Chapter 25: Your Suggestion Is Brilliant!

After their little display of affection, Yu Zhile finally turned his attention to Yang Bing, who began to explain his ideas.

“I’ve taken your criticisms and suggestions into account, and here’s how I’m thinking of revising the voting process.

First, I’m scrapping the judges’ voting segment entirely. I’ve noticed a lot of complaints and angry comments online, with viewers accusing the judges of voting blindly and the show of rigging the results behind the scenes.

Second, I want to revise the audience voting process. As you pointed out, the current system isn’t ideal—after each singer finishes performing, their votes are announced immediately, which kills the sense of anticipation for the audience. Whether their favorite singer advances is revealed right away, and if the early performers get high scores, the later ones inevitably feel the pressure, which can affect their performance and mindset. But if we keep the scores secret and reveal them all at the end, it’ll create suspense and keep viewers invested until the show concludes.

Finally, there’s the revival round. Some on the production team want to use Weibo voting, but I think that’s too easily manipulated—anyone can hire a bunch of bots to inflate the numbers. My idea is to use SMS voting for the revival, which should make fake votes much harder to generate.”

Having explained his thoughts, Yang Bing looked to Yu Zhile for feedback. “What do you think? Is there anything here that needs tweaking?”

Yu Zhile nodded. “Your ideas are good, but there’s one thing you’re overlooking.”

Yang Bing was curious. “What’s that?”

Yu Zhile took a sip of millet tea before answering. “The ‘real’ vote count you’re striving for may not be what the production team or the director actually wants. You’re an insider now; you should know better than I do whether there’s any rigging in the voting process.”

Yang Bing hesitated, then replied, “I don’t think there’s any rigging, at least not with the audience votes. Maybe the judges’ voting is suspect, since a lot of them just follow the popular opinion rather than judging the performance, but as for the audience, at least on ‘I’m a Star Singer,’ they’re genuine viewers.”

Yu Zhile chuckled. “You’re being a bit naïve, Old Yang. The judges’ votes are public—everyone can see who voted and who didn’t. But what about the audience? Their votes are cast with keypads, so there’s no way to know who voted or didn’t. Even if the audience is real, the results can be manipulated as much as the production team wants. It has nothing to do with whether the audience is genuine or not.”

Yang Bing frowned, troubled. “So what would you suggest?”

Yu Zhile replied, “Truth and deception are intertwined. It all depends on whether the director and the team are willing to reveal the real numbers. But even so, the so-called ‘real’ vote counts might not be reliable either. No matter how you tweak it, the numbers will never satisfy everyone.”

Yang Bing was getting flustered. “You’re confusing me now—how can the real numbers not be real?”

Yu Zhile explained, “Like you said earlier, even if the audience is legitimate, if most of them are die-hard fans of a certain singer and only vote for their idol, ignoring everyone else, the numbers are skewed and far from objective.”

Yang Bing seemed to understand. “So you’re saying we should just reveal the vote totals at the end, and leave everything else as is?”

“Exactly.” Yu Zhile took another sip of tea. Just then, the waiter arrived with their food. After the waiter left, Yu Zhile continued, “Almost no variety show can guarantee truly authentic voting rounds. Who wins—who comes in first—is usually decided based on popularity, traffic, or business partnerships. Just change the process so that the votes are revealed at the end, and don’t harp on authenticity. Otherwise, the higher-ups might find your naivety off-putting.”

The realization hit Yang Bing. He wanted to raise his glass in thanks, but remembering they didn’t drink alcohol, he simply nodded. “You’re right. I was being a bit naïve. Good thing I talked to you first—if I’d submitted this proposal as it was, I might have ruined my chance for a promotion and a raise.”

Yu Zhile said, “Your ideas are good, but you’re not the director or a higher-up, so you have to be careful not to overreach. Once you’re the chief planner or director, you can call the shots yourself.”

“True enough!” Yang Bing took a bitter sip of millet tea. “At the end of the day, it’s just that I’m too junior, with too little authority.”

Yu Zhile encouraged him, “You’ve only been out of college for two years and have just become a junior planner. Landing this opportunity to prove yourself is already impressive. If the director likes your work this time, you’ll soon lose the ‘junior’ title and become a valued planner.”

Yang Bing nodded, then raised another issue. “But if we take away the judges’ votes, won’t their presence become meaningless?”

Yu Zhile suggested, “The judges still matter—they’re professionals. You could change their voting from casting votes to giving ‘likes.’ When a judge lights up, it means the performance moved them; if they don’t, they’ll point out the flaws. This keeps their role significant and avoids the monotony of endless singing and voting. Otherwise, viewers will get bored.”

Yang Bing’s eyes lit up with admiration. “That’s brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that? We could even add a like icon to the judges’ table—that would be immediately effective!”

Yu Zhile continued, “As for the revival round, I support your SMS voting idea. It curbs malicious voting and even generates revenue for the show, provided you negotiate the right deal with the telecom companies. If you pitch it that way, the team will likely go for it.”

Yang Bing committed Yu Zhile’s words to memory, then picked up his chopsticks gratefully. “Let’s eat before anything else! This roast goose is amazing—try some!”

Yu Zhile laughed. “You look like you’ve had a revelation! No more questions?”

Yang Bing smiled sheepishly. “You’ve solved the big issues—no need to trouble you with the small ones. Honestly, you’d make a great show planner! It’s true, outstanding people excel in any field—something I can only envy. I’ll just channel my frustration into food!”

“Ha, you flatter me!” Yu Zhile replied with a perfunctory laugh, though he was sighing inwardly.

Only he knew the truth—

Outstanding? Not at all!

It was just the result of years spent watching variety shows and accumulating experience!