They’re all reborn, what’s wrong with being a little more almighty?

Chapter 292 If You Can’t Win, Change the Rules
The statistics in the background showed that Zhang Wei's SMS votes had exceeded 200,000 votes, and the judges had just finished their comments.

Next, there will be a group PK with the other twelve contestants, which means there are still twelve songs plus a commentary stage. It is certain that Zhang Wei's votes will exceed 300,000, and it is normal to exceed 400,000.

Seeing this number, the director couldn't help but smile.

The 48-hour breakout competition before that was also broadcast live nationwide, and the contestant with the highest number of votes in the entire show only received 27 votes.

The 270,000 votes were a number that was finally reached after two full days of preparation and a four-hour program.

Now, Zhang Wei, who was the first to appear on stage, has received over 200,000 votes just after singing his first song. Does this mean that the ratings of the show are already explosively good?
Thinking of this, the program director couldn't help but feel proud. As a director, who advances and who is eliminated is secondary. What he cares most about is the ratings of the program. As long as the ratings are high enough, he doesn't care even if it is a dog that advances.

In the next round of the competition, the twelve players were divided into two teams for a competition. However, this had nothing to do with Zhang Wei anymore. The only thing he could do now was to stand in the waiting area and wait for the mid-field PK.

The captains of the two teams took the stage first. One sang "Never Say Goodbye" by the American rock band Bon Jovi, and the other sang "Miss You Every Day" by Zhang Yusheng.

After the two finished singing, the director immediately looked at the text message voting data backstage.

"Why are there only more than 60,000 votes?" The director's brows tightened suddenly.

As captains, they must be popular contestants. The director thought that after they finished singing, even if they couldn’t get 200,000 votes, they would at least get hundreds of thousands of votes.

Unexpectedly, these two popular contestants only received more than 60,000 votes.

When the director saw this number, he instantly felt like he was back to square one.

The next two contestants who appeared on stage were also quite popular, but after the performance, they only received more than 40,000 votes, which was not as good as the two captains.

Looking at these numbers, the director's smug expression just now disappeared without a trace in an instant, and was replaced by three points of loss, three points of helplessness, and four points of depression.

Obviously, such voting numbers do not mean that the ratings of this episode are extremely good. Zhang Wei got 200,000 votes after he sang, which is simply because the song is good, and has nothing to do with whether the show is popular or not.

As the old saying goes, Ge Tu, what does it have to do with me?
By the same token, what does the popularity of a song have to do with the show?
The director obviously did not realize how awesome the song "It's a pity there are no ifs" is.

Among JJ Lin’s many hit songs, even if it’s not one of the best, it should be in the top five.

Love songs of this level are already considered the ceiling of Chinese love songs. No matter who sings it, the song will become popular.

……

In the blink of an eye, the other twelve singers completed their performances, the judges made their comments, and then it was time to announce the votes.

In the end, Team 55 won 45 votes, defeating Team 11's votes. All six singers from Team advanced to the top .

The six singers from Team One came to the waiting area and entered the mid-field PK session with Zhang Wei.

"Next, we will announce the number of votes for the contestants. The contestants with the highest number of votes will directly advance to the top 11 of the national finals! Please look at the big screen!"

On the big screen, the vote counts of the remaining seven contestants appeared. The first place was of course Zhang Wei, who received 42 votes!

You should know that the six members of the entire team only received 45 votes in the previous team PK, while Zhang Wei alone received 42 votes, which is almost the total of the six members of the team.

"Congratulations to Zhang Wei for successfully saving himself and advancing to the top 11!" said the host.

"It's time to get off work!" Zhang Wei smiled at the camera, walked off the stage amid cheers from the audience, and came to the promotion area.

The following competitions had nothing to do with Zhang Wei. No matter whether someone advanced narrowly or was eliminated in tears, Zhang Wei sat firmly on the throne and watched their performance quietly.

……

Although they have successfully advanced to the top 11, the contestants have no time to relax. The boys' college has invited professional dance and vocal teachers to guide the contestants. By the way, the program also has to record materials. In addition, the contestants also have to prepare the repertoire for the next game and rehearse. There is also a quiz this week before the competition.

Just like before taking the formal exam, in addition to doing a lot of practice questions, you also have to take a mock exam.

After a busy day, Hu Li came again and urged Zhang Wei to sign the contract quickly.

