"Aren't you worthy of watching a romance drama?" Recently, the romance drama "Heart Signal 7" has made a strong comeback, but this time it is not the appearance and romantic love of the male and female guests that breaks the circle, but the controversy caused by the selection of

"Isn't it worthy of watching a love drama?"

Recently, the romance drama "Heart Signal 7" has made a strong comeback, but this time it is not the appearance and romantic love of the male and female guests that breaks the circle, but the controversy caused by the selection of guests.

After the men and women looking for love gathered in the Heartbeat House, one of the guests, Weng Qingya, started the conversation and asked everyone which city they like the most. Tomo, who graduated from Northumbria University, said, "I like... southampton". Oscar, another British and Hong Kong graduate, immediately followed up with "I also quite like...Manchester."

southampton became a hot meme on the Internet.

However, when the lively audience gradually dispersed, the casting issue of the variety show guests sparked discussions in the industry. Someone started sorting out the resumes of the guests in the "heartbeat" series and found that the content of this program is getting more and more foreign students, and it can even be renamed "Signal of Foreign Students".

A large number of media began to criticize the variety show, asking "Are we not worthy of being in variety shows?" and "Why does the variety show also require academic qualifications?" It gave rise to the public's call for "two love stories".

So, Is "Two Love Books" feasible? Why is the amateur variety show that is supposed to be closest to ordinary people gradually suspended? Is this change good or bad? Lengyan brings you to talk today.

If you don’t have a high degree of education, don’t come to variety shows

Amateur variety shows are getting farther and farther away from the public, and this is most intuitively reflected in academic qualifications.

Taking the "Heartbeat" series as an example, the guests' academic qualifications are mainly from double first-class universities or overseas returnees. There are only 1-2 places reserved for "second-level students" in each season. In the last season of "Heartbeat 6", there were also graduates from Tianjin University of Science and Technology ——"Monkey Sister" Hou Siyi from a second-tier college, and Cheng Jingqi, a table tennis player from another training system.

In "Heartbeat 7", the one with the worst academic qualifications is also the one with the lowest academic qualifications. Although the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, where the fourth male student Li Dinghao studied, is an art school, it is one of the "Eight Major Fine Arts Academies" and the admission threshold is not low.

html It’s not just Tencent Video that has a four-volume academic qualification. There are as many as six international students in the fourth season of Youku’s “20”, including the University of Bristol, the University of Southampton, Nanyang Technological and other overseas institutions. The fifth season of iQIYI's "I Like You, Me Too" features five returnees from Michigan State University, Shih Hsin University, University of California, San Diego, King's College London, and Columbia University.

Intuitively, there is no direct relationship between love and academic qualifications. The academic qualifications threshold has been involved to this point. The situation of workplace variety shows is even more "suffocating". The recently aired episode of "The Heart-warming Offer" For six seasons, eight interns compete for two spots at a Hong Kong law firm. Not only are these eight guests graduates from prestigious schools, but there is also a top scorer in the college entrance examination and a super academic who ranks 11th in the province's liberal arts.

In the past few seasons, the "Offer" series has also included older interns and second-book interns, but this season's elite content has directly exceeded the "one-in-a-million" level. With such an average lineup, it is almost impossible for ordinary viewers to find any empathy and sense of empathy with these amateurs.

High education brings a second sense of "suspension", which is that the living environment of amateur guests is too far away from the ordinary audience.

is a non-off-the-job love series called "Heartbeat". The guests go to work during the day and return to the cabin at night to fall in love. Their dazzling resumes destined their workplaces to be better than most ordinary people. Fan Yilan, the first female lead in "Heartbeat 6", has a bachelor's degree from Europe and the United States. At the age of 24, he became a management trainee at the head office of a bank from a prestigious school; Li Yumei, who graduated from Renmin University of China, was an intern at a private equity investment institution at the age of 23.

This makes most of the contemporary “people” who laugh at themselves as “unemployed after graduation” and “get 3,000 yuan for 996 alone” feel very embarrassed.They both graduated from college in their 20s, and they had a successful career and love life, but I tried the recruitment software 800 times and didn't even get a chance to get an interview.

The elite narrative sense of workplace variety shows is stronger, and the experience of amateur guests is even more elusive.

Although most of the guests in "offer6" are still graduate students, their internship resumes are extremely impressive. Some have edited books with their tutors, and some have long-term internship experience in Hong Kong law firms or overseas. For ordinary people, this experience has nothing to do with them.

Although these interns also have to squeeze in public transportation, work overtime, and live in small pigeon houses, their future will be bitter first and then sweet. The program also said that "the hourly salary of a Hong Kong barrister is calculated in tens of thousands." , but looking back at the current workplace environment, the future of more ordinary people is a hanging Sword of Damocles called the "35-year-old threshold."

