"We can generate 800 million yuan a year with a recording cost of 10 million."
At its peak, the naming fee for the Happy Base Camp column once exceeded the advertising price level of CCTV in the same period.
In 2022, fans could not wait for the news of the resumption of the Happy Base Camp, but waited for the bad news that the program was suspected of being suspended, and a large number of fans directly called: Ye Qingjie!
On October 9 last year, the last episode of Happy Base Camp was broadcast, and since then, rumors of Happy Base Camp being upgraded, suspended, and replaced have been reported from time to time. At the beginning of January, Happy Saturday officially announced the finalization of the file, and the Happy Base Camp was officially suspended.
Before the suspension, the average rating of each episode of Happy Base Camp was only 0.82%, ranking 57th on the whole network. Advertising investment has fallen sharply, shrinking by nearly 1 billion.
Since its inception in 1997, Happy Base Camp has lived for 24 years, recorded more than 1,000 programs, and has dominated the top three of the ratings list for 7 consecutive years, and has created a legend of ratings of 9, and has won the "China's highest-rated TV variety entertainment program" and "the most popular variety show of the year award" for many times.
Why did the top variety show fall off the altar? What happened to Happy Base Camp?
"Variety Big Brother" is deeply involved in the plagiarism storm and is scolded for not having a long memory
The reason why Happy Base Camp has been able to explode for more than 20 years is that it dares to innovate.
At that time, the major television stations took the conservative route of "news station", and Hunan Satellite TV was no exception at the beginning, and it also broadcast pig feed advertisements all day long, and the ratings were dismal.
In order to attract more viewers, Hunan TV boldly innovated and launched a variety entertainment program - Happy Base Camp. This show made the audience laugh with its super entertainment, and the host actively interacted with the audience in the program, and sent out color TVs, refrigerators and other gift packages, which quickly attracted a large number of viewers. Soon after the start of the broadcast, the ratings went all the way up, reaching a staggering 66% at the highest time, and 2 out of every 3 people had seen the Happy Base Camp.
In the early happy base camp, the content of the program was mainly "star + audience + game". The show tries to show the audience more aspects of the star and narrow the distance between the star and the audience. It also innovatively added the interactive link of the game, "Happy Fax", "Heart with Sharp Mind", "Love Hug", "Who is Undercover", "Grab the Stool" and other game links have been unanimously praised by the audience and have also been imitated by other programs.
At that time, the fast book, deeply cultivated the program content, with excellent program quality and interesting interactive links, became the well-deserved first domestic variety show.
On the 20th anniversary of Happy Base Camp, a special link of "Let One Let Go" was specially launched. However, after the program was broadcast, it was found by netizens to have copied the game in Han Zong's "Golden Bell", and what is more excessive is that even the stage design is extremely similar.
And this is not the first time that Happy Base Camp has been suspected of plagiarism. Happy Base Camp once launched a top hat game, and the guests wore a conical triangular hat on their face to play the pole game, and the effect was very good, which was unanimously praised by the audience. However, after the program was broadcast, many netizens said that the top hat game copied the ideas in Han Zong's "New Journey to the West".
Last year, the host and guest of Spain's "Ant Nest" publicly complained that Happy Base Camp copied its game session. The host said that 10 years ago, He Jiong came to "Ant Nest" as a guest to study on behalf of Happy Base Camp, and purchased the copyright of "Ant Nest" for 1 year, after the copyright expired, Happy Base Camp began the road of copyright-free plagiarism, directly copying the scientific experiment link in "Ant Nest". Such a public punishment, let netizens see it, and directly call out for shame.
As the ace variety show in China, Happy Base Camp has been deeply involved in the plagiarism storm many times, and various riot operations have not only been shelled by Korean media and publicly executed by Spanish programs, but also chilled the majority of fans. Some netizens angrily left a message: Happy Base Camp does not have a long memory! More netizens shouted: Happy Base Camp simply changed its name to Plagiarism Base Camp!
From the big red and purple to the fall of the altar, the happy base camp has gradually lost its original intention. This "take-ism" not only damaged its reputation, but also gradually lost its audience.
Obsessed with traffic monetization: from "who is on who is red" to "who fires please whom"
In the past, happy base camp was a direct train for stars to burst into flames, who can get on the fast book, who can fire, many stars are proud to be able to step on the stage of happy base camp.
