Chinese Entertainment: Starting from 1996

Chapter 515: The Crazy Money-Making "The Voice of China"

The package price for the entire season of the four mentors cost Golden Harvest a total of 24 million.

The highest paid was of course Liu Huan, with eight million, followed by Chen Yixun, with seven million.

The prices of Han Hong and Yu Chengqing are slightly cheaper, the former is five million and the latter is four million.

Even though the total salary of the mentors is not as high as that of a mentor in later generations, it is only 2010 now. The entertainment industry has not yet been invaded by various capitals, so money is still quite valuable.

Like the Forbes celebrity annual income rankings, except for big names like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, the top ten in the entertainment industry only have 20 to 30 million.

So a reward of several million is actually quite a lot.

Moreover, this model is the first time to be used. Previous variety shows were mostly participated by all stars. Although "Happy Camp" and "Day Day Up" have celebrity guests in every episode, their ratings are still there.

Many people go on these two programs mostly for publicity, to promote movies, TV series or themselves, so Shonan TV generally does not pay them. Instead, more often than not, it is the artists who beg to be on these two programs.

Moreover, the guests of these two programs are different in each episode. It is the first time that "The Voice of China" has four fixed guests.

In the original time and space, Liu Huan's salary for the first season of "The Voice of China" was 10 million, but now it is two years in advance, so 8 million is about the same.

As the new generation of Hong Kong singing god, Chen Yixun may even surpass Liu Huan in terms of popularity and fans. After all, the latter is not a pop idol.

Moreover, the pay of Hong Kong stars is somewhat inflated. This is the market situation and there is nothing that can be done about it.

However, as the mainstay of the mentors, Liu Huan's influence is unmatched by others, so whether to show respect or for other reasons, Liu Huan's pay must be the highest among the four mentors.

In fact, even if Chen Yixun was paid 7 million yuan, the price was already not low. Recording a variety show is just a lot easier than filming a movie.

Chen Yixun's current film pay is only four or five million. Recording "The Voice of China" not only has a higher pay but also takes less time.

With little work and a lot of money, Chen Yixun's agency certainly wouldn't refuse.

Moreover, they are self-aware and do not require Chen Yixun to be the main actor or have the highest pay.

There is rarely any competition for status among Hong Kong stars in Hong Kong. They are mostly ranked based on their popularity and influence, which is very realistic.

However, once Hong Kong stars come to the mainland to receive notices, there are a lot of troubles. Accommodation, meals and other trivial matters are just some of them. They like to compete with mainland artists for status, especially to suppress mainland artists.

The situation has been better in the past two years. Mainland stars have begun to rise generally, and Hong Kong artists no longer have much advantage in comparison. However, they still maintain a superior attitude, just not as excessive as before.

However, disputes over status also occurred from time to time. Later, except for a few Hong Kong artists who were generally abandoned by capital and almost had no food to eat, the disputes stopped.

However, this bad habit of fighting for status and roles has been inherited by those traffic stars, and they have carried it forward, reaching new heights and creating new models.

Whenever a movie or TV series is released or before it is broadcast, as long as there are popular stars, there will be a fight. Even if they don’t get involved personally, their fans will.

The fan culture from South Korea has not yet been introduced, and the era of traffic has not yet arrived, so the mainland entertainment industry is still relatively "traditional" at this time.

Therefore, the pay for the four mentors is actually not low, and some are even overpaid. For example, Han Hong has considerable qualifications and influence, but his appeal is limited by his appearance and is indeed average.

Yu Chengqing is quite popular on Wanwan, but not as popular in mainland China, not to mention that he is indeed a bit out of date.

Giving them a salary of four or five million is much higher than their market price.

For this year's "The Voice of China", Jiahe directly prepared 100 million yuan of funds for Jiahe production. If it is not enough, more can be added. The main theme is arrogance.

Golden Harvest Productions also signed some more promotional announcements with them, and they had no objections.

Liu Zhou took great pains to invite these four big-name mentors, and the effect was very significant.

"The Voice of China" has caused quite a stir before it even started airing.

Although this is still a singer selection program, its novel format, four mentors with both strength and fame, and especially its selection method that focuses only on singing and not image, have attracted a large number of people to sign up and participate.