The third "sense of suspension", comes from the guests' ultimate goal, which is even more obvious in workplace variety shows.

From the legal season to the medical season and then to the legal season, "lawyer" is already a relatively elite profession. "Offer6" builds on this foundation and moves the story to the Hong Kong legal world. The goal of the eight interns is to become "barristers", the so-called "big lawyers (litigation lawyers)" in Hong Kong dramas.

The entire legal system in Hong Kong is different from that in mainland China, and barristers are also different from the lawyers well-known to Chinese people. They have more initiative in court, and this season's acting lawyers themselves admit that there must be some performance in court. .

More importantly, Hong Kong litigants have to speak in English when litigating, and the main audience of the "Offer" series are mainland audiences. People rarely need an English environment, not to mention that litigation involves a lot of professional terms. This undoubtedly raises the viewing threshold for the show. There is no sense of substitution or reference, and the distance from the audience is getting farther and farther.

The suspension of education, experience and purpose brings about the fourth level of "suspension" - The surreal attributes of amateur variety shows : Love variety shows have become like sweet pet dramas, the guests are handsome men and beautiful women, and their personalities Everyone from a good family background works hard, but it has nothing to do with us ordinary people. Workplace variety shows, especially this season's "Offer 6", are like Hong Kong legal dramas. Several barristers walk and talk with style. But from the audience's perspective, they don't look like "real people" who would appear around them, but like TV dramas. "role" in it.

Amateur variety show, a kind of human high-quality content

Why are amateur variety shows becoming more and more Versailles? Leng Yan believes that it is unfair to blame the platform and the production team for not being down-to-earth. The fact that the acquaintance variety show is what it is now is related to multiple factors.

First of all, it is the "death" of star variety shows.

If you are a senior variety show fan, you will find that there are fewer and fewer "super luxury variety shows" that invite many big stars. The platform prefers a combination of "one head star + several mid-waist stars" .

On the one hand, the advertising fees for big stars are high, and in the current era of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, "super luxury variety shows" are no longer so cost-effective; on the other hand, the problem of "star guest labor shortage" has not been alleviated. In the past four or five years, , Da Zhangwei , Zhou Shen , Wang Sulong and other seniors are still the darlings of variety shows. This shows that the training system of variety shows is not yet mature, and there are only a few stars who are usable and easy to use.

Therefore, amateur variety shows, especially those in the reality show format, have to some extent assumed the functions of star variety shows in the past. "High-quality human beings" are the most direct means of attracting audiences - appearance and academic qualifications are themselves an attraction. Human ways, who doesn't like to see beautiful faces and smart brains? These guests with dazzling resumes and good looks are "stars" among ordinary people.

It is also worth noting that whether they are romance dramas or workplace dramas, most of them were born around 2016-2018, when elite narratives were still popular. , there were many foreign students in "Heartbeat 1", but at that time no one felt "humiliating the second book", but instead praised the excellence of the guests.

Secondly, is related to the country where the model was introduced.

"Heartbeat" series and "Offer" series are both from Korean models. Koreans define this type of program as a "drama-style variety show." Since it is a drama, it must have a "surreal" part. The most intuitive male and female guests must have at least one particularly eye-catching feature. In the recently aired silver-haired romance drama "Last Love", grandparents with an average age of 58 are also taking the route of "elderly idols". This type of variety show is also another way to debut in South Korea.

Finally, it is the psychological mechanism of the participating guests.

Can a “second variety show” really save the variety show market? Not necessarily in a cold-eyed opinion.

Reality shows have to expose themselves to the camera, which actually gives up part of their personal privacy. When you surrender your personal privacy, you will be judged by the outside world. Facing the scrutiny of the public, elites are relatively more comfortable than "second books", or they enjoy this kind of attention more.

Because the elites have outstanding conditions in all aspects, they have a strong desire to perform in front of the public. The sudden proficiency in English between the two male guests in "Heartbeat 7" is related to this secret psychology of showing off. They may look pretentious, but they don't resist showing themselves in front of the camera, and will even take the initiative to make jokes in order to attract attention.

And what about ordinary people? He laughs at himself as a "rat in the gutter," and tries his best to reduce his sense of existence in reality, hoping that no one will notice him. Expose yourself to netizens and be judged? I believe that most "second books" do not have this courage.

It is true that the "two-book content" in this year's comedy variety shows is very high. For example, Fu Hang of "Comedy Conference Stand-up Season" often actively cue himself that he has "low education" and "I am from a college degree." However, the nature of the comedy variety show is different from Workplace variety shows are different from romance variety shows. They are more focused on competition, and the proportion of reality shows is not that heavy.

