Recently, the low-cost variety show "We Three" has been on the air.
This is an "acquaintance" variety show with the main lineup of Wei Daxun, Mao Buyi and Guo Qilin, because of the low cost, there is not even a complete configuration of crew members.
And such a low-cost "micro variety show" has almost become a frequent visitor to the variety show market in recent years.
In the past, micro-short dramas were popular, but now even variety shows have begun to be "lightened" at low cost?
Variety shows have begun to "lighten"?
I don't know when it started, many low-cost "light variety shows" have appeared in the variety show market.
For example, the recently hit variety show "We Three" is different from the lineup of a bunch of guests in previous variety shows, and only three people, Wei Daxun, Mao Buyi and Guo Qilin, made up a show.
There have also been variety shows such as "Mao Xuewang" and "Happy Adult" before, all of which became popular with low-cost "acquaintance bureaus" as selling points.
For example, "Mao Xuewang" plays Li Xueqin and Mao Buyi, two fixed guests, chatting and entertaining friends in the room, even if there are big-name stars present, the content of the show is still simple every day.
These shows do not have complicated planning and high investment, and they tend to have simple content and a streamlined number of episodes, but they always get good attention.
In addition, countless other small variety shows have also appeared in various forms on the market.
For example, after many episodes are broadcast, a "drama variety" will be specially produced, and the content is nothing more than several main actors getting together to play games and chat, and it will be broadcast on a serious video website, and it will become a serious variety show.
There are even many celebrities who have launched personal variety shows, and every episode of the show revolves around the star, which can be called a genuine "micro variety show".
Different from traditional variety shows, the number of star guests of these "light variety shows" is small, and the audience is mainly fans of these stars, which is relatively fixed, extremely simple in content, and most importantly, extremely low cost.
On the contrary, fewer and fewer people watch traditional variety shows on TV, but these streamlined light variety shows can always be out of the circle.
Variety shows, getting smaller and smaller?
Getting shorter and shorter, is it an inevitable trend?
Nowadays, more and more ordinary large-scale variety shows have been squeezed out of the market by countless lightweight variety shows that have broken ground.
Why have these low-cost, low-cost, and even small variety shows that don't require much planning and conception become the sweets of today's market?
Hessah
First of all, in terms of broadcasting platforms, short video platforms have almost replaced TV as a broadcasting channel with a wider audience and more money.
Therefore, in order to gain more audiences, variety shows had to choose to broadcast in the context of short videos, or use short video platforms to promote.
And for a long time, under the influence of short and fragmented short videos, most audiences' habits of watching film and television works have become fragmented and short.
Therefore, becoming shorter and lighter has become the best way for variety shows to be seen by more people.
is a good
Secondly, lightweight variety shows also have all the advantages in terms of production.
Ordinary long variety shows require huge investment, from the planning team, venue selection, to the celebrity guests in each issue, it is a large expense.
This means that large-scale variety shows have extremely high risks, especially when there are too many celebrity guests in the show, and it is often easy to cause huge losses due to the collapse of the star's house, which leads to the failure of the entire program to be broadcast.
Even if it can be reluctantly broadcast, it is bound to increase the cost of the later stage, after all, it is not easy to make a person disappear from all the screens~
In contrast, a lightweight variety show with few guests is more secure.
And the production cost of small variety shows can also be greatly reduced accordingly, for example, in the program "We Three", AI is even directly used to plan and guide the program, and its low cost can be seen.
In this way, the funds originally invested in a large-scale variety show can be invested in multiple lightweight variety shows, after all, there is always one to earn back.
Therefore, in the environment of economic downturn, low-cost variety shows are undoubtedly a more "cost-effective" choice for investors and producers.
Karlotta Freier
In addition, many viewers watch variety shows for the purpose of chasing stars, which is also one of the factors that cause variety shows to be "lightweight".
In today's domestic entertainment, the phenomenon of celebrity "traffic" is very obvious, and each star has his own relatively fixed fan group to bring him a relatively fixed amount of attention and traffic.
Fans only chase the stars they follow, and fans will go to see which episode of the variety show they are on.
This has led to the fact that most ordinary variety shows, especially those that change guests in each episode, and variety shows with the promotion of different works as the main content do not have their own fixed program audiences, and their ratings always change with the guest stars of the current program.
Lightweight variety shows are just grasping this point, and directly find two or three stars to participate in the whole process, and make up a show, and some are even a personal variety show of a single star.
In this way, the fan base of these stars can be developed into a fixed audience of the program to the greatest extent, and it can also be more convenient for them to harvest the fan economy.
