Text │ Frost Dai
In October this year, the news that He Chen, the general director of "Star Detective", led the small box studio to leave was fried on the Internet, when the script killing reasoning variety show entered the Red Sea, all parties entered the game, and the "founding father" suffered a pinch. First, the general director left the nest, and then the tone of the program changed "star reasoning" to "popular law education", and the name was changed to "Great Detective", an action made a large number of old audiences who had accumulated in the program have a sense of crisis.
At the end of October, Mango TV held the 2022 Annual Variety Show Merchants Association, and announced that the creative team of the seventh season of "Star Detective" was Yanji Studio. Yan Ji, as the executive producer of the first three seasons of "Star Detective", the content of the new season of the program finally gave fans a reassuring pill, and most of the original team members arrived at Reuters after the opening of the recording, which also made the early doubts a lot smaller.
But the sub-program "Star Detective Academy" is not so lucky, Wu Xin, Yang Di, Pang Bo three new artists to join, breaking the pattern of all high IQ people, not only a large number of old guests failed to appear, the program editing and scheduling methods have also undergone relatively large changes. New and old audiences from the barrage quarrel to the comments, and then to Weibo, Douban and other social platforms, there is a dispute.
When he first produced this show two years ago, He Chen probably did not expect that a low-cost, lightweight derivative program would grow into an independent hot IP, and together with the "Star Detective" that was also small and broad seven years ago, the name of "Little Box" was put on the top spot of the script killing variety show. Her movements have also been subconsciously associated with the development and ups and downs of the show itself by countless viewers, and the "star director" effect has gradually formed. In China, the relationship between "prosperity and loss" such as "Ming Detective" IP and "Small Box" is not in the minority.
After the director left the nest, the variety shows and stories they left behind continued.
Chikusei: Star director in business
The "stardom" of the general director must first set his sights on Luo Yingxi, the "national PD" from South Korea. Since 2007, programs such as "Two Days and One Night", "Grandpa Flowers", and "New Journey to the West" with him as the general director have been broadcast one after another, which are all pioneering legendary programs in the history of Korean and even Asian variety shows, and have become the benchmarks of countless latecomers.
In addition to Luo Yingxi's fame is closely related to the popularity and quality of these programs themselves, there is also a very important point: the exposure of the director and the hook-up with the guests in the content setting of the program.
For example, depending on the program setting, artists need to obtain funds, meals, and beds through games, and guests who fail the game are punished. In this process, Luo Yingxi's program guests are not just acting in accordance with the rules, but "fighting wits and courage" with the director group, the main MC often cue to the director group behind the camera, And Luo Yingxi is also happy to lead the director group and the guests to bet and play games.
As a result, "Luo PD" gradually penetrated into the content of the program and became an important part of it. The never-before-seen show format exploded, feeding the producer's fame, and the name "Luo Yingxi" was also given a layer of "star" color because of the mingling with the artists in the show.
Luo Yingxi
What can support the director's talent to be unleashed at will is The rising variety market in South Korea. During this period, With its sense of innovation, huge development space and mature industrial operation, Han Zong is far ahead in the entire Asian market.
The most advanced in China is Hunan Satellite TV, which has a keen sense of entertainment content innovation.
In 2013, Hunan Satellite TV took the lead in introducing South Korea's MBC's "Daddy! Where are we going? ", that is, "Where Did Daddy Go", which later led the wave of domestic parent-child variety shows, Xie Dikui served as the general director. The significance of this show to the domestic reality show is extraordinary, and although Xie Dikui did not appear frequently at this time, because the game setting has the nature of "torturing" Dad, it also caused a friendly "Battle" between the guests and the program team. Xie Dikui was cue to the camera many times to play games, and his personal memory points were enhanced.
In the same year, the music program "I Am a Singer" from MBC was also introduced by Hunan Satellite TV and ran for several years. Unlike the popularity of Luo Yingxi and Xie Dikui, the general director Hong Tao stood directly from behind the scenes to the front of the stage and was responsible for announcing the competition rankings. "Drinking water stem" is undoubtedly his most vivid memory point.
After the increasingly fierce market competition and the universalization of the "Luo PD" production style, Xie Dikui and Hong Tao gradually "retreated to the second line", and the latecomer Yan Min was at the time of the fight.
In 2015, the original outdoor reality show "Extreme Challenge" was broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV, and Yan Min, the general director of the theater major, was more adept at breaking the "fourth wall" to build the drama and comedic effect of the program, the boundary between the artist, the director group and the audience became more blurred, and Yan Min was also completely integrated into the discourse of the program. In the hearts of most fans, Yan Min can be said to be the seventh person of the "Extreme Man Gang".
Since then, Yao Yitian, general director of "Run", "Hi FangPai", Wu Tong, general director of "Ace to Ace", "Youth Tour", Che Che, general director of "China Has Hip Hop" and "Blood Street Dance Troupe", and He Chen, who is on the cusp of the storm recently, have all appeared in games, hosting and even going on derivative programs and live broadcasts with artists, and the frequency of hot searches is also increasing sharply. Although the effects are different, it is obvious that the director's "star effect" is increasing year by year, from "invisible guardian" to "visible value".
Leaving the nest: freedom and falling back
But "freedom" seems to be the ultimate goal pursued by many content creators.
Xie Dikui left Hunan Satellite TV in 2015, becoming the first case of a domestic "star" director leaving the nest. At that time, it was the end of the third season of "Where Did Daddy Go", and with the change of the variety show environment, the departure of the general director also made the final heat of the show gradually fade.
