Author | Mao Lina
Edit | Li Chunhui
There are two months left in 2022. In this year without variety show, the applause and scolding in the variety show market seemed to be gradually disappearing. Whether it is new or old, the audience's enthusiasm for discussion is limited.
The low discussion level does not necessarily mean that this year's variety shows are not good enough. On the contrary, there have been many reputation programs this year. "Welcome to the Mushroom House" has helped the fast boys to successfully re-employ; "Sisters Who Make Waves 3" has changed the pattern of all sisters singing and dancing in the first two seasons, and everyone shows their strengths; "New Travel" takes into account humanistic care in addition to entertainment, showing a more real appearance of sentient beings. Overall, most of the Douban scores of this year's variety shows are above the passing line, and most of the comments are positive.
But these variety shows that are of high quality and have good reputation are difficult to inspire the audience's enthusiasm for discussion. The same is true from the viewing situation. People are still watching variety shows, but they just won’t discuss it. Perhaps, we can start with the variety shows that have caused a small discussion this year and look for the answer to "why audiences don't talk about variety shows."
Where to catch a horse
probably was scared of being scolded. This year's variety shows are too love and peace. Even programs that should have sparked are unexpectedly harmonious. However, the people who said they should not write about horse scripts did not pay much for a truly harmonious variety show.
From the long-lasting popularity of mediation programs to the constant traffic of various "review" groups on Douban, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion that human nature is to love to watch the fun. Only variety shows that meet the needs of watching the fun and leave room for debate can stimulate the audience's enthusiasm for discussion. The most typical example of
is the " Fifty-kilometer Taohuawu 2" that has caused heated discussion by relying on "suffocating nine minutes". New and old guests gathered together. As the representative of the older generation, Song Dandan proposed to hold a party and everyone had to perform a show. Wang Chuanjun directly says no, Li Xueqin , Wang Sulong , Lamu Yangzi , and Lamu Yangzi are also very intriguing. As soon as the nine-minute video came out, the masses immediately held the "online trial conference". The conflicts of guests in variety shows usually do not have clear good people and bad people like TV series, which gives the audience room to interpret from multiple angles.
Someone substituted Wang Chuanjun and firmly said no to leaders like Song Dandan who relied on his seniority; some substituted Song Dandan, thinking that she was just trying to help newcomers integrate into the big family, but the method was a bit outdated, and criticized Wang Chuanjun's behavior of wanting to make money and having to show off his bad luck; some people substituted Li Xueqin or Lamu Yangzi, "Isn't Li Xueqin the way I look in the workplace?" "It's so terrible to have colleagues like Lamu, and they are definitely selling their teammates."
Everyone can find their own shadow from this conflict and interpret and debate. The popularity of "Nine Minutes" naturally led to the number of views of "Taohuawu 2".
But soon, as the new and old people got to know each other, Wang Chuanjun did not resist the performance of the show, and Song Dandan did not preach strongly. The character growth and relationship transformation in the show were actually very natural, and the self-consistent logic could be seen. But "Suffocation for nine minutes" became a terrifying sound, and the masses lost their subjects of trial, and gradually became harmonious "Taohuawu 2" was no longer the topic.
The strong return of "Flower Young Master 4" also failed to catch the horse and the conflict was not fierce enough, resulting in many viewers who claimed to have "watch this season with a microscope" before the broadcast, after watching two or three episodes of happy family fun scenes, they chose to abandon the pit.
Slow variety shows are likely to appear "flat". When this type of show first appeared, the audience would still follow the entire season because of "seeing something new". But it must also be admitted that the "slow life" itself has little room for discussion. With more and more homogeneous programs, conflicts and collisions between guests are the key to triggering the audience's self-incorporation and active discussion. After much discussion, passers-by were naturally attracted to the pit.
not only slow variety shows, conflict is also a new tool for other types of variety shows.A's honey, B's arsenic, and singing and dancing have aesthetic preferences and a certain threshold. But anyone can discuss and judge conflicts or catching horses. Just say that fans go to sell the show for recommendations, the ten beautiful stages may not be as attractive as a post "A group is in a state of undercurrents and disagreement with members" is very attractive to passers-by.
"Brother Who Overcomes Troubles 2", Anita Yuen and Zhilin Zhang got married again on the stage of the show. Wherever you fall in love, do you still love to make a show? While the celebrity couple sparked public discussion, they also brought new heat to the show.
Breaking the convention to stimulate discussion
Everything has two sides. The conflict of horse grabbing that can inspire the audience's desire to judge can indeed bring about discussion, but it is easy to cause harm to the guests themselves. And once the conflict is created is too far, the audience is likely to be disgusted and retouched. This is why today's program producers know that conflict is a guarantee of popularity, they will still retain it during post-recording.
is just right. This year, the two variety shows are old and the new, providing solutions to problems that do not rely on conflict to trigger discussions.
Even if the quality of the program itself is still excellent, "Longing for Life 6" has begun to decline as an old program. The start was vigorously, and a few years later, only old fans were left to watch silently. This is the fate of the N generation of the synthesis. However, this year, because of the emergence of "a catfish", "Year of 6" has become a hot search and gained attention again, and can even compete with "Suffocation Nine Minutes".
"Catfish" is Xu Zhiyuan . The biggest problem with N generation is that it is difficult to break the fixed pattern, that is, path dependence. The program has been broadcast for several years, and there are methods to follow from the process to the sub-sections. Even if you seek change, you will not change the program beyond recognition, but will add freshness to the audience through fine-tuning. But this freshness is very limited, which leads to the N generation of the General Manager giving people a "assembly line product".
