Huayu: Traffic is king

Chapter 44 Program Premiere (Part )

There are still two days before the premiere of "Idol Producer", and popular contestants are frequently called by the program team to shoot behind-the-scenes footage, mid-roll commercials, and interview videos.

Gu Jingyi and Cai Xukun, who are the most talked about, recorded a dormitory live broadcast to warm up for the show.

The day before the show aired, the production team bought trending searches to build momentum. The official Weibo account released an extended trailer featuring the contestants' debut performances, intercut with footage from their debut performances.

The trailer is 3 minutes and 49 seconds long, excluding the mentors and competition system introductions. The trainees take up about 90 seconds, with each trainee getting 0.9 seconds on average.

This 'average' is just a rough calculation, just like the average employment rate of over 80% for a graduating class, which is unreliable.

Viewers who clicked on the trailer quickly discovered that, aside from pre-game favorites Gu Jingyi, Cai Xukun, Yuehua Line, and a few members of the "True Royals" who dominated the screen for three seconds, most of the other trainees' shots were sweeping panoramas, with their faces barely visible.

The 3-minute and 49-second trailer, which revolved almost entirely around the brutal competition format and the trainees' comments on the contestants' first performances in the studio, concluded. The production team is working tirelessly to build momentum for tomorrow's premiere episode, clearly demonstrating Kiwi's confidence in the variety show.

Especially the trainees from Yuehua Line and Xiangjiao Entertainment, their group dance shots on stage were also mixed in for 2-3 seconds.

The scenes of the knife group dance are very visually impactful. After the ban on Korean culture, such a neat and uniform knife group dance is rarely seen in the country.

For the younger generation who are influenced by Korean pop groups such as TVXQ, SJ, Girls' Generation, and EXO, the trainee system is no stranger.

When similar talent shows appeared in China, curiosity was also aroused.

Especially as "Idol Producer" is an online variety show, the selected mentors range from idols to singers to rappers, spanning three fields.

As the "former C" of "Produce 202", Gu Jingyi is full of gimmicks.

Since the hit drama "A Little Thing Called First Love" was aired, it has been seamlessly connected to "Idol Producer".

The outside world is speculating that Gu Jingyi's behavior is implying that he was treated unfairly in "Produce 202" and was forced to withdraw from the competition.

In early April 17, the day after the third public performance rankings of "Produce 4" were announced, Gu Jingyi posted on SNS, "I am very grateful for the support of fans during the filming of the show. Due to personal reasons, I have to withdraw from the competition." This message was dug up and bought to trend.

Everyone believes that the withdrawal of Gu Jingyi, the center of the competition, was a decision made under the control of capital.

Gu Jingyi's joining of "Idol Producer" not only attracted passers-by who were just watching the show, but also made some K-pop fans who never cared about domestic entertainment curious about the show.

In addition, the top domestic star announced his relationship on Weibo in October 17.

"Let me introduce to you all, this is my girlfriend," which caused many girlfriend fans who could not accept their idols being in a relationship to unfollow him.

These fans whose house has collapsed are looking for new idols.

The variety show "Idol Producer" came into the sight of the wandering Lu Wei sisters.

With 24 hours left until the show was broadcast, there were 17 entries related to "Idol Producer" on Weibo's hot searches.

Maybe the preview released today is too appealing to fans of the show, so "Idol Producer" became popular before it even aired.

From the release of the theme song MV to the official broadcast of the first feature film, the first round of voting results will be announced.

That means the initial vote count for the 101 trainees will be publicly announced at the end of tomorrow's first episode. This is also known as the zeroth round of voting, and while no one will be eliminated, it will certainly attract many "hot fans" to buy shares in the top circles in advance.

Based on the experience of the "101 Draft", each round of voting is non-cumulative. In each cycle, the previous vote pool will be reset.

This kind of vote clearing isn't about fairness, it's about making more money. The more aggressive the fans are, the better. Even if you're in first place, you can't let your guard down easily.