Taiwanese artists enter the mainland, and the first stop is kuaiben. For example, Jay Chou, Zhang Shaohan, Xiao Jingteng, Wu Qilong, SHE, etc. have all appeared on the stage of happy base camp. Hong Kong stars such as Leung Chao-wai, Chen Xiaochun, Wu Kequn, Zhong Hanliang, Kwok Ke-ying, and Chan Wai-Ting have also been on the Happy Base Camp. There are also many celebrities in the mainland who have been on the programs of Happy Base Camp, and celebrity couples such as Zheng Shuang and Zhang Han, Tong Liya and Chen Sicheng are all in the Happy Base Camp for the first time to open their relationship.
In addition, international superstars such as Beckham, J.K. Rowling, Eddie Redmayne, lady Gaga and so on have also become guests of the Happy Base Camp, making the Happy Base Camp more and more popular and influential. Although Hunan Satellite TV later cancelled the appearance fee of artists and was only responsible for hotel and transportation expenses, countless star artists also competed to compete for the happy base camp.
With the popularity of the program, the revenue of Happy Big Book and the number of viewers have soared, riding the dust in the domestic variety industry, with a strong ability to make stars, favored by capital, with annual advertising revenue of up to 800 million, and the ability to absorb gold is amazing.
With more and more domestic variety shows, the audience is constantly being diverted, and the happy base camp is no longer thriving.
In order to seize the market and retain the audience, the new variety show is menacing, and it is not hesitant to spend a lot of money to invite popular stars. The variety resource war broke out.
In order to maintain the ratings, the happy base camp can only put down its posture, bow to the traffic, and invite the audience's favorite stars as guests in each issue, so as to maintain the popularity of the show and stabilize its own position.
There are two main reasons for the happiness base camp from "who is on who is red" to "who fires who pleases whom":
First, the external competitive environment has changed and competition has intensified. In the early days, there were only a few domestic variety shows, and the happy base camp faced relatively little competition, which developed rapidly and accumulated an audience base. However, with the blossoming of domestic variety shows everywhere, the audience can choose more variety shows, competition intensified, in order to attract the audience, each David TV has spent a lot of money, amplified moves, robbed of high-quality variety resources, into the vicious circle of "who fire pleases whom".
The second is to reduce the control of the quality of the program. In order to survive, the happy base camp is deeply involved in the "red man" battle, a large number of program funds are used to invite stars, and correspondingly, the investment in other links of the program becomes less, and the attention to the program itself is reduced, resulting in the overall reduction of the quality of other links of the program and the loss of the core competitiveness of the program. In addition, the practice of relying on popular stars to maintain the popularity of the show has also made the ratings of the show very unstable. This practice of putting the cart before the horse makes the happy base camp gradually become tainted. A large number of viewers complained that the happy base camp no longer brings happiness to the audience, but to bring happiness to the fans.
When a program only cares about entertainment, traffic and popularity, does not pay attention to the overall quality control of the program, and forgets the original intention of serving the audience, it will change from entertainment to entertainment to death, and sooner or later it will be abandoned by the audience.
Deeply bundled hosts, happy families from "ten thousand pets" to "ten thousand dislikes"
In the 24 years that Happy Base Camp has been broadcast, it has undergone 5 revisions and replaced more than 10 hosts.
The hosting team gradually evolved from the "iron hit Li Xiang, flowing male host" one-man and one-woman model from the beginning to the "iron triangle" combination of Li Xiang, He Jiong and Li Weijia. Later, with Li Xiang's departure from Hunan Satellite TV, Xie Na successfully made up for the position, but her overly exaggerated hosting style of pretending to be crazy and selling stupid was not accepted by the audience, and the ratings of the happy base camp declined.
As a result, Happy Base Camp exerted its super star-making ability to hold the "Shining New Anchor" host competition, and Wu Xin and Du Haitao, who won the first and second places, officially joined the Happy Base Camp, and formed a "Happy Family" hosting group with He Jiong, Xie Na and Li Weijia, and Happy Base Camp also became the first variety show in China to promote the concept of "host group".
The establishment of the Happy Family was loved by the majority of the audience, the Happy Base Camp once again rushed to the top of the ratings list, and the members of the Happy Family also increased in popularity with the show. In 2013, the theatrical film "Happy to Home" starring five members of the Happy Family was released, and although the content of the film was criticized, the box office performance exceeded 150 million yuan.
