In the past, because of "slowness", countless audiences who were trapped in the cage of the city gained a distant comfort, but now because of "slowness", they have fallen into the predicament of plain narrative——

Why did the slow variety show change its taste?

  Our reporter Li Mengxin

  In the fifth year of taking root in the domestic variety show market, the slow variety show collective has entered a period of weakness.

The latest season of "Longing for Life", which started the trend of slow variety shows, failed to reverse the downward trend in word-of-mouth, and the famous scene disappeared, but it was on the hot search because of the trivial disputes between guests and fans, which made the program team lament that this is "the sadness of the program" , also "The Sorrow of the Audience".

"Fifty Kilometers of Peach Blossom Dock" has found a new proposition to be out of the circle - after embarrassment, it brought a burst of excitement to the show, but it ignored the fact that embarrassment can attract spectators and drive them away.

The audience's long-awaited reboot of the IP "Flowers and Teen Camping Season" ended unremarkably.

  Slow variety shows, in the past, because of their "slowness", countless viewers who were trapped in the city's cage gained a distant comfort. Now they are also in the predicament of a dull narrative because of their "slowness". However, under various attempts to speed up the rhythm, The slow variety show has lost its original purpose.

This seems to be an inherent and irreconcilable contradiction, but it is obviously inappropriate to blame the internal mechanism of slow variety shows.

stale primer

  At present, the consensus on the traceability of domestic slow variety shows is basically that "Longing for Life" will be broadcast in 2017.

This variety show is set in the countryside far away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The resident guests play the role of a traditional family, relying on farm work in exchange for food every day, cooking a meal after a busy day, and entertaining friends from afar.

  When the scene returned to the sunrise of the traditional rural society, the rhythm of the variety show also slowed down.

The slowness here is compared to the variety shows of game competition and talent competition. There is no intensive agenda setting, no funny variety show tasks, no pre-set scripts and interference. Generally speaking, slow variety shows are anti-rhythm. , anti-climax, like a clear stream, refreshed the audience's viewing experience.

But what needs to be defined is that, strictly speaking, slow variety show is not a new variety show type, it is more like a new production concept and a new variety show expression.

In the market where "Extreme Challenge" and "Run, Brothers" have been unabated for several consecutive seasons and fast variety shows dominate the screen, slow variety shows are like a dark horse.

Subsequently, slow variety shows with the themes of business, travel and life appeared together, and the popularity has continued to this day.

  There have been many discussions on why these unremarkable slow variety shows won the market when slow variety shows just started, nothing more than interpretations at the audience level such as "craving for slow rhythm in a fast-paced life" and "healing the soul" .

But judging from the logic of market operation, cause and effect may not be completely consistent.

Some people in the industry say that the gathering of slow variety shows is actually based on the market's reaction, not on the basis of genuine concern for the lives of ordinary people, to derive programs that conform to the characteristics of current social development.

But what needs to be admitted is that these slow variety shows that come out with a lot of energy have indeed hit some of the needs of the audience.

  Although there are many disputes, the popularity of slow variety shows is still unabated in terms of the popularity of the market.

Even if word of mouth is not as good as one season, even in the background of the cold variety show market and the difficulty of attracting investment in several variety shows, "Longing for Life" still has the sponsorship of many advertisers, and the sixth season also set Mango Channel's annual investment record.

This is also a paradox. The slow variety show in the name of healing is actually the result of market competition, and it also buried the introduction of the slow variety show's sour taste.

The pointer is moved too fast

  The slow variety show track can be said to be increasingly crowded and the market is hot, but it is accompanied by repeated, boring, routine, boring and other evaluations.

In the case of serious homogenization and lack of stamina for bland narratives, slow variety shows have fallen into an unprecedented innovation dilemma.

For the audience, there is also an intuitive feeling that the slow variety show can no longer be slowed down.

  Whether it’s returning to the countryside, going on a trip that just goes away, or running a restaurant or homestay, whether it’s birth or joining the WTO, the scenes focused on slow variety shows are always far from the vulgar and cumbersome daily life. Everyday and away from the everyday "life elsewhere".

The support behind this scene comes from the imagination of intimacy.

However, in the current slow variety show, both have encountered challenges.

  The first is that pastoral tonality no longer exists.

The reason why "Longing for Life" was able to heal the audience at first is that the program is positioned to reap the fruits of labor, in exchange for three meals a day, and return to the most basic logic of life that is maintained by clothing, food, housing and transportation.

Such a simple and pure life is hard to find at the moment, and it is a real "longing for life".

Moreover, under the safe haven carefully built by the program team, they have the most reliable guarantee for returning to the countryside. They don’t have to worry about disasters and poor harvests like real farmers. As long as they work, they will get income. A real paradise.

