Chapter 23's skill in using scapegoating and crafting sentences seems to be at least on par with the third installment...
Zheng Qiufeng is the producer of "Shining Idol". From the first season to the fifth season, he has been the only chief PD of this talent show.
Before "Shining Idol," he was just a struggling director on the Kuyu platform. "Shining Idol" unexpectedly became a huge hit, which boosted his own status. In recent years, with the praise of various collaborators, Zheng Qiufeng has been living a very comfortable life.
"Shining Idol" has been running for four seasons, and each season has been very popular, making countless artists famous. It can be said that he is the tycoon of this talent show, and he has made a fortune from this show.
Perhaps Zheng Qiufeng still had the original intention of talent show when he was organizing the first season, but countless temptations overwhelmed him later. He had long forgotten about fairness and justice.
This is the fifth season of "Shining Idol". The popularity of any variety show tends to decline with each season. The female talent show on Whale TV next door chose to air at the same time, but Zheng Qiufeng was not worried at all.
One of the companies he's working with this season is very good at marketing. They've promised him he doesn't need to worry about generating buzz or marketing hype. Plus, "Shining Idol" doesn't need to worry about breaking into the mainstream; just selling the debut spots will be enough for him to recoup his investment.
So, just like in the previous two seasons, although Zheng Qiufeng was the chief PD, he didn't really keep a close eye on the progress. He would only occasionally show up at the factory to make a quick appearance, leaving everything else to his deputy.
When his deputy first reported the promised situation to him, he didn't take it seriously. This had happened before; a contestant would be noticed by a fan who was good at creating content or a big blogger, and after producing some videos, their ranking would skyrocket.
This estimate, called Promise, is no exception.
In the past, their approach was to edit the footage of trainees who unexpectedly stood out in later episodes to make them invisible, thus eliminating them as a matter of course.
However, by the time the promise emerged, the first round of voting had already ended, saving them the trouble of taking any steps.
This person didn't even have any screen time before, so they definitely wouldn't make it past the first round.
Even without Zheng Qiufeng's explanation, everyone in the production team thought the same thing; it was just a last-ditch effort.
Who knew this kid would actually advance, and not just barely make it, but 44th place!
After receiving the vote count and rankings, the assistant director took a special look at the list, paying particular attention to whether Yingxu's name was among the last few.
If it happens, he'll simply change the ranking of the promised character and eliminate him directly.
He was relieved when he didn't see the results and didn't bother to look at the rankings carefully. He just handed the list of rankings to the interns to write the promotion statements.
Not only was the deputy PD present when it was time for Yi Shun, but Jung Choo-poong was also there. After all, this was an important event. Everyone was stunned when they heard Ying Xu's name. Jung Choo-poong glared at the deputy PD and then spent a long time checking the tickets after the event.
It turned out that this person's advancement was not an accident at all.
It was not because he had fans, nor because he was suddenly seen, but because of a very large amount of milk tickets.
The backend data shows that 95% of his votes came from milk tickets. For this 44th place ranking, he must have spent at least seven figures on milk tickets.
With such wealth, why did he spend it all on buying milk? Wouldn't it be better to give him the money? A seven-figure sum could easily be given to him to be a member of a small royal family.
Zheng Qiufeng was surprised and worried that the milk ticket might have been voted for by a popular contestant by mistake. He then checked Ying Xu's identity and found that his family was indeed very rich and had nothing to do with the entertainment industry. His family owned a large chain of supermarkets and had no connections in the entertainment industry.
No wonder.
Zheng Qiufeng felt it was a bit of a pity; this family really didn't know what was good for them, or rather, they were simply wasting their talents.
That's a seven-figure sum, and it's just being wasted on advancing in the first round.
This family doesn't seem to use their brains or think of ways to build connections. If we gave them the money, they could easily have ranked 14th, let alone 44th.
Zheng Qiufeng shook his head regretfully, reached out and closed Yingxu's profile page. Even if the other party really wanted to contact him and offer money, he couldn't accept it now.
All the debut spots and scripts for this season have been revealed, and there aren't even any left to secure a spot. It's just that Yingxu was unlucky and not very smart, failing to choose the right path.
