Wen Li Shuguang Qi Minqian Huayu
Today, 35-year-old Taiwanese artist Gao Yixiang died suddenly in Ningbo, recording a variety show.
This variety show is called "Chasing Me", which is the blockbuster variety show used by Zhejiang Satellite TV to take over "The Voice of China 2019" in the fourth quarter of this year. It is positioned as an "outdoor sports variety show". The intensity of the program is very high. Flying over the walls, climbing tall buildings with bare hands, or recording late at night, is a great physical exhaustion for the participating guests.
show physical fitness is the most routine operation in variety shows.
"Running Man" was recorded in Hangzhou West Lake once. Wang Baoqiang fell into the West Lake while crossing the bridge. Fortunately, the water was shallow enough and Wang Baoqiang was vigorous. In the recording, Li Chen was wounded with 9 stitches, Lu Han was carried into an ambulance, and Chen He's back was misplaced. This has been the front page news of the entertainment media many times.
In recent years, variety shows have blossomed all over China, and endless variety shows continue to tap the "potential" of stars. Talent, life experience, acting skills, values, physical strength, and even the refrigerator at home, the bag on the back, can all become the main performance of variety shows. Exhibited in front of the audience.
From entertainment to death to entertainment death, Chinese variety shows show a morbid shape in the industrial structure and content expression, which is mixed with the acquiescence of the audience, the profit-seeking of the producers, and the helplessness of the stars.
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More and more variety show celebrities
"Isn't you afraid of the audience's aesthetic fatigue when participating in so many variety shows?"
In May of this year, actor Wei Daxun was asked by reporters during an interview. He replied straightforwardly: "Will I stop working and rest at home?"
Prior to this, Wei Daxun had participated in more than a dozen variety shows since 2016. In addition to Wei Daxun, more and more artists have been called "variety cafes" in recent years. Deng Chao, a well-known "drama lunatic" actor, has filmed six seasons of "Running Brothers" alone. From 2017 to January 2018, Sha Yi took on 15 variety shows, and the whole family played together.
is the Chinese variety show that has developed more vigorously than Chinese film and TV series.
celebrities cannot get exposure unless they are on variety shows. In the age of traffic, they almost represent unemployment. Compared with high-cost, high-uncertainty, and long-period movies and TV series, variety shows are an obvious shortcut, which can be more easily searched, established, and brought wealth. It is not a good thing that
is called a "variety cafe". The word
carries a strong "chain of contempt" in the entertainment industry. Those who announce that they mainly receive variety shows are called "variety cafes." The industry and the public generally comment that variety cafes are far less popular than singers and actors who rely on their works to win attention. The history of
variety show development in China is not long. At first, it was mainly based on games and puzzle quizzes. The emergence of Hunan Satellite TV "Super Girl" has stimulated the rise of audition reality shows. Later, "If You Are the One", "Where Are You Going Dad", "The Voice of China", and "Running Brother" are all phenomenal variety shows that have exploded.
These explosive variety shows make the platform both fame and fortune, and also attract a large amount of capital to tilt towards variety shows.
Take satellite TV for example, Friday and Saturday nights are the most golden time periods for TV stations. After the form of variety shows has become popular, all David TV will broadcast their core variety shows in this time period, and prime time TV series Ji basically wants to make way for variety shows.
The rise of iQiyi, Youku, and Tencent Internet video sites has given birth to variety shows. They first bought high-quality variety show resources from Satellite TV at high prices. In recent years, with the support of Internet capital, they have launched their own self-made variety shows.
In the first half of 2019, there are a total of 95 variety shows on the air, including 49 online variety shows and 46 Taiwan variety shows. During the same period, only 108 TV series were approved for distribution. CITIC Securities estimates that in 2018, the scale of my country's variety show market is about 33.27 billion yuan.
This is a huge contend for cake. Why is
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so popular?
The public has a desire to explore stars.
, as a lofty "idol", the star's life and work have a "circle", even if it is down to earth, it is covered by the fog.
There are too many curious people. The charm of
variety shows is to satisfy this desire.The star does things according to the requirements of the program group and the script, expresses the life-oriented and different side of the art work, "truthly" cuts himself apart for the audience to see, to satisfy the audience's curiosity or selfish desire.
"authenticity" and "entertainment" are the qualities that variety shows must possess.
A successful variety show must not be tricky or bothersome. In layman's terms, the threshold is low.
Looking at all variety shows, almost all of them are based on the rule of "striving for the first" and the method of "pk". Only in this way can the audience have a sense of substitution faster and trigger "what would happen if it were me..." Lenovo.
Even the recent "Host Contest" broadcast by CCTV failed to follow the conventions. Participants played fiercely, and the audience watched with gusto. They were satisfied at the exclamation center such as "My God" and "Mom". By the way Looking forward to the next show.
As mentioned by CITIC Securities, comparing news, documentaries, and some drama audiences requires strong logical thinking. Variety shows are often low-level emotional stimulation, which relaxes the audience's emotions, and at the same time constantly uses jokes and laughing points to create joy, so that the audience Can quickly enter the "mental comfort zone".
