China Entertainment 1997.

Chapter 409 The Seven Superstar Judges and the Little Black Fatty

On August 8, 20 days after "Embroidered Spring Knife" was released, the mainland box office reached 18 million.

It officially surpassed the 1.243 million "House of Flying Daggers", which was released half a month earlier.

Boss Zhang on the new screen was depressed for more than half a month, and finally couldn't help breaking the defense, and complained to the media.

First, he veiled that the filmmaking was suppressed, connoted a wave of Cao Xuan and China Film, then angered about piracy, and finally fired at fans and film critics.

He said that the poor reputation of "House of Flying Daggers" is due to the outside world's prejudice against Lao Mouzi, and it is unfair to domestic commercial films, so it is almost slapped on the faces of movie fans and film critics with the "speechless" evaluation.

This angered netizens, movie fans and film critics, and slammed Boss Zhang and Lao Mouzi on the Internet and in the media.

Tianya and Penguin blogs are the main battlegrounds, and Han Han, a young writer who just joined the blog, took the lead in the charge, ruining Lao Mouzi's movie from beginning to end.

Little did they know that more than ten years later, he and Lao Mouzi both praised an actress, and were chased and scolded by netizens...

However, at this stage, Han Han is definitely a representative figure of the post-80s generation. He is still far away from the so-called youth opinion leaders, but his fans and supporters have already formed a large scale. . .

After coming to Penguin Blog, Han Han was very active and soon became a popular public figure in the blog.

However, in the early years, this speech was relatively "straightforward", with radical and sensitive words. It was only half a year since the Penguin blog was established, and it was scattered and banned more than a dozen times.

For this reason, Han Han and some public intellectual friends issued a joint statement similar to "freedom of speech on the Internet", and wrote several small essays to bombard Penguin blog.

Penguin Blog: Ah yes yes yes

Turning around and looking for an opportunity, Han Han and several leaders were banned again, and it was a relatively heavy half-month "prisonment".

It still depends on his influence on the blog and is relatively active, otherwise he will directly delete the account and seal it forever.

Because of this incident, Han Han was so angry that he heard that he was planning to start a personal website, and later hooked up with the Sina blog that was in preparation, and seemed to be planning to call a group of public intellectual friends to settle in.

When the news got out, even Brother Xiao Ma was alarmed, so he called Cao Xuan specifically to discuss whether to relax the Penguin blog rules.

But he didn't know that this matter was exactly in Cao Xuan's mind, no matter how strict he was, there would always be times of negligence.

They also specifically find a suitable place (fen) and party (keng), where they can get the freedom they want, and Penguin Blog itself is also quiet.

As for whether the departure of these people will affect the Penguin blog.

In the gap of nearly a year, Penguin attracted a huge number of users, and there was a superstar team brought by Cao Xuan himself, plus the popularity of "Tomorrow's Star" and other marketing activities.

Nowadays, the user registration of Penguin Blog has begun to reach the level of 10 million, and the number of active online users exceeds [-] million every day (browsing for more than [-] minutes).

With such a large number of users, the departure of Han Han and others will definitely have some impact, but obviously it will not hurt the foundation of Penguin Blog.

To put it bluntly, let alone Han Han, even if Cao Xuan took Fanxing artists to switch to Sina, it may not necessarily hurt Penguin...

Cao Xuan didn't care about the controversy of "House of Flying Daggers". After the road show, he returned to the capital and rested for a few days, preparing to participate in the final finals of "Star of Tomorrow".

.........

Starting from the 15th of last month, "Tomorrow Star" started the competition for the top 50 to advance to the top [-]. After half a month, the national top [-] was finally determined.

For the subsequent games, in order to gain a better momentum, it also avoided the Athens Olympics. In addition, there were too few players to support too many games, so the original continuous daily broadcast became a Saturday and Sunday live broadcast.

8月7日和8月8日，与八月14日和8月16日，全国二十强晋全国十强开打。

The competition system is two-two PK, divided into three rounds of fighting, the one with the higher overall score will advance, and the one with the lower score will be eliminated. After four days of live broadcast, they will finally be promoted to the top ten in the "Rising Star" nationwide.

