I am Really a Superstar

The next day.

Early in the morning.

On the roads, in the subway, at the breakfast stalls, heated discussions were happening.

"Did you watch it yesterday?"

"I watched both shows!"

"Me too. I caught Sing! first. But after that, I switched over to I Am a Singer."

"Hahaha, the rankings announcement segment was such a scam. That Zhang Ye could probably get away with murder by killing us with all that suspense. He really stole the thunder last night. A singing show ended up with him getting even more screen time than the singers who performed onstage. I was wondering why Zhang Ye didn\'t participate in the show himself, so that\'s where the Easter egg was. But then, this show is really good, haha! I just loved how he teased those singers and their host-managers!"

"This segment is ingenious. I don\'t think other shows would even dare to attempt it!"

"Yeah, the creativity of this show is really on another level."

"Sing! was pretty good too."

"It was, but that show was also created by Zhang Ye. No matter how well Central TV Department 1 does it now, they\'re still feeding on the scraps that were left over by Zhang Ye."

"True that."

At the same time.

Dozens of morning newspapers went on sale.

"Sing! puts up a good performance."

"Central TV Department 1 continues its work on a classic!"

"I Am a Singer causes a sensation!"

"A great half of the music industry\'s big names are in attendance!"

"Zhang Ye\'s new variety show is as amazing as ever!"

"I Am a Singer: A shocking work of art!"

"The gap in the audio sensory experience was obvious. I Am a Singer has a world-class audio setup!"

"Zhao Wuliu makes a comeback. The once popular God of Songs has been revived!"

"Songstress Zhang Xia shoots to fame overnight with a career rebirth!"

"Amy on the verge of elimination?"

"Xiaodong\'s solo performance showcases her incredible singing!"

"Viewer survey: Chen Guang and Zhang Xia favorites to be grand champion!"

"Zhang Ye\'s ample screen time makes audience laugh and curse!"

"Zhang Ye\'s new nickname: The most long-winded executive director in the history of TV!"

"Zhang Ye\'s popularity to climb again?"

"Whose viewership ratings will be higher, Sing! or I Am a Singer?"

…

Beijing Television.

At I Am a Singer\'s program team office.

Everyone was here today. Executive Producer Hu Fei had asked Xiao Lu to buy some newspapers that reported about their show to the office. But when Xiao Lu arrived at work, she was carrying more than 20 morning newspapers in her arms. She had probably bought a copy of every paper at the newspaper stand because they were all reporting about their show.

Furthermore, the songs sung on the show had also charted on the biggest music chart in the country!

On the latest Top Chinese Music Chart.

The calculation of yesterday\'s statistics:

#1: "Wild Rose" - Zhang Xia

#2: "Don\'t Say You Know Me" - Zhao Wuliu

#3: "Hope" - Yan Yi

#4: "Fire" - Zhang Yuanqi

#5: "Protect" - Chen Guang

Many of the songs performed on I Am a Singer had appeared on this chart. Of course, there were also the songs performed on Sing!, like the #3 song on the chart, as well as others like the Heavenly Queen\'s song that was just released a week ago and another new song from a Heavenly King. These were the top 20 songs for the day based on the statistics calculated yesterday.

Hou Ge said excitedly, "We\'ve made it!"

Hou Di cautiously reminded, "We still have to see how the viewership did."

"Even without seeing that, I know that we\'ve made it!" Hou Ge said, "I was worried that the segment where Director Zhang announced the rankings had dragged on for too long. During the broadcast yesterday, I even timed it on my watch to see exactly how long it took. Well alright, the announcement went on for nearly 30 minutes! Hahaha, but who could have expected that the viewers would be so accepting of it. The draft report even showed that the viewers doubled at that point in time!"

Xiao Lu giggled loudly. "I was also worried about that. But in the end, I was proven wrong by Director Zhang!"

Dafei said happily, "That\'s right, when has our Director Zhang ever gotten it wrong before?"

Zhang Ye laughed and said, "Hey, hey, enough with the adulation."

Han Qi said in admiration, "Teacher Zhang is so amazing."

Hu Fei smiled and said, "It\'s not like you guys haven\'t witnessed the amazingness of Teacher Little Zhang before. I\'m not at all surprised that the show got a good reception, but what I\'m more concerned about now is the viewership ratings for our premiere episode. This is different from King of Masked Singers because we didn\'t have any competition back then and dominated the market. But with Sing! sharing the same broadcast slot with us, the viewers would definitely be divided. That makes it really difficult to put a finger on how we\'ll do."

Yes.

The viewership ratings were the most important factor!

It was also the area in which they and the whole of Beijing Television were most concerned about!

Chen Guang called over.

"Zhang\'er, what\'s the viewership ratings?"

