I’m Really a Superstar

At Central TV Tower.

Many of the other departments and channels of Central TV also heard about this news.

“What?”

“The Voice’s program team managed to meet the deadline?”

“Goddammit, they’re way too amazing!”

“They could even meet such a deadline?”

“What a bunch of monsters!”

“In just slightly more than half a month’s time, they started with nothing and created a stage that is for a large-scale singing talent show? Regardless of the program’s viewership ratings, that kind of a work efficiency is quite incredible!”

“This group of people must have worked crazy hard.”

“Yeah, they must all be on drugs or something!”

“A good leader can bring about a good team. Zhang Ye truly has a few tricks up his sleeves.”

Many of the staff members of other program teams in Central TV were thinking to themselves, if such an urgent task was handed to them instead and they were told just one week before the broadcasting deadline, or even told right from the beginning when the program team was formed, they would not be able to do it. Completely setting up such a large stage in just 20 days, and even accomplishing the onerous tasks of holding the preliminary auditions, coaches invitation, pulling of sponsors and advertisers—all at the same time—, just hearing that alone would lead them to find it hard to imagine. As fellow colleagues of Central TV, they were indeed impressed by the program team of The Voice, and changed their opinions of them!

But as for the program, most of them were still skeptical of it.

“They might have met the deadline to get the broadcast out, but surely they can’t meet the targeted viewership rating that the station’s set, right?”

“That’s an unknown. I’ve heard that the station has already lowered their expectations to 0.7% for the average viewership ratings, but that’s still going to be tricky.”

“I guess we’ll find out tonight.”

“We don’t even know if they can finish recording or not. After all, time is really tight and that would contribute to possible mistakes. If it affects the broadcast quality or contributes to a broadcast mistake, then the consequences would be terrible.”

……

Meanwhile.

The outside world was not tranquil either.

All across the nation, in the streets and alleyways or in offices, discussions among the citizens were widespread.

“Ai, the broadcast of The Voice is starting tonight.”

“What? Today? I thought there was still a month until its broadcast?”

“That’s old news. The promotional commercials were already changed since last week, didn’t you see? The program that was slated to be replaced has had their host suspended over some incident, so The Voice was pushed ahead of schedule to fill the slot.”

“Whoa, isn’t that going to be a rush job then?”

“That’s true, a program that’s been rushed out like this will definitely be of terrible quality.”

“Yeah, even with ample preparation time, this program might not be be good, not to mention that it has now been forced by the situation and pushed ahead of schedule. Surely the quality of the program would be affected, no? I think this production fee of over 100 million RMB is definitely going to go down the drain. They’re not likely to do any better than the other similar talent shows that are airing now. So what if they have an impressive lineup? So what if their equipment is the best? It still boils down to the contestants. It’s not going to be of any help even if Sister Zhang is holding down the fort. The audience won’t watch the show from beginning to end without changing channels just because of her, right? No matter what, the coaches are really just the supporting cast of the show.”

“That’s what I think too.”

……

On the internet.

Topics regarding The Voice were rife.

“They’re starting the broadcast today!”

“It’s too soon. I only saw the promotions for it a while ago and they’re already broadcasting it today? Will this short amount of time be enough for them to make the show good? I quite like Zhang Ye, so I’m really worried for him. Could the fairy tale of Zhang Ye’s miraculous viewership ratings come to an end just like this?”

“Legends don’t last forever. They always get disproven someday.”

“But that can’t be blamed on Zhang Ye. Who asked that host to be involved in an affair and even get into trouble after photos were published? Otherwise, The Voice would not have been so hastily pushed to begin its broadcast!”

“Ai, this was all destined!”

“Teacher Zhang’s luck this time was really terrible!”

“Yeah, he was pretty down on his luck for this incident. I was initially quite looking forward to Teacher Zhang’s new program, but now this has happened. I don’t feel too good about it anymore. Just thinking of how the program only had a preparation period of 20 days, I doubt it’ll be any good. The only objective of this program now is to fill the hole in Central TV’s programming lineup, so I just hope that this is not a stopgap measure. At the very least, if they let the program come closer to completion, I’ll be very satisfied. Teacher Zhang is really unlucky. Just as he was getting things going, he had to meet with such a situation.”

Some comments were still considerably positive.

But the comments from some others were full of malice.

“This lousy program would not have been good anyway.”

“I’ve never thought that it would perform well, so it’s definitely going to be worse now!”

“Zhang Ye is really stupid. He had a rather interesting program but he sold it to Beijing Television instead and left himself with such a broken talent show to produce. He’s even pulling such silly gimmicks like claiming that the program will be judged only by listening to one’s voice. What is that? What’s so interesting about it? For all the other talent shows, not only are the contestants good-looking, they can also sing well. But what about The Voice? The only feature is that the contestants will need to sing well? No matter how bad-looking they are, it won’t matter? Then why would we want to watch your program? I’d rather watch someone who is pretty and can sing well!”

“Well said.”

“Zhang Ye doesn’t want to walk a proper path, but rather insists on walking into a dead end alley!”

“Besides, Zhang Ye seems to have the intention to move from fronting a show to working behind the scenes?”

“Oh? Why do you say that?”

