Prosperous, it is difficult to reach the top flow.
Editor’s note: This article is from the WeChat public account “Guduoxingfan” (ID: guduoxingfan), author: Xingfan editorial department.
Text| Xingfan
There is no C position, no debut in a group, and no finals intertwined with laughter and tears, “Youth with You 3” hastily ended. Coupled with subsequent official policies and initiatives, the 101 series seems to bid farewell to the domestic audience.
Going back in time in 2018, the Korean draft variety show “PRODUCE 101” was officially introduced to China. The restructured “Idol Trainees” and “Creation 101” became an instant hit, and “National Producers” are all over the places where young people live. Fan-made simple voting posters can be seen everywhere in major universities. The title of “Idol Year One” has also been settled.
The enthusiasm of the audience has driven many brands to favor the 101 series of variety shows, and commercial advertisements are crowded. Even if the follow-up shows are difficult to replicate the “Draft Prosperity” of 2018, many brands are willing to pay for the 101 series to “continue their lives” until this year’s “Chuang 4” and “Green 3”.
Although there is no re-enactment of the 101 series competition system, the “In the Name of the League” and “The Name of the Youth” that have caught up with the 101 series of drafts have contributed nearly 200 “show people” to the idol drafts in the past four years. With the addition of the two series of “green” and “creation” programs, a total of about 1,000 “show people” appeared on the stage, and many of them participated in multiple shows.
There are a lot of trainees, but there are not many who are really hot. Most of them are the “100 show fans in the whole network” circle. As soon as the show ended, the popularity of most of the contestants slowly fell silent. “Top stream” is even rarer. At present, it seems worthy of the word “top stream”, and only Cai Xukun is the only one.
01After the first year of the idol, everyone’s not standing high enough”
To this day, “Idol Trainee” and “Creation 101” are still the white moonlight in the hearts of many “show fans”.
Cai Xukun, who is popular in “Idol Trainee”, is at the forefront of the appeal of singing and dancing idols. In the hot list of artists of Gu Duo, Cai Xukun, who has no recent film and television works, ranks 19th, and is the first among all the idols of the 101 series. In addition to Cai Xukun, Fan Chengcheng, Huang Minghao, Zhu Zhengting and other players in “Idol Trainees” are still hot at the moment. However, Yang Chaoyue, who went out of the circle in “Creation 101”, is still deeply rooted in the “Koi” personality and has become the “hot pastry” of variety shows. The strong Meng Meiqi and the sweet and lovely Wu Xuanyi also maintained high popularity in the show.
The follow-up variety show itself is not as hot as the “brilliant” of 2018, and it is even more difficult for the debut group to reproduce the powder-absorbing ability of NINEPERCENT and Rocket Girl 101. NINEPERCENT, which debuted from “Idol Trainee”, has only been active for one and a half years, but it has become the first group of many “show fans”. In terms of the number of fans on the official blog of the combination, NINEPERCENT far surpassed other subsequent draft combinations with a figure of 3.67 million. Although Rocket Girl 101 was disbanded in June last year, in the eyes of many star fans, Rocket Girl 101 is still the “ceiling” of the female entertainment limited group, and it cannot even be surpassed in a short time.
In 2019, “Idol Trainee” was renamed “Youth With You”, and “Creation 101” was renamed “Creation Camp”. UNINE and R1SE, who debuted in groups from two shows, did not spend much time on the operation of the idol group, but the “highlight moments” of the members changed from “debut day” to “house collapse day” for fans. Various scandals and love exposures of the members made the two groups the combination with the highest rate of collapse in internal entertainment. Compared with the two 101 series programs, the popularity of “In the Name of the Group” program is even lower, and the debut group New Storm has received very little attention after the program. Among the three combinations, the only one who can be called famous is Zhou Zhennan, the final C position of “Creation Camp”.