Beijing Division——Phoenix Legend

Beijing Division——Yao Beina
Jinmen Division——Gu Miaomiao
Rongcheng Competition Area——Zhang Jie

Rongcheng Division——Zhang Jingying
Shen City Competition Area——Gao Jin

Magic City Division - Ping An

Guangdong Province Division——Chen Chusheng
Mongolian Division - Ulan Tuoya

Wushi Competition Area——Yang Chengang
In these ten groups of contestants, except for the last one, Yang Chen, who just took a few tricks, they were basically all hard-fought.

The reason why Yang Chengang was able to play tricks is very simple. He released the title song of his album "Mouse Loves Rice" ahead of time, and quickly became popular on the Internet with the title of "Tomorrow's Star" as the top [-] in the country.

Yang Chengang also received a very high popularity bonus. In the top [-] to advance to the top [-] competition, he crushed Abao in the Chang'an Division and got the ticket to advance.

And Yang Chengang also became the favorite to win the championship with this song, ranking among the top ten popularity rankings in the country.

And then on August 8st, the national top ten started the semi-finals, that is, the fierce battle between the top ten and the top four.

The top ten draws are divided into two competition areas, A and B. There are 5 groups of contestants in each competition area. After two rounds of competition, the one with the highest comprehensive index will advance first.

The remaining 4 groups of players will compete for the final ticket for the final round in the second round of the extra match.
The two-day live broadcast of the semi-finals of "Tomorrow's Star" also set a new record for the ratings of Beijing TV, especially for the second round of the extra match, the highest ratings have already exceeded 20%.

Not to mention crushing the Olympic events of the same period, even "News News" can touch porcelain.

By the time of the semi-finals, the top ten players in the country were already popular players, and even those who were slightly less popular were all extremely powerful, and the popularity votes they received were terrifying.

Among them, Gu Miaomiao's life was hanging by a thread in the second round of play-offs in Zone B. In order to support her idol to enter the finals, her fans exploded with extremely high enthusiasm for voting.

Gathered 200 million+ popular votes in a short period of time, surpassing No.2 Zhang Jingying with nearly 120 million votes.

The host Hua Shao almost thought that the machine had an accident on the spot, which also surprised countless people about Gu Miaomiao's popularity and the influence of "Rising Star".

Leaving aside the latter, within a few months, "Rising Star" has already become a phenomenal variety show.

Although everyone was surprised by this number, they still had to be psychologically prepared. After all, the climax of the late stage of the show was reached, and many people expected that there would be a large number of popular votes.

But even so, thinking that Gu Miaomiao, a rookie singer who hasn't even officially released an album, can win 200 million+ popularity votes, many people are still envious and jealous.

This is equivalent to 200 million real gold and silver!

Although it was largely due to the addition of the "Star of Tomorrow" program, Gu Miaomiao's popularity and influence could also be seen.

If this is cultivated properly, with its popularity foundation, good looks and excellent professional ability, it is really impossible to produce a little mainland queen.

This is not Miaomiao, it is simply Xinxin, with a golden light all over her body...

Apart from Gu Miaomiao, the other top contestants had good votes, otherwise Gu Miaomiao would not have been forced to the second round.

As for the top ten players in the country, except for Yang Chengang, Wulan Tuoya, and Chen Chusheng who had already signed with the agency, the other seven were all taken by Fanxing.

With this group of singers, just relying on the aftermath of "Tomorrow's Star", within two years, Fanxing's mouth is full of oil, and other companies in the outside world will not be envious after seeing it.

The reason why he didn't take the opportunity to make trouble was because Fanxing ate fat meat himself, and saved some lean meat, soup, and bones for everyone to share.

Besides, next year or the year after that, "Rising Star" will be held again. Everyone wants to follow suit and use the platform to promote their own newcomers, not daring to offend Fan Xing easily.

Otherwise, the big tree attracts the wind, and all kinds of shady and messy things have long been entangled in "Star of Tomorrow".

Even so, in fact, "Rising Star" has also suffered a lot of minor disturbances.

However, Cao Xuan's media matrix and Internet platforms are not for nothing, and the Beijing TV station has excellent network resources. The two sides worked together to escort, and finally made "Tomorrow's Star" run safely and steadily.

But some other corrections were also made, such as when advancing from the top [-] nationally to the top [-].

"Tomorrow's Star" announced to the public that minors are not recommended to vote. Once found, the vote will be invalid.

Of course, considering that there is still a mobile phone number to use when surfing the Internet, it is basically not up to the level of the real-name system, so it can only be regarded as a slogan.

