Chapter Ten: Is This What the World of Genius Is Like?

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“Our relationship with Liaoning Television is so good that we could easily produce a variety show together and give our fellow disciples more opportunities to gain exposure...” Xu Ming met his master’s gaze and spoke without the slightest hint of panic.

He had only gotten halfway through his sentence when Zhang Jiahao, who had accompanied Liu Shuangping, interrupted him.

Zhang was the vice president of Benshan Media, in charge of performances. He had previously played Ahao in *Ma Dashuai* and possessed an especially strong underworld swagger.

Xu Ming’s proposal happened to threaten his livelihood, so naturally he could not simply sit back and watch.

“How do you know we haven’t thought about developing in that direction? Ha! Last year, Master and Director Liu were already in talks with Heilongjiang Television about jointly producing a variety show. We’d even settled on a name: *Benshan Happy Camp*.” Zhang Jiahao gave a cold laugh.

Xu Ming shifted his gaze to him and said calmly, “It sounds incredibly tacky. Besides, it’s only one character different from *Happy Camp*. Aren’t you afraid they’ll sue?”

“What do you know? This is called...” Zhang Jiahao’s face flushed red, and he suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

“Down-to-earth,” Liu Shuangping supplied from the side.

“Then tell me how you plan to make it. Let me see exactly how down-to-earth it is.” Xu Ming chuckled.

In his previous life, he had watched this earliest variety show created by Benshan Media. It was taken off the air after only two years. Its initial performance had indeed been good, but the show had lacked staying power.

Zhang Jiahao looked toward Liu Shuangping and Uncle Benshan, silently asking whether he could reveal the details.

After all, the variety show was currently a confidential project at the company. It had originally been intended as their trump card, something that would make a splash that year.

Uncle Benshan gave a slight nod. Let them argue it out and settle the matter once and for all.

He knew this disciple of his had ideas of his own when it came to creative work. He wanted to see whether Xu Ming genuinely believed there was a problem with the company’s plans, or whether he simply had some other motive.

“For now, we’ve decided to use *Village Love* as the setting. The actors would present life in Ivory Village through comic sketches, situation comedies, and Errenzhuan performances. We’ve also prepared some special segments, including alternate endings and plot-twist episodes...” Zhang Jiahao continued proudly.

Xu Ming had already begun waving his hand impatiently. As someone who had once edited films, television dramas, and variety shows, he had long since grown tired of such formulaic formats.

“In other words, the actors on this variety show would still be playing their *Village Love* characters. Leaving aside the fact that this would only benefit a handful of our fellow disciples, wouldn’t the audience grow tired of hearing the same stories about Ivory Village over and over again? The settings would be limited, the characterizations fixed—wouldn’t viewers suffer from aesthetic fatigue?”

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“Have you ever studied variety-show audiences as a demographic? Their patience is completely different from that of television-drama viewers. If you can’t provide enough sensory stimulation, they’ll change the channel and leave immediately.”

Xu Ming was only an amateur when it came to producing variety shows. But as an amateur who had been reborn twenty-five years earlier, he was still far more capable than the rustic bumpkin standing before him.

Zhang Jiahao opened and closed his mouth, utterly unable to respond.

He was perfectly capable of rolling up his sleeves and getting into a fight, but whenever terms like “character development” and “aesthetic fatigue” came up, his modest brain short-circuited at once.

When the other disciples heard that yet another project would mainly benefit the same few lead actors from *Village Love*, they could no longer sit still.

“Why does it have to be those same people again? I’m not saying anything against Liu Xiaoguang or Wang Xiaoli, but shouldn’t our company at least be fair?”

“Exactly. We’re all Master’s disciples. Why is it always those same few who get to show their faces?”

“Xu Ming may be young, but I think he’s making sense.”

The crowd grew increasingly agitated, and most of them took Xu Ming’s side.

They had all come from performing Errenzhuan. Who among them was nobler than the others? If it came down to genuine ability, every person present had fought their way up from the lowest levels of the performance market.

“Ahem. Since you brought up *Happy Camp*, that show has always been hosted by the same five presenters. Why haven’t the viewers grown tired of them?”

Seeing that his deputy could not hold his ground, Liu Shuangping coughed twice and stepped in himself.

“That’s because they invite new guests every episode.” Xu Ming looked at him as though he were staring at an idiot.

To be fair, Liu Shuangping was capable. Otherwise, he could never have turned Benshan Media from a scattered mess into what it was today.

But when it came to understanding China’s entertainment industry, he was indeed no match for Xu Ming, who possessed knowledge of the future.

“Why don’t you tell us your idea first? What kind of variety show do you intend to make? If it really works, there’s no reason we can’t produce both.” Uncle Benshan could not very well stand by while the president he had personally chosen was humiliated, so he interrupted and redirected the conversation.

“Everyone knows how popular *Super Girl* was, right?” Xu Ming asked, sweeping his gaze across the room.

Everyone nodded. At the time, the program had been so popular it practically seemed to be spitting sparks.

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At the time, the champion, Li Yuchun, had been only slightly less popular than Xu Ming was today.

Xu Ming had the advantage of being known throughout the country—after all, who didn’t watch the Spring Festival Gala during the New Year?

Li Yuchun, on the other hand, had an extraordinarily loyal fan base. Even twenty years later, there were still plenty of “Corn” fans supporting her.

*The Avenue of Stars* had also been a hit. One could say that audiences particularly enjoyed variety shows incorporating elements of competition. What did that tell us? Competition and head-to-head battles were more effective at stirring viewers’ interest.”

“That sounds simple enough. It’s not as if we performers of Errenzhuan have never held competitions before.” Zhang Jiahao snorted disdainfully.

“You’re thinking too small. Your vision is too narrow. Why limit ourselves to Errenzhuan? Isn’t Errenzhuan part of the broader category of comedy? We aren’t merely Errenzhuan performers. We have an even more distinctive label: comedians.” Xu Ming’s voice rang out with force.

They clearly had the potential to stand on a much larger stage, yet they insisted on imprisoning themselves within narrow limits.

Put kindly, they were steady and grounded. Put less kindly, they were squatting in their comfort zone, unwilling to step outside it.

But the wheels of history would not accommodate their wishes. Those who refused to change, or failed to change of their own accord, would sooner or later be reduced to specks of dust beneath those wheels.

Zhang Jiahao was caught off guard. Still, he stubbornly argued, “Even if you talk until the sky falls, a competition like that won’t work. Are you planning to gather a bunch of unknown comedians, have them compete, and then decide who comes in first and second?”

“Actually, you’ve hit the key point. That’s a pretty good idea, but it isn’t quite what I had in mind. Comedy is nowhere near as universally popular as singing, so we have to consider the issue of ratings. We can invite accomplished comedians with a certain degree of fame to compete on the show.”

“For example, we could gather teams of crosstalk performers, film actors, sketch comedians, and others in a single variety program. Each team would present one new work every episode, and five hundred audience members in the studio would vote.”

“One team would be eliminated every two episodes and replaced by another. If we felt the show still lacked excitement, we could add an elimination round. Then, in the grand finale, we would determine the champion and runner-up.”

The program Xu Ming was describing was *Comedians in Action*, a show from his previous life. At first, even Tomato Television had not thought highly of the concept. It was only after the program appeared before the audience that it began to shine.

Everyone stared at him blankly, as though they were listening to a heavenly scripture.

They had asked him to handle simple arithmetic, and he had casually produced advanced mathematics.

Was this what the world of genius looked like?

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