Chapter 166: The Ownership of the Friday Time Slot
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Chen Qi received twenty-three votes! He fell nearly half a dozen votes short of the forty-five needed for sixth place!
When he announced his own vote count as well, the atmosphere in the studio turned decidedly peculiar.
“Uh…”
“Well…”
The six singers stood there with their mouths slightly open, their faces filled with utter shock.
They were dumbfounded!
Who could have imagined this?
Who could have imagined such a result?
Chen Qi had come in last? And not merely last, but last by an overwhelming margin?
This made no sense.
It really made no sense!
Even if his singing was indeed inferior to theirs, that song of his should clearly have made up for it!
Even if bad luck had truly landed him in last place, he should not have lost by such an utterly astonishing number of votes!
What on earth had happened?
“Quite unexpected, isn’t it?” Chen Qi said, looking at their stunned expressions with helpless amusement. “When I first saw the result, my reaction was exactly the same as yours.”
The studio erupted in laughter.
At last, everyone understood what his reaction had been when he saw the results.
“I thought about it carefully just now,” Chen Qi said with a perfectly serious expression. “I think this season’s audience simply isn’t very good.”
The two female singers failed to hold back and burst out laughing.
“Sorry, sorry,” they hurriedly apologized.
The audience wasn’t very good?
You… You really dared to say that!
“For the next episode, I’m going to replace the audience,” Chen Qi declared solemnly.
“Hahahaha…”
Everyone broke into laughter.
But thinking about it carefully, it seemed he really had suffered because of the audience!
Compared with new songs, nostalgic old songs clearly held an advantage.
More importantly, those veteran singers had a tremendous advantage in terms of fame!
When choosing between a singer they knew and one they did not, most people would naturally vote for the singer they knew and liked.
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Even so, the singers still found it difficult to believe that Chen Qi had actually awarded himself last place.
Did he not care about his reputation at all?
With something like this, he could clearly have altered the result a little…
But he had not.
He had simply announced it to the public.
The several singers looked at him with complicated expressions, though each wore a faint, moved smile.
They believed him now.
They believed Chen Qi when he said that this was a program entirely free of behind-the-scenes manipulation.
The voting results might not have been completely fair or impartial, but what in this world ever was?
The fact that he was willing to go this far was enough to satisfy them.
“All right, that’s all for this episode. Goodbye.” After delivering a few closing remarks, Chen Qi smiled and waved at the camera.
Judging from his smile, the result of twenty-three votes did not seem to have affected him at all.
Chen Qi truly did not care much about it.
Although the result had genuinely been beyond his expectations, he did not take it to heart.
Even if it greatly increased his chances of being eliminated in the next episode, he still did not care.
He had thought it over carefully just now and decided that this batch of viewers simply was not very good.
He had not lost because of his singing. He had lost because of his lack of fame.
That damned nostalgia…
“Go back and get some rest,” Chen Qi told the six singers as he shook their hands. “The next recording will be in five days. The staff will contact you then.”
He had Su Xiaoxiao hand each of them a song list.
“Choose your next songs from this list. Take note: you’ve already used your opportunity to perform your own songs. Starting next episode, none of you may sing your own songs again.”
“Understood.”
“All right.”
Whether because they had achieved relatively good rankings or because Chen Qi’s twenty-three votes had given them a much more favorable impression of the program, the singers were visibly more relaxed.
Afterward, Chen Qi entrusted Su Xiaoxiao with taking the singers back to their hotel, while he himself plunged into the post-production room with all the footage.
…
Conference Room.
The station director had summoned all the senior executives.
Deputy Director Wang and Deputy Director Wu, the head of The Happier You Play downstairs, were the main figures in the meeting.
The moment the executives entered the conference room, the television station staff began discussing the matter in whispers.
They all knew that the question of who would receive the Friday time slot was about to be decided.
After all, the station director had convened this meeting immediately after leaving Chen Qi’s program site.
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“Who do you think will get the Friday time slot?”
“Heh, I’m not guessing. It’s too easy to end up embarrassing yourself.”
“I’ll go all in and say Chen Qi! I’m pretty annoyed with him right now, but I’d really like to see him make a comeback.”
“I hope it’s him too. I like the way that guy does things. Never mind anything else—hearing him say that he would rather stop making programs than use the station’s hosts was incredibly satisfying.”
“I hope it’s him as well, but it looks pretty difficult. He has no experience.”
Everyone discussed the matter animatedly, speculating about who would ultimately claim the Friday slot.
Some even found various excuses to pass by the conference room.
The room seemed to be perfectly quiet.
But before long, many people saw Deputy Director Wu of The Happier You Play shoot to his feet.
Then they saw Deputy Director Wang of Singers stand up as well.
The two of them seemed to be arguing about something.
But no one dared to approach, and the conference room’s soundproofing was remarkably effective. They could see the men speaking, but could not hear a single word.
Judging from Deputy Director Wu’s furious expression, he seemed to be absolutely enraged.
Could it be?
There was only one thing that could have made Deputy Director Wu so angry!
Had Chen Qi really taken the Friday time slot?
Wow!
Now this was getting interesting.
Just as everyone was watching in uncertainty, they saw Deputy Director Wu, who had been furious moments earlier, suddenly freeze.
He stood rooted to the spot, staring at Deputy Director Wang with an expression of utter disbelief.
“That’s impossible!” Deputy Director Wang shook his head repeatedly.
Looking at him, Deputy Director Wang said calmly, “The station director can confirm this. Our guest lineup is indeed more impressive than yours. But for the sake of keeping the program confidential, we cannot announce the guest list yet.”
Deputy Director Wu instinctively turned toward the station director.
The station director gave a slight nod.
“Even if your guests are more impressive than ours, that doesn’t mean your program has greater potential! I refuse to accept this!” Deputy Director Wu began throwing a tantrum. “We have the finest production team in the entire station! What does Chen Qi have? I’m not boasting, but our program’s ratings have a chance of breaking one percent!”
At those words, Deputy Director Wang’s expression became rather strange.
“A chance of breaking one percent?” Deputy Director Wang looked at him with a trace of sympathy, then said something that made everyone present change color.
“Chen Qi has guaranteed that the average ratings of his program will not fall below one percent.”
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