John Holcroft
In short, "lightweight" seems to be the trend of the times, and what impact will the various programs that are becoming more and more "miniaturized" have on us?
"Micro-Modernization" Current,
We can't accept non-lightweight works anymore?
In fact, not only variety shows, but also various forms of entertainment have been "lightweight" in recent years.
In the past, there were micro-short dramas that relied on extremely high attention and income, giving long-form film and television dramas a blow to the head, and the existing lightweight variety shows greatly squeezed the market of traditional TV programs.
Even reading is "micro-sized", and countless cool micro-novels that are mainly short and fast are flooding the short video platform.
It only takes 20 minutes to read the whole story, which has become the "traffic password" of many novels.
Almost all forms of mass entertainment are moving towards lightweighting and shortening, why are those non-lightweight traditional works declining?
John Holcroft
It is undeniable that a longer non-lightweight work requires a lot of "cultural physical strength" from the audience.
We have made a detailed introduction to what "cultural physical strength" is:
Being drained of cultural physical strength by work, we live on entertainment garbage?
To put it simply, it is difficult for contemporary migrant workers to concentrate on watching long-term, high-output traditional programs after a tiring day, and it is even more difficult to listen to an entertainment program to "reason".
Camille Deschiens
Of course, the benefits of traditional non-lightweight works are also obvious.
These traditional works often have a more complete narrative, which makes people look at you more "smoothly" and logically.
And because of the ample duration, the content of non-lightweight works will also be richer.
Ines Longevial
However, for contemporary young people, it seems that "miniaturized" works are more in line with the needs.
Young people are busy with work and study, and their leisure time is "fragmented", and watching short videos for a long time also makes many people have the viewing habit of "shallow reading", that is, they are accustomed to the plain expression of entertainment works, and it is difficult to analyze the meaning in depth.
All of them occupy a unique market advantage in lightweight works.
Because of its short size and relaxed content, it can be seen at any time and released in time.
Tsurugi
But low-cost, lightweight works are also bound to bring disadvantages that lead to shoddy production.
Especially for light variety shows, many programs have the nature of "fan limited", the producer only targets fans for their own audience, and even if fans will scold the show for being bad, they have to watch the programs in which their idols participate.
This means that no matter how bad the show is, it can attract some fans of guest stars to rush for it.
This has caused the psychology of the program team that "no matter what the shooting is, someone will pay", and the quality of the production is difficult to guarantee.
In the field of micro-short dramas, shoddy production is the norm, because most of the production companies of micro-short dramas are based on the mentality of investment and betting, and mass produce dramas.
In other words, it depends on luck to make money, no one cares about the quality, and in the long run, it may lead to "bad money driving out good money" in the film and television market, so that the audience has no good works to watch.
John Holcroft
Moreover, the narrative structure of lightweight works is mostly very simple and fragmented, which will also affect the audience's thinking ability.
Because of the low cost and small size, most lightweight works will try to simplify their content as much as possible, so that audiences of all levels can watch it without resistance.
This will lead long-term viewers to develop a lightweight viewing habit, that is, they can only accept shallow and completely entertaining video content.
Once this habit is formed, it is not only manifested in entertainment, but also in any other place where attention needs to be invested, and it is difficult to think deeply.
John Holcroft
At present, many ordinary non-lightweight works are also looking for possible directions for their future.
For example, in terms of film and television, movies in recent years have become longer and longer, and movies of more than two hours have become frequent visitors to theaters, and part of the reason is that movies want to maintain the purity and particularity of their film art in the environment where micro-short dramas are out of the circle.
In addition, there are also many long variety shows and long dramas that choose to cater to the market of short videos and make changes.
For example, the head programs, including "National Treasure", are taking the form of segmented programs, and each episode will introduce multiple groups of different cultural relics.
Many TV series are also increasing the "explosion rate", trying to make each episode have a "stalk" that can get out of the circle, so that every "breaking point" is enough to support the editing of a short video.
In this way, it can not only be adapted to TV broadcasting, but also can be cut into short videos and disseminated on streaming media platforms.
Milo Noll
The emergence of countless lightweight works is bound to make the audience raise their requirements for traditional works, because it is not a waste for the audience to feel that they choose to spend a long time watching traditional works.
This requires non-lightweight works to not only ensure the watchability of the program to retain the first public, but also to use the size advantage to carry out effective output, so as to make the audience feel "useful" and ensure word of mouth.
Therefore, if the non-lightweight works in the future want to break the circle, there is a long way to go, and we will wait and see if they can stick to the market and find a track that is more suitable for them.