In the last year, “Youth Has You 2” burst, “Creation Camp 2020” was not popular, and “The Name of a Boy” continued to be “silent.” “Youth With You 2” relies on group portraits to make a large number of non-debut players no longer “check out the name”. But from the perspective of out-of-circle, the only out-of-circle is still Yu Shuxin, who is an actor. Yu Shuxin, who premiered the series “Moonlight Variations” on the Guduo Artist Hot List, ranked 22nd. The popularity of Liu Yuxin, who won first place in the show, and other top players are still in the circle of idols, and did not reach the popularity of “Creation Camp” players such as Yang Chaoyue and Wang Ju in 2018. know.
This year’s Lelouch is from “Creation Camp 2021”. However, Eli Roxiu’s lack of singing and dancing skills and his status as a foreigner make it difficult for him to maintain his popularity as an idol or actor. At the group level, the debut group of “Creation Camp 2021” currently has fewer moves, and its popularity is gradually declining. But from the point of view of the program, the popularity of “Creation Camp 2021” is much higher than that of “Youth with You 3”, and the overall players’ popularity is also high. Among them, foreign players such as Zando, Riki, and Mika did not go out of the lap, but they became more popular during the program’s online period.
In terms of popularity, “Xiu Ren” and “Xiu Zong” are mutually successful. The lack of popularity of the show itself makes the overall popularity of the players after the first year of idols not as good as that of the past. The 101 series of the original program was also blocked in South Korea. The first season of the women’s team draft and the second season of the men’s team draft received good market response, and the third and fourth seasons began a steep decline. In 2018, “Creation 101” and “Idol Trainee” allowed the audience to carve for the men’s and women’s group auditions, and the subsequent fatigue is also reasonable.
But for some trainees, even if the audition shows are not stopped, the missed 2018 will never come back.
02Whether you make your debut or not, will you go the same way?
Even if you make your debut in 2018, can you guarantee a smooth future?
The answer is no, and it has been implemented in the four years of the development of the draft variety show in China.
When NINE PERCENT debuted for 16 months, a fan advocatedIt is suggested that NINEPERCENT applied to the Guinness Book of World Records for the record name of “the world’s most difficult group”. At this time, NINEPERCENT only combined for a total of 55 days, including the private itinerary. Although the debut idol groups of the two series of “green” and “creation” shows have a longer combined time than NINEPERCENT, their personal activities are still far more than group activities.
On the one hand, it reflects that the market where the idol group grows is immature. Idol groups need to rely on singing and dancing performances to stabilize their fans, but the domestic hit song show and hit song mechanism are not perfect. Even if the video platform sets up a song show for the talent show, only a few limited idol groups will not be able to support the lack of popularity of the idol groups in the market. In the end, the vicious circle, the show was no longer there, and the song show was absent again. Therefore, most of the idol group members have chosen to participate in more variety shows or transition actors in order to maintain their enthusiasm. Take the itinerary of THE 9 in late May as an example. Four of the nine members are filming in the crew, and the group activities of more than two are only two days in total.
In this situation, whether to make a group debut or not seems to be only a formality for the trainees. The competition is just a tool for accumulating popularity in a short period of time. The final outcome is “variety cafes” and “actors.” The talent competition for variety shows is the ability to sing and jump. In terms of acting and variety show performance, trainees who have not made their debut in a group may not be left behind. In addition, the debut group of the talent show has the problem of the popularity difference between the members and the need to divide the contract with the member’s own agency. These inherent preconditions make the operation of the portfolio even more difficult, the number of personal itineraries is polarized, and the gap in popularity also changes. The popularity of the members of the “Crane Tail” in the debut group is more likely to be surpassed by trainees who fail to make their debut on the program.
Bi Wenjun, who was ranked tenth and failed her debut in “Idol Trainee”, turned into an actor after the show. Up to now, he has taken over seven episodes, six of which are leading actors. Some netizens laughed at the “Dust in the World” starring him, “Bi Wenjun’s “Idol Trainee” card 10, Wu Xuanyi’s “Creation 101″ is second, and finally they have the same resources and the same drama.” On the road, Bi Wenjun’s achievements have already surpassed some members of NINEPERCENT. In the hot list of Guduo artists, Bi WenjunBesides Cai Xukun, he also became the only male idol of the 101 series on the list.
