Chapter 687 Highly sought after!
At Zhang Ye’s parents’ house.
Zhang Ye was having lunch with his parents and Chenchen in the living room when he received a call regarding the viewership ratings. Upon hearing the news, he was slightly stunned and then said: “Oh, thanks for telling me.”
The person who called him was Little Wang from the program team. After hearing Zhang Ye’s calm reply, she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, then said agitatedly: “Director Zhang, the viewership rating is 2.01%! It’s 2.01%!”
Zhang Ye said: “I got it.”
Little Wang said: “You’re not satisfied with that?”
Zhang Ye said: “No, I am very satisfied. Isn’t this quite good?”
Little Wang said: “Only quite good? This is already defying all common sense! You’re really too awesome!”
It wasn’t that Zhang Ye did not feel excited, but that this viewership rating was already within Zhang Ye’s expectations when they started on the production of The Voice. The people from this world had not seen the charm and power of The Voice before and were unfamiliar with it since it was not within the market norms. Thus, many people did not have any expectations for The Voice from the very beginning or only had very low expectations for it. They felt that it would be pretty good if they could achieve 0.7% in the viewership ratings. If the viewership ratings hit 1%, it would be a surprise. But Zhang Ye was different; he knew the popularity of The Voice in his previous world. Hence, when the result of the viewership ratings achieve a score just over 2%, although Zhang Ye was surprised and felt very happy, his reaction was definitely not as great as others.
After hanging up, his mother immediately asked, “Are the viewership ratings out yet?”
Zhang Ye acknowledged while smiling, “The viewership ratings are 2.01%, still passable.”
Upon hearing that, his mother said with a slightly hoarse voice, “My goodness! It broke 2%?”
His father did not quite understand, so he asked, “Is that very high or very low?”
“Of course it’s very high!” His mother knew more about viewership ratings and continued, “Right now, the most popular variety show, which uses Korean copyrights, has only slightly more than 1% of the viewership ratings!”
His father nodded and said, “Then that’s pretty good.”
His mother could not sit still any longer. She put down her chopsticks and said, “I’m not eating anymore. I’m going to our neighbor’s house for a while to tell them about the viewership ratings!”
His father said, “Are you going to brag and act cool again?”
His mother rolled her eyes and said, “It’s none of your business!”
“Mom.” Zhang Ye gave a wry smile and said, “Please eat your lunch first.”
“I’m already full.” His mother dressed up a little formally and went out immediately with a smile on her face.
Zhang Ye shook his head, then picked up his chopsticks and hurriedly grabbed some food. “I also have to eat quickly. There’s probably going to be many calls coming and I’ll have to answer them all.”
Indeed, just after Zhang Ye took his last bite and put down his chopsticks, the phone calls came in wave after wave!
……
“Zhang’er, you’re awesome!”
“It’s not too bad.”
“When will you be treating me?”
“Whoa, we’ll have to wait until I have finished with my work this quarter.”
“Then we have reached an agreement. You definitely can’t escape from treating me!”
……
“Zhang Ye, you’re getting even more popular now!”
“Think about what you’re saying. I’ve always been very popular.”
“The viewership ratings have broken 2%, you’re too face smacking! Some people’s faces are all swollen now!”
“Ha!”
……
“Teacher Zhang, I’m from the Beijing Times. Can we ask you for an interview?”
“Which day?”
“Is today OK?”
“Oh, these next two days will be difficult as I’m very busy.”
“It’s fine. Then we will interview you on another day based on your schedule. Oh right, I have to congratulate you first!”
“Thank you.”
…….
“I finally got through. Teacher Zhang, your cell phone is even more difficult to get through to than a president’s phone?”
“Hai, it’s only today that I’m getting so many calls. Usually, no one will contact me at all.”
“Your new program is too awesome! You have made it so godly!”
“It’s not bad, right?”
“You’re really not being modest at all.”