At the same time, "Rising Star" stipulates that a single mobile phone number or blog account can only cast a maximum of 1000 votes, and large-scale votes are restricted.

Of course, if you are really capable, you can set up hundreds of accounts to swipe votes, and the program team can't control it. The main thing is to prevent ordinary viewers from voting.

1000 votes is neither too much nor too little, if there are really high-ranking ones, at most it will be a pain in the ass afterwards, and it won't have a big impact.

At the same time, it is also to prevent minors from voting secretly without telling their parents, and to set an upper limit so that they will not be ignored for their idols.

Even if there is such a desperate and individual phenomenon, the "Star of Tomorrow" program team can handle it easily.

In fact, considering the current environment, Cao Xuan doesn't need to be so cautious. Even if it is fully relaxed, everyone will blame the person involved if something goes wrong, not the program crew.

But for the sake of a good reputation, and out of personal feelings, Cao Xuan still made certain restrictions.

Moreover, Tomorrow Star and Cao Xuan's [Tomorrow Charity Fund] have reached a series of cooperation, and carried out several charity activities while the program was still on the air.

Previously, the program team of "Tomorrow's Star" donated a total of 500 million+ to the objects supported by the Tomorrow Fund.

After the national top 20 selection, the advanced [-] groups also visited several welfare homes and nursing homes in Beijing under the arrangement of the program group, and organized charity performances for children and the elderly.

It is expected that during the finals, some helpers will be invited to watch the game in person.

10% of all popular votes won in the finals will be donated to charity.

All these things, although "Rising Star" has made a lot of money, its image is still positive, and it has also received some support from above. Some official media published newspapers and praised "Rising Star" for its charitable actions.

On a selfish note, with all this aura, "Rising Star" can avoid some of the ghosts and lay a solid foundation for the next season in the future.

With a little more structure, while the program entertains the public, it can also make a positive contribution to charity and help people in need.

Boss Cao couldn't help but squeeze out two crocodile tears when he thought about it.

It's so positive!
Under the halo of positive energy, "Rising Star" finally decided the top four in the country.

In Zone A, Zhang Jie advances directly, and Phoenix Legend wins out in the second round.

In Zone B, Yao Beina was directly promoted, and Gu Miaomiao grabbed the last spot with 200 million votes.

The top four are all singers under Fanxing's command, so it's hard not to suspect that there is something shady.

But there is one thing to say, it is definitely unrealistic to say that Fan Xing does not take care of his artists at all, but the shady scene is really out of the question.

Especially in the top ten competition, 10 of the 7 people are signed singers of Fanxing, and there is no need to draw sideways when one of them beats one of them.

Fanxing even hoped that there would be another non-Fanxing singer in the final four, so as not to make it look like they were playing shady scenes.

But I can't stand Zhang Jie and their fighting power is strong.

When Zhang Jie came to "Tomorrow's Star", he gave full play to his characteristics of "Little Cao Xuan". From the audition to the semi-finals, he sang all the songs of Cao Xuan.

Forcibly called the nickname of "Xiao Cao Xuan" from the night scene in Rongcheng to the whole country, and successfully established the image of Cao Xuan's die-hard fans.

In such a situation, Zhang Jie not only became one of Cao Xuan's most famous fans, but also attracted a large number of Cao Xuan fans to cheer for Zhang Jie, his own person.

Zhang Jie also lived up to expectations, several years of training allowed him to control the level of Cao Xuan's songs very well.

In the first round of the semi-finals, a heart-piercing English rock song "Natural" stunned the audience, narrowly beating Phoenix Legend and Chen Chusheng, and the first to advance to the finals.

To be honest, this year's "Star of Tomorrow" is a bit yin and yang, and female singers are generally more popular.

The most popular male singer is undoubtedly Chen Chusheng, followed by Zhang Jie, and there is also a handsome guy from the Jinling Division who was eliminated in the top [-].

The melancholy and quiet temperament he was born with and his original music style made him known as "Tomorrow's Poet" by the outside world, and his limelight is not inferior to Gu Miaomiao and Jinsha's "Tomorrow's Two Beauties".

Ever since he won the championship in the Guangdong Provincial Division and made his official appearance to audiences across the country, Chen Chusheng's popularity has remained high, and he has firmly overwhelmed everyone among male singers, ranking first.

Zhang Jie used Cao Xuan's popularity to fight back a few times, but he was suppressed after a while, so that the fans of both of them were a little bit at odds.

