Original title: The dusk of talent show and the reconstruction of entertainment ecology
Author: Han Haoyue
On August 25th, Gong Yu, founder and CEO of iQiyi, and director of the China Television Association, made a statement at the “Working Forum on the Professional Ethics and Style Construction of TV Artists of China Television Association”, “Cancel the idols in the next few years.” Audition shows and any off-site voting sessions”.
As a platform that announced the production plan for five categories of 20 variety shows in 2021, iQiyi took the lead in saying “cancel the idol audition shows in the next few years”, which was regarded as a survival by the outside world. I think iQiyi was the vanguard of the talent show at the beginning. Now that we have reached this point, the public can only sigh, “Why should we have known today?”
Although other platforms have not yet expressed follow-up, the twilight of idol talent show has indeed arrived. The talent show, once considered to provide fresh blood to the entertainment industry and enrich the entertainment life of the public, has fallen into such a field as it is today. Take iQiyi as an example. The incident of “pouring milk and casting votes” for idols has long demonstrated that talent shows are only about earning profits and traffic, and sooner or later they will come to an end.
It is easy to attract eyeballs, easy to attract traffic, and the easiest to “harvest” fans. The prosperous and declining talent shows are also the epitome of the entire entertainment industry in recent years. In the past few days, there have been constant disturbances in the entertainment industry. Regulatory authorities have cracked down on chaos in the “rice circle”, Wu Yifan was arrested on suspicion of rape, Zheng Shuang was fined for tax evasion, and Zhao Wei’s works were taken off the shelves… A series of phenomena also indicate the whole The industry cultural ecology is about to be reconstructed.
The principle is the same: just make money and don’t put the general audience in the eyes. The Dongchuang incident will happen sooner or later, and the only way out is to change one’s mind. In this sense, what is reflected in the rise and fall of talent shows is also the superficial changes and internal laws of the entire cultural and entertainment industry in recent years.
The “Super Girl” back then, the main battlefield was the TV platform, the main focus was the grassroots concept, and the individual idols were selected, and powerful singers such as Li Yuchun and Zhang Liangying were born. In the recent drafts, the main position is the network platform, and the traffic route is taken. The selected group idols have spawned the so-called traffic stars.
From TV to the Internet, the shift of the platform has brought tremendous vitality to idol drafts, but because the core interest demands have not changed, the online idol draft variety shows continue to “collapse”. In particular, the emergence of dazzling terms such as “rice circle”, “debut”, “grouping”, “fighting”, “C position” and “cheer” has accelerated the decline of the new round of the draft.
The essence of drafting should be to select talented artists and use excellent works to prove their value. However, in recent drafts, there is indeed an extreme lack of high-quality players. Often the day of their debut in a group is also the beginning of forgotten. “Rice circle culture” replaces “fan culture”, leading to irrational star-chaser forming a prairie fire, “cutting leeks and willingly being cut”, forming a deformed relationship between the platform behind the talents and the audience.
Human manipulation has always been an open secret since the draft form entered the variety show entertainment form. Under the banner of “fairness and transparency”, the main purpose of setting rules is to arbitrarily modify the established rules. The main purpose is to stimulate the consumer’s mood of the audience and make their consumer desires continue to rise.
The situation continued to worsen until such events as “pouring milk and casting votes” that touched the bottom line of public acceptance, and unable to restrain and restrain their idol talents, finally personally sent themselves into the pit they dug. Knowing that the abnormal relationship between the idols and fans created by himself cannot last, but he cannot stop the almost crazy degeneration. This is a manifestation of short-sightedness and unconfidence, and it is also caused by the greedy instinct of capital and human nature.
From a cultural perspective, although the early drafts were exceptional in operation, they did not get rid of the category of popular popular culture. In terms of values, the program still has positive energy, which is in line with mainstream values; but in recent years, the drafts have established the main interest demands on the basis of the “rice circle”, allowing the “rice circle”, a bizarre flower belonging to the youth subculture, to stand. Central location. Without the support and love of the public, it is inevitable that the draft will go astray.
All in all, from TV to the Internet, from grassroots to human design, from nature to artificiality, the degeneration of talent shows is also a prominent symptom of the entertainment industry that has been eroded and manipulated by capital. Traffic stars, bad movie hype, fan chaos… In terms of internal mechanisms, talent shows are no different from them.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that the current variety show ecology is also facing many similar problems. “Rice circle culture” has already overflowed talent shows and permeated the entire entertainment form. For example, the bad phenomena of variety show hosts accepting gifts from fans have shown that many programs are deviating from the formality and no longer put the audience’s needs in the first place. Only traffic, topics, hot searches… or in other words, it is a good word. .
Just today, the Central Cyberspace Administration of China issued a further “Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of Chaos in the “Rice Circle””, proposing ten major measures such as the cancellation of the star artist list, strict management of star brokerage companies, and regulation of fan group accounts, which clearly require Strengthen the management of online behaviors of online variety shows, and must not set up the “spend money to vote” function.
The night of the talent show is also another wake-up call to the public entertainment ecology. The draft itself may not be wrong, but it should not be dissimilated into a tool for eyeballing and cutting leeks, and it cannot become a hotbed of nourishing capital and stirring emotions. Practitioners should ask themselves, is the original intention of selecting talents with strong strength and good morality and art still in their original intentions? To satisfy the audience, are the ideals in line with the mainstream values of society still there?
The entire internal entertainment ecological environment is being purified and reconstructed, and it is not just talent shows that require strict scrutiny and correction. (Han Haoyue)
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