It was confirmed that Yingxu's advancement was an accident. After figuring out the source of the other party's vote pool, Zheng Qiufeng immediately instructed the assistant PD to make sure to delete all of Yingxu's scenes, leaving none if possible, and absolutely not giving him any opportunity to increase his popularity.
The second round of voting had a much deeper pool of votes than the first round. Even if the Ying family continued to throw in a lot of milk votes, they might not be able to get in. Without any external help, even if they tried to manipulate things, they definitely wouldn't be able to get into the third round.
Zheng Qiufeng knew that Yingxu was a minor celebrity on the forum, but so what? Without the support of media attention, even the most popular person could fade into obscurity, let alone someone like Yingxu who had no existing fan base.
With limited debut spots, fans of popular contestants are happy to have one less competitor. He doesn't think these show fans are generous enough to vote for a competitor for their favorite.
What hidden gem? It's just empty talk.
The assistant PD followed the instructions and immediately told the editor to cut out the scenes featuring Yingxu. As a result, Yingxu's acceptance speech was cut out, leaving only a few frames of footage announcing the rankings.
This was something that couldn't be cut out, since the rankings before and after the announcement had already been made, and skipping over the 44th place would be abrupt.
However, the editor skillfully cut a wide shot to the few seconds when the promised rankings were announced, without giving the other side a close-up.
The assistant PD was very satisfied during the review and even praised the editor for his dedication. Little did he know that this dedication would become the fuse that pushed the "Shining Idol" program team into a fire pit.
Zheng Qiufeng did not review the film. Although his deputy showed it to him, he was too lazy to look at it frame by frame. He just glanced at it and turned off his phone to go to sleep. When he woke up, his phone was full of missed calls from his deputy.
He frowned as he dialed the number, only to hear news that sent chills down his spine.
"Master, Yingxu is trending on social media, and so are you. The issue of his scenes being cut is causing a huge uproar. Netizens are digging up old footage and saying they're going to calculate the runtime and sue us!"
What? !
Zheng Qiufeng opened the Weibo trending topics with disbelief. He could understand every word his deputy said, but he couldn't understand the rest when they were put together.
What do you mean he's trending? He's just a behind-the-scenes producer, what's so special about him that he's trending?
And what's all this fuss about cutting scenes? Isn't this a perfectly normal thing?
Until he clicked on the trending topic, Zheng Qiufeng was still hoping for the best. He thought that what his deputy said about the big fuss over the cuts was just a small fuss from the fans. It wasn't uncommon before. There were always fans who wanted to protect their rights, and they would complain about things like the length of the cuts and the content of the plot. In the end, nothing came of it. He thought that a nobody like him could cause a big fuss.
But when he clicked on the trending topics and saw that Yingxu's name was ranked first, and when he saw the data of the pinned video on the trending topics square, his mind went blank.
not good.
170,000 reposts, 60,000 comments, and a million likes!
Even the release of the theme song didn't generate such exaggerated data.
Zheng Qiufeng didn't miss the name of the person who posted the video. He knew at a glance that it was Yingxu's fan site. He didn't even dare to open the comments section. Instead, he opened the other person's homepage with trembling hands. He was surprised to find that the other person's homepage only had this one post, but the number of fans had reached an astonishing 300,000.
And the number of reposts and likes for that Weibo post continues to rise.
He finally understood why his deputy had sounded so flustered.
This level of popularity is enough to overshadow the entire show.
Zheng Qiufeng didn't dare to look closely. After exiting the trending topic, he took several deep breaths before clicking on the next trending topic with his name on it. As soon as he entered, he was bombarded with red-background posters.
He slept for a long time, and when he woke up, the incident had already gone through a full cycle of development, with some fast-moving KOLs even making their own吐槽 (tu cao, meaning to criticize or criticize) videos, and the data was very high.
Zheng Qiufeng was still trying to mentally prepare himself when his phone rang again. It was a call from his boss.
The moment the call connected, the other party launched into a tirade: "What are you doing? Why didn't you answer the phone for so long? Do you know how big this mess is? People from above have come to ask me about it. I don't care what you were up to before, you have to settle this today. One of the sponsors has already contacted me to withdraw their funding. If they really leave, you'd better find a way to cover the losses!"