From the perspective of the "Maslow Pyramid" of entertainment programs, variety shows meet the relatively low-level needs and fall on the second level of "safety needs", bringing joy and comfort to users without having to worry about it.
This determines that variety shows have a huge audience.
is fun, authentic, and has a wide audience, giving the variety show great commercial value: more people watching it means that the advertising has a wider reach; authenticity and entertainment means that even high-frequency advertising is not implanted Will cause disgust from the audience.
Compared with the production and release cycle of film and television dramas that are often three to five years or even unable to be put on the shelves, the time cost and capital cost of variety shows are also more controllable. Stars can complete the recording of several episodes of programs in three to five days. . The low threshold of
, controllable production costs, and various forms have made variety shows successfully gained the favor of advertisers.
Let’s take a look at the data for the first half of 2019 given by Jiuhe Data:
China's variety show advertising market is close to 22 billion yuan, an increase of 16.12% over the same period last year, an increase of 10.15% month-on-month;
Chinese variety show placement The number of brands reached 546 and the number of products reached 697; the number of
brands increased by 15.19% year-on-year, and the number of products increased by 22.06%; the number of brands increased by 9.4% and the number of products increased by 8.2%.
Compared with variety shows, the situation in the film and television industry is midwinter. , especially after the Fan Bingbing incident, the overall shrinkage of China's film and television industry has further allowed variety shows to become popular.
In the first half of 2019, the number of domestic moviegoers dropped by 10%, and the number of people who walked into theaters was only 808 million. Single-screen ticket sales also fell to 486,000 yuan, almost one-third of 2015.
In 2019, Huayi Wang Zhongjun ran around borrowing money, and he did not hesitate to use real estate mortgages and sell paintings to solve Huayi's liquidity problems.
Since the tax turmoil, the film and television industry has completely entered a cold winter. According to data from
Wind, in 2018, the total net profit of the 18 profitable A-share listed companies in the film and television industry was only 6.971 billion yuan; in 2019, among the top ten A-share film and television companies by market value, only Aofei Entertainment and Wentou Holdings, which were at the bottom of the previous year , Achieved a year-on-year increase in net profit, and the net profit of the other eight companies all declined to varying degrees.
Many companies have no choice but to quit. For example, Xinli Media, which has produced "Kite", "White Deer Plain", and "The Richest Man in Xihong City", sells its own reading group, and the actual controller of Ciwen Media has changed from Ma Zhongjun to Jiangxi State-owned Assets. Committee. According to the data from
Tianyan Check, since 2019, 1884 film and television companies have closed down. The specific manifestations are cancellation, revocation, liquidation and suspension of business.
The film and television companies that were fortunate enough to survive have been shrouded in the shadow of "poverty" all day long, which makes them more cautious in the selection of scripts and actors, and gives birth to a kind of feelings that would rather be better than indiscriminate.
In the first three quarters of this year, the number of filming and production TV series records nationwide decreased by 27% compared with the same period last year, and the operating rate of Hengdian Film and Television City decreased by 45%.
This is in sharp contrast to the grand scene of variety shows,Under the cold winter of film and television, China's entertainment industry has given way to variety shows, and stars have also flown to variety shows.
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Why stars like variety shows?
The cold winter of film and television makes the stars start out of filming.
"Prince Frog" Ming Dao finished his performance in the variety show "Actors Please Get In" last month and said: "I am Ming Dao, 39 years old this year, 15 years old, this is my first play this year." Here, Ming Dao choked a little.
▵ Actor Ming Dao
This was once one of the most familiar screen images of post-90s.
There are so many actors similar to Ming Dao.
Not long ago, Di Lieba revealed in a variety show that he hadn’t filmed for seven or eight months; Yuan Hong, who became popular with
, took over the script of the male third directly, and said "If you have a movie, just pick it up";
In May 2019, the 27-year-old actor Zou Xinyu retired and became a salesperson for China National Financial Securities; "Less than 100,000 yuan";
Guo Jingming revealed in "The Actors Please Take Place" that the actor Peng Xiaoran in the group has not acted for two years. . "The actors are not as glamorous as everyone thinks. The operating rate of the industry is declining, and many'waist' actors have not filmed for one or two years." Even the acting school Haiqing called for "a little filming for middle-aged actors." They need money to support themselves, they need to increase their exposure, or they need a job.
Therefore, when various types of variety shows extend their olive branches to them, it is like grabbing the last straw. Even old opera bones such as Zhang Ziyi and Zhang Guoli have to lower their bodies and become guests of variety shows. The
market has always been the result of two-way selection, and it is the same for celebrities and variety shows. Because of the short production cycle of
variety show, it feels more "real" and "grounded" to the audience, so it has become the easiest and quickest way for celebrities to become popular, get out of circles, and even establish a personality.
