article | Entertainment values, author丨Chen Tong, editor丨Meiqi
This summer, the innovative trend in the field of variety shows is surprising.
"Back to Reality in Ten Days", which has had its own subversive genes since its inception, is known as "turning a variety show into a series", and its unique style has attracted a lot of curiosity and heated discussion among netizens; " This is My Island 》activated the long-dormant survival variety show and created a new "Island Variety" track in domestic entertainment; "Summer in Europa" pioneered the self-driving travel and watching documentary variety show, injecting slow variety elements into the variety show; "I Play Basketball in Hengdian" allowed a sports and competitive variety show to intersect with Hengdian for the first time, opening up a new path and new perspective for this subject; " Happy Wonderful Night " promoted the renovation of comedy content and brought the greatest excitement to the audience "Freshness".
After more than ten years of diversion and intensive cultivation, "phenomenal", "hotly discussed by the whole people" and "screen dominance" are increasingly rare in the field of domestic variety shows. After facing this reality, many new variety shows this summer took the initiative to break out of the framework and obsession of "popular hits" and explore content from richer perspectives such as themes, perspectives, trends, etc. When innovation becomes more and more the general trend, the variety show track will be able to produce more works with both quality and influence.
Pioneers in mode paths and scene forms
Whether it is music variety, sports variety, survival variety, documentary variety, whether it is a new program or a variety show, this summer's variety shows overall give people a refreshing feeling, although the types are diverse. , but after sorting it out, it is not difficult to find that this freshness is mainly reflected in the mode path and scene form.
On the one hand, the multiple variety shows launched in the summer have made new ideas in perspectives and models. While the broad subject categories have continued to expand, they have also included survival, self-driving, football, basketball and other fields into the program to keep up with the interests of young groups. Trends, the integration and penetration of multiple themes have become a trend.
The breakthrough variety show is no stranger to the audience. "Return to Reality Ten Days Later" adopts the three core settings of "ten days and 24 hours of recording", "completely disconnected from the Internet" and "fully closed environment", and is a breakthrough variety show. Variety shows have injected new impetus that is more immersive, continuous and more like a TV series. In the
program, guests must pass a level every day to obtain the right to renew their stay for 24 hours. The game levels include physical strength, mental strength, psychological games and teamwork. If you fail to pass the level, you will be eliminated and left. Because of its game feel, the variety show is a little less scary than TV series such as "Alice in the Land of Dying" and "Squid Game", but it is enough to show the different choices and tensions that humans have when facing survival challenges.
"This is My Island" is not a standard wilderness survival program, but more like a survival experiment in which teenagers overcome all difficulties and break through themselves in a desperate situation. It also incorporates intangible cultural heritage, marine environmental protection, and island spirit. Deep and rich topics. Under the test of the extreme environment, everyone abandoned all rules and regulations in order to survive, showing their most primitive and authentic side, which also made the show constantly explosive and high-energy, with famous scenes one after another.
"I Play Basketball in Hengdian" cleverly intersects two originally unrelated elements, physical fitness and filming. Male stars who were filming in Hengdian made an appointment to play basketball after get off work. During the competition on the court, they got a glimpse of the stars' social style and life attitude. This entry point connected actors with different backgrounds and personalities, conveying the spirit of sports competition in the passionate competition. The charm also makes sports variety programs more diverse, rich and inclusive. "Summer of Europa" opens up another new narrative for body synthesis through the introduction of slow synthesis elements. Guests from different fields went on a self-driving trip to Germany, where the European Cup is held, to immerse themselves in watching the game, shopping and shopping. This European trip not only has a professional and hard-core football narrative, but also presents local culture, art and life. It can be said that It has created a brand-new sports comprehensive model of "sports viewing + lifestyle".
On the other hand, while innovating in perspectives and modes, these variety shows have also reached new heights in the construction of scene forms.The three vacant closed filming locations selected for "Return to Reality after Ten Days" are each more generous than the last. The appearance of Liuting Airport at the beginning shocked many people. They were doing tasks in the empty airport hall and driving on the airport runway. Galloping, this is indeed the first time I have seen such a real-life super no-man’s land scene in a variety show. Chen Wei, the chief director of the
program, revealed that during the initial planning, he thought of evacuating a city as a filming location. After the program was launched, the creative team searched in many places at home and abroad, and finally closed four city scenes in Qingdao to meet the needs of the program. . Such a completely closed real-life scene coupled with the rules of no script and non-interference with the challengers makes the show like a real-life version of "The Truman Show", upgrading a survival variety show into a variety show series with a certain "suspense" color.
In addition, the island scene in "This is My Island"; "I Play Basketball in Hengdian" uses XR ground screen for the first time in domestic entertainment sports complex, and the 10 episodes of the program will change the scene content of 10 different themes; "Europa's The immersive and in-depth experience of Germany in "Summer"... These are all upgraded through the scenes, allowing the program to present a higher quality and level. In the competition where content is generally online, the scene form is likely to become the key to determine whether the audience will watch. Factors, a special "scene upgrade" is quietly happening in the variety show industry.
On "emotional value" Diversified and hierarchical expression
As one of the forms of entertainment content that covers the widest range of people, the reason why variety shows can become a dominant content category is that it uses a format that is not as tight as drama series. The narrative mode responds to current hot topics and emotions immediately. Someone once described the social function of variety shows as a "public pacifier". This is also the core value of variety shows.
