Chapter 785: A legend of Media College!
Translator: Legge Editor: - -
Very quickly, the Mid-Autumn Festival arrived.
On that night, Zhang Ye went to his maternal grandma's home for a family meal gathering. It was very lively.
His first aunt was the first to finish eating and had already left the dining table. She sat down on the sofa and started munching on sunflower seeds while channel surfing, until she reached Central TV Department 1's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala. The scene was currently showing the famous host of Central TV, Chen Ye, laughing together with three other famed hosts of Central TV as they introduced the show. Chen Ye's overall popularity might not be higher than Zhang Ye's popularity anymore, but within Central TV and the hosting world, he was still of irreplaceable status. He knew how to make people emotional and was witty. For most of the Central TV Department 1 large-scale galas, he was always part of the hosting team.
When his maternal grandma had a look at the TV, her lips curled. "Our Little Ye is not taking part. What are you all watching it for?"
His second uncle said, "It's always the same group of hosts every year. I'm getting tired of watching the same old thing. When will our Little Ye be able to appear on the Spring Festival Gala and nudge those people aside?"
His second aunt echoed him, "Yeah, based on popularity and hosting ability, how is Little Ye not better than them?"
His third sister giggled and interjected, "His relations with others are not better than theirs."
Chenchen who was eating the braised prawns slightly nodded her head and mumbled, "Yes."
Zhang Ye stared at his third sister and Chenchen. "Don't you know how converse in a proper manner? When has my relations with others been that bad? Believe it or not, but this bro can invite the SARFT's Deputy Chief over for dinner with a single call."
Chenchen: "Hur hur."
His second sister: "Hur hur."
His third sister: "Hur hur."
Zhang Ye was speechless. He felt that every one of them did not know what a good thing was even when placed right in front of them. They've even learned how to ridicule me now?
Everyone in the house laughed.
His third aunt sighed. "Actually, if it weren't for the cold storage treatment, many people have saying that this year's Spring Festival Gala would likely have a place for Little Ye as a host. Even though Little Ye has not hosted a large-scale gala before, the basis of his popularity is already there. If we're talking about overall popularity, then Little Ye wouldn't be less popular than any one of those Spring Festival Gala hosts. In fact, he's probably even more popular than them. Furthermore, with his résumé of a number one nationwide viewership rating show under his belt, his hopes are even greater. But…but who knew that those bunch of people had that trick up their sleeves. How infuriating! It has even caused our Little Ye to be unable to get onto any shows!"
The eldest younger sister asked with concern, "Brother, will you just be staying this way from now on?"
Zhang Ye smiled. "I'll let nature take its course, I guess."
His maternal grandma looked at him. "Think of a way out."
"Grandma, I know what to do." Zhang Ye did not emphasize any further.
...
The next day.
Zhang Ye woke up late. By the time he opened his eyes, it was already past 10 AM. However, he still took his time to get ready before driving to work. When he reached the office, he was confused by what he saw happening in front of him. He saw that the originally half-filled office area was now bustling with activity. The empty seats before were all taken up now. Some people were packing the desks, some people were shifting the computers, and some were arranging their files.
Ha Qiqi and the others were also here.
"Director Zhang!" The several of them came up to him.
Zhang Ye frowned. "What are these people doing? Who are they?"
Zhang Zuo said worriedly, "They're the staff from the new program team."
"New program team?" Zhang Ye repeated, not fully understanding.
Ha Qiqi explained, "The notice was put up just this morning. For the 80 million RMB budgeted new show that was promised to us previously, you've been removed as the executive director and host. It will be taken over by this new program team. With the executive director changed, the host position has also been changed to Chen Ye." She pointed to the sign on the door. "Our program team's door sign has been removed as well. Because these people from the new program team have shifted here, there isn't much space left in the office area, so they've squeezed into our spot for now. Looking at the execs' intentions, it seems like we'll also be gradually integrated into their new team."
Zhang Ye did not find being removed from the supervision of the new show surprising as it was only a matter of when they would do it. But he had not expected the 80 million RMB in production budget that he had fought so hard to be given to Chen Ye instead. What a bargain he has snapped up!
"Director Zhang, please make a decision for us."
