Rebirth 09: Starting from taking charge of Running Man on CCTV

……

10 o'clock sharp.

The main conference room of the variety channel.

The moment the door closed, all the noise in the corridor was shut out.

The meeting room wasn't large; long tables were arranged in three rows in a U-shape.

Three people are sitting in the main seat at the front.

Jiang Bingqian, the head of the Central Radio and Television Station, sat in the center, his posture upright, his dark suit without a single wrinkle. In front of him was a cup of tea and a fountain pen. He did not look at any materials, and his gaze calmly swept over everyone present.

Deputy Director Lin Hongyuan sat to his right, his thin-rimmed glasses polished to a shine, an open notebook on his left, and his right hand unconsciously twirling a pen.

Channel Director Zhou Wenbin sat on the left, his slightly muscular build leaning back in his chair, a stack of proposal materials spread out in front of him, his expression indifferent.

On both sides sat senior directors and producers from various program teams, numbering about twenty people.

Zhao Guisheng sat in the second row on the side, his face still gloomy.

Chen Yang's seat was arranged opposite the lecture hall, the last empty seat in the third row.

Number 093. The last one in the six groups of speakers.

The first five groups go first.

The first group is a revamped version of a long-running CCTV music program, which adds outdoor shooting segments and interactive voting.

The second group consists of documentaries on traditional culture, presented on a large screen.

The third group is an upgraded version of studio-based variety shows, introducing the concept of "universal participation," which is basically still a studio plus audience phone-in connections.

The fourth group consists of variety show stars performing at a gala.

Group 5: A hybrid approach combining a knowledge competition with an artistic performance.

Five groups took turns on stage, each with a more elaborate PowerPoint presentation and a more lengthy speech.

But the core ideas are almost exactly the same.

Inside the shed.

Safety.

Controllable.

No errors.

Jiang Bingqian remained silent, only occasionally glancing down to scribble a few lines on the paper.

Lin Hongyuan flipped through four or five pages of his notebook, but the annotations he wrote were becoming fewer and fewer.

Zhou Wenbin did ask a few questions, but after he finished, the corners of his mouth visibly drooped downwards.

The atmosphere in the entire conference room felt as if it were covered by a damp rag, making it hard to breathe.

After the fifth group finished speaking and stepped off the stage, there was a silence in the conference room for several seconds.

"Next."

The channel's deputy director, who was chairing the meeting, glanced at the list.

"Group 6, 'Run, China!', Proposer: Chen Yang."

The veteran directors sitting in the second and third rows almost simultaneously raised their heads.

Zhao Guisheng leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

The person next to him leaned over and whispered something, and the two of them simultaneously twitched the corners of their mouths.

Waiting to see the show.

Chen Yang stood up.

He didn't bring a paper copy.

I didn't bring a cue card.

He had nothing in his hands except for a USB drive.

He walked up to the podium, plugged the USB drive into the Lenovo desktop computer connected to the projector, and opened the PPT file.

The projection screen lit up.

Home.

White background with black text, without any fancy animations or illustrations.

A line of large characters in the very center—

Breaking free from the shackles of the studio, ushering in the 4.0 era of Chinese variety shows.

The quiet whispers that had been filling the conference room suddenly stopped.

Zhou Wenbin raised his eyebrows by half a centimeter.

Lin Hongyuan's hand, which was twirling the pen, paused.

Jiang Bingqian looked up from his teacup and gazed at the podium.

Chen Yang did not introduce himself or exchange pleasantries.

He stood on the stage, glanced at the entire audience, and began to speak.

"Distinguished leaders, I have listened to the proposals from the first five groups of teachers."

"The studio, lighting, camera positions, stage design, and audience seating are all under control. It's definitely safe and stable."

"But I would like to show you some data."

He turned to the second page.

A line graph.

"In 2007, CCTV's total market share across all channels was 35.7%. In 2008, it was 33.2%. In the first quarter of this year, it was 31%."

"During the same period, the market share of provincial satellite TV channels increased from 18% to 24.5%."

"Hunan TV's 'Happy Camp' and 'Day Day Up' are both studio-based variety shows. But they succeeded because they captured the hearts of young viewers."

"No matter how CCTV changes its format in the studio-based variety show sector, it's still chasing after rules set by others."

"You can't catch up."

He spoke slowly, but not a single word was superfluous.

Turn to the third page.

"So the core of my plan can be summed up in one sentence: don't chase, switch tracks."

"Outdoors! Real-life setting! Competition! Reality show!"

"There is currently no celebrity outdoor competitive reality show with a fixed cast in China. There isn't one anywhere else in the world either."

"This is not a blank market; it is a continent that no one has ever set foot on before."

Turn to page four.

"Screenwriter-centric system".

"In traditional variety shows, the content is assigned by the director, and the guests follow the script. My approach is the opposite: a professional writing team designs the plot framework, conflict points, and suspense lines, but does not give the guests a script. They react authentically throughout the entire process, and we use unscripted filming to capture every unrepeatable real moment."

Someone in the second row muttered quietly, "No script? Won't that cause chaos?"

Chen Yang acted as if he hadn't heard anything and turned to the fifth page.

"Multi-camera, person-to-person filming."

"Each resident guest is assigned a dedicated cameraman to record the entire event. At the same time, twenty to thirty fixed camera positions are set up within the venue to cover all key paths and blind spots."

"Traditional studio-based variety shows rely on three to five fixed cameras to shoot panoramic, medium, and close-up shots. My plan uses five to eight times more cameras per episode than traditional studio-based variety shows."

"There is only one goal: to capture every single second of genuine reaction."

He paused for a moment.

"Some people may think that this is too exaggerated and the cost is too high."

"But think about it, why are viewers increasingly less interested in watching variety shows?"

"Because it's fake."

"Because every laugh, every word, every reaction is rehearsed. The audience isn't stupid; they can tell."

"What my show aims to do is very simple: to give the audience the truth."

The meeting room fell completely silent.

Zhou Wenbin, who had been leaning back in his chair, had somehow sat up straight.

His hand rested on the stack of proposal materials, his five fingers unconsciously tightening.

Lin Hongyuan's pen had stopped spinning, and the notebook in his left hand was filled with new annotations.

Jiang Bingqian, who was in the main seat, leaned forward slightly by a few centimeters.

This subtle movement was something that the veteran directors present could not possibly miss.

The fact that the director of CCTV leaned forward on his own initiative meant something that everyone at CCTV knew.

Zhao Guisheng slowly lowered his hands, which were clasped in front of his chest.

The director next to him, who had just been preparing to watch the show, had his mouth slightly open, forgetting to close it.

Standing on the podium, Chen Yang spoke without notes or cards, delivering every piece of data, every concept, and every sentence with the precision of a bullet, hitting everyone's blind spots.

More than thirty pairs of eyes in the audience were fixed on him.

No one moved it.

Chen Yang turned to page six.

"Next, I'll talk about the core gameplay."

"The essence of all competitive aspects lies in one mechanism..."

Three large characters appeared on the screen.

[Tearing Name Tags].