Chapter 12

Director Chen Yuan is not someone who would compromise. To put it bluntly, she has a bad temper.

She is a well-known iron lady in the variety show industry who has the final say. The original owner was considered honest under her control, and he always did things secretly to cause trouble and bully others. For this young master, it was already a fantasy that he could hold back until the finals before he failed.

As soon as Su Ning picked up the phone, he heard a voice coming from the other end: "Su Ning, you'd better give me a reasonable explanation."

The voice was oppressive even through the mobile phone. Unlike Su Hongda who relied on emotions to control the situation, Chen Yuan's tone was calm and gentle. However, when the program was being filmed, many trainees did not dare to speak loudly in front of her.

"Director Chen, I think the press conference is the best explanation for this matter." Su Ning replied, "At least the public's negative opinions about the program team have indeed decreased, right?"

Previously, it was said that the program team's safety facilities did not meet the standards. The leaked pictures pointed out that it was someone who maliciously sabotaged it. The safety rope was indeed cut, and the program team did send the person to the hospital in time when faced with the accident. Later, it was said that it was under pressure from investors to help the evil. Su Ning's actual withdrawal from the competition just denied this point.

Chen Yuan is a person who cherishes her reputation. The show "Idol Star Map" has had a very good reputation until its fourth season, because it has received huge investment, produced several popular contestants and an out-of-the-box stage. The popularity of this season has finally accumulated and it could have ended successfully, but it suffered an unexpected disaster. That's why Chen Yuan is so dissatisfied with Su Ning, and she also has a lot of resentment towards Guangying Entertainment. This time, she didn't even show up.

The fact that the call came back at this time was enough to show that the other party's attitude had softened.

Sure enough, the other party humphed upon hearing this, but did not deny it. He just continued to ask, "Okay, you said in front of the reporters that you want to change the competition system. When did you discuss this with us?"

"If I don't say that, the audience will probably be upset, so I came to discuss this with you as soon as I got off the stage," Su Ning said, "You can't blame me for making a decision first and acting later. After I withdrew from the competition, there was one player missing on the final night, so the competition system must be adjusted. The difference lies in the degree of change."

Generally speaking, Su Ning's withdrawal will be treated as a direct absence, and the program arrangement of the final night performance will be adjusted accordingly.

The problem is that the original owner, who has a lot of resources, had two stages on the final night, one for a group performance and one for a solo performance. The time on the final night was very tight, and with Su Ning's absence, the parts of the two stages had to be reallocated.

There are quite a few adjustments involved, and even the content that other students have already practiced needs to be re-arranged and practiced.

Time was already very tight, not to mention that Sang Le was also injured. According to the original schedule, it was not certain whether he could recover well enough to perform on the final stage, which put Chen Yuan in a dilemma.

"Under the current circumstances, we can only postpone the finals," Su Ning's tone did not change at all because of her offensive words, and he still sounded very calm, "Otherwise, Sang Le's injury will definitely not be healed in enough time."

"You said postponement, so postponement?" Chen Yuan's voice instantly rose twice. "Are you kidding me? Are you asking the platform if it agrees? Are the investors if it agrees? Are the advertisers if it agrees? Do the fans still have the patience to wait?"

"I know all this," Su Ning patiently waited for her to finish her questioning, "I have a way."

Chen Yuan didn't believe it: "What can you do?"

Su Ning replied: "We can have a resurrection match."

"In recent years, talent shows have never had a resurrection competition system, but Idol Star Season 4 can give it a try."

But after he finished speaking, Chen Yuan sneered when she heard these three words and replied, "You are kidding me."

Shen Mingzheng, who was listening to this, frowned and seemed to disagree.

Nowadays, talent shows rarely have a resurrection system, especially before the finals. That's because every voting result is determined by fans' real money, and it is the most direct reflection of public popularity. If you lose, you lose. The tension and excitement brought by the "only this time" opportunity will make fans and spectators even more excited.

If there is a resurrection match, it is equivalent to giving room for maneuver. It seems to be giving opportunities to the eliminated people, but in fact it will reduce the sense of urgency of each qualifying round. It is not worth the loss for the program team, and it is unfair to the successful breakout players.