"Year" series can be summarized as the process of "staying in the Mushroom House - the hard work of visiting guests - Chef Huang cooks - Night Talks around the fire". In addition to external factors such as recording time, many guests look like they are doing tasks. The audience will know the ending after watching the beginning, and of course they do not discuss passion.
The appearance of Xu Zhiyuan broke the audience's perception of the program's fixed pattern: others followed the route planned by the program team, and he insisted on acting alone to stay away from the group; the guests stayed in the mushroom house and were busy helping with cooking, and he hid in the tree house to drink coffee and read books and enjoyed himself.
"Xu Zhiyuan is the life he yearns for." Xu Zhiyuan, who was also criticized for being "greasy" and "father-like" a few years ago, probably unexpectedly, after a few years, he would have a reputation turn around because of his freedom and dissatisfaction and failure to cooperate with the program team's regulations.
"Welcome to Mushroom House" is the absolute dark horse in this year's small-cost new episode. Douban score is as high as 8.4, and the old brothers who have no work have ushered in a second spring in their careers. In addition to being good at brotherly love and good at eating, the popularity of "Mushroom House" is also related to its breaking the rules.
There are many variety shows that are known as "poor variety", but not many are so poor that they are in "Mushroom House". Props are borrowed from villagers, and even tables for meals are modified with doors that others don’t use.
There are many programs for re-employment of Cacao, but because the 0713 boy group is familiar with each other enough, it is not too much to say anything, giving the audience a long-lost "live feeling". In this show, the audience can even see the scene of guests drinking and drinking, pulling the program team to sing and dance together, which is almost impossible in conventional variety shows.
does not play according to common sense, which is actually a conflict. It is not the kind of open line conflict between guests, but the hidden line conflict that breaks the fixed style of audience thinking. There will be discussions when there is conflict. When the program presents a different direction from the audience's prediction, the audience will naturally discuss "why do they do this" and "why the development of the program is different from what I think."
lacks discussion, not all depends on the program
In the fan circle, people call fans who only focus on the red group "popular fans".But to be honest, everyone is actually a "popular fan". The more you discuss things, the more people you pay attention to. Many people chase variety shows and discuss variety shows not only because they like the show itself, but also because they cannot have comfortable social topics with others without understanding variety shows - for example, variety shows in their heyday.
Although "Mushroom House", "Taohuawu 2", "Year of Longing 6", "Sister 3" and "Brother 2" that were first broadcast, and "Talk Show Conference 5" and " Annual Comedy Competition 2" that are currently on the air have all aroused discussions to varying degrees, judging from the overall situation of market , the discussion on this year's variety show has actually dropped a lot compared with previous years.
As mentioned earlier, conflict is the key to inspiring discussion, but not all guests are willing to sacrifice themselves for topicality. Especially in recent years, the intensity of online trials has increased sharply. Not only have celebrities become cautious in their words and actions, but even in programs such as amateurs, such as love and workplace, there have been fewer and fewer conflicts. The burden on amateurs is getting heavier and heavier, and they are afraid that they will be in trouble and say something wrong.
Breaking the fixed pattern can certainly attract heated discussion and attention from the audience, but drastic changes also mean taking corresponding risks. For the N generation of the comprehensive N who has played the brand effect, it is better to take the security card than to seek change radically, and at least retain those loyal audiences. As the new episode "Mushroom House", there are so many unexpected scenes, because no one expected that this show would be really popular during the recording.
External factors, such as the popularity of the drama market this year, including the resurgence of American dramas and the persistent efforts of the Korean group in the Chinese market, have also divided the audience's discussion amount on variety shows to a certain extent. TV series such as " Human World ", " Menghualu ", " Canglan Jue " are popular. Even if you want to have topics with people around you, you have to follow them. This is the concept of "national entertainment total time" that has been repeatedly mentioned. Entertainment time will be longer and the other will disappear, and audiences with limited time will make choices.
At the same time, due to policy and market reasons, the new and old variety shows this year are not as popular as in previous years. Many variety shows are quietly broadcasting and ending quietly, and the audience has no idea that such a show exists.
But tracing the origin, there is another reason that Hard Candy think is the most critical. In 2022, the impact of the closure of major entertainment groups on the variety show discussion cannot be ignored.
The main position of many netizens to recommend variety shows is Douban Entertainment Group. Douban’s anonymity mechanism and forum model give users room to speak freely. The wonderful second interpretation of the variety show content by Douban team members is an excellent Amway textbook. The famous "Flower and Boy" ("Flower and Boy") "Mingxue" (" Chinese Restaurant ") were all born here. The marketing account on Weibo then transferred these hot posts, and a variety show became popular.
But with the entertainment team being shut down or renamed, non-high-intensity surfing netizens have no idea where the new home is. Even if you find a new home, you will be subject to various restrictions and cannot be fully discussed and disseminated.
Without the origin of the Douban Entertainment Group, the high-quality topic, the communication points that the variety shows themselves dig into are always less true and playful than the wisdom of the masses, and marketing accounts have become untouchable. The decline of entertainment forums has made variety shows lose their social currency attributes.
For the generation and dissemination of entertainment topics, Weibo belongs to fans, Douyin and Xiaohongshu belongs to passers-by, but the "rabbit area", "eight groups" and "friendship bar" in its heyday belong to senior entertainment enthusiasts. In a sense, they are the real opinion leaders in the entertainment industry, and can produce opinions for the Internet and recommend content to those around them.
Now that I look around, there is no place to discuss variety shows, so how can I talk about the discussion of variety shows?