Zheng Qiufeng was scolded like a grandson and didn't dare to refute. At this moment, he didn't care about making any mental preparations and obediently clicked on the trending topics to observe the situation.
After carefully reviewing it, he complained bitterly. No wonder this matter had caused such a big stir; it turned out to be related to Jian Mingzhou's incident.
Jian Mingzhou was trending on social media for the past few days because of his scandal. It was originally just a relationship issue, but it ended up getting involved in his debut as well. An insider revealed that YueDong made a deal with "Shining Idol" to exchange Pei Zixuan's center position for Jian Mingzhou's debut spot.
This incident immediately caused a huge uproar, even surpassing the sensational love scandal involving Jian Mingzhou at one point. The reason is simple: the other party involved was Pei Zixuan.
Pei Zixuan's fans are quite formidable. Fortunately, their main target is YueDong, otherwise Zheng Qiufeng would have had a real hard time dealing with them.
The "Shining Idol" program team has been struggling to shake off the labels of "vote rigging," "script," and "behind-the-scenes manipulation" because of Jian Mingzhou's incident. Just when they finally managed to shift the focus of Pei Zixuan's fans to Yue Dong, Ying Xu suddenly appeared.
Major platforms are now condemning the rampant behind-the-scenes manipulation in "Shining Idol," accusing the production team of being utterly unfair and blatantly discriminating against the contestants. The video that was supposed to have been leaked went viral on multiple platforms, attracting countless onlookers, and the program's public opinion control department was simply unable to withstand the pressure.
"Master, what should we do? The online uproar has escalated to the point where they're demanding a third party check the votes from previous years." The deputy's face was filled with panic. The official Weibo account's comment section was already flooded with messages, and he had also received a call from the supervisory department.
Zheng Qiufeng was also in a real bind, but his subordinates were all panicking, and their superiors were urging him on. Even though he was unwilling, he had no choice but to give in.
“Go and re-edit the fifth episode, no, re-edit the first five episodes, and then randomly fire an intern, saying it was employee negligence.” Zheng Qiufeng said through gritted teeth, “Re-cut in the scenes with Yingxu, and don’t deliberately cut his scenes anymore.”
The deputy looked up in surprise, but seeing Zheng Qiufeng's dark expression, he didn't dare to ask any more questions and could only lower his head in agreement.
...
Shi Yao slept soundly, and when she woke up, she checked the backend data and found that it was much better than she had imagined. The Bilibili site directly topped the hot list, with more than a million views. The Weibo was even more exaggerated, with Yingxu still at the top of the hot search. Her Bilibili site account gained 300,000 followers in one go.
This fan-attracting speed is even more exaggerated than Yingxu's.
She switched platforms and quickly browsed through the information, only to be surprised to find that the situation had escalated to a point where it was no longer fair to the show. Many fans were calling on bystanders to join them in reporting the issue and requesting that authorities send someone to investigate the votes.
She initially just wanted to give Yingxu a little emotional manipulation by her fans.
However, "Shining Idol" has been plagued by negative news recently. Shi Yao set a precedent, and the show has gone completely off the rails ever since. Unless the production team produces some convincing evidence, this matter is unlikely to end so easily.
It's true that the production team is too arrogant. Just a few days ago, there was a huge uproar because of Jian Mingzhou's situation, and many show fans criticized it for being "scripted." This time, they even dared to cut the scene out of the show.
The issue of his severely insufficient screen time in previous episodes has been brought up again, especially since he was a two-time A-class student. There were only a few A-class students in the initial stage performance, and everyone else's full stage performance was shown, but his was completely cut from the main episode. In the theme song, he was still an A-class student, but he was still not given any screen time. In the selection of the center, everyone else was shown except him, and he had a pitifully small part in the first performance, with inexplicable cuts to his shots.
Combined with the fact that his speech was cut from the latest episode, fans have compiled a list of ten deadly sins of the "Shining Idol" program team.
After this review, passersby have a clearer understanding of just how outrageous the production team is. In fact, Ying Xu wasn't the only one treated this way. It's just that the production team was too arrogant and didn't bother to hide anything, showering Ying Xu with all sorts of gifts. And Ying Xu himself was too good-looking, with no shortage of singing and dancing skills, which directly molded him into a "perfect victim."