"Don\'t be so anxious, Old Chen. It\'s not out yet."

"When will it be released?"

"I\'ll let you know."

A short while later, Dong Shanshan and the other host-managers arrived at the office. The first thing that every one of them asked about was the viewership ratings.

Zhang Ye was also starting to feel the pressure. He had depended on his reputation and influence to form his team. After spending over the 200 million RMB that Beijing Television had allocated for the production budget and taking another 200 million from Wu Mo for the title sponsorship fee, he rounded up Dong Shanshan and the other hosts of Beijing Television, invited Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, Zhao Wuliu, Xiaodong, and the others, as well as carried out the task that his studio had prepared for him to reach the summit. If he messed up on the viewership ratings, he wouldn\'t be able to answer to anyone.

…

Central TV Department 1.

Sing!\'s program team staff had also arrived at work very early. Both anxiety and anticipation were written on everyone\'s faces as they waited for the viewership ratings to be released.

"Is it out yet?"

"Hurry up already!"

"May the Heavens bless us!"

"We don\'t ask to break 2% for the premiere, but please, just let us do better than I Am a Singer!"

"Right, it\'s good enough if we can do better than them!"

"It will definitely be higher than their viewership ratings. A show that only spends half its time showing singing performances and the other half showing some long-winded ranking announcement, its viewership ratings couldn\'t possibly be high at all!"

"We\'ll definitely win this time!"

"Zhang Ye\'s legend of the viewership ratings will be broken soon!"

Everyone in the industry knew about the legend of Zhang Ye.

He had never lost before!

He was always first in the viewership ratings for similar shows!

He was always first in the viewership ratings for the same broadcast slot!

He was always the first in the viewership ratings of the entire country!

Even for the documentary he filmed, it had swept aside all of the other television shows in the country. This was why so many people in the industry were waiting to see who could cut short Zhang Ye\'s legend in the viewership ratings. Without a doubt, Central TV Department 1\'s Sing! had the best chance to do so, even if Sing! was originally Zhang Ye\'s idea to begin with.

On Weibo.

"I place my bets on Sing! winning!"

"Get lost, my bet is on I Am a Singer!"

"For Zhang Ye\'s shows, it can lose in other areas, but it will never lose in the viewership ratings!"

"The only one who can curb Zhang Ye is the SARFT. Now that the SARFT has turned their attention away from him, that means that no one in the entire industry can win against that guy, not even Central TV Department 1!"

"+1 to the previous poster!"

"Brilliant analysis by the previous poster!"

"If Zhang Ye had made the second season of The Voice, he might stand a chance of beating I Am a Singer. But with Central TV Department 1\'s Sing! being just a renamed version of The Voice and having no new content, it\'ll be really difficult to beat him!"

"Anything can happen, let\'s see how it turns out."

"The two shows are quite good, so I don\'t think the viewership ratings will differ by much."

Finally, at 10 AM, the nationwide viewership ratings for yesterday were released!

But the results dumbfounded many industry insiders and netizens. A lot of people could feel their hearts turn cold and a chill rise from within!

How could that be possible!

How could it be like this!

Th-This didn\'t make any sense!

The netizens were shocked!

The industry insiders were terrified!

Many people were unable to accept the results!

The rankings of the nationwide viewership ratings for yesterday:

First: I Am a Singer, with a viewership rating of 2.43%!

Second: Celebrity Guess, with a viewership rating of 0.84%!

Third: Sing!, with a viewership rating of 0.82%!

The entire industry blew up over this news. I Am a Singer was first in the nationwide viewership ratings? Alright, that was still acceptable. After all, this was Zhang Ye\'s show. After all, he was the best director in the industry! But what was this about Sing!? How could Sing!\'s viewership ratings only put it in third place? It didn\'t even pass 1%? It only managed a meek 0.82%? It wasn\'t even a match for a reality TV show like Celebrity Guess?

Didn\'t the reviews say that it was quite good?

Didn\'t they say that it was very good?

So why were the viewership ratings so low?!

Many people in the industry were terrified. What was that nonsense about the viewers and popularity of these two shows getting split and shared evenly? It turned out there was no such thing! I Am a Singer had snatched away most of Sing!\'s viewers! During yesterday\'s broadcast slot, I Am a Singer\'s viewers were three times as many as Sing!\'s! What was there still left to play for? What was there still left to compete on?

Had Zhang Ye\'s influence reached a tipping point?

That whoever went up against him would be left for dead?

Whoever went up against him would be finished?

Sing! couldn\'t do it?

Central TV Department 1 couldn\'t do it?

Was there really no one in the industry who could defeat him?

This question was finally answered today.

That\'s right. It seemed there was really no one at all!