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In 2004, in order to promote China's cross talk and sketch culture, CCTV held a unique competition - "The First CCTV Comedy Sketch Competition".
The competition attracted a number of talented performers, including famous artists such as Zhao Benshan.
Zou Dejiang was invited to serve as the host of the competition, and as the host, he assumed important responsibilities, not only to ensure the smooth progress of the program, but also to meet CCTV's high standards and strict requirements for program content.
But in the process of the competition, a series of contradictions and conflicts occurred between Zou Dejiang and Zhao Benshan, which eventually led to Zou Dejiang losing his position as host.
In this competition, Zhao Benshan sent his beloved apprentice Zhang Xiaofei to participate in the competition.
Zhang Xiaofei and his wife He Meiling took the stage together to perform a two-person turn.
Their performances were passionate, but in some cases, the two made moves that were considered indecent, such as "undressing and lifting their pants", which seemed particularly inappropriate on a stage on an official television station like CCTV.
Seeing this, Zou Dejiang, as the host, tactfully reminded the actors to get dressed out of a sense of responsibility for the control of the content of the program.
This sudden interruption made Zhang Xiaofei and his wife feel very embarrassed, and the show had to end hastily.
This kind reminder was not recognized by the actors, but made the scene embarrassing for a while.
This behavior aroused strong dissatisfaction from Zhao Benshan.
He believes that his apprentice has not violated the rules, and the performance has not ended, and Zou Dejiang's actions are disrespectful to the actors.
In the ensuing dispute, Zhao Benshan publicly expressed his dissatisfaction with Zou Dejiang, believing that he interfered too much with the actor's performance.
The turmoil had a profound impact on Zou Dejiang's career.
Although he himself insisted that his departure was due to the expiration of his contract, in the eyes of public opinion, it was not unrelated to his performance in the tournament.
After Zou Dejiang left CCTV, he tried to transform into an actor and participated in many TV series.
Due to the fact that his roles were mostly supporting roles, his acting career did not achieve the expected success.
On the other hand, Zhao Benshan, after this incident, his status in CCTV has not been affected.
His influence and popularity remain high.
Zhao Benshan mentioned in a later interview that there was no big problem originally, but a few words from Zou Dejiang angered him.
Just because of a few words, Zou Dejiang's career was ruined, and it was inevitable that Zou Dejiang's efforts for so many years were erased.
Apprentice Shengjie
Although no one in his family is engaged in the art industry, Zou Dejiang has been interested in quyi since he was a child, especially storytelling.
In his childhood, Zou Dejiang always quietly saved the pocket money given by his parents and used the money to buy tickets to listen to book performances.
His love for storytelling is unparalleled, and his memory is even more amazing, as long as he listens to it once, he can memorize the lines of the entire storytelling word for word.
In order to continue to pursue the art of storytelling, Zou Dejiang began to tell the stories of storytelling in his memories to his classmates in various school activities and classes.
Zou Dejiang's artistic talent attracted the attention of his teacher, and with his encouragement, Zou Dejiang embarked on the road of art.
When he grew up, he joined the art troupe and became a literary soldier.
There, he not only broadened his knowledge of the art of quyi, but also gained more opportunities to perform.
With his outstanding artistic attainments and professionalism, Zou Dejiang soon stood out and eventually became the actor captain of the art troupe.
By chance, the famous cross talk artist Shi Shengjie discovered Zou Dejiang's talent and took him as an apprentice.
Under the guidance of Shi Shengjie, Zou Dejiang began to learn a variety of forms of music such as Xi cross talk, and his skills became more and more sophisticated.
In 1991, CCTV launched the variety show "Quyuan Miscellaneous Altar", aiming to promote traditional Chinese culture.
Zou Dejiang was invited to participate in the show, and at first he was mainly responsible for the behind-the-scenes work, and it was not until 1995 that he gradually came to the foreground, which received wide attention from the audience.
From 2001 to 2004, Zou Dejiang served as the host of CCTV's large-scale program "Happy Weekend Meeting", which further enhanced his popularity.
In 2005, he co-starred with Pan Changjiang and others in the Spring Festival Gala magic scene sketch "Magic Olympics", ushering in the peak of his career.
For a time, Zou Dejiang became CCTV's popular fried chicken, and he was in the limelight.
As the saying goes, flowers are not red for 100 days, and people are good for 100 days. Zou Dejiang's smooth sailing on CCTV did not last long.
Because of offending Zhao Benshan, Zou Dejiang's career suffered a setback.
"Revenge" from Zhao Benshan
A few years later, on a program, when Dong Qing tried to clarify Zou Dejiang's behavior back then, Mr. Zhao's dissatisfaction was obvious.
Even though many years have passed, he still can't let go.
Zhao Benshan publicly stated on the show that he was dissatisfied with Zou Dejiang's behavior and believed that Zou Dejiang had treated his apprentice unfairly.