Facing Hu Li, Zhang Wei still had a smile on his face. He took out the contract and said, "Director Hu, I have read this contract. However, there are many parts in the contract that I don't understand, so I didn't dare to sign it."

"What don't you understand?" Hu Li asked subconsciously.

"For example, here, what does it mean by exclusive agency rights?"

Hu Li thought for a moment and answered, "It means that the company has the exclusive agency rights to the artist during the contract period."

"What is the exclusive economic agency right?"

"It means that the artist is the sole legal representative in his or her performing arts career and has the right to arrange the artist's performing arts activities."

"So what does the scope of acting career include?"

"All kinds of performing arts activities, such as concerts, stage plays, dramas, comedies, singing performances, dance performances, and variety shows, are all performing arts activities."

"What about signing and selling books?" Zhang Wei asked.

"Signing books?" Hu Li frowned. It was the first time she heard such a question.

"Art and literature are inseparable, and many artists also write books. Should book signings also be considered performing arts activities, right?" Hu Li said unconfidently.

"Then does accepting an interview count?" Zhang Wei asked again.

"Of course!" Hu Li nodded without hesitation.

"The interview was about topics related to induced pluripotent stem cells. Does that count as an entertainment activity?"

"Induce what? What cells?" Hu Li looked confused.

"Induced pluripotent stem cells are one of my research topics at National Tsing Hua University. This research topic fills a gap in China, so from time to time scientific magazines come to interview me. Is this considered an entertainment activity?"

“This, shouldn’t count, right?”

"What about gene editing technology?" Zhang Wei asked with a smile.

"How come another gene editing technology has emerged?"

"This is another research topic I am doing at Tsinghua University. Its Chinese name is Gene Scissors, which also fills the gap in this field in China!"

“How much research have you done?”

"There are a few. You can search for papers and find them by searching my name." Zhang Wei said innocently. "If I knew how to search for that, I wouldn't need to study music!" Hu Li couldn't help but complain in her heart.

Facing Zhang Wei's sincere expression, Hu Li sighed helplessly. He was a Tsinghua University bully. We couldn't afford to offend him, but we couldn't afford to hide from him! So he said, "Let's put this question aside for now. Apart from the exclusive agency rights, what else do you not understand?"

"And what does intellectual property ownership mean?" Zhang Wei asked immediately.

“It refers to the ownership of the intellectual property rights generated by artists.”

“Does the study of the Hall effect of graphene count?”

“What is graphene?”

"It's a nano material. I'm currently researching the Hall effect of this material, and I think it will yield results soon. If I sign the contract, and if there are any results from this research during this period, will the intellectual property rights also be shared with your entertainment company?"

"We are an entertainment company. Why do we need intellectual property rights of nanomaterials?" Hu Li snorted coldly.

"But this intellectual property may be very valuable. Can you give it up on behalf of your company?"

"Uh..." Hu Li was suddenly speechless. Since money was involved, he really didn't dare to agree rashly.

Sighing helplessly once again, Hu Li continued, "Let's put this question aside for now. Do you have any other questions?"

"Yes, and there are quite a few. I circled them all with a red pen!" Zhang Wei said, handing the contract back to Hu Li.

Hu Li looked around and saw several red circles on the first page alone. As she turned the pages, there were more and more red circles, probably hundreds of them.

"So many!" Looking at so many red circles, Hu Li was helpless: "I'd better let the company's legal department explain it to you!"

……

In the conference room, several senior executives of Xiaoxiang Entertainment began to discuss the program again.

"The ratings for the first game of the national finals were basically the same as we predicted, but this is the first game after all. Once a few more games are played and topics are raised, the popularity of the program will naturally increase, and the ratings will definitely increase significantly."

"What is the public opinion on the first game?" asked the leading man.

Another person immediately reported: "According to the public opinion information we collected, the audience's evaluation is quite good. In particular, the audience was most impressed by contestant No. 13, Zhang Wei. The original song he sang also directly increased the popularity of our program."

The leader nodded and turned to look at Hu Li: "I remember last week, Zhang Wei hadn't signed a contract with us yet, right? Has the contract been signed now?"

Hu Li shook her head awkwardly: "Not yet. Zhang Wei doesn't understand a lot of things about the contract. I've asked the legal department to explain it to him."

“When can it be signed?”