“Just take a look at the past programs that Zhang Ye did rather well with. Those programs all involved heavy participation from the host or even depended fully on the host to make the program interesting. Like Zhang Ye’s Talk Show and Lecture Room, both these programs needed the host, Zhang Ye, to present the show from start till end. It all depended on the capability and talent of his mouth to make it work. He knows what others don’t, he can say things that others can’t—it’s like he’s the type of host no one can replace by simply replacing his role. But what about the singing talent show? For this genre of program, the host doesn’t play a big role in it! What could the host add to the program? All they do are the announcements, present the advertising slogan, what else? There’s basically nothing else. The review of the performances and mingling with the contestants are all up to the coaches, while singing is the job of the contestants. All of these have nothing to do with the host at all, so now do you all understand why people are not that optimistic about The Voice? Zhang Ye has thrown away his biggest advantage and relegated himself into becoming a supporting character. No! It’s more like he has given himself the most trivial of roles!”

“That’s sounds right.”

“When you analyze it that way, it really makes sense. This type of program could use anyone for its host and nothing would change. Anyone can do it, so the value of the role is not that significant at all!”

“Right, even I could do it!”

“Saying something on stage would only take a few lines. It seems like Zhang Ye might really be intending to retreat behind the scenes?”

“Zhang Ye’s new program was a jump too far from his usual style. It’s full of contradictions and has so many inexplicable issues. I really don’t understand how a professional like Zhang Ye could make such a mistake! Could it be that Zhang Ye has been used to working at low-level places like those local channels or online television stations, but when he arrived at the biggest television station in the country, he could not acclimatize to the culture and workings of it? And that affected him so much that he could not bring out his usual standard? Or could it be that this was his standard all along? It was just that all of us had imagined him to be too awesome in the past? Always expecting that Zhang Ye would be able to create the next miracle?”

“Hur hur, I guess no miracle will be happening no matter what this time.”

“Yeah, a miracle is only called a miracle because it doesn’t happen easily.”

At this time, Zhang Ye’s old bro, old classmate, and old colleagues all started standing up and speaking for Zhang Ye.

Crosstalk actor Yao Jiancai posted: “Never, ever look down on Zhang Ye. Sometimes when it comes to things people don’t feel optimistic about, my Old Bro Zhang will end up doing it better—that’s what my past experiences tell me!”

Peking University’s Chinese Department Teacher Su Na: “It hasn’t even broadcast yet, so nothing is set in stone.”

Beijing Television Host Dong Shanshan: “Based on what I know about Zhang Ye, when The Voice gets broadcast, it will definitely turn out different from what everyone is imagining in their minds. Believe me, I guarantee it! So, let’s wait and see! Zhang Ye has never disappointed everyone before, so I don’t think he will this time either!”

Songstress Zhang Xia: “Little Zhang is the most hardworking person I’ve ever met. For this program, Little Zhang has given a lot, so much so that no one could possibly start to imagine. I hope that everyone can be a little more tolerant of Little Zhang, as being the executive director, executive planner, and host of The Voice, he has had it very difficult in recent days!”

Singer Chen Guang: “Please give your support to The Voice of China!”

Singer Fan Wenli: “Tonight at 9 PM, let’s meet on TV!”

Zhang Yuanqi’s manager, Fang Weihong, also posted out of the blue: “Having worked with Teacher Zhang Ye many times, it has always been a very enjoyable experience. Even though Sister Zhang has never agreed to join such talent shows in the past, she decided to join this time because the program team has given us an offer we couldn’t reject. We were also attracted to the show because of Zhang Ye’s reputation, since we know what he is capable of, and therefore, we trust him too. Here’s something that I can reveal at the moment: for tonight’s broadcast, there will be a theme song for the show that will be performed during the opening. Although the song is going to be performed by the four coaches, the lyrics and melody were all created by Executive Director Zhang Ye.”

“Wow, there’s going to be a new song.”

“That’s true, we should at least watch it before judging!”

“Right, we’ll only know if it’s good or not if we watch it. It’s still too early to say anything now!”

“We should stop scolding Zhang Ye. I heard that he has not returned home for the past week and did not sleep much either, all because he was busy rushing the new program to make the broadcast deadline. Grandma Zhang is right, we should all be more tolerant of Zhang Ye, although the clown can be quite infuriating at times and often offends others!”

“Haha, it’s exactly because he has offended too many people, so whenever anything happens to him, many people come to doubt and criticize him, never missing out on an opportunity to do so. Actually, those people are just hoping to see Zhang Ye fail for once! They really want to see Zhang Ye make a fool of himself for once!”

“Yeah, countless people have already been slapped countless times by Zhang Ye. They are all hoping he will make a spectacle of himself one time so that they can remember that look of his when it happens. The situation with his new program right now is the most likely chance that it will ever happen.”

With so many celebrities supporting Zhang Ye, the discussion surrounding the topic once again blew up. This could also be considered as the last round of publicity bombardment before the broadcast. As the four coaches were under the payroll of the program now, they of course had to do their part and speak up for The Voice.

As for Yao Jiancai and Dong Shanshan, needless to say, it was because they had a very good relationship with Zhang Ye. Yes, by rights, as Beijing Television’s host, Dong Shanshan should have been more careful with some of her stand on things. Logically, it was also not good of her to help a Central TV host promote their show, but Zhang Ye and Beijing Television Station also had a good relationship, having fought, gotten embarrassed, and even helped each other when there were difficulties. So even though Dong Shanshan had helped Zhang Ye do a some publicity, it was nothing improper. With the added relationship of old classmates between the two of them, the station would not use this as an excuse to criticize her. It should also be mentioned that Dong Shanshan was getting popular at the moment and was already moving up toward the D-list Celebrity Rankings, so she could no longer be considered the same rookie she had been when she first joined the station.