"What should we do?"
"After getting such a bargain, they're even taking over our office space now?"
It was clear that they had earned this reputation with The Voice's amazing viewership ratings, yet that reputation had now paved the way for someone else. Ha Qiqi, Little Wang, Wu Yi, and the rest were feeling mentally unbalanced at this.
But Zhang Ye did not feel mentally unbalanced at all. A production budget of 80 million RMB? Central TV Department 1 was really being generous this time as this was a rarely seen large-scale production in the variety world. However, you'd need to have the ability to make a show that could match up to this 80 million yuan production budget. If that amount was given to Zhang Ye, he would naturally know how to spend it, thus creating a good program. But when given to a so-called elite team that no one knew how Central TV Department 1 formed? Zhang Ye was only waiting to see how they'd make a joke of themselves. But of course, he wouldn't rule out that they could achieve a good result either.
Zhang Ye finally spoke, "Don't be bothered by them; just do whatever you need to do."
Ha Qiqi wanted to say something but ended up not doing so.
Zhang Ye had already been thinking of alternative ways recently as he knew that he could not just do nothing about Central TV Department 1's cold storage treatment towards him. He could not go on not doing any shows for the greater part of the next half a year and had to break out of this "cage" that they put him in. At the very least, he needed to do one last show before his contract ended with Central TV Department 1, so that he could consolidate his legendary viewership ratings miracle. Only then would Zhang Ye be able to successfully end things on his terms and make use of his popularity to move on into other industries. This was his plan all along.
Although Zhang Ye was in a very unfavorable situation now, he was already slowly finding ways to break out of it, ways like—making trouble?
Around 11 AM.
That new program team's bosses arrived.
One of them was the executive director, Xu Yipeng. He was a very famous director in Central TV Department 1 and was the AD of two Spring Festival Galas in the last three years. He had handled many of such large-scale galas and also helmed several of the more outstanding variety shows as well, albeit the viewership ratings ranged from low to high. His results in the variety industry weren't too stable, but the executives of Central TV Department 1 fully trusted him and felt that Xu Yipeng was a very capable man.
The other boss of the new program team was Chen Ye. Chen Ye was one of the newly added hosts of Central TV's Spring Festival Gala in recent years. He was a pillar of the television station due to his fame and qualifications, which was also the reason why Central TV Department 1 was slowly ceding more authority to him. Of this new show the station placed a lot of importance and a huge sum of investment on, not only did they assign Chen Ye to be the host, they also gave him the position of AD so that he would work closely with Xu Yipeng.
As for the other staff of the new program team, they were also all elites handpicked by Central TV Department 1. The two rookies who had been taken from Department 14 were assigned to this program team as well, so you could say that they had the most excellent batch of people. Somehow, the executives of Central TV Department 1 thought that as long as they gathered all of the elites together, they would be able to assemble a much better team than the one that was put together at the last minute for Zhang Ye's The Voice. If The Voice's program team could create a miracle, then there was no reason why Xu Yipeng and his team couldn't do it!
"Oh, everyone's busy?" Xu Yipeng smiled.
Chen Ye was also grinning as he greeted, "Hello everyone."
The people from the new team stopped what they were doing and looked as though they were energized by their leaders' appearance.
"Director Xu!"
"Hello, Teacher Chen!"
"Hello, bosses!"
Everyone was looking spirited. After all, this was a new show with an investment of 80 million RMB, so who wouldn't be excited? None of these people on the team had ever worked on such a large-scale variety show before!
Xu Yipeng smiled and said, "Teacher Chen, why don't you say a word to everyone?"
Chen Ye waved him off. "You first, Director Xu."
"Well, alright. Then let me say a few words first." Xu Yipeng began his bureaucratic jargon, talking about pies in the sky and so on. This was a new team after all, so he wanted to drum up morale, and at the same time, briefly introduce the key points of the show and the division of duties.
After he finished speaking, Chen Ye also said a few words, except that it was targeted at Zhang Ye's team. "Let me add on to that. The management has already approved the original staff members of The Voice officially joining the new program team with me and Director Xu as their bosses."
Little Wang did not give him any face and questioned back, "Then what about Director Zhang?"