Although Shonan TV's "Super Girl" and "Happy Boy" are very famous, not only people in the industry but also the audience know that they are more like selecting idols than selecting singers.

Image is what Tianyu values ​​most.

This means that many talented singers cannot even pass the auditions because their image is not good enough.

But at that time, only the talent show on Shonan TV had influence. Although Dragon TV also had Super Boy, no one became famous from this show.

Although Lao Xue became very famous later on, it was because of his own efforts. Zhang Jie only became known after he jumped from Super Boy to Super Boy.

Besides, My Style My Show is also a program that attaches great importance to image.

Now there is finally a singer talent show that focuses not on image but only on voice, which immediately attracted a large number of talented folk singers.

Regardless of whether "The Voice of China" is as good as advertised, at least its format is like this, giving people more expectations.

And if one of the mentors really favors me, my career as a singer will be much easier.

Not only did the registered contestants have more expectations, but the audience did too. As soon as the posters of the four mentors appeared, they attracted a lot of people.

The four of them have quite a lot of fans combined, and even more people know them. This is the first time that four big stars have appeared on a variety show on a regular basis, so it attracted a lot of attention.

In addition, major TV stations are also paying close attention to this program.

Although this is the first time that Golden Harvest Group has produced a variety show, they are equally confident in the variety shows produced by Golden Harvest based on their brilliant achievements in movies and TV series.

Especially after learning that "The Voice of China" was a program personally confirmed by Liu Zhou, I became more confident.

Not only are people within Golden Harvest convinced of Liu Zhou's vision, but people in the industry are also very familiar with it. As long as he is optimistic about a project, it will be successful.

Therefore, for a period of time, even if Liu Zhou wanted to intercept, it would be difficult to have the opportunity. As long as he showed his interest in a project, the price of that project would immediately soar.

Later, he simply stopped worrying about specific projects and left them all to Zhang Zhao, and just focused on making his own movies.

With the current size of Golden Harvest, many blockbuster projects will come to it, not to mention that Golden Harvest itself can produce high-quality projects. Therefore, Liu Zhou is now too lazy to interfere with the movies and TV series invested by Golden Harvest. Whether those movies and TV series that will become blockbusters in the future can be taken by Golden Harvest is up to fate.

At present, Golden Harvest does not need to focus on high-quality projects in the original time and space. It can also come up with big-hitting projects on its own, just like the "Empress Wu Zetian" that Golden Harvest Film and Television is currently producing.

With a strong star lineup, excellent costumes and props, a brilliant script and high investment, Liu Zhou could not imagine that this project could fail.

The same goes for movies. If there are no unexpected events, the box office of Ning Hao's science fiction movie will not be too bad.

However, projects that are not original in the original time and space will make some bigwigs feel uninvolved, so Liu Zhou has always avoided creating projects that have never appeared.

Back to the topic, with the support of Liu Zhou, "The Voice of China" immediately became a hot topic among major satellite TV stations.

Jiahe was also very confident about its first variety show and did not lower its profile at all because it was a newcomer to the industry.

It has been proven in recent years that Golden Harvest's products are always high-quality, and high-quality products are generally not cheap, so "The Voice of China" is also not cheap.

Despite this, major satellite TV stations still have great interest in "The Voice of China".

But when it came to competing in financial resources, some weaker satellite TV stations had no choice but to be eliminated one after another. In the end, those still in the competition were just like when they competed for "The Legend of Zhen Huan". Only a few strong TV stations, including Zhejiang Satellite TV, Hunan Satellite TV, Jiangsu Satellite TV, Dragon TV and Beijing Satellite TV, were left competing.

They all know very well that a flagship variety show will bring huge benefits to a TV station.

Hunan Satellite TV is the best example. The reason why they can become the strongest satellite TV station is not because of TV dramas. The main reason is that they have many popular variety shows.

The fact that Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV was able to compete with Hunan Provincial Satellite TV in the original time and space was also related to the production of popular variety shows such as "The Voice of China", "Running Man", and "Ace vs. Ace".

For most viewers, they will not remember which TV station the TV series is broadcast on except during the drama-watching period.

Variety shows are generally exclusive and are a TV station’s signature and source of fans.

Hunan Satellite TV has the most cooperation with Jiahe and has the most dealings with Liu Zhou, so they are more familiar with Jiahe.

