Judging from the show trending online, their viewership ratings should definitely be able to pass 1% at the minimum. But because of I Am a Singer broadcasting at the same time slot, all of the viewers were taken away from them. Those viewers would then catch the rerun of Sing! on television or over the Internet. This statistic does not take that into consideration for the viewership ratings; that's why the disparity is so large."
"How terrible."
"I really sympathize with Central TV Department 1."
"How did it turn out like this?"
"My God! How scary!"
"Yeah, which shows would dare to take on Zhang Ye during the same time slot in the future! Even Sing! has died a bloody death!"
"Central TV Department 1 have only themselves to blame for being so arrogant. They were hyping up their show using Zhang Ye's name and even deliberately said incriminating things about him. Using someone else's work and still stabbing him in the back was what caused Lord Zhang to get so enraged. So he created a new show and took them on in response. Otherwise, Sing! would definitely have dominated the market without any competition. Hai, it's happened so many times, so why won't they just learn. Why do they keep thinking that Face-smacking Zhang is so easy to be trifled with?"
"I Am a Singer was indeed wonderfully made!"
"They invited all the right people!"
"Zhang Xia's song was spectacular!"
"Zhao Wuliu gave us such a surprise!"
There was a flurry of discussions!
Zhang Xia was on fire!
Zhao Wuliu was on fire!
Xiaodong was on fire!
Zhang Ye was on fire!
Dong Shanshan and the other host-managers were on fire!
Everyone that was related to I Am a Singer had become really popular with the rise of the show!
…
Meanwhile.
Central TV Department 1.
There was an eerie silence in the program team office of Sing!
How could this be!
How could it happen!
Was there a mistake somewhere?
Could the result have been miscalculated?
How could their show's viewership rating be so low?
A young woman who was holding the viewership ratings chart in her hands suddenly puckered her lips as she started tearing up uncontrollably. When another woman on the program team beside her saw that, her eyes reddened as well.
Terrible!
They had lost too terribly!
An assistant director saw it and immediately said, "What's with this? Huh? What's with this? How far are we into this? Don't start panicking so soon. The viewers only watched their premiere episode for the fun of it to see what it was all about. They've never heard of a show like I Am a Singer before, so they went to have a look for themselves. By the next episode, our audience will have returned and the viewership ratings will surpass theirs. So if we work hard on the second episode's recording, we'll definitely be able to beat them!"
Another assistant director added, "Right! I Am a Singer has a major flaw in their format, which is how they eliminate the participants too quickly. Those singers are all big names in the music industry and have many fans. Whoever gets eliminated will surely cause a stir within their fanbase. They'll definitely be unsatisfied with the results and protest it. At that time, their viewership ratings will definitely fall, so don't worry too much!"
Really?
Could that be possible?
Only then did everyone regain a glimmer of hope!
Right!
They hadn't lost yet!
It was only the first episode!
There was still plenty of time!
There were still a lot of chances!
They just had to buck up and do their jobs seriously so the show would get better. Only then could they really compete against Zhang Ye's team. This was just like a soccer match. The winner wouldn't be decided until the final moments of the game. So all of them took a deep breath and encouraged themselves: Come on! There isn't much time left for Team China 1 ….Uh, there isn't much time left for us!
1. Reference to Liu Jianhong's soccer commentary that's usually memed by the netizens or most commentaries whenever the Chinese soccer team plays https://zhidao.baidu.com/question/1883360136377152148.html