Before the top ten match started, Chen Chusheng was hailed as one of the biggest favorites to advance to the finals.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Jie broke out in the first round, but in the second round he performed abnormally. The original song he produced did not achieve the expected effect, and was picked up by Phoenix Legend.

So much so that after the competition in Area A, many fans of Chen Chusheng were very dissatisfied and attacked the "Star of Tomorrow" program group, claiming to be shady.

But it doesn't matter anymore, basically since the top [-], as long as someone loses the election, there will be fans claiming to be shady.

Being fair and at ease, Fan Xing and the program team knew that they had not engaged in shady affairs, so they were naturally confident.

Chen Chusheng's popularity is very high, but on the stage of "Rising Star", popularity doesn't mean everything.

There are many scenes where popular players overwhelm powerful players, strong players seize the opportunity, give full play, and counterattack popular players.

Gu Miaomiao is even more popular, currently at the top of the popularity list, but Yao Beina stomped on her head to advance in the first round of the B area, and she worked hard to advance in the second round.

If they are promoted according to their popularity, what kind of competition is there? Put people in a row, and the fans of each family will vote.

But in any case, the national semi-finals of "Tomorrow's Star" were released, and the final night of the finals was staged on August 8.

If I can win the championship, I will not only get a huge bonus of 100 million, but "world superstar" Cao Xuan will write a song for him and recommend him to participate in the 2005 CCTV Spring Festival Gala rehearsal.

This was personally admitted by CCTV. They also took a fancy to the popularity of "Rising Star" and planned to cooperate with the marketing.

Besides, what I promised was only to participate in the rehearsal. Whether I can make it to the Spring Festival Gala depends on the singer's own ability and the quality of the program.

But even so, it is enough to make many singers envious.

And the above are only rewards on the surface, and there are more invisible benefits.

For example, if you meet a player of the same class, the champion will inevitably be higher than others, the publicity will be more exposed, the company itself will value it more, and it will also attract the attention of all parties.

Apart from other things, there are rumors in the market that Fan Xing has already contacted some commercial endorsements for the players of "Tomorrow's Star".

Although there is no specific regulation yet, but if it is a champion, the endorsement will definitely not be bypassed, and you can get a few more or less.

With the popularity of "Rising Star", even if the company takes the big money, the prize money that goes to the contestants in the end will not be much worse than the championship prize.

Fame, interest, honor, future...

Although this championship is only a temporary victory, the temptation is big enough.

And at this point, all the players in the four groups have a chance to succeed, and everyone wants to beat the others, aiming to win the championship.

Beijing TV Station, Fanxing and Penguin Blog crazily created momentum for the "Rising Star" finals.

Except that on August 8, Liu Feiren won the 27-meter hurdles gold medal at the Athens Olympic Games and completely stole the limelight from "Rising Star".

For the rest of the days, there were headlines from "Rising Star". On the morning of August 8, the official blog of the program group even announced the list of judges for the finals.

Little Asian King - Jay Chou
[Southern Ren] Northern Cao——Ren Xianqi
Asian Diva - Wang Fei

One of the Four Heavenly Kings - Liu Tianwang
Mainland music bigwig - Liu Huan

Kung Fu Superstar - Cheng Long

World Pop King - Cao Xuan

Southern and Northern Cao, Heavenly King and Queen, alternation of old and new, cross-strait, three places, big names gathered, the lineup of judges for this final is definitely one of the most luxurious lineups in the Chinese music scene at present, and one of them can even be removed.

In fact, according to the original plan, Cao Xuan also planned to ask Avril Lavigne and other European and American singers to help out as judges.

However, it was later discovered that translation was needed, and the video connection was not necessarily stable, and live broadcast accidents were prone to occur, so we had to give up.

But even so, this lineup is enough to make the outside world cheer.

In fact, in the semi-finals, when they saw Sun Yanzi, Mou Wang, Mo Wenwei, Zhang Xinzhe, Wei Wei and other big names, many people were looking forward to the final lineup.

Sure enough, in terms of connections and appeal, Cao Xuan has never disappointed anyone.

Last year, the CCTV-MTV Music Festival gathered a crowd of heroes, almost gathering half of the Chinese music scene.

This time in the "Star of Tomorrow" finals, another seven superstars joined forces to serve as judges.

Some people even joked online that they wanted the judges to go up and sing a few words rather than watch the contestants compete.

.........