To be more cruel, those who didn't make it into the top 20 are regrettable, but they didn't suffer in terms of popularity. Even if they were successfully resurrected, they would just show up on the final night and have no ability to compete for a debut position.

Variety shows are meant to be a topic of conversation. It is inappropriate to put a loser's resurrection match before the important finals night to slow down the progress. On the contrary, if the resurrection match delays the originally scheduled finals night, it will greatly affect the broadcast volume, and no interested party will agree to it.

It seems like it can save the situation and buy time, but if you think about it carefully, it is not a good choice.

But Su Ning was not panicked at all.

He seemed to have fully anticipated the other party's reaction, and then he explained in detail: "Director Chen, I know the reason. This time is different. I took the initiative to withdraw from the competition, and I took the initiative to withdraw from the competition right before the final. No one expected this to happen."

"We all know that a group of old faces who have been eliminated have little meaning in the resurrection match. They are just around 20th place, which is not enough to be the prelude to the final night.

"But what if this time we have a resurrection match and a challenge match together, and in addition to the veteran players, there are also new and especially competitive players joining in?"

Chen Yuan was stunned and asked, "What do you mean?"

Su Ning continued, "What I mean is that this is not only a resurrection, but also a challenge match. Or I shouldn't call it a resurrection match, but a replacement match to be more precise."

"Half of them are old players who were eliminated before and have regrets and are now getting another chance. More importantly, the other half are new faces."

"For example, I remember that the talent show "Fuel Youth" on a rival platform just ended a month ago. It was quite popular, but the tenth and eleventh place winners who failed to debut had some popularity, and the vote difference was very small. Their companies have no plans to debut in the short term, so I think they might not reject this opportunity."

The two of them didn't speak for a long time. When Chen Yuan spoke again, the words seemed to be squeezed out from between her teeth: "Inviting people from the rival show, you..."

"It's a friendly competitor," Su Ning corrected her. "Speaking of which, Idol Star Map is a little more popular. If you don't make your debut on other shows, you should fight for every opportunity, right? And the contestants who don't make their debut don't sign a competition agreement."

This is indeed a little interesting.

This year is known as the year of talent shows, with several video platforms competing against each other and all of them very popular. Idol Star Season 4 is considered a dark horse that has emerged from the rear, but the Boiling Youth program team has always been wealthy and has always been a hot topic, especially this season when the votes for the debut position were very close, and many fans felt very sorry for that. If they had really been invited, they might have had a chance to compete for the debut position.

This idea is bold, but it is not worth trying.

On the other end of the phone, Chen Yuan's mind was already spinning, but she still said, "That's it? It's a hot topic, but can the actual popularity keep up? After all, they are also a group that has not debuted yet, and our idols are more popular than them..."

"Of course we can't rely on them alone," Su Ning said, "In addition to those who have already participated in the talent show, we can also recruit a few trainees from Qilin Entertainment."

When the name "Qilin" was mentioned, he heard Chen Yuan take a deep breath.

Kirin Entertainment is the undisputed top 1 agency in the young idol circle. Its trainees are famously carefully selected and usually would not participate in outside talent shows. The debut spots in the internal competition are more precious to them. After all, all the groups launched by Kirin have always been popular.

Chen Yuan had extended an olive branch to that party before, but Qilin Entertainment didn't respond at all, being extremely arrogant.

But now it's different.

"The popularity of Idol Star Chart this season is quite high. If they can keep up in the future, the group's development will definitely not be worse than those of Qilin's groups. I believe they are likely to agree if we invite them now," Su Ning said. "On the other hand, this is the first time in recent years that Qilin's trainees have participated in external talent shows. If they show up, they have a chance to make the debut group."

Judging from the level of discussion, Idol Star Season 4 is indeed the most watched talent show in recent years. If someone could really replace Su Ning and debut, even a trainee from Qilin would find it difficult to refuse. With Su Ning's withdrawal, the vacant position is a real shortcut to fame.