“Why should I be modest? It was within my calculations.”
……
“Brother Zhang.”
“Ai, CEO Wu.”
“I just want to update you on something. I’ve just received news from various retail chains and sales channels that our Brain Gold product sales volume has been soaring off the charts. The exact data is not out yet and we’ll have to wait until the end of this month or beginning of next month to find out, but the trend is already very obvious! Especially in these major cities and districts like Beijing and Shanghai, there was an exceptionally obvious increase in sales volume! It’s even higher than what we estimated yesterday!”
“That’s good.”
“Thank you, Teacher Zhang!”
“Don’t say that, I should be the one thanking you instead. If not for your investment on the title sponsorship, we would not have the money to make The Voice into what it is now.”
“It’s because of your good planning that it worked. In the future, if there are such good opportunities again, you must not forget us!”
“That’s for sure.”
……
In the blink of an eye, he had already received more than a dozen calls.
Some of the calls were from people at Central TV.
Some were from his relatives.
Some were from the newspaper reporters.
And many were from Zhang Ye’s friends.
The calls lasted from 12 PM until 2 PM. This was already the usual for Zhang Ye. He had already gotten used to it. As his circle continued growing with his rise in popularity, Zhang Ye got to know more and more people. Naturally, with such a big commotion, everyone would be guaranteed to call him up to congratulate him.
After the calls were done, his father went to take his afternoon nap. Chenchen kept holding onto Zhang Ye’s mother’s cell phone and playing games on it on the sofa. Zhang Ye shouted at her, “Don’t play too long.” Then, he went back into his room and switched on his computer to browse the Internet.
The Internet was in an uproar!
The industry was in an uproar!
The media was in an uproar!
The entire country was discussing The Voice!
In the past, Zhang Ye had also created many big issues and released numerous works like the lecture on Dream of the Red Chamber at Peking University, Zhang Ye’s Talk Show, Lecture Room, and his crosstalk. Among them, there were a few that hit the headlines while some others also received great response and created heated discussions. But now, when compared to The Voice, all of those issues were nothing. Zhang Ye had never gotten on the headlines so easily before. It was safe to say that this was the work that most people were paying attention to and the response to it was really too explosive!
You couldn’t begin to imagine it when 4 of the top 10 topics on Weibo were related to The Voice!
You couldn’t even imagine it just by randomly checking the entertainment section of any forum. There, 1 out of every 3 posts wrote about The Voice!
Zhang Ye’s name was also brought up numerous times by the netizens and media!
An unprecedented amount of discussions!
An unprecedented level of popularity!
For some programs to be considered phenomenal, they would have to be assessed first on the show’s influence, and second on it’s viewership ratings. For many variety shows, after broadcasting its first episode, it would take some time to gather data on whether or not it had the makings to become a phenomenon, because viewership ratings needed to stabilize step by step while its popularity would have to increase bit by bit. Until the viewership ratings reached a certain level and the attention that the citizens paid to the show reached a certain point would the program be confirmed by the industry as a phenomenal variety show. This would then be the highest honor that a variety show could receive that would confirm its status.
However, this was unnecessary for The Voice. The Voice no longer needed time to slowly build up or to depend upon its future performances. After only the first episode, The Voice had already reached the level of a phenomenal variety show. Whether it was someone who had biased views against Zhang Ye or the industry insiders who did not like The Voice, none of them could deny this reality. They had to accept the truth as it was!
If the viewership ratings of a premiere episode could annihilate all the variety shows in the country and not be proclaimed as a phenomenal variety show, then what program would still dare to be crowned with this title!?
The netizens were coming up with all sorts of theories!
“Zhang Ye is invincible!”
“In the variety world, who can stop The Voice?”
“Zhang Ye has once again proven his ability to everyone! He’s really unbeatable!”
“Those television stations and industry insiders who doubted him are such jokes. I wonder where they disappeared to now. They haven’t shown up since the viewership ratings were released!”