It is also a challenge to one's own dignity.
What is surprising is that five years later, Zhao Benshan took the initiative to invite Zou Dejiang to participate in his program "Stars Turn Up".
Many people thought this was a sign of reconciliation between the two, but it was not.
That year, Zhao Benshan led his apprentice Xiao Shenyang to perform the sketch "Not Bad Money" which was a great success, and Xiao Shenyang became popular overnight.
Soon after, Zou Dejiang and Wei San, who had been rejected by Zhao Benshan, performed the sketch "Looking for Face" on the CCTV program "Happy Weekend Meeting", and even Wei San imitated Zhao Benshan's dress and voice movements.
The skit was well received by the audience and won laughter and applause from the audience.
However, some commentators believe that this is an action by Zou Dejiang and Wei San to jointly fight back against Zhao Benshan, but only the parties concerned know the truth.
Not long after this incident, Zhao Benshan invited Zou Dejiang to participate in his show.
In the show, Zhao Benshan skillfully arranged for Zhang Xiaofei and Zou Dejiang to be on the same stage, and Zhang Xiaofei kept squeezing Zou Dejiang during the performance, which was undoubtedly another public humiliation of Zou Dejiang.
With the passage of time, Zou Dejiang's name was gradually forgotten by the public, and he was reduced from a high-profile host to an 18th-tier actor.
After Zou Dejiang left CCTV
After leaving CCTV, Zou Dejiang did not stop his pursuit of art, but Zou Dejiang's fame gradually dimmed, and the former "light" no longer existed.
In order to make a living, running around in various commercial activities, those humble performance venues are in stark contrast to the glorious CCTV stage in the past.
Some fans once saw him take a photo with the staff in an open field, and the sparse passers-by around him all told him about his current embarrassing situation, as if he had gone back in time, and he had turned back into the fledgling street performer.
But fate did not completely abandon him, he began to turn to acting and devoted himself to the creation of various film and television works.
In 2005, Zou Dejiang successfully created the image of Guo Zixiao in the TV series "Shengshui Lakeside", and won the love of the audience with his unique performance style.
In the 2010 TV series "Teahouse", the role of "Dasha Yang" played by him was also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, showing his solid acting skills.
In 2011, Zou Dejiang played Lai Xingfu in the TV series "The Ordinary Life of Brother and Sister-in-law", portraying the image of an ordinary miner deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
In 2016, he played Uncle An in the TV series "Tragedy of the Hot Land", showing the tenacity and kindness of a farmer.
Later, Zou Dejiang successively participated in many film and television works, including "Old House", "Beautiful Nanny", "Rules Before Marriage", "Grandpa Ascension", and so on.
In these works, Zou Dejiang not only showed his superb acting skills, but also successfully portrayed a series of memorable characters.
In recent years, Zou Dejiang has continued to shine in his acting career, participating in a number of works, in which he has played different roles, each time bringing a new experience to the audience.
played Zhang Maiquan in the TV series "Sanquan Xinuan", a role that allowed him to once again prove his profound acting skills.
In the same year, he also participated in the large-scale historical drama "Da Qin Fu", playing Han Huanhui, King Han Ran, presenting the audience with the complex inner world of an ancient king.
In 2022, Zou Dejiang ushered in a new peak in his acting career, not only participating in the filming of the theatrical movie "Don't Make Trouble, Yingzi", but also had a wonderful performance in the hit drama "Da Qin Fu".
The success of these works has undoubtedly accumulated more praise and popularity for him.
In addition to his success in his acting career, Zou Dejiang also actively tried to develop in other fields.
He opened an online platform to share his daily life, which attracted the attention of a large number of fans.
He also participated in a variety show on satellite TV, performing with his master Shi Shengjie and other brothers, showing his profound skills in quyi.
Now Zou Dejiang's figure rarely appears in the relevant news of the entertainment industry, and we learn more about his recent situation through some life photos posted by netizens.
Among these photos, there is a photo of him and Yoon Sang-jie at a certain dinner, as well as a picture of him singing at a certain dinner.
Although these photos are simple, they truly record the current state of Zou Dejiang's life.
Although Zou Dejiang's acting career did not develop as expected, he did not give up.
He has always stayed in the industry and looks forward to bringing more excellent works.
His experience tells us that no matter what kind of predicament we are in, as long as we stick to our dreams and keep working hard, there will always be a day of success.
Up to now, Zhao Benshan and his apprentices are still active in theatrical performances, but Uncle Benshan also withdrew from the Spring Festival Gala a few years ago.
Although Zou Dejiang's approach back then may have been too direct, from another point of view, he also wanted to take into account the feelings of audiences of different ages and avoid the content of the show being too vulgar.
The performance style of Zhao Benshan and his apprentices is more down-to-earth and more entertaining.
Perhaps if the two sides could have communicated better and found a more appropriate way to deal with it at that time, then this grievance would not have continued to this day.