The show has completely backfired. Bystanders only need to look at the summary from the fans to understand all the show's bizarre actions, which is quite convenient.
Yingxu gained a million followers on Weibo overnight, and the number of followers on his super topic also surged. Although many of them were just casual observers, there were also quite a few who seriously invested in him, and some of them were die-hard fans who were genuinely moved and turned into loyal supporters.
Fan clubs, data teams, anti-black stations, super topic hosting teams, green petal groups... in short, all the standard equipment for show-offs was set up overnight at lightning speed. Even several fan site admins emerged. Although they didn't have videos like Shi Yao, they posted a few pictures of themselves going to and from get off work, and the angles looked similar.
Yingxu's super topic activity even jumped to the top of the trainee list, with hundreds of thousands of interactions, leaving the popular trainees in the debut group far behind. Other individual camera shots also saw a surge in data.
The production team can monitor the real-time voting situation backstage. If they were in the mood to watch, they should be able to see how rapidly Yingxu is climbing the ranks.
Shi Yao looked at the data, which showed serious exceedances, and a satisfied smile appeared on her face.
Now no one should question whether Yeong-kook will be able to secure a debut spot.
Although this popularity is only temporary, it's impossible for Yingxu's supertopic to be so active every day. Once this matter passes, the trainees who are usually in the top three will probably suppress Yingxu again. But now that the foundation has been laid, it's only a matter of time before she reaches a higher position.
Shi Yao didn't know who the person who created the fan club was, but they seemed quite experienced. She looked at the recruitment post from the fan club and the Weibo post calling on casual fans. Their skillful wording showed they were not novices.
[@Yingxu National Fan Club: Hello everyone, this is the temporary lead planner of the club. The club is currently severely short-staffed. Please send your resumes if you are an experienced fan with time.]
Secondly, I'd like to address a few current issues. Everyone has witnessed what Yingxu has been going through recently, and I'm very pleased to see everyone speaking out for Yingxu. We must continue to fight for her rights until we receive a fair and official response. I will compile some texts and post them on my homepage so that fans can flexibly switch between different wording when fighting for their rights.
Besides protecting our rights, there's another equally important thing: voting. The second round of voting started last night, with only half the voting time of the first round. Time is tight, and we even started a night later than other organizations, so we absolutely cannot slack off in the remaining time.
The fight for rights must continue, and so must the voting! The data team has already purchased a batch of accounts. Those interested in joining the voting team, please send a private message to the administrators for approval as soon as possible. The process is very simple. Let's work together to help Yingxu debut!
This skill in choosing words and constructing sentences suggests that she has been a fan of at least three idols.
Shi Yao felt relieved. Although she wanted to help Ying Xu get back on her feet, she really didn't have time to do the work of the fan club. However, the fan club was crucial for the trainees during the competition. She had originally thought that if she couldn't find a reliable person, she would temporarily fill in for a while. Now it seemed that she didn't have to worry about this problem at all.
The promised incident caused quite a stir. Shining Idol's official Weibo account has remained silent since last night, and the comments are completely unreadable. Just when Shi Yao was wondering how the other side would deal with this matter, the official Weibo account suddenly came back to life and posted a long article with a document image attached.
The statement claims that the production team is completely innocent and was unaware that Yingxu was being deliberately treated differently. Because there are many staff members in the team, each group has countless staff members. The fact that all of Yingxu's scenes were cut was not because the head PD was giving him special treatment, but because of the negligence of an intern editor.
The master tapes were huge and complicated, and it was inevitable that some omissions would occur during the sorting process. We were also not careful when connecting them, and as a result, a few trainees were missed (the Shining Idol program team went to great lengths to find two trainees with very little screen time to make up for it in order to prove that there was no discrimination).
Finally, Zheng Qiufeng stated that his failure as the chief PD in reviewing the footage was his dereliction of duty, but the production team absolutely did not intentionally discriminate, and there was no money transaction to exchange for screen time or script. As the party primarily at fault, the intern editor has been dismissed, and the first five episodes are being re-edited. Once the re-editing is complete, the previous episodes will be replaced to ensure that no more mistakes or omissions occur.