“They definitely won’t show themselves.”
“Who would still dare to come out? Their faces have already turned green from the face-smacking!”
“2.01% of the viewership ratings! And only turning green? This is more like being face-smacked until they vomit blood!”
“Even now, I am still in disbelief of the viewership ratings! How could it be so high?!”
“That’s right. Just look at everyone forwarding that poem, Admiring the Mountains. It’s already been forwarded tens of thousands of times and commented on hundreds of thousands of times. A few days ago, who would have thought that The Voice of China could get such a viewership rating? Who could expect that Zhang Ye actually managed to achieve his lofty claims of ‘Someday I shall ascend your highest heights / to see other summits dwarfed, and savor the scene’! To be honest, I can understand what those industry insiders are feeling. It’s not that they are unprofessional, but just that Zhang Ye is too ridiculous!”
……
Meanwhile.
In a meeting room at a certain television station.
There were about a dozen people attending the meeting room. The atmosphere was heavy. Everyone was staring at the Thursday’s variety shows’ viewership ratings ranking dazed.
During the boycott of Zhang Ye, their television station had been the one who pushed for the most support. From the leaders to the program team heads, many of them were involved in the boycott of The Voice. They had condemned Zhang Ye for breaking the industry rules and disrupting the market prices as their television station had two programs that were affected by this when a few celebrities rejected and broke their contracts to record the programs because they felt that the joining payment was too low. But now, those people who boycotted Zhang Ye could no longer muster up a word anymore. There was no way to boycott him at all. The Voice had used its viewership ratings to tell those doubters that their joining payment was definitely worth its price! That it was worth the amount of the title sponsorship fee! Rather than 100 million RMB for its title sponsorship fee, with the viewership ratings that they had, even if Zhang Ye asked for 150 million now, there would still be companies willing to purchase it!
After a while, the silence was broken.
A person said, “Everyone, let’s discuss it.”
Everyone stayed silent.
After a few moments, that person suddenly said, “Go and check Zhang Ye’s contract with Central TV Department 1. How long is his contract duration? Is it a yearly contract or a program based contract?”
A woman said in surprise, “What do you mean?”
That leader said, “If it is a program based contract, then when Zhang Ye’s contract with Central TV expires, see if we can get Zhang Ye to join us!”
A man smiled bitterly and said, “It should be a yearly contract.”
Another staff member said, “I heard from my friend working in Central TV saying that Zhang Ye has signed a one-year contract with Central TV.”
That leader said, “There’s no other way then.” After saying that, he sighed and shook his head continuously.
At that time, when Zhang Ye was suspended by Peking University because of the scolding incident, he was also featured on the news. Someone from the station had previously suggested that they should invite Zhang Ye to join them but after some discussion by the station, it was not approved. But now, even if they wanted to poach Zhang Ye, they did not have a chance to do so!
The other television stations also began to check out Zhang Ye’s contract terms with Central TV, toying with the idea of poaching him. The birth of The Voice had tempted many of them! But after they found out that Zhang Ye’s contract with Central TV was a yearly one, those television station basically gave up on the idea of poaching him at all. They knew for sure that Central TV Department 1 would definitely not release him even if they paid the breach of contract fees for Zhang Ye!
For a person who could produce a program that received over 2% of the viewership ratings so effortlessly, who would not want him?!
Besides, he was very different from the other famous program planners. You could poach many famous program planners, but would still have to fully fit all the aspects of the program team and setup. There might be a chance that some segments or staff members who did not fit properly or gel well would cause some problems to occur in the end. But Zhang Ye was different, if they managed to poach Zhang Ye, it was equivalent to poaching an entire team of the program planner, executive director, and host. Just him alone would be equivalent to a whole team!
Hence, who would not want him?
Who would not feel tempted?
From being the reason of a boycott in the industry to becoming highly sought after, this change in attitudes could not be any greater!