"Probably next week!" Hu Li paused, then continued, "You know, the contestants' schedules are also very busy. They have to attend various training activities, rehearse programs, prepare songs, and take quizzes."

"Director Hu, you need to improve your efficiency!"

"Don't worry, I will keep an eye on this matter and try my best to get him to sign the contract as soon as possible." Hu Li said immediately.

Someone nearby asked, "So will Zhang Wei still be ranked last in this week's quiz?"

"Of course! As long as he doesn't sign a contract with us, he will be the last in the quiz! We have to put some pressure on him, otherwise it will be difficult to sign the contract." said the leading man.

"But I think this trick doesn't seem to be very effective. In the last competition, he was the last in the quiz and was placed in the waiting area from the beginning, but he only needed to sing one song to come back and directly won the first place in the text message voting. To be honest, the song he wrote, "It's a pity there is no if", is really good, and I couldn't help but want to vote for him!"

"Yes, the songs he sang in the auditions were also great. This Zhang Wei's talent for songwriting is probably not inferior to Jay Chou. With this kind of top musical talent, even if he ranks last in the weekly quizzes, it will not affect his advancement!" another person said.

The leader pondered for a moment and said, "How about this, for the next game, let's change the rules. Didn't the last-placed person in the quiz sing first? Let's change it so that the last-placed person in the quiz performs last. This way, he only has time for one song, which he can use to canvass for votes."

"But in the last competition, he was able to get more than 16 SMS votes in just one song, which was still higher than the votes of other singers in the entire competition! Of the two contestants who were eliminated in the last competition, the one with the higher votes only received votes in the entire competition."

"Then let's change the rules of the mid-game PK. Even if you get first place in the SMS voting, you can't advance directly. You have to participate in the subsequent PK! This way, even if Zhang Wei gets first place in the mid-game PK, he can't advance directly to the top 9 in the country!"

"Don't we still have to continue the PK? If Zhang Wei can come up with another good song, he can still advance." Someone else spoke up.

"Then let the judges decide who will advance! Say hello to the judges in advance!" The leading man snorted coldly.

Everyone looked at each other, and they all thought this decision was unreliable. Fairness is very important for talent shows, especially for amateur talent shows. For this reason, the program team not only invited a special notary to sit on the show site, but also invited many online media to conduct real-time online text broadcasts.

Therefore, even if the program crew is doing something shady, they dare not be too blatant and can only do it secretly.

Things like changing the rules are allowed, although changing the rules may be to target a certain player, but everyone is equal before the rules. If you change the rules, the rules for others will also change.

We all face the same rules. Others can adapt to them but you can't. That's your problem. You can't blame others for adapting to the rules faster than you, right?

But if the judges were to eliminate a contestant directly, it would directly affect the fairness of the program. After all, there are only four people on the judges' panel, and they cannot represent the preferences of the general audience.

Furthermore, contestants were previously eliminated by voting via text messages from the audience, but now they will be eliminated by judges. So will they continue to be eliminated by judges, or will they resume voting via text messages from the audience?

If the judges continue to be used for elimination, the fairness of the program will be questioned, and the lack of a fair audition will definitely lead to its collapse.

And if SMS voting is restored, anyone can see that the production team is playing shady games and the fairness of the talent show will also be questioned.

Therefore, the program team can eliminate a contestant by modifying the rules, but they must never eliminate a contestant directly.

After half a minute of silence in the conference room, someone finally asked, "Leader, does the final PK have to be decided by the judges?"

At this point, the person in the lead obviously realized that letting the judges decide the results directly was too arbitrary. With such blatant shady dealings, the show would definitely be doomed.

So he quickly said, "I just said that the judges will decide who will advance, but I didn't say that the judges will decide who will be eliminated. For the final PK, let the audience vote by SMS!"

……

For the Boys Academy, the remaining 11 contestants have received new competition rules.

"According to the new rules, the first place in the SMS voting in the mid-game PK cannot advance directly, but must participate in the second round of PK."

"In the second round of PK, the judges will decide who will advance, leaving two people for the final PK."

Listening to the discussions of the other contestants, Zhang Wei took a deep breath, calmed down, and thought to himself:
"Fortunately, the final PK still relies on SMS voting from the audience. As long as there are SMS voting from the audience, no matter how you change the rules, I won't back down!"

(End of this chapter)