For most of the members who have successfully made their debut as a group, the performance of actors and variety shows also seems to determine the actual popularity after their debut, which is not consistent with their rankings at the time of their debut. “Youth with You 2” or “Creation 101”, Yu Shuxin and Yang Chaoyue, who are currently ranked second and third with higher popularity, both have more prominent performances in film and television works and variety shows.
Driven by the market, the “show people” got the exam papers for the singing and dancing group, but they used the standards of variety artists and actors in judging the papers. The driving force of the competition system and the deviation of market reality turned the debut into a formalism that only idols and fans moved. Precisely because of this, regardless of debut or not, this popular competition has the possibility of reshuffling.
03People set “short-circuit”, heat is weak
Taking the wrong exam papers, the performance of the “show people” is full of more uncertainty.
The audition program is a fast channel for amateurs to gain audience recognition. However, based on the logic of the variety show “bo eyeballs”, the core of “show people” is more and more biased towards the shaping of people than the level of strength and talent.
Take the “show people” type as an example. Although there are also “village flowers” like Yang Chaoyue in 2018, Cai Xukun and Meng Meiqi are still traditionally powerful singing and dancing idols. Zhou Zhennan’s singing and dancing skills in 2019 It is also more prominent. Since last year, the only “show people” who can catch fire are Yu Shuxin and Liluxiu who “do not take the usual path”. The popularity of the talent show of variety shows has been weakened, and players with comedic colors have become popular.
The setting of setting people as heavy makes it difficult for the seemingly popular “show people” to get around outside of the show. Compared with other variety shows, the accumulation of a large amount of material makes the talents of the talent show more diversified. In “Idol Trainee”, Cai Xukun’s characteristic is that he is good and willing to help others and be a dance teacher for other contestants. However, after his debut, it’s difficult for Cai Xukun to have the opportunity to show his willingness to help others.quality. It was not until I became a mentor again in “Youth Have You 2” that this trait was highlighted again and a new round of fans was completed.
Meng Meiqi, who has outstanding singing and dancing ability in “Creation 101”, can hardly have a natural sense of humor like Yang Chaoyue in variety shows, and the works after the transformation of actors are not well received. Without the nearly 360-degree all-round shooting of talent show, it would be difficult to reach the height of the show during the broadcast period due to the accumulation of popularity. Compared with Cai Xukun and Meng Meiqi, who are online, more players are trapped in a more difficult set of people. Their singing and dancing skills are no better than professionals, acting skills are no better than actors, and a sense of variety is no better than comedians. The “show people” who can’t produce hard work only have a shell given by the variety show, and their popularity quickly dissipates after the show, falling into a lack of follow-up resources.
Wang Ju, who caused a lot of controversy in “Creation 101”, during the recording of the show, with his distinctive personal image and the personality of independent women with high emotional intelligence, a large number of “Tao Yuanming” supported her. However, after the end of the show, the “Great Chrysanthemum Potential” quickly dissipated. Wang Ju, who does not have Yang Chao’s average appearance, is difficult to transform into an actor, and his performance in other variety shows is mediocre, and resources continue to decrease.
In contrast, Yu Shuxin, who is already an actor, chose to participate in “Youth with You 2” is the icing on the cake. After the competition, Yu Shuxin, who has gained popularity, has far surpassed the previous film and television works in terms of filming investment and main creative scale.
From the perspective of the development of “show people” in the past four years, the majority of people can only be used in the variety show of the draft. Most of the “resident variety cafes” who are in need of variety shows have higher national requirements, and “show people” are difficult to satisfy. Instead, the plasticity of actors has become a pass for the follow-up development of “show people”. For example, Naiman, who is ranked tenth in “Youth Have You 2,” with his rap ability and personal enthusiasm in the show, is an example of getting invitations from various variety shows and evening parties, as well as being more popular than the tail members of the debut group. .
The four-year 101 series draft is just like the original pyramid-shaped seating arrangement. After all, it is only a few on the spire that can rely on its fire. More “show people” are like entering a short-term singing and dancing training school. After graduation, they have to face employment problems, but whether they can get a good job is not necessarily related to exam results.