I’m Really a Superstar

The next day, Zhang Ye left Chenchen behind for his parents to take care of. He woke up, brushed his teeth and washed up, then had a light breakfast before leaving for work.

At Central TV.

When he reached the office, a lot of people greeted him.

“Director Zhang.”

“You’re here?”

“Good morning, Teacher Zhang.”

“Your new show is really defying all common sense!”

“When is the second episode going to start record? It’s a great joy to watch.”

“Director Zhang, when it’s time for the recording of the second episode, remember to leave some seats for our program team, alright? We would like to attend too and hopefully learn something from your team.”

“Director Zhang, The Voice has become extremely popular now. The entire country is talking about you. Our program team will be starting a new program soon, do you think it would be possible to help us cross-promote it on your show during the commercial break in the middle for 10 seconds? The commercial breaks in between your show are being sold by Central TV Department 1 for such a high price now that we can’t even afford it if we wanted to. Do you think you could put in a word for us? Seven or eight seconds is fine too!”

A bunch of people were greeting him, but Zhang Ye did not know most of them.

Zhang Ye just smiled along. If anyone asked him for help, he would agree as long as it was a small matter. He finally got into the elevator and went upstairs to his program team office.

When he entered the office, he could immediately hear the gathered staff chattering loudly.

Little Wang laughed happily. “How explosive, we’re going to be famous!”

A female editor laughed. “Director Zhang’s really too awesome. A viewership rating of 2.01%! You didn’t see it, but I was working overtime in the office yesterday when the viewership ratings were released, and everyone in Central TV Department 1 was dumbfounded. All of them looked like they had seen a ghost! I don’t even need to mention how satisfying that felt!”

A male editor said, “A show no one was optimistic about had somehow leaped right to the top of the variety world. All of this still feels unreal to me!”

At this moment, everyone finally heard the footsteps.

“Ah, Director Zhang.”

“Director Zhang is here!”

Everyone went over and congregated. Most of the staff had the day off yesterday, so even if they knew about the viewership immediately after it was released, they did not have the chance to discuss it since they were not at work together. Today, the first thing they did when they arrived was discuss this issue. There were far too much they needed to get off their chests as they were very astonished by the results. Now that they saw Zhang Ye, they had even more things that they wanted to say that would last three days and nights. It was impossible to express their excitement and emotions in any language at this moment, or perhaps, only the pet phrase which Chen Guang always used would be able to describe it—this was truly unbelievable!

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “Did you all rest well yesterday?”

Wu Yi answered, “I did not rest at all!”

“Yup, yup.” Little Wang said, “After we heard about the viewership ratings, I was all perked up for the rest of the day. I couldn’t fall asleep until three in the morning. The entire day felt like a dream to me!”

Zhang Ye was tickled at this. “Then there’s no choice, even if you guys did not rest well. Because the preparation work beforehand still wasn’t enough due to being pressed for time, we still have to record the other contestants’ intro clips. We’ll have to jump back in with our engines running and get those intro clips done first. Then, depending on the time, we will record the blind auditions for episodes 2 and 3. As for how it will be arranged, that will depend on today’s progress. It’s best that we work fast so that we can record more episodes tomorrow.”

“Yes!”

“Got it!”

“Understood, Director Zhang!”

“The mission will definitely be completed!”

Everyone’s response was very loud and pumped full with energy!

If the viewership ratings and viewer response were not good, their spirits would have taken a blow and they would not have the passion to work anymore. After all, people needed acknowledgment from society to feel a sense of self-worth, and now that The Voice had leapt right to the top of the variety world, claiming the number one spot in recent years, they as a members of The Voice’s program team were full of spirit. They were now the top program team in the variety show industry, so their drive was also different. Without the need for Zhang Ye to say anything, everyone was even more enthusiastic than Zhang Ye the executive director. All of them just wanted The Voice to do well!

Number 1 in the industry!

They had never had such glory in their lives before!

Ha Qiqi who arrived a little later and had just walked in, greeted, “Ai, Director Zhang, good morning.”