In the eyes of the audience, the happy family is the best spokesperson for the happy base camp. The program and the host are deeply tied, one wins and one loses. The show is booming, and the host's fame has increased greatly, but if the host is exposed to scandal, it is difficult for the show to be alone.
In the happy family, Xie Na's hosting style and level have been controversial, and she will only pretend to be crazy and stupid, and she will be shouted out of the entertainment circle by netizens. Although its Weibo followers reach more than 100 million people, there are also many people who do not like Xie Na. In one topic where Xie Na is annoying, there are more than 20,000 malicious comments, all of which are talking about Xie Na's shortcomings. Not long ago, Xie Na Studio's dispute over the sale and purchase contract was sued on the hot search, and its image was damaged again.
Not only Xie Na overturned the car, but Li Weijia, Wu Xin, and Du Haitao in the Happy Family had all thundered one after another because of endorsements. Last year, Li Weijia ran away because of the endorsement company, and was reported by many people as an artist who had lost his morality, and the headquarters of Hunan Satellite TV was surrounded by investors. Wu Xin and Du Haitao's endorsement of wealth management products and milk tea products have been thunderous and run, and the hot pot restaurants jointly opened by the two have been exposed to food safety problems many times.
As the eldest brother of the Happy Family, He Jiong was also deeply involved in a negative storm, first being questioned about eating empty pay outside the north, and then being reported by directors Liu Xinda and Zhou Guogang in real names, and also asked the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to order He Jiong to be expelled. His father was exposed to debt and did not repay the old lai, and the company was exposed to be suspected of cutting leeks, leaving many investors with no return and being pulled into banners to collect debts. Recently, the news of "He Jiong crying in Zhou Xun's arms" has been on the hot search.
Members of the Happy Family have been exposed to scandals one after another, but the most serious is the Happy Family receiving gifts from fans. Many of these gifts were of great value, including gold bars, Wada jade, Hermès ties, Marlboro pens, etc., and the amount and amount were staggering. What makes people feel uncomfortable is that the host not only publicly complains that the gifts sent by fans are not satisfactory, but even directly takes these gifts to the Internet to sell and monetize.
Fans send gifts to the host, just so that their favorite stars can have more shots, and what was originally an entertainment show has become a commercial transaction. And many fans are younger, and most of the money for gifts comes from their parents.
The happy family is deeply involved in the gift scandal, and has also been criticized by the people's network, public opinion is one-sided, and the negative effects are like stains, which are difficult to wash away. The audience suddenly found that behind the Happy Family, it was actually this "vampire" face, and the Happy Base Camp also collapsed due to a series of death acts of the Happy Family.
In order to save word of mouth, Happy Base Camp has also tried to cultivate new people. In 2018, Xie Na took maternity leave, and Li Haofei took over the baton, but this 20-year-old girl was scolded to the point of not daring to speak. 2 years later, happy base camp repeated the same trick, launched "Stand Firm, Friends", selected the resident guest, did not expect this show to hit the street with a rating of 0.44%. Last year, in the happy base camp where negative news swirled, a new member Ding Chengxin was launched, but because there was no host card, it only recorded a few issues and disappeared.
For the happy base camp, the status of the happy family has been deeply rooted, and Hunan Satellite TV does not have the right personnel to perfectly replace it. The happy family has frequent accidents, and the happy base camp has been going downhill, and the ratings and investment amount have both dropped sharply. In the end, the happy base camp had no choice but to stop broadcasting and stayed in 2021 forever.
The happy base camp is no longer there, and in addition to sighing, we are left with more thinking about entertainment programs.
24 years later, everything is updating and iterating, and everything has become unrecognizable.
Happy base camp because of the courage to innovate, has become a variety show that leads the entertainment trend ceiling, when it no longer takes the initiative to create and choose to follow and cater, repeated guests, old-fashioned games, thick plagiarism traces, rough program content, bad host groups, the program is no longer the original, the specially created happiness is false, short-lived, the audience's patience and goodwill are gradually dissolved.
The times are changing, the audience is changing, the form of the program must also change, if you forget the original intention, lose the core competitiveness, the consequence of nibbling on the old book is to be abandoned by the times and the audience.
Resources:
Goodbye, Happy Base Camp, hello Saturday
Behind the suspension of "Happy Base Camp", what is going on?
The happy base camp has changed from "who is on who is red" to "who fires who pleases whom", why is it getting worse and worse
The Happy Family is deeply involved in the gift scandal, where will the future go?
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