Find a way to balance between fantasy and reality

Objectively speaking, starting from the second half of 2022, the entire public opinion field is anti-elitism. Netizens deconstruct elites, make fun of authority, and use them as material for abstraction. If the variety show emphasizes elitism too much, it will certainly arouse the disgust of the audience.

coldly believes that for amateur variety shows, "high-quality human beings" are still the key to capturing the audience. If it were really "ordinary men and women", unless their personal stories were extremely contagious, it would actually be difficult for the audience to be attracted to people similar to themselves. Rather than saying that the audience wants to watch a "second variety show", it is better to say that everyone wants to see more down-to-earth and down-to-earth content. In other words, the content presented in the program can make the audience feel "relevant to me".

In the entire content product market this year, "emotional value" is a hot concept. Whether it is a drama or a variety show, they all emphasize the need to "satisfy the emotional value of the audience" and "start from the audience's emotions." What is emotional value? To put it simply, can make people empathize, allow people to empathize, and also allow people to see some solutions to their own dilemmas.

So how to eliminate the sense of suspension in today’s amateur variety show content while ensuring “high-quality human beings”? Perhaps changes can be made in the following three aspects.

First, the guests can be elites, but the content discussed and the goals pursued should be related to ordinary people.

The "Offer" series has always been an elite narrative, but why did the first season become the White Moonlight in many people's hearts? In addition to the "first love complex", it is also because the content of the events it discusses is accessible to ordinary people.

A simple comparison, the first case of "offer1" is "Beauty Live Broadcast Reward". The anchor turned on the beauty filter and received a huge reward. Is this considered a fraud? This is what many viewers experience in real life. The first case of "Offer6" was a Bitcoin dispute. The buyer claimed that his money was to buy a car and ended up flowing into a third party. There are far fewer people playing Bitcoin than watching live broadcasts to reward people, and Bitcoin Disputes are still discussed within the framework of Hong Kong law.

In "Offer1", the lawyers go to the countryside to provide legal aid, which truly solves the problems of the fellow villagers. Moreover, the problems encountered by the fellow villagers are also very universal and have reference significance for the audience. The problem with this season's "Offer 6" is that the entire legal systems in Hong Kong and mainland China are different. No matter how "deep-rooted" it is among the people, it will only exist like a "TVB legal drama" for mainland audiences.

Secondly, in addition to appearance and academic qualifications, can have more dimensions when selecting guests, and can also eliminate the audience's aversion to elite narratives.

The "Heartbeat" series has had a high content of overseas returnees since the first season. However, this season the speeches of the two men became the fuse that set off the public opinion field. Basically, the two men were easily understood as wanting to show off. Little tricks to make the audience rebel.

Fan Yilan, who played in the last season of "Heartbeat 6", is also a returnee from overseas, and her internship unit is also very good. She was also revealed to be a rich second generation, but she is very popular among the audience because she speaks humorously and straightforwardly, and is nicknamed "Big" by many viewers. "Girl", she returns to Xindong House every day with a classy look on her face, which makes many viewers say "play me". So what the audience is annoyed about is not the elites, but "people pretending to be 13".

Or simply be more direct and take "surreal" to the extreme. The Korean romance drama "Supernatural Love" focuses on the emotions of goddesses, goddesses, and men. Although this kind of profession is far away from the audience, it is far enough away that it can use curiosity to pry the audience. When doing observation programs, "half an inch off the ground" is more deadly than "not grounded".

Third, it is suitable people to match suitable content.

Brain Zong is almost a gathering of elites, and no one has ever felt it was wrong, because in the audience’s mind, Brain Zong is a game for people with high IQs, and the source of everyone’s enjoyment is the stimulation of masters competing against each other. But romance dramas are different from workplace dramas. Some viewers have the need to use them as "life references". Some people will even summarize on social platforms how male and female guests in romance dramas pursue love, and what are the interns of workplace dramas? How to level up and fight monsters.

Based on this, it may be possible to lower the standards in other aspects while maintaining good looks, or the academic qualifications may be more down-to-earth, or the guests’ worries may be more popular, or the goals they ultimately accomplish may be universal. For example, can workplace dramas look beyond top professions such as lawyers and doctors, and turn their attention to professions that have a relatively lower threshold for the audience to understand?

In short, at a time when "emotional value" is so popular, variety show content must still achieve at least one point: "It's about me" . It allows people to empathize and empathize, and see the solutions to their own problems through the choices and growth of the guests.Otherwise, if we continue to follow the elite narrative, it will change from a "drama-style variety show" to an "amateur TV series." Then why don't the audience follow more well-produced TV series?