Looking back at this summer's popular variety shows from this perspective, we can find that no matter how innovative the subject matter and form are, their content is based on insights into trends, and their core is to provide emotional values such as healing, happiness, and companionship.
While actively exploring new themes, the variety n generation that has accepted the market test continues to help break the niche culture. The multiple variety shows that have been launched this summer have successfully occupied multiple tracks and are continuously produced and enjoyed by young people. Content. The launch of content such as Chaoyin, basketball, football, comedy, and interactive puzzles all demonstrate the response attitude of variety shows to young users. Behind
's insight into trends and innovative programs are the platform and creators' diverse and layered expressions of the proposition of "emotional value." From this perspective, each popular summer program represents a type or group of users, who can gain perception and inspiration through the program, and then project themselves. Variety shows are no longer just entertainment content. They have become an excellent window for observing young people. In addition to reflecting the true flow of emotions, they also allow young people to find the values they identify with.
In recent years, young people who are under the pressure of life and work are increasingly yearning for a life of "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence and leisurely seeing the southern mountains". They have no time to exercise, no time to experience the fun of life, and no time to slow down and enjoy the current social life. We are eager to slow down and relieve anxiety in variety shows.
In "Return to Reality after Ten Days", the confusion and uneasiness of the contestants when facing various brain-burning and unknown challenges are very similar to those of us in life and work. In fact, life is not just a kind of breakthrough. Seeing the contestants on the show go all out to face various difficulties, the audience on the other side of the mirror also has the courage to overcome difficulties. In "I Play Basketball in Hengdian", the team spirit of the team members who fight for their love and release their passion for work and life pressure through sports allows young people who have been shouting "Go to class" to learn how to reduce stress.
In addition to the happiness brought by healing and stress reduction, self-projection is also one of the emotional values that variety shows need to carry. Young people are more likely to see content that is relevant and useful to them in variety shows. The young people of this generation should lie down and do their jobs with ease, and do their jobs brilliantly. Variety shows that express the true feelings of young people and convincingly show their sincere, passionate and multi-faceted characters are indispensable.
"This is My Island" finds a group of teenagers who love the sea and brings them together on an island, allowing them to experience the temper of nature, get along with it, and find breakthroughs. From the perspective of emotional insight, we see the true side of contemporary young people. They love and enjoy life; at the same time, they are brave enough to challenge and eager to make breakthroughs. In the narrative of the island, wrapped in nature, we get to know real teenagers. The teenagers are also shaping their new selves and creating a journey for teenagers in the new era.
It can be said that the diverse and layered expression of emotional value has become one of the focuses of the current variety show creation methodology. By tapping into a variety of social scenes and trendy narratives, variety shows are more accurately satisfying young people's subdivided emotions such as happiness and stress relief, positivity, companionship, and healing, and establishing a deeper emotional connection with them.
Innovation gives variety shows stronger vitality
How can variety shows maintain strong vitality? This issue is enough to affect the sensitive nerves of the entire industry. One thing worth noting is that in the past two years, compared with the popularity of the drama market, the number of hits and top works in the variety show market has been decreasing. Where do new hits come from, and how to improve the certainty of variety shows? This is a question that the entire industry has been thinking about.
Under pressure, perhaps no vertical content industry is more eager to look forward to the emergence of new models and new momentum than variety shows. A good trend is that, judging from the statistical results on the data side, variety shows have slowly climbed out of the lowest point in the previous two years.
Yunhe data shows that the supply of variety shows has rebounded in the first half of this year (2024.1.1-2024.6.30), with a total of 126 new domestic seasonal variety shows (excluding spin-offs and evening shows), an increase of 7 year-on-year; The overall trend is good, with a total of 14.1 billion effective views of feature films, a year-on-year increase of 5%. The effective playback of variety shows on the four major platforms of Aimentengyou ranged from 2.7 to 4.1 billion, of which Youku increased by 77% year-on-year.
The multi-dimensional recovery shows that the adjustment and reform of the variety show industry is in the right direction. First of all, good content is always the fundamental of the industry. In the face of an increasingly complex market environment, only innovation can ensure the stable output of good content. Giving up copying and imitating certain creative routines in the past, keeping up with changes in audience tastes and trends, and continuously replenishing fresh "blood" are the keys to maintaining greater vitality in the variety show industry.
Secondly, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pursue variety show content that is popular across the entire network. Instead of spending too many resources pursuing unrealistic goals, it is better to give up the obsession with "popular hits" and instead focus on deep and innovative content. "Segment masterpieces" and find your own exclusive areas of advantage.
"This is My Island", "Return to Reality in Ten Days", "I Play Basketball in Hengdian" and "Summer in Europa" are not large and comprehensive variety shows for all people, but they have all jumped out of creative routines or opened up new ones. track, or trying new perspectives, no matter what the final result is, there are many places worth digging into, and experience worth learning from the industry. These are the "sparks" that make variety shows better.
In short, these recent bright new variety shows not only reflect the industry layout and creative capabilities, but also jointly build the audience's trust in the content level of variety shows. If this trend continues, we have reason to believe that in the second half of 2024, both creators, commercial brands and market users will experience the new opportunities brought by the industry through this overall innovation and healthy development.