Yang Chaoyue's "koi" persona was established in "Creation 101", and her photos of her hands folded were even turned into emoticons and forwarded like crazy on social networks. All of these have contributed to Yang Chaoyue's popularity and his move from a niche circle to the public eye.
Bai Jingting also showed his clever, "orphan" character in "Star Detective", which won a lot of fans. After the establishment of
, the artist needs to continuously communicate and emphasize this characteristic. At this time, it needs the blessing of variety shows. After "Creation 101" is over, Yang Chaoyue will be mentioned as a "koi girl" for a long time as long as he participates in variety shows.
In a sense, celebrities are similar to products. Once there is a persona, there will be a point of communication and memory, and it will be easy to become popular. For celebrities, red means that traffic, traffic and personal settings can be realized, and it is also their confidence to win the right to speak in the entertainment industry today.
The most thorough realization of the employment design is undoubtedly Huang Lei. Huang Lei is skilled in cooking and has superb emotional intelligence. He is a frequent guest on variety shows. His image is shaped and spread through variety shows and is widely accepted. On top of this, Huang Lei created the "Huang Xiaochu" brand and entered the catering industry directly. Most celebrities do not have Huang Lei's accumulation, and can only realize their fame and traffic through works and endorsements. The cold winter of film and television is coming, and the producers can only choose actors with high traffic for the sake of insurance. In order to get more traffic, celebrities have to participate in variety shows non-stop.
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Entertainment has entered the era of inventory
In fact, entertainment is also entering the era of inventory. The so-called "stock age" of
means that the industry stops growing or grows slowly. The top players will turn their guns to quickly defeat the small players in the industry and share their cakes. The increment that overflowed was enough to live and moisturize, but it doesn't work anymore.
, A Qin and Liu Yang, who have been frequently searched recently because of breakups, are actually Internet celebrities. In the past, the treatment of hot search headlines on housework has always been reserved for "serious" stars.
With the Chinese entertainment industryWith the continuous expansion of entertainment content and the continuous expansion of entertainment content, more and more players are sharing the attention economy.
Like ten years ago, the days when the whole family sits together in front of the TV every Saturday night to watch "Happy Camp" are gone.
Short videos and live broadcasts have begun to give birth to more “stars”. No matter what kind of celebrity, popularity is the only criterion for testing market value. The
papi sauce has more than 30 million fans on Weibo and Douyin, and each short video has been viewed over 10 million on the whole network. This popularity is no less than any traffic star. In the past two years, Papi Sauce has appeared on variety shows and made movies as if it were no different from traditional stars.
Feng Timo, a sister of Douyu who has 16 million subscriptions on Douyu platform, has opened solo concerts, released albums, hit charts this year, super talked, and frequently appeared on variety shows. The fan economy has surpassed most stars. .
is a bitter winter on one side and an intensified battle for traffic on the other. Traditional stars are in fear. The total attention of fans of
tends to be fixed or even weaker.
goes further, the increasingly popular 996 working method and the deepening of the aging structure of the population structure determine the scarcity of the attention economy. The rise of short videos and live broadcasts has split the traffic from different channels to create new stars. In the age of stock, everything becomes cruel and intense.
The memory of the Internet is only seven seconds like a goldfish. Which celebrity dare to disappear and make a movie in a year? When I come back, I am afraid that the popularity will have been damaged by half. The compulsory military service of
in South Korea almost determines the death date of a male star. After two years of service, he is not as popular as before. Variety show on
is a visible shortcut to exposure, demand generates supply, and the proliferation of supply produces deformity and no lower limit.
Chinese variety shows have become what they are today due to various incentives. They have seized the living space of film and television and TV dramas, and there are no fine products. Most of the good variety shows are copied from foreign forms. More variety shows exist for the sake of existence, and the criterion is that as long as there are stars, the content does not matter. The
variety show is also destroying some stars.
Before becoming variety celebrities, Deng Chao and Sun Honglei were both actors with high acting skills and excellent reputation. They became popular among variety celebrities in "Running Man" and "Extremely Pick" respectively, and began to follow the people in the variety show. Suppose, then rotten pieces appeared one after another.
Under the lush trees of the thriving Chinese entertainment industry, these shadows are like scratches on the torso. If you turn a blind eye to it, it will become a devastation that spreads across the trunk.
How should Chinese variety shows or stars go? Two stars may be able to get the answer: Hu Ge, Huang Xuan. The two of
are hardly on variety shows, usually not much exposure, but the quality of exposure is extremely high, and they will disappear for a long time. Fans are still willing to wait, because past works have made fans' expectations higher, and the value between traffic and traffic is different. In the era of attention stock, fans will pick idols. Shallow exposure is not very competitive. Shoddy variety shows may be more risky. Both stars and variety show producers should reflect on the current situation of Chinese variety shows.
The prosperity of a country requires not only a strong economy but also the spiritual progress of the people. The cultivation of the spiritual level is actually piled up by a series of TV series, movies, and novels. In a cultural environment with only a fan, the people will become Numb, no longer thinking.
