The live finale ofThe Voice of Chinaseason four is being held at Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” China National Stadium, on 7 October 2015, bringing to a close a show that, among other things, is making Asia’s production industry salivate (and that not only for the number of cameras being used).
Season four (13x90 mins) premiered on Friday, 17 July, in a 9pm-11pm prime time slot on Zhejiang Satellite TV, filling the spot vacated by theRunning Manformat.
With a production budget north of RMB100 million/US$16 million, the latest season of Star China Media’s reality singing competition has broken records for the longest winning streak of any Format in China ratings history as the number one show in China for 10 straight weeks.
The Voice of China’s performance may allay fears that singing shows have had their day in China and that audiences have shifted to non-studio-based programmes.
Star China Media info put the premiere episode ratings at 5.418% and share at 16.597% across the 50 cities measured. The company said this was the top rated entertainment show premiere ever on Chinese television.
Season four’s first episode rated 28% higher season three’s finale, and was also higher than the finale of season two. The premiere’s rating also trumped previous premieres (season one: 1.48%; two: 3.52%; three: 4.16%), according to viewership data released by Star China Media.
For the first 10 weeks,The Voice of Chinareceived a weekly rating between 4 and 5 on the CSM Top 50 scale, representing an approximate 16% audience share.
The strategy this year was to attract more overseas Chinese participants and to broaden domestic coverage. Iris Xia, Star China Media’s deputy general manager, says about 50 first, second and third-tier cities in China were covered, which is 30% more than in previous seasons.
The easiest part is basic stage set-up, as they “... follow the originalVoicestage design, lighting, and equipment settings for the standard requirements,” Xia adds.
The primary audience is below 35 years old, which represents 24% of the overall audience.
According to GroupM in China, comparing TV data from 10 July and 17 July (afterThe Voicejoined in the Friday night slot), ratings of singing competition formatSuper Idol(the local version of Korea’s MBC format on Anhui Satellite TV) dropped 42%. Original driving/car competition reality format,F-Team(Guangdong Satellite TV) dropped by 23%. Reality/family format,Where Are We Going, Dad?, on Hunan TV lost 19%.
The 17 July episode ofWhere Are We Going, Dad? season three had a TV rating of 2.94, which means the premiere episode ofThe Voice of Chinaseason four 17 July was 80%+ higher than theWhere Are We Going, Dad?episode aired on the same day.
New this time around is the addition ofSecret Voice(Thursdays 10pm-11pm) special and behind-the-scenes tidbits that air between the main episodes. Season four also includes the double-blind audition.
Season four was directed by Jin Lei assisted by Shen Ning, Zhang Li and Wu Qunda.