Li Jing talks about "Super Interview": It may be difficult to tell what the artist says is true and false, but the audience is very smart
Twenty-two years ago, Li Jing knocked on the door of the investment promotion department of various TV stations with "Super Interview". At that time, she did not expect that the star interview would start a new chapter.
After 22 years, "Super Interview" has been off the air for six years; "Very Quiet Distance" has been revised many times, and the latest season that ended recently is no longer familiar.
Some miss it, some lament, some regret.
However, Li Jing, who has always been on the front line, firmly believes that the talk show still has the power to directly hit people's hearts, but it needs to adapt to external changes while sticking to it.
"I like talk shows very much, because it seems to be a small incision, but it is actually very deep, and it can contain a person's confusion, pride, hesitation, and self-talk... We can feel the growth and development of the interviewee from it. Change can also find answers to your own confusion.”
Early stage
Produced "Super Access" out of his own pocket
In 1999, Chinese TV variety shows entered the first golden age.
Li Jing, who has worked for CCTV for many years, resolutely left the comfort zone, invested more than 2 million in the production of "Super Interview", and then took the master tape to many local TV stations.
"Your content will definitely be popular, but our budget has bought TV dramas", the feedback from satellite TV is the same.
"I don't understand business either, but it's like holding peanuts and rice (selling). You have to find a way to convince others." So Li Jing took a different approach and "sends" the show out for nothing.
In this way, the TV station can earn three minutes of advertising money, while Li Jing only charges 30 seconds of the difference.
After the first phase, Li Jing can earn 1,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan, and the TV station can earn two minutes and thirty seconds of advertising fees without paying a penny of production costs.
In 2000, Li Jing used this simple formula of "win-win" to distribute "Super Interview" to more than a dozen TV stations, successfully recovering the production cost.
In 2016, Li Jing was constantly switching roles among Lefeng.com operators, program hosts, and producers, and was so busy that she was physically exhausted; Dai Jun also had a lot of announcements, and it was difficult for the two to get together.
But on the other hand, the trend of the content market is changing. Large-scale variety shows are becoming more and more popular, and artist schedules are becoming more and more difficult. Small-cost interview shows can only survive in the cracks.
"Super Interview took a long time to do, so it stopped."
opportunity
The information is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and occasions for the audience to feel attentively
At that time, the most popular part of "Super Interview" was the "exclusive outsourcing".
Li Jing introduced the old and brought forth the new, and invited the stars' relatives and friends to "complain" outside the venue, intending to show the real appearance of the star to the audience in a mocking way.
Since then, many variety shows have followed suit, forming one of the most anticipated models of celebrity interviews.
However, with the wide application of Weibo and short videos, celebrities have achieved instant communication with the outside world.
Many artists can't wait to get up in the morning and start reporting their day's itinerary.
The scarcity and mystery of talk shows are rapidly disappearing with the diversification of the media and the increasing demand for celebrity exposure.
The voyeuristic desire of the audience is also increasing.
They hope that the talk show will be more "in-depth".
"But how deep do you go to be called depth? Can you ask how much money he has in his bankbook? If you think you are very deep, but you are not that deep, everyone will think that I might as well read the manuscripts written by the media. Woolen cloth."
Li Jing pondered and explored the value of talk shows in the current era: what should you show to the audience?
In fact, the opposite of the information explosion is also the public's confusion about the fakes and the real - are the stars in the media and Weibo real?
On the contrary, when an artist finds that he has been misunderstood by public opinion, he urgently needs a neutral discourse field in front of the camera to falsify himself.
In Li Jing's view, this is a new opportunity for talk shows.
"A lot of people have asked me, do you think what they say is true? I'll answer, I can't be sure it's true, but I can't be sure it's false either. What I do is, ask my question and let them Go and answer. I believe that the audiences are very smart now. If you are right and left, everyone can see it; if you are real and even moved people, everyone will turn their fans around. The talk show is actually for the audience. An opportunity to feel attentively." Li Jing said.
future
Whether there are sponsors or not, someone can see it and keep doing it
In 2021, "Very Quiet Distance", which returned after a year, completely subverted the traditional talk show distribution model and chose to first release it on the short video platform.
This seems to prove that interviews on mainstream satellite TV and first-line video websites are no longer the first choice.
But Li Jing believes that as long as there is good content, it can attract audiences, and she always maintains confidence in the talk show.
"We put the main battlefield on new media, and customers will pay more attention. We will keep pace with the times in terms of means and mentality. Wherever the audience is, our content will be exported. The guests we interview should also learn from this The audience of the times is interested in starting."
Therefore, this season of "Very Quiet Distance" walked out of the familiar studio and into the daily scene, such as going to Zhang Jie's rehearsal field, inviting Huang Shengyi to play badminton, and tasting Inner Mongolian cuisine with Linghua.
This depends on Li Jing's observation of current user preferences.
She found that the audience seemed to be increasingly impatient to watch a program with a fixed scene. "Always give the audience a form, and they will be aesthetically fatigued. (Exterior location) For me, it is 'no limit'. Today, we can ski together, You can go shopping for groceries tomorrow, and you can put the interview in a very interesting scene.”
Li Jing decisively denied the question whether the talk show would one day be eliminated from the market.
She believes that humans need emotional interaction, and interviews create a communication environment for the public to reach out to each other.
This is also why many viewers cry unknowingly when watching "Super Interview" and "Very Quiet Distance".
The host and the interviewees output their mentality, cognition, and perception of life to each other, which can alleviate the confusion of the public to a certain extent.
In our industry, everyone wants good ratings, and whoever is popular will interview whoever.
But our team will not ignore a person just because he is not so popular.
Artist A was at his busiest time because of a hit drama, and we felt that he would definitely not be able to make an appointment, but he wanted to participate.
Because many years ago when he was the most difficult, our show gave him a neutral expression.
There was also an artist who made a niche movie that year. The box office was not very good and needed publicity. The TA called many media and was rejected. Only our program agreed.
Entertainers who come to our show, we don't (initially) promise well, but ask you particularly hurtful questions when you sit down.
I think that "Super Interview" and "Very Quiet Distance" can be done for so long. On the one hand, it depends on our persistence. On the other hand, it is also the past 20 years that we have established trust and reputation with artists and management teams.
——Li Jing
Li Jing imagined that when she was 60 years old, as long as her physical strength allowed, she also wanted to be an interview topic of interest to audiences in their 60s and 70s, "such as how people in their 60s and 70s can live a more wonderful life." For Li Jing , the interview is not just about work, but her way of researching "people".
"I love this thing. So my talk show (regardless of whether there will be sponsors in the future), as long as someone is willing to watch it, I can always output it, but the audience may change. I can also be very willful and use what I struggled for in the past. All of this keeps the show alive."
Zhang He, senior reporter of the Beijing News