Tao Jingying (Tao Zi) was once one of the most popular variety show hosts in Taiwan, from the early years of "Good Color Head" and "Love Handouts" to the later quite popular "Super Walk of Fame" and "College Students", she has hosted more than 30 programs on 9 TV stations in her 26 years in the industry. However, at the end of 2016, she faded out of the television circle, concentrated on making music and writing books, and was considered "unemployed" in the position of host. Similar to her situation is Taiwan's variety show king Wu Zongxian, and Xiao S and Cai Kangyong, the gold medal duo, after the suspension of "Kangxi Lai", there is no permanent program in Taiwan, and the focus of work has shifted to the mainland.
Tao Jingying's hosting style is spicy and funny
Tao Jingying
The golden age of Taiwan's variety shows has completely passed, and the grand situation of mainland netizens collectively watching "I Guess", "Kangxi" and "Guoguang" has ceased to exist. In turn, in recent years, the super lineup and dazzling choreography of mainland variety shows have made Taiwanese netizens envious. Why in just over a decade, such a change has occurred, Tao Jingying once wrote an article "Is it the TV station that fired me or I fired the TV station" after losing her job, which talked deeply about the reasons for the decline of Taiwanese variety shows.
Tao Zi said that Taiwan television station was originally the three strongest forces, China Television, China Television, Taiwan Television three are the only ones, the ratings of a program are often 20% or more than 30%, at that time the TV station's employees received 20 months' salary at the end of the year is normal.
But then one or two hundred cable stations appeared on the island, dividing up a large number of viewers, and the ratings of various TV stations were good as long as they could break one. At the same time, the advertising of the three major stations has also been divided. Taiwan's total population is more than 20 million, advertising this piece of cake is originally so big, so many TV stations to grab, how much can one share?
Cable TELEVISION stations can barely survive by charging cable fees and on-demand fees, but public television stations rely entirely on advertising to survive, without advertising, they cannot support program production, nor can they afford to raise people, and the lives of employees in taiwan are no longer good, so Taiwanese television people moved to the mainland in the late 90s for exchanges and cooperation, and a large number of talents were lost.
Taiwanese television companies are privately owned, and after the sharp decline in advertising revenue, the TV station director sits down and only cares about cutting the budget, without asking about the creativity and scale of the program. Tao Zi said that when she debuted, she really saw the big stage, big props, and big kasi. But in the past decade, Taiwan's variety shows have basically no such programs, either to do some pure external programs (no need to set up dances, save money), or some very small specifications of the studio programs, mainly "talk type". In addition to entertainment gossip, these talk shows are family trivia and have no depth at all. Even the popular "Super Walk of Fame" hosted by Tao Zi was made under a very limited budget.
The Super Avenue of Stars has won Hu Xia, Xiao Jingteng, Yang Zongwei and others
At the same time, mainland TELEVISION variety shows have sprung up rapidly since 2000, and the entire production standard of "SuperGirl" has been very high, and mainland programs such as "The Voice of China" and "I Am a Singer", which were very popular in Taiwan, have greatly amazed the audience on the island. Regardless of the stage size, orchestra arrangement, sound equipment, art lighting, and mixing into music, there is a world of difference from Taiwanese programs. In recent years, the popular reality shows in the mainland have been well-produced and the strength of the cast, which is far from being achieved by Taiwanese variety shows.
The reason for the rise of mainland variety shows, the reason for the improvement of talents, technology, and ideas, the most important thing is that the advertising market is too big, a top large-scale variety show can sell for two or three hundred million yuan just because of the naming fee, plus a variety of special sponsorships, designated products, implants, etc., the income is very amazing. Of course, production costs have also risen, the most obvious of which is the rapid expansion of celebrity remuneration. Now it is common for mainland variety shows to invest tens of millions of dollars in one episode and hundreds of millions of dollars in a season. As for Taiwanese programs, according to Tao Zi, there is almost no one episode of the program that can invest one million Taiwan dollars, and one million Taiwan dollars is only 200,000 yuan, which is not enough to ask a second-rate star to do a program in the mainland.
In recent years, young viewers have shifted to the Internet to watch different content, and the ratings of Taiwanese TV programs have been declining. TV stations also keep shrinking their hands, willing to buy other people's ready-made TV series or variety shows to broadcast rather than spend a lot of money on self-control, in a vicious circle, TV stations have a large number of layoffs and downsizing, to cut the program is also from the highest cost of the start, some TV stations actually cut the good ratings of the signature program. Programs like "Kangxi Lai" were cut not because the ratings were bad, but because Xiao S and Cai Kangyong were getting more and more expensive, and Taiwanese television stations could not afford it. Their income from coming to the mainland to do a few programs may be higher than doing a year in Taiwan, and who wants to stay there?
"Kangxi Lai", which has been done for twelve years, was discontinued in 2016
Businessmen are profit-seeking, tv companies have no advertising can only cut people to cut programs, which is also understandable, but Tao Zi said that the owners of these TV companies in Taiwan are unambitious and self-destructive, because there is no sense of mission and responsibility, no wonder Taiwan TELEVISION has faced the end of the road. Today's situation is that the boss is reluctant to invest money in high-quality programs, and the production team with senior experience or creative dare to rush is rare, the elderly are withered, and the new people have no training opportunities. Under this vicious circle, it is impossible to make Taiwanese variety shows brilliant again. Therefore, Tao Zi's "unemployment" is forced by the situation and her voluntary choice.