Liu Jun, Zhang Chi/Guangming Daily
In the 2024 national variety show planning and filing, about half of the programs belong to the "variety n generation", that is, variety shows that have been produced and broadcast for many seasons, have a large number of viewers or have a certain topic popularity programme. In the first half of the year, 4 of the top 5 variety shows with the highest market share in feature film broadcasts on the entire network were "Variety n Generation". Among the top ten most broadcast TV and online variety shows in 2023, "n-generation variety" will account for 80%. In recent years, the "Variety n Generation" has become the main force in the variety show market, playing a leading role in major TV stations and long-form video platforms. High-quality "n-gen" not only has a stable audience and good reputation, but also has relatively strong business resources and a mature content iteration mechanism. However, despite the strong performance of the "n-generation variety" program market, it is facing the dilemma of increasingly difficult innovation. How to maintain high-quality development of variety shows places increasing demands on creators.
Changes in audience tastes force "n-generation variety" programs to speed up iteration
"n-generation variety" programs are usually broadcast in the first season, relying on their strong innovation capabilities and excellent artistic expression to stand out from the massive variety shows and win It has received widespread attention, achieved high ratings, and won widespread praise from a large number of viewers, forming a certain brand effect. This kind of traffic popularity and audience reputation can reduce the trial and error costs of video platforms and program creation teams, while quickly mobilizing the audience's attention, quickly seizing market opportunities, and realizing the content value and commercial value of the program itself. The increasingly strong content value and commercial value have attracted further capital investment, and the creative team has further followed up, allowing the variety show to continue season after season. After several consecutive seasons of fermentation, "Variety n Generation" has formed a relatively mature and stable production model, which is easier to maintain the audience's adhesion, and gradually formed the Matthew effect of "the strong gets stronger" in the variety show market.
At present, many "genre n" programs have entered a stable period of development, and have found relatively fixed development models in the external form and internal themes of the program. Many old "comprehensive n-generation" brands continue to exert efforts and innovate to maintain their market position and successfully extend their life cycles. " Extreme Challenge " has always focused on outdoor challenge sports and focused on establishing sincere links between people. It has still shown strong vitality after ten seasons of broadcasting. "China's New Rap" uses rap as a medium to tell the customs and customs of different regions, further expanding the boundaries and influence of rap culture, allowing rap to take root and grow in the soil of Chinese culture. At the same time, many new "n-generation variety" programs also show vitality and inject fresh blood into the field of variety shows. "Summer of the Band" explores various styles of bands and music culture, and provides the audience with multiple artistic feasts covering a variety of music types. " Maoxuewang ", which has gone through two years of development, uses "Maoxuewang's House" as the main shooting scene, and tells real and interesting stories between young friends who meet here every week in a relaxed chat atmosphere. Show the rich daily life and spiritual world of today's young people, and record their true growth. "Daddy", which is in its third season, has also broken through the previous creative model that focused on "stars and children" and introduced parent-child combinations from ordinary families to show the important role of men in family education and is committed to delivering positive family education. concept.
However, it is impossible for the "comprehensive n generation" to succeed everywhere. In today's new media environment, from short videos on social media to original series on streaming platforms to highly interactive live programs, various forms of entertainment content provide audiences with diverse and immediate choices. Audiences' needs, tastes, media literacy, and film and television literacy are also changing at an unprecedented speed in this process. They want to see content that resonates with their preferences, values, and lifestyles. These situations have posed greater challenges to the creation of "variety n-generation" programs. According to Yunhe data, the overall traffic of variety shows showed a downward trend in the first quarter of 2024, with a total of 5.7 billion effective plays of feature films, a year-on-year decrease of 5%. Even the tried-and-true variety show methods in the past will cause audiences to experience aesthetic fatigue, and the once amazing program formats will become commonplace.If "n-generation" programs want to continue their life cycle and maintain their market position, they must speed up their upgrades and iterations.
faces many difficulties such as homogeneity and stereotypes.
homogeneity and stereotypes cause audience fatigue and lead to market weakness. They are the core dilemmas that the "comprehensive n generation" will inevitably face. Take mystery variety shows as an example. In recent years, "Variety n Generation" mystery variety shows have used "mini-games, talent shows, and nostalgic sensationalism" as the fixed formula. There has been almost no substantive innovation in the rules for several seasons. The same situation also exists in music variety shows. Many programs not only have similar competition modes, but also have highly overlapping track selections and guest lineups. There are also observational variety shows that once made people shine with the innovative model of "first live reality show + second live studio observer commentary". However, today's "n generation" creators have widely used this model in many fields such as workplace experience, love and marriage, daily life, etc. However, there is no obvious original expansion in link design and narrative methods, and they still use repetitive processes. , gradually eroding the audience’s enthusiasm and expectations.