Before the "Second Public", each Kiwi member can cast 9 votes per day.

For fans of idols, besides voting for their own idols.

They will also exchange tickets with upper-mid-range contestants who are not a threat to their idols.

For contestants like Gu Jingyi, Zhu Zhengting and Justin who have experience in "Produce 202", their big fan sister has already led them to form a "voting group" and a "comment control group".

Although the first episode has not been aired yet, their fans have already redeemed their 9 tickets per day.

Tian Xiwei meticulously retouched the two-second shot of Gu Jingyi in the trailer, frame by frame. After posting the image on Weibo, she fell asleep. Finally, at the much-anticipated 8 p.m., viewers were constantly refreshing their Kiwi app to catch the long-awaited feature film.

Some viewers were just a few minutes late. As soon as they clicked on the video, they were completely blocked by the overwhelming barrage of comments. Even the entire screen was unclear.

The barrage can only be set to display only a quarter of the screen, and transparent anti-blocking will not affect the viewing experience.

[Come for Gu Jingyi!]
[Great! It’s Jingyi on stage!]
[Come for Kun Kun, cheer]
[Come on, Yuehua Seven Sons!]
Dense barrages of comments appear after clicking on the video.

"Da da da."

A rhythmic sound of footsteps echoed against the gray background. Each uniformed youth's face appeared, with subtitles indicating the length of their practice time appearing next to them.

"Being a trainee sounds cool, but before debuting, you're nothing."

Zhang Yixing's figure appeared, standing in front of one hundred transparent chairs representing the rankings.

"For trainees, it's endless practice, practice, practice, practice."

In those places surrounded by chairs, behind the white letters, teenagers in uniforms kept spinning and dancing.

"Trainees are like having a lovely dream in a cruel world."

"I've never given up on my dream of becoming an idol."

"Being a trainee is my last chance to give it my all."

Behind the lines of white words, pain, sweat, tears, and the unwilling faces of those who struggle emerge in an intertwined manner.

"Does being a trainee mean anything to me?"

When Gu Jingyi appeared, the number of comments suddenly increased.

[Ahhh, Jingyi!!]
[So handsome, husband.]
[Going crazy…going crazy going crazy going crazy…]
[He was so handsome that I almost threw my phone away! !]
Gu Jingyi, who was being interviewed in the interview room on the screen, had a gloomy expression on his face. After a pause, he slowly spoke:
“There was a time when I was very close to my dream, and then I woke up from it.”

He spoke in a calm tone, and he didn't show any resentment like the other trainees.

But, countless people who knew him were severely tortured by him.

[Ahhh, don’t use the Xiaoyi knife.]
[Are you talking about Ahn Joon-young? I can't bear to watch it anymore! He's a top-tier star, why is he being manipulated by capital?]
Finally, Zhang Yixing's face froze on the screen, he stood in the center of the stage. The stage lights shone down, and the figure turned from dark to bright.

He picked up the phone:
"Hello everyone, I am the representative of the national producer - Zhang Yixing."

Zhang Yixing's narration is rich and emotional:
"The future of 100 trainees will change from this moment on."

"Ultimately, nine trainees will stand out from these one hundred, and a brand new group will be born through the votes of the producers."

The scene switches to show Zhang Yixing surrounded by teenagers in silver-grey uniforms. Their figures also shift from dark to bright, and under the stage lights, their young faces glow with tension and hope.

"From today on, you in front of the screen will become a national producer and vote for 100 young people. Choose your favorite 9 to form China's top idol boy group. Nine percent of the choice is up to you."

"National Producer——"

Zhang Yixing said.

"Please take care of me!"

One hundred young men shouted in unison.

On the stage, Zhang Yixing and one hundred teenagers bowed to the audience.

It was a ninety-degree bow, they folded themselves into a new plane parallel to the stage floor.

At that moment, everyone's expressions were blurred. But they all entrusted their fate to the audience watching the show.

(End of this chapter)