dognovel Chapter 250: Top 32 of "Super Girl"
Chapter 250: Top 32 of "Super Girl"
The competition to narrow down the top 32 contestants to 20 in "Super Girl" was held on a Saturday evening at 7 pm.
Before it even got dark, a long queue had already formed outside the small theater of the Shanghai Cultural and Art Center.
Fans held up all sorts of support banners: Lin Xiaoxi's light green, Su Qian's light blue, Zhou Wan's rose red... From a distance, it looked like a flowing sea of flowers.
Lu Ran stood in the backstage monitoring room, looking at the grand scene outside through the screen, and couldn't help but click his tongue.
"This scene is bigger than I expected."
Shen Yuege stood beside him, holding a walkie-talkie, her eyes glued to the screens at each camera: "Nonsense, do you know how many people signed up to come today? Thirty-six thousand. There are only eight hundred seats, and thirty-six thousand people are vying for them. Those who manage to get a seat are happier than if they won the lottery."
"What about those who didn't manage to get one?"
"Those who didn't get a ticket are swearing online." Shen Yuege didn't even turn her head. "But despite the swearing, the ratings haven't dropped at all. The trailer was released yesterday, and it got over 20 million views in twelve hours. Tonight's live stream, I conservatively estimate, will have over 30 million simultaneous viewers."
Lu Ran whistled.
Thirty million.
This number might seem insignificant compared to the top variety shows of the past, but in this world, in this era when talent shows are just starting out, it's an astronomical figure.
Moreover, this is only the round of 32 to 16. When it reaches the top 10 and the finals, the number of viewers will definitely be even greater.
"Oh, right," he suddenly remembered something, "did Weibo promote our topic on Weibo today?"
Hearing Lu Ran ask this, Shen Yuege laughed: "I pushed it. It was the third one on the homepage, #SuperGirlTop36Gathering#. Although it wasn't very high up, at least I pushed it."
Lu Ran knew that Weibo certainly didn't want to push it.
"Super Girl" is TUTU's exclusive content, the flagship program of Xingyue Studio, and a trump card in the hands of their competitors. Pushing this trending topic is tantamount to giving traffic to their rivals.
But they had to push.
Because it's so popular.
How high was it? So high that Weibo's own users spontaneously started trending the hashtag #SuperGirl# on Weibo, making it the number one trending topic.
So many people are being deleted that even Weibo's operations team can't keep up with the volume.
In the end, Weibo's top management had to compromise—rather than let users promote it themselves, it would be better for the official account to give it a push, at least they could control the direction of public opinion.
"What do you call this?" Lu Ran said leisurely, "It's called being forced to act against one's will."
Shen Yuege rolled her eyes at him: "Just keep showing off."
"This isn't bragging, it's an objective statement," Lu Ran said seriously. "By the way, who are the judges tonight?"
"Xu Manlin is a guest judge this episode. There's also Teacher Li Zonghan, Liu Siqi, and your wife, me." Shen Yuege counted on her fingers, "Four judges, three women, and only Teacher Li is a man. He complained to me when he came today that this is like putting him on the hot seat."
Lu Ran imagined the scene and couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Li Zonghan is a senior figure in the music industry, over fifty years old this year. He is highly respected and speaks slowly and deliberately, always with a smile on his face.
It's really a bit difficult for him to sit among three young divas as a judge.
"And what about you?" he asked. "How do you plan to evaluate me today?"
"I'll judge according to the rules." Shen Yuege said confidently, "I'll praise the contestants if they sing well, and criticize them if they don't. Professionalism comes first, and personal relationships come second."
Lu Ran gave her a thumbs up.
Competition-style variety shows should be like this; fairness should be the top priority.
And this is the Shen Yuege he knows.
Serious, professional, and not superficial.
"Okay, then you go ahead with your work, I'll go sit in the audience." He turned to leave.
"Would you like to be on the judging panel this time?" Shen Yuege asked, since Lu Ran had previously mentioned that he would be a judge.
Lu Ran shook his head: "Forget it, I'm too busy. There's a ton of stuff going on with Rabbit, and Zhou Mingzhe keeps urging me to finalize the update plan for the next version of 'Seven Heroes of the Jianghu'. I'll wait for the top ten selection competition, then I'll come."
Shen Yuege thought for a moment and nodded: "That's fine. The top ten contestants definitely deserve your personal oversight."
"Of course." Lu Ran smiled. "The top ten are the ceiling for ordinary contestants. Many of the current top thirty-six already have over a million fans. Once they reach the top ten, they'll probably all be near-second-tier celebrities."
He was telling the truth.
The show "Super Girl" is indeed amazing at creating stars.
Lin Xiaoxi, an ordinary girl from a small county in Sichuan Province, was working at a hot pot restaurant during the audition. Now she has 1.8 million followers on Weibo and 2.2 million followers on her TUTU app. Last month, a beverage brand approached her to shoot a promotional video, offering 300,000 yuan.
Su Qian, a music academy student, was so nervous during the audition that she couldn't even hold the microphone steady. Now she has the persona of an "original talent". Her original song "Seventeen Years Old" has been played more than 50 million times on TUTU, and the comments section is full of requests for her album.
Zhou Wan, a folk song major, sang "Jasmine Flower" during her audition and was praised by the judges as having a "voice kissed by an angel." Now, her adapted version of the electronic folk song "Little River Flowing" has become a popular choice for short video background music.
There are also Zhang Xinyi, Zhao Yiman, Chen Xue... Each of them has their own unique characteristics and their own fan base.
These contestants would have been just ordinary passersby a year ago.
Now, they are practically celebrities.
Lu Ran walked out of the monitoring room, through the long corridor, and arrived at the back row of the audience seats.
All 800 seats were occupied.
The front row was the media area, with cameras and microphones pointed at the stage. The middle row was the fan area, with colorful banners waving like waves. The back row was the general audience, including young people, middle-aged people, and even a few elderly people with gray hair.
Lu Ran found a corner in the back row and sat down. Next to him was a middle-aged man wearing glasses, who was holding a small notebook and taking notes.
"What is this...?" Lu Ran curiously leaned over to take a look.
The middle-aged man looked up and adjusted his glasses: "I'm taking notes for Lin Xiaoxi. I write down all the techniques she uses and any improvements she makes each time she sings."
Lu Ran was taken aback: "You're her...fan?"
"Yes, a die-hard fan." The middle-aged man smiled. "My daughter is the same age as her and is also studying in another city. Every time I see Lin Xiaoxi, I think of my daughter."
Lu Ran was silent for two seconds, then extended his hand: "You're a really dedicated fan."
The middle-aged man grasped his hand and smiled warmly, "It's my pleasure. This program is great; it gives ordinary people a chance too. My daughter also loves to sing, but unfortunately, she missed this year's competition. I'll definitely get her to sign up for next year's."
Lu Ran smiled and nodded. This was his original intention in creating the program: to give ordinary people a chance to dream of becoming stars.
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