Chen Ye narrowed his eyes at her. "Him? He has some other appointment, I guess. I'm not too sure."
After the talking and announcements, both Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye left the office quickly. They probably still had a lot of work to handle.
After the two of them left, an older, middle-aged man of the new program team looked at Little Wang and commanded, "You're Little Wang, right? There's no more coffee. Go and get some more for everyone."
Little Wang stared at him. "Who are you?"
The middle-aged man said, "I am the executive director's assistant."
Little Wang sneered. "If you want it, go get it yourself. Don't act like you're all chummy with me!"
"You…" The middle-aged assistant became furious.
Ha Qiqi knew that person. "Old Seven, you've just arrived, but you're already ordering others around? Do you think you're a huge deal just because you're the director's assistant? Why're you putting on such airs?"
Everyone knew about Zhang Ye's temper, and as they said, "he who handles vermillion will be stained red, and he who touches ink will be stained black." As a result, the people he led were clearly influenced by his character and did not have a good temper either.
"I was only asking for her to go get more coffee. How is that putting on airs?"
"Don't you have hands?"
"She's an office assistant. Why can't I get her to do that?"
"You're also only a director's assistant. Does that mean I can order you around?"
The two groups of people drew a distinct line between themselves. In just the short time since they'd met, they'd nearly come to blows. This atmosphere was simply too tense!
After bickering for a bit, the new team members couldn't do anything about Ha Qiqi, Zhang Zuo, and the others from the original team. They could only hold it in and leave it to the leaders to rein them in later.
Not long after, Zhang Ye came out of his office to get some water from the water dispenser.
With his appearance, the new team members all subconsciously took a sudden, deep breath. Perhaps it was because they were afraid that Zhang Ye would find trouble with them, so they felt a sense of nervousness and went on alert. They all looked up, keeping their eyes on him, with the motion of their heads moving synchronously. When everyone realized their own actions, it felt hilarious and simultaneously extremely embarrassing, resulting in all of them lowering their heads together again. Just two days ago, Zhang Ye had scolded away a group of people who came to denounce him. It seemed like that had left a very deep impression on everyone here.
Little Wang quickly went up to him. "Let me do it, Director Zhang."
"I can do it, don't worry." Zhang Ye smiled.
At this moment, when the two youths seated beside the water dispenser saw Zhang Ye walking over, they subconsciously stood up again, one of them looking excited, while the other one was a little agitated.
"Senior!"
"Hello, Senior, how are you doing!?"
The two of them addressed him differently from the others.
Zhang Ye was taken aback. "You two are?"
The two of them said, "We're both this year's graduates of Media College!"
Zhang Ye was suddenly enlightened. "Oh, my juniors. Hello." He looked at them from head to toe and appeared to realize these two were also likely the ones he heard about during that morning's argument at the elevator landing about whom had been taken away from Department 14. However, Zhang Ye did not appear too enthusiastic meeting them and turned around after just saying a word or two, but in actual fact, did so for the good of these two rookies.
Sure enough, once he walked away, one of the staff members from the new program team told the two rookies in a low whisper, "You guys are new and probably don't understand the situation here. In future, stay away from Zhang Ye. Otherwise, if the program team leaders or any of the execs of Department 1 learn about it, it will surely affect your career progression."
The two rookies nodded.
Before they started work here, they had already heard about how Zhang Ye, the legend of Media College, was a hated figure at Central TV Department 1. Witnessing it for themselves today, it was precisely as rumored. In the eyes of all those other employees, Zhang Ye's image might be extremely negative. There were many who scolded him and others who despised him. But to his two juniors from Media College, the way Zhang Ye carried himself right now, his bearing, it had totally left them tantalized in awe. They felt that this senior of theirs was way too awesome!
This was Central TV Department 1 they were talking about!
The first person to bring Central TV Department 1 to court in the history of its existence, even representing himself as his own lawyer and utterly defeating the Central TV Legal Department's professional lawyer to win the court case. He even somehow managed to stay on around the station as though nothing had happened, happily insulting his colleagues on Weibo if he felt like doing so and not having to worry about not giving face to anyone! With such a stature, he was indeed worthy of being the legend that all the Media College teachers and students looked up to!!