At the same time, weak ideological and intellectual qualities are also typical problems of some specific types of "variety n-generation" programs. For example, the topic settings of some talk-type "Variety n Generation" programs do not keep up with the cultural and social hot spots of the times, resulting in too much chatter and a lack of ideological depth and positive value. There are also some performance and sports "variety n-generation" programs that rely too much on star power, which weakens the essence of the program's focus on performing arts and promoting sportsmanship. There are even some programs that chase stars and attract audiences with gossips and private topics. In addition, the development of the "n-generation" also needs to be wary of the rise of pan-idol development programs. In recent years, some "comprehensive n-generation" people like to adopt a competition model. This model can introduce fresh faces to the program and bring new highlights and popularity to the variety show market. However, some creators simply pursue the contestants’ high topicality and good looks, instead of focusing on discovering the contestants’ actual talents, resulting in the program being too dramatic and suspended above reality.
It is particularly important to improve program quality and expand program horizons
In the current variety show market, only content that deeply meets user needs, has unique aesthetic value, is creative, well-produced, has a broad vision, and has a high position can stand out from the fierce competition. In the "comprehensive n-generation" innovation method, model innovation and style adjustment are commonly used methods. Because this can break through the audience's inherent imagination, open up a broader dramatic space, and bring freshness and participation to the audience. The "2024 Chinese Poetry Conference" has improved the competition link of "Big Waves in the Sand", turning the original random competition into a competition between people of matching age and strength, such as letting children compete with children, youths with youths, and two people from the Baihang Group. Two contestants from a group of relatives and friends competed, which was more fair. "Flowers and Boys", which has gone through 10 years of development, has been improved and upgraded starting from the style. From the beginning, it emphasized interpersonal conflicts and simply showed interpersonal frictions, to paying more attention to travel experience and humanistic exploration, and in a grander pattern. Exploring the emotional relationships between people. The friendly atmosphere brought about by sincere dialogue, mutual encouragement, and mutual care not only allowed the audience to feel the real warmth of the guests, but also realized the breadth of the world and the beauty of culture.
Innovation in program presentation and communication methods is also an important basis for creativity and production upgrades. Especially with the continuous advancement of technology and the demonstration effect brought by high-investment and large-scale hit programs, the audience's expectations for audio-visual experience continue to increase. Therefore, the creators of the "Integrated Generation" should pay more attention to how to enhance the audience's sense of participation and immersion through technical means, such as VR, AR, AI, etc. "Singer 2024" introduces the world's latest "immersive sound art" l-isa sound system to a music variety show for the first time, allowing the audience to clearly hear the performance details of every instrument and every singer in the music, and also adds a bilingual live broadcast time, supporting interactive modes such as cloud voting and member prediction. These changes made the audience's attention shine, and the program has been on the hot search list of major platforms for many days since its launch.
producers should also pay attention to improving the position of the program, focusing on the main theme, and strive to attract the audience's attention through the transmission of positive emotional value and mainstream value concepts. For example, "Farming", which has become relatively popular in the past two years, has opened up a "new track for pastoral variety shows." The program creatively allows young people to deeply experience daily life in rural areas. It not only allows contemporary audiences to understand food production and field work from a more immersive perspective, but also allows them to more truly feel the modern appearance of the new countryside, showing the beauty and beauty of labor. The value of perseverance and struggle. Many young viewers project their expectations for an ideal life onto the participants of such variety shows, hoping that through their stories, they can experience different life states and gain motivation to move forward. On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, "Flowers and Youth·Silk Road Season" went to the countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" to see China's "circle of friends around the world" through a study tour experience. Deeply experience the wonderful new life brought to the local area by the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. " Run·Yellow River Chapter " uses innovative game settings, live streaming and poverty alleviation and other new forms to show the important position of the Yellow River Basin as an ecological barrier, economic development, and key area for poverty alleviation, and depict the beauty of the urban culture of the Yellow River ecological economic belt.
As the main force in the variety show market, the "Variety n Generation" also needs multiple incentives such as policy support and market regulation. Policy support can stimulate creative output and attract creative talents to participate in program production by providing policy and financial support, innovative reward mechanisms and other measures. Market regulation can encourage program producers to explore and try different contents and formats, creating a good competitive atmosphere. In short, we should ensure the quality of programs while ensuring the diversity of program content, avoid problems such as homogeneity, vulgarity, and suspension, and create a healthy and sustainable film and television development environment with more and more high-quality "variety n generations" .
(Authors: Liu Jun and Zhang Chi are respectively professors at Communication University of China and research assistants at the Media Art and Culture Research Center of Communication University of China)
(Source: Guangming Daily)
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