After leaving Hunan Satellite TV, Xie Dikui founded Joy Media on his own, but since then, a number of self-made programs such as "About It!" Big Star" and other average voices, the same focus on parent-child relationship program "Think of a way! "Daddy" has a lot of ill-fated fate and has not yet been broadcast. Struggling for many years, it was not until this year's "Fifty Kilometers peach blossom dock" that Xie Dikui's name once again had a presence in the deserted variety market. However, in the second half of the year, the market was hot, Yan Min, Yao Yitian, Wu Tong, Lu Wei and other people appeared one after another, and Xie Dikui's name was "rolled up" again.
Hong Tao
Hong Tao, who is still glowing in Hunan Satellite TV, once also reported a vigorous dispute away from the nest. At the end of "Singer 2018", he said with tears that "the program really tried its best", for a time, the news that Hong Tao was going to leave Hunan Satellite TV was very loud, and everyone could not help but equate this matter with the wind and noise that "Singer" was stuck in a bottleneck and difficult to continue. After all, in the hearts of most viewers, there are thousands of excellent singers, and there is only one program controller who drinks water while announcing the ranking.
As a result, Hong Tao did not run away, but participated in the production of follow-up "Singer" as a program producer and innovative coordinator, and took charge of the production of creative music programs such as "City of Illusion". Although "Singer" is still in a crisis that is difficult to break in the comprehensive N generation, and the ratings and popularity are declining, at least under the seat of Hong Tao, the end of "Singer" is still decent.
Whether or not they choose to leave the nest, Xie Dikui and Hong Tao are more like the predecessors who retired to the rivers and lakes after experiencing their heyday, which is different from Luo Yingxi's situation after experiencing the absence of the nest. In contrast, today's Yan Min has a bit more of a meaning of Luo PD.
After leaving Oriental Satellite TV, Yan Min founded Wenmai Culture, cooperated with Station B, and served as the general director of the rap music program "Rap New Generation"; cooperated with Tencent Video as the executive director of "Deyun Dou Laughing Society"; cooperated with iQiyi as the producer of the "Nameless" dramatist's life production, but the high reputation of the reality show "Drama New Life"... Quality works continue. From the platform to the audience, Yan Min's name is the new golden sign in the variety show. Not long ago, Tencent Video announced the new project "New New Travels", directed by Yan Min's team, this show is expected to be guided by the original "New Journey to the West" Luo Yingxi's team, and it is expected that the collision of the two teams can recreate the legend.
He Chen also chose to stand on his own after leaving the nest. After leaving Mango TV, she posted a message on her Weibo job to recruit screenwriters, the delivery mailbox is "Detective Day", it is the new company she registered at the end of August, breaking the early rumors of being poached by other platforms at high prices. He Chen's road to free creation has just begun, and what new world can be stepped out, you can observe and see.
In addition, such as "Run! Although the former general director of "Brothers" Cen Junyi and the former producer of "I Am a Singer" are All Yan, although they all have a big explosion program and the experience of leaving the nest, they are limited to the nature of the program and have not yet formed an obvious personal star color, so the storm caused by leaving is not very big.
Stay behind, strife, pioneering
For the loyal audience of the show, behind the director's "pursuit of freedom" is the beginning of the crisis faced by the "left-behind programs".
Since it is a star program produced by a star director, even if the director leaves the nest, the platform generally will not give up easily, but will choose a new team to take over, or "old-fashioned", or revised, in order to play the effect of super IP. But the result is often that the risks far outweigh the opportunities.
If the loneliness of "Where Daddy Goes" is more affected by the market environment, then "Extreme Challenge" is a typical case of the negative impact of the star director leaving the nest. In 2019, Shi Jianning, who is also the director of Oriental Satellite TV, took over the fifth season of "Extreme Challenge", and the tone of the program also changed, and this change directly provided an outlet for the dissatisfaction accumulated by old audiences for a long time. Before and after the broadcast, the audience's resistance came and went, and the program rating dropped from the highest score of 9.3 to 4.1.
Jumping out of the influence of the "Extreme Challenge" IP, the content of the program is actually online, maybe a different name and opportunity to appear, the result will be much better. Shi Jianning, a senior director who has a number of high-quality programs such as "Happy Comedian", "Laughing Proud of the River", "Life Is Hilarious", and has also been a Waterloo, and in the impression of some audiences, he has changed from "the leader of comedy variety shows" to "the slippery slope pusher of "Extreme Challenge". It can be seen that it is easy to succeed the star director to be "thankless".
"Run" is slightly better, the successor director of the fourth season is Yao Yitian, who served as the co-ordinator and deputy director in the second and third seasons, who has participated in the show, has the original program thinking, network reserves and team management experience, and the revised version is appropriate, giving the old audience a certain buffer zone, plus the star color of the previous director is not strong, and the audience's reaction is not so intense.
The current "Star Detective" seems to be taking the path of "Run", unlike "Famous Detective Academy" directed by a new team, the guest lineup and the tone of the show have changed greatly, and the Yanji team has been deeply involved in the production of the previous seasons of "Star Detective", which is more acceptable to old audiences. At present, the program retains the basic model and the original team, but whether the content has been developed still needs to wait for the verification after broadcasting.
In fact, the essence of "left-behind programs" is still a comprehensive N generation, and "pioneering" is an inevitable road for all programs. The market is constantly changing, old programs are rolled in, new programs are frequently released, and as the "fourth wall" is broken, the audience is closer to the content. Under the crisis, how to endorse the reputation of the star director of the "left-behind program" instead of being negatively affected by the departure from the nest, and maintain high-quality wind reviews while maintaining the spread of large IP, is also left to the successors.