There are so many trainees in Kirin, but not all of them can be selected by the company to debut. Even those top trainees with great prospects have to count the time. Being an idol is a job that only young people can do, and the chance that Idol4 can give is enough to make them look sideways.

With such a heavyweight player joining, Chen Yuan immediately had many other choreography ideas in her mind to arouse more audience expectations and make the show more watchable.

After the announcement of the qualifying match, the outside world will not know who will come to challenge, and the players who are currently in closed training will not know either. If it is choreographed well, it may contribute to a very exciting and variety-like reaction among the students alone.

The most important thing about a variety show is the highlights. If what Su Ning said is done, this qualifying match will be really interesting.

While she was stunned, she heard Su Ning add: "Guangying Entertainment also knows that my incident has indeed had a great impact on the program, so Guangying Entertainment will make up for the extra expenses generated by the supplementary competition with additional investment."

Chen Yuan: …

This is really watertight.

She was a little confused and said, "Additional investment? Wait, it's not free, right? Tell me, what other conditions do you have?"

"Director Chen is a talented and ambitious person. It is a great achievement for Guangying Entertainment to have a stable cooperation with you. Money is a small matter," Su Ning said sweetly, not asking for money. He then praised, "I just hope that you can give Guangying Entertainment a spot in the next replacement match. Just think of it as giving us another chance."

Who does he want to put in the pick-up game?

Chen Yuan hesitated for a moment and asked again, "It's definitely not you, right?"

"Of course not," Su Ning said, "I just said that I will not debut again after I withdraw from the competition. I want to choose another trainee from the company. After all, Guangying Entertainment has invested so much money, so they should give our company an explanation."

Chen Yuan: "It's OK as long as it's not you."

She was straightforward and didn't care about anything, but Chen Yuan couldn't help wondering, considering the strong opponents Su Ning mentioned, if Guangying Entertainment added more people, it would be eliminated. Su Ning wouldn't have any unrealistic fantasies, right? Did he think that the artist management department that Guangying Entertainment had just put together could beat Qilin?

So Chen Yuan replied with some caution: "Have you thought about it? The play-offs are also based on voting. Now voting has to go through a regulatory platform, which is very strict. I can't help you with anything behind the scenes. Don't have any bad ideas." Yan Shanting

"You're overthinking it. It's just a spot. Everyone depends on their ability. It's good to show up," Su Ning said. "I know the rules and I won't cause any trouble for you again."

His words were indeed flawless, very different from before, and Chen Yuan was also straightforward enough. After thinking about it, she nodded and said, "Okay."

"Well, if you think this idea is feasible, why don't you just bring the people from the platform to the Light and Shadow Entertainment right now? Mr. Shen Mingzheng is here too," Su Ning said, "I have the project proposal and PPT ready. Seeing that the public is paying so much attention to the changes in the competition system, time is money. The sooner we make a decision, the sooner we can announce it to the public. What do you think?"

The program is recorded in Haicheng. The people who can intervene in the program are the chief director Chen Yuan, the video platform Orange Video that broadcasts the program, and two investors - Shen's Pictures and Guangying Entertainment. It is said that the title sponsors of the program are all sponsors brought in by Shen's Pictures, and they completely listen to Shen Mingzheng.

"I would have brought someone even if you hadn't told me."

Chen Yuan had originally planned not to see this troublemaker again in her life, but this morning was enough to overturn her impression of Su Ning. She ended up saying something lukewarm: "Su Ning, I didn't realize before that you are quite evil."

Su Ning smiled and said, "I'll take it as you are complimenting me."

He returned the phone to Shen Mingzheng. Chen Yuan spoke to him for a few more words. Shen Mingzheng replied, "I know," and hung up the phone.

When Su Ning turned around, he saw several faces with different expressions.

The assistant director opened his mouth wide. Shen Huai, who was standing there, looked at him as if he had seen a ghost. Although Su Hongda tried his best to suppress it, he still couldn't help but be surprised and asked him: "What plan? How can we have a plan and PPT?!"

"I have," Su Ning said comfortingly, "I finished writing it last night."

Working overtime on a plan at night is as natural to the workaholic Su Ning as eating and drinking. He is so energetic that he can even get up early to make breakfast.