  But now, this layer of life has faded even after packaging.

Perhaps because of the visibility of the program, the links of sowing and cultivation were omitted, and the labor process became simple or even ignored. The so-called fishing at sea, but like a tourism experience project, became a large-scale real person. show.

In order to avoid the monotony of the process, the show also added links such as auctions, and the agenda setting has become unprecedented. The routine of the variety show in the studio has almost been moved to the outdoors, but it has caused a sense of unpleasantness and slowness.

  On the other hand, due to the lack of strict process design and strong autonomy in slow variety shows, the interaction between guests is particularly important. Therefore, the partners of slow variety shows are mostly old friends who have a complete tacit understanding, focusing on acquaintances. For example, Sa Beining and Nigmat in "Hello Life", Huang Lei and He Jiong in "Longing for Life".

In addition, "Longing for Life" adopts the mode of inviting friends to be guests, and the guests are changed almost every episode. Even though most of them are familiar friends, the frequent changes of guests eventually turn intimacy into a suspended imagination. Chatting The content also revolves around memories of the past.

Furthermore, with the increase in the number of episodes of the program, the acquaintance relationship is also limited, so there are many artists who come with the purpose of publicity. Some netizens commented that "Longing for Life" has become the "outdoor version of "Happy Camp". The so-called The rural life of Xanadu has become a cover.

  Perhaps because of this concern, there are also show producers who have put aside the warm relationship between acquaintances and turned to strangers' social observation, such as "Fifty Kilometers of Peach Blossom". In the process of changing from unfamiliar to familiar, there are inevitable frictions and conflicts. Contradiction becomes the focus of the lens.

The second season, which is currently being broadcast, appeared on the hot search "Nine Minutes Embarrassing", reflecting the generation gap between the two generations, and the comparison with the workplace relationship has also become a hot topic among netizens.

But then again, the audience's eyes won't always stay on the quarrel, and the audience who are rushing to heal and relax will turn back in the suffocating atmosphere.

When the relationship between the guests tends to be peaceful, the popularity of the show suddenly drops.

  In addition, there is a common problem, that is, for the slow variety show, the audience seems to have formed a tacit assumption that it is regarded as a spiritual utopia.

Therefore, when a large number of advertisements are implanted, it will inevitably cause discomfort.

"Interlude programs in commercials", the erosion of business layer by layer, undoubtedly pierced the beautiful illusion created by slow variety shows.

With the changes in the public opinion environment, in the face of a lot of controversial entertainment ecology, the life carefully created by the high-income star group has become untrustworthy.

Slow variety shows shouldn't be fast business

  Where should the slow variety show turn, it seems to be in a dilemma.

There are more and more voices who think that the narrative of slow variety shows has come to an end and that innovation is stretched thin, but these are attributed to the inherent attributes of slow variety shows, and they all ignore a premise: slow variety shows are never fast business, worry about being boring, and have to stir up topics. , is the soil that ignores slow variety shows.

And the current innovations in slow variety shows are almost all additions, filling in the details, "for fear that the audience won't watch it", slipping to the opposite side.

  From this perspective, domestic slow variety shows may be a false proposition.

Compared with South Korea, where the variety show industry is more mature, more mature experience and ideas can be found.

New concepts of slow variety shows such as "New Journey to the West", "Three Meals a Day", "Hyori's Homestay" and "Jiang's Cafeteria" emerge one after another, and the reputation is still stable.

In fact, the current domestic slow variety shows with names can more or less find their reference objects from Korean variety shows, but in the process of transplanting experience, the real core of slow variety shows is ignored.

  Slowness is not an appearance, but to keep the false and keep the truth. It does not necessarily have to "live elsewhere", the more beautiful the scenery, the better, but the presentation of the reality of life and real interpersonal relationships, which is higher for program production and participating guests. requirements.

And this is still unattainable for the current domestic variety show industry.

Taking the current hit "Happy Restart" as an example, the Douban score ranges from 9.5 to 9.6, and is described by many viewers as a "domestic variety show ceiling", a low-cost B-level variety show, and six "outdated" variety shows. "Fast Man", what's so special about it?

Fifteen years of friends' true feelings and ordinary people's life background are the most mentioned answers.

This is a surprise in the slow variety show market, but it is difficult to replicate.

What is more exposed is the shortcomings of the domestic variety show industry: chasing traffic, concocting and following the trend, but rarely touching the core.

  Therefore, it may be more important to restore the real fireworks of life than drastic innovations that may even lead to the opposite direction.

People live forever, and audiences also need real slow variety shows.

Therefore, the question is not whether the market still needs slow variety shows, whether to explore new storytelling methods, but how to tell the original story well.