The accompanying document image was the dismissal statement from the intern editor. Shi Yao clicked her tongue repeatedly as she read it. This familiar tactic of taking the blame—sure enough, it was another intern taking the fall.
The editing was done without any instructions; it was entirely the intern's own improvisation. Who would believe that?
It's hard to say whether interns will even get to access the master tapes.
Shi Yao admired Zheng Qiufeng's shrewdness. He accurately grasped the most pressing needs of Yingxu's fans, made up for what they wanted, and even made a promise that even if the apology was full of loopholes, Yingxu's fans would not pursue the matter as relentlessly as before.
After all, all the fans want is for their idol to debut.
Of course, Yingxu's fans didn't want the show to be canceled because of the investigation, otherwise Yingxu wouldn't be able to debut. The reason they kept pressing the issue was simply because they knew how cunning the production team was. If they hadn't been pushed to this point, the other party would have been too arrogant to back down.
There is no fairness in the entertainment industry. Talent shows are just a glamorous facade, and every position has a price tag set in advance.
Did no one realize before that the amount of screen time and the editing of the script were wrong? Of course, some did. Anyone who watched a couple more seasons would have felt the intense situation. The reason no one spoke up before was twofold: first, most of the trainees whose scenes were cut were unknown, and even if a few were discovered, it wouldn't cause a stir; second, there wasn't a suitable opportunity.
Talent shows are a niche hobby, and if they can't break out of that niche, no one will pay attention. Besides, it's not like there are people who are really trying to stand up for others, so it just gets buried.
Having tasted success, the production team knew this approach was feasible and became even more extreme. However, they unexpectedly ran into a brick wall this time, facing attacks from Pei Zixuan's fans and an unexpected bombshell from Ying Xu.
It can be said that Yingxu's successful rights protection this time was also due to the help of Pei Zixuan and Jian Mingzhou.
But so what? These are all Shi Yao's customers anyway. Shi Yao watched with delight as her favorability rating soared in the back office. It was a win-win situation, so why not?
[Congratulations! The key supporting character has increased your favorability by 40 points, and a new quest has been unlocked.]
Side Quest 2 Unlocked: Obtain 100 points of favorability from the supporting character. Progress: 90/100
Task Reward: ? ? ?
"Side Quest Two?"
A mechanical voice suddenly rang in my mind, followed by the system's exaggeratedly loud voice: "My God, host, Yingxu's favorability towards you is already 90 points! You're about to win him over!!"
Shi Yao was too lazy to pay attention to its overreaction. The bosses she had worked with so far were all quite easy to get along with. Apart from Yingxu, who had a 90% favorability rating, the other two had 80% each. One of them had never even met her before. The favorability rating of this system was quite easy to determine.
She suddenly noticed something and asked curiously, "Wait a minute, Tong, does Yingxu know that I was the fan site admin that day?"
Otherwise, how could I have increased her favorability so much?
"I don't know, host. Yingxu doesn't know who you are. On the surface, he only knows that you are Boss Daqiang. But regardless of whether he knows your true identity or not, he will still increase his favorability towards you."
"That's quite humane," Shi Yao hummed contentedly.
Suddenly her phone vibrated twice. After checking, Shi Yao realized that someone was trying to contact her from her old WeChat account.
Could it be a former colleague?
[Bai Wenning: Hello, are you busy?]
[Bai Wenning: I'd like to ask, is your studio... still operating?]
Author's Note: I'm here! Our childhood is about to embark on a new journey~
From now on, updates will be scheduled for 9 PM every night, so everyone can watch earlier and go to bed earlier, hehe, instead of staying up until the early hours of the morning~
Thank you to all the lovely people who actively left comments, sent negative feedback, and donated nutrients! Seeing you all makes me even more motivated to write!
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 2024-06-11 22:53:47 and 2024-06-12 20:55:37!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine: Weisheng's End (1);
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Muse Bookstore Management Witch 43 bottles; Golden Left Straight 30 bottles; Styl 10 bottles; Momo 5 bottles; Fatty Xi's Film 4 bottles; A Tu 3 bottles; ~Walking Alone in the Future 2 bottles; Salt Sticky Shell Drill, Getting Richer and Richer, Salmon, Future Plan 1 bottle;
Thank you so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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