On August 8, backstage at the recording studio of "Rising Star"
Cao Xuan, the producer and related personnel greeted several judges in person.

"Brother Huan, it's too early."

"Sister Fei, please come inside."

"Brother Hua, thank you for coming."

"Brother Xiao Qi, we have joined forces again."

"Xiao Zhou, come in with me, and let me introduce you."

"Brother worked hard, come on, let's go in together."

Except for Cao Xuan, the six judges are all personal friends of Cao Xuan. They just said hello, and they readily agreed to come and help.

Of course, some of them also intended to use the "Rising Star" platform to promote.

Xiao Zhou's new album "Qilixiang" was just released at the beginning of the month, Liu Tianwang, Cheng Long and Wang Fei all have movies released.

The former are "House of Flying Daggers" which is currently being released and "A World Without Thieves" at the end of the year, while the latter two are "New Police Story" and "2046", both of which will be released in late September.

Although it is still a month away, it can be regarded as a publicity period, and it is not bad to make an impression.

After all, it is rare to see such a high-profile platform like the "Star of Tomorrow" finals, which is of great benefit to film promotion.

In fact, Cao Xuan himself also has a need for publicity, whether it is "Xiu Chun Knife" that is currently being released, or "New Police Story" and the new album that will be released later, there is no harm in showing his face more.

Although they are all big names, they are also divided into three, six, and nine ranks. Everyone basically respects Cheng Long and Cao Xuan, and Xiao Zhou respects the last.

In fact, in terms of fame and status, Ren Xianqi should be the weakest right now. Apart from his strong qualifications, he is really not as good as Xiao Zhou who is in the limelight.

But I can't stand that he and Cao Xuan are a "combination". If there is no Nanren, Beicao came from, and if he doesn't give him face, he will belittle Cao Xuan.

In other places, that's all. In Cao Xuan's home court, the southern and northern Cao merged, and Xiao Qi's status was automatically elevated.

Several people chatted in the special lounge, talked about interesting things that happened between them, and enlivened the atmosphere.

Chatting and chatting, Cao Xuan got up to go to the bathroom, and happened to meet an acquaintance on the way, a little black fat guy who hadn't shaved his heart yet.

He is the host of the outfield today, interviewing the audience players and players, and running around with the cameraman.

I don't know why, Cao Xuan looked at this little black fat man and felt happy, so he beckoned over and asked a few words.

"How are you doing here?"

"Very good, and thank you for giving me the opportunity."

The little black fat man didn't dare to be shy in front of Cao Xuan, and replied with a bit of restraint, Cao Xuan waved his hand.

"If you want to thank you, thank you, Master. I also want to see the face of the third master. The company has a sitcom. Let me tell you later, you can play a supporting role in it."

"Oh, thank you for your help, I took your trouble."

"It's nothing, work hard, don't lose the cross talk, I've heard your cross talk, it's very interesting, if you have any difficulties, don't dare to tell me, it's no problem to support your small stall."

"You... heard my cross talk?"

In the previous conversation, although the little black fat man was overjoyed and cautious, his mentality was still stable enough. However, when Cao Xuan praised his cross talk, he couldn't hold back his emotions.

"Isn't the Deyun club in Tianqiao? The partner is a fat, white man with big eyes who can play allegro..."

"Huo, you have really been there."

Several pieces of information were correct, and this time the little black fat man believed it, but he was annoyed at the time why he didn't realize that there was such a big guy hiding under there.

Cao Xuan didn't explain either, he hadn't actually been to the Deyun Club in person, the little black fat guy hadn't moved yet when he first became famous, and later he was too familiar to go there.

The reason why he was able to calm down the little black fat man was because he knew the information of the later generations, and on the other hand, "Cao Xuan" in Goldfinger had been to Deyun Society and was a frequent visitor.

Not to mention Deyun Society's current No. [-] Beiwei Road, it is the future Guangde Building, Sanli Bridge, and Sanqing Garden. "Cao Xuan" has heard of them all.

But at that time, most of the performances were performed by the apprentices of Little Black Fatty. If you want to see his performances, you have to spend money to buy tickets for commercial performances.

After fooling around with the little black fat man, Cao Xuan had a good time, and went back to the lounge to continue chatting. When it was almost 8 pm, the live broadcast of the finals was about to start, and several people came out in a file.

The finals of "Tomorrow Star" will also kick off...

(End of this chapter)