Zhang Ye turned around. “Oh, you’re here? How’s the issue with Dahua Hotel? Do we have to refund them the cost? If they want, I will send someone to negotiate with them.”

Ha Qiqi smiled and said, “They won’t ask for a refund.”

“Oh?” Zhang Ye said.

Ha Qiqi said, “The executive of Dahua Hotel came to look for me again yesterday. It was already quite late and I was worried that you might be sleeping already, so I didn’t update you. When they saw that there were many people imitating your advertising messages online, they realized that many of those people were trying very hard to get the lines memorized. The name of Dahua Hotel was plastered all over the internet and helped them get the maximum publicity they could receive. The executive told me that this was a very good advertising effect, and as of yesterday, the main branch, along with 5 other branches of their hotels, were fully booked till the next weekend. From that, I think they could even be thinking of adding more advertising lines and surely won’t be asking for a refund.”

Zhang Ye nodded. “Then that’s good, it would be quite troublesome to handle if they really wanted a refund. We would still have to write the contracts and sign another advertiser. As long as the advertisements are effective and we do not let them down for supporting us since the beginning, it’s good enough.” As long as it did not require Zhang Ye to bend his artistic principles, it was for the best that all this turned out to be a win-win situation. If due to Zhang Ye reading the advertising messages too fast and thus contributing to a weaker effect of the ads, then Zhang Ye would definitely feel a little bad about it.

Suddenly, the office telephone rang.

Little Wang went to pick it up: “Hello, this is The Voice’s program team office.”

It was Jiang Yuan’s voice on the line: “I’m Jiang Yuan. Is your Director Zhang there yet?”

Little Wang quickly said: “Director Zhang is already here.”

“OK, let him know that I want to see him in my office for a while.” Jiang Yuan’s tone carried a smile in it. She could hear that he was in a rather good mood.

Little Wang hung up the phone and informed Zhang Ye, “Director Jiang wants to see you.”

Zhang Ye nodded and went out to take the elevator up to Jiang Yuan’s office.

Dong dong. He knocked on the door.

“Please come in.”

When he walked in, Jiang Yuan was currently drinking tea.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, “You were looking for me, leader?”

Jiang Yuan stood up and said, “Come, take a seat.” Having said this, he took a paper cup and asked, “What would you like to drink?” He was actually intending to personally pour a drink for Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye hurriedly went over to him to stop him. “Don’t, leader. I will help myself.”

Jiang Yuan did not insist. He said, “You’ve really helped Central TV Department 1 save face this time. After watching the recording of The Voice that day, I’d already felt that the viewership ratings would not be poor, but who could have thought that it would be this high? No one in the entire industry could have predicted such an outcome! Little Zhang, the credit is yours. Well done! You’ve done really well!”

Zhang Ye spoke a few humble words.

Jiang Yuan said, “What do you all intend to do from here?”

Zhang Ye responded, “We will be recording the second and third episodes tomorrow.”

Jiang Yuan thought about this for a moment, then said, “I only have one worry right now. The response to the first episode was too good and the effects of the show were great as well, which are both good and bad things for the show. The good thing is that it loudly announced the branding of our show to everyone and helped the show quickly gain a market share. But the bad part is that it’s likely the later episodes won’t be able to do as well as the first one? After all, there aren’t really that many good contestants and it will become harder to record a good episode later on. We’re just afraid that the show will run out of steam and the episodes won’t be shot as well as the first one, making the audience feel disappointed, thus making the viewership ratings slide accordingly. If the slide is too great, the branding created won’t be guaranteed anymore and might just be a flash in the pan.”

Zhang Ye laughed, “I’ve already considered that. We will definitely work hard to gain the satisfaction of the audience.”

Jiang Yuan asked, “Are you confident?”

Zhang Ye replied, “More or less.”

“Alright then, I’ll leave this to you!” Hearing him say that, Jiang Yuan knew that Zhang Ye definitely had it all planned out already. “I will be waiting to see the viewership ratings report about your second episode!”