Generally speaking, all the projects that Golden Harvest focuses on are huge hits, be it TV series or movies.

Now even Liu Zhou has personally inquired about the variety show "The Voice of China", and they have learned that the four mentors were also selected by him personally.

Moreover, seeing that "The Voice of China" has such an influence before it is even aired, it can be seen that this is the result of the Golden Harvest Group's efforts. The entire group is promoting this variety show, and Golden Harvest's attention to it is no less than that to "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

Although Shonan TV already has many popular variety shows, they also had almost no hesitation in wanting to get "The Voice of China". Who would complain about having too many popular projects?
As for Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV, it is somewhat anxious about "The Voice of China".

Their TV station has just replaced its leadership, and the higher-ups attach great importance to the satellite TV station. As a developed coastal province, they are not stingy at all in allocating funds to the TV station.

Therefore, Zhejiang Provincial Satellite TV was very wealthy at that time.

But the higher-ups gave the money in the hope that the TV station would achieve results, and their goal was to surpass Hunan Satellite TV.

This can be seen from the fact that Zhejiang Satellite TV has spent a lot of money on purchasing TV dramas in the past year.

However, they also understand that if they want to catch up with Hunan Satellite TV, it is impossible to rely solely on TV dramas, so they are also developing variety shows.

However, the few self-produced variety shows did not make much splash. Nowadays, variety shows are all produced by the TV stations themselves, and they have nowhere to buy them even if they want to.

Now Jiahe is suddenly planning to produce a variety show, which is like a pillow thrown in the face of a sleepy person for Zhejiang Satellite TV.

In fact, regardless of whether "The Voice of China" caused such a sensation or not, Zhejiang Satellite TV was interested in it even just for the sake of Golden Harvest's reputation.

Now that there are so many TV stations competing, they are even more determined to win.

In addition, Beijing Satellite TV is also somewhat anxious about "The Voice of China".

The only variety show that Beijing Satellite TV can boast of, "I Love to Remember Lyrics", has become a flop, and the other shows are not particularly outstanding.

So now they urgently need an ace variety show to support the show, and "The Voice of China" is undoubtedly a very good choice.

Relatively speaking, the situation of Jiangsu Satellite TV and Dragon TV is better.

Jiangsu Provincial Satellite TV currently has a phenomenal variety show "If You Are the One". This show has become extremely popular in the past two years and has also made the situation of Jiangsu Provincial Satellite TV much better.

It is precisely because of his example that Zhejiang Satellite TV is very eager to have a popular variety show, but their TV station does not have the talent to produce such a program.

Therefore, since Jiangsu Provincial TV has "If You Are the One" as a foundation, they are not so anxious. However, having tasted the sweetness, they are also very interested in "The Voice of China".

As for Dragon TV, their Super Boy show was quite popular for a while in the past two years. Now they also have the Shanghai Style Clean Talk broadcast by Zhou Mou, and the ratings of his weekly show are also very impressive.

This period was when Diaomao was very popular. His stand-up comedy was loved by many people not only in Shanghai, but also across the country.

Therefore, Dragon TV has this weekly show to support them, so they are not so anxious. However, their competitors have all made offers, and they, with their deep pockets, are certainly not willing to be outdone.

Dragon TV offered a sky-high price of 70 million yuan, wanting to package the entire season of "The Voice of China" in one go.

However, this price did not make other competitors back off at all. Jiangsu Satellite TV directly increased the price by five million. Obviously, it was a bit difficult for them to raise the price so high all of a sudden.

Compared with these two TV stations, the arrogant Hunan Satellite TV directly asked for 1 million yuan, with an arrogant look on its face as if it was not short of money.

If it were in the past, no one would dare to continue competing with him. After all, it was indeed too crazy to spend 100 million yuan to buy a variety show, especially an unproven one.

One hundred million is a lot of money nowadays, and some TV stations don’t even have one hundred million in annual funding.

Moreover, this is the first transaction for a variety show, and it has reached 100 million yuan in one go. It can only be said that Hunan Satellite TV is not only wealthy, but also very courageous.

It’s no wonder that upon hearing the offer from Hunan Satellite TV, both Dragon TV and Jiangsu Satellite TV backed off.

However, the offer of 100 million yuan could scare off these two companies, but not the other two.

(End of this chapter)