Chapter 111: Controversy
When celebrities participate in variety shows, aside from earning money, it is also a great opportunity to gain exposure.
Regardless of what kind of person Xu Lei was in terms of character and conduct, when it came to variety shows, he was undeniably one of the top variety show directors in the country. Anyone who had appeared on his programs might not necessarily become a huge celebrity, but at the very least, they had gained a large number of fans through his shows.
Before When You Are Young began filming, it had already been heavily promoted for a long time. It could be said to be Xu Lei’s work after ten years of preparation, a breakthrough project that he had placed great hopes on.
It was easy to imagine how much exposure the guests participating in this show could receive. As long as they seized the opportunity and increased their visibility, there was no doubt that this was an excellent chance to attract more fans.
Screen time was directly connected to exposure.
Perhaps having fewer scenes in real life did not matter much, but on a variety show, losing screen time meant losing an opportunity to be seen.
All of them were celebrity students on the same show. Although there were differences in popularity, fans could accept some bias in screen allocation.
But if the distribution of screen time became completely unreasonable, and their own idol only appeared a handful of times, fans absolutely could not accept it.
They were all guests on the same show. They all went to school and seriously studied high school subjects. Why should their own idol be treated unfairly?
“My fan group has already exploded! Shine!”
Yi Zhi Xuenai’s voice sounded a little frantic.
“It’s time to disband my fan group!”
The girls had not bothered leaving the meeting, so their voice chat was still ongoing. Pu Tong listened to their anxious reactions and did not know what to say.
He actually understood this kind of fan war quite well.
There had been many cases where fans caused trouble because their favorite celebrity had fewer scenes. He had witnessed plenty of them before.
Under normal circumstances, this kind of thing could not completely be blamed on the production team.
After all, some guests simply had poor variety show skills. Some idols carried too much of an image burden and could not show their true personalities on a variety program, making it difficult to bring laughter to the audience. In those situations, it was reasonable for the production team to cut their scenes in order to improve ratings.
But this time, the fifth episode of When You Are Young was obviously different.
The reason was precisely because of him—the “troublemaker.”
Perhaps because of all kinds of pressure, Xu Lei did not want to film him.
However, he had a very good relationship with all the celebrity students. They naturally formed a small group together, which made it impossible for the production team to avoid him completely.
Simply put…
Pu Tong had become a bug in the system.
“Do you think the production team will push the blame onto you?” Yu Wanwan asked worriedly.
She did not want Pu Tong to suffer any negative consequences.
“They won’t…” Pu Tong laughed. “If they throw me under the bus, they’ll get criticized even worse.”
By then, people would ask:
“Why can’t you film Pu Tong?”
And if the production team answered:
“Because we secretly filmed him, and he got angry.”
Wouldn’t that just make everyone attack them even more?
From the beginning, Xu Lei was the one in the wrong.
How could he possibly use this as an excuse?
Wouldn’t that just be asking to get scolded?
“I don’t really understand. What do fans usually do in situations like this?” Yi Zhi Xuenai asked curiously.
After all, this was her first time experiencing something like this.
“Do they go and attack the celebrities who got more screen time?”
“No.”
Pu Tong shook his head.
“They’ll unite together and attack the production team.”
Fans could still tell who was responsible.
The ones controlling the screen distribution were the production team, not the other celebrities.
Of course, some fans might sarcastically complain:
“The production team’s favorite child.”
“The prince of the show.”
And so on.
But their main target would definitely be the production team.
“So my fans are currently going to criticize Director Xu, right?”
Yi Zhi Xuenai’s mood suddenly improved.
“Then that’s great! I don’t care anymore. They can criticize him all they want.”
Now she was relieved.
At first, she thought her fans might attack the other celebrities, which had scared her.
After all, her usual style was to be lazy, peaceful, and not fight with anyone. Making enemies was not her personality.
But if they were only criticizing the production team, she had no problem.
After all, she also felt Xu Lei was not exactly a good person.
Let them criticize him a little more.
If anyone questioned her, she could simply say:
“Fans’ actions have nothing to do with the idol.”
“Xuenai, you can’t think like that.”
Lin Yuxi reminded her:
“Regardless of whether the person being criticized deserves it or whether they are right or wrong, controlling fans is something every public figure should do. We cannot encourage fans just because of our personal emotions.”
“Very well said!”
Hearing this, Ni Hui nodded repeatedly.
“As influential public figures, we have the responsibility to guide our fans and the obligation to restrain their behavior.”
Pu Tong did not think as deeply as his mother did.
But from a general perspective, if a group of people used his name to cause trouble, then he really should stop them.
“Fine…”
Yi Zhi Xuenai muttered:
“But that bastard secretly filmed Pu Tong, edited things maliciously, and even arranged a rivalry storyline between Wanwan and Mu Nan. He deserves to be criticized!”
“Alright, alright.”
Yu Wanwan smiled.
“Bad people will eventually meet their own consequences. Even if our fans don’t criticize him, ordinary viewers and other fans will. We just need to properly control our own fans.”
The three girls each contacted their managers for a while, preparing to handle the situation.
Usually, situations like this were started by so-called “big fans,” also known as fan leaders.
As long as those people were stabilized first, things would not escalate too badly.
“Our fans probably won’t participate anymore. I wonder how things are going now…”
“How about we continue watching the drama together?” Yi Zhi Xuenai suggested.
Was there anything more enjoyable than eating gossip together while discussing and complaining?
The three girls naturally agreed.
Pu Tong’s mother also wanted to see what happened next.
Pu Tong did not dare leave his mother alone with the three girls, so he could only stay.
Yu Wanwan simply shared her screen, and everyone began eating gossip online.
She opened the comment section of the fifth episode and slowly scrolled so everyone could see.
The first comment they saw made everyone unable to hold back their laughter.
“This episode is really great! Tang Luocheng and Chen Siqing, the two celebrity students, performed really well. But who are those other five people? They even have screen time? What a waste, just delete them!”
Everyone stared at the comment.
It was obviously a sarcastic anti-fan comment pretending to praise the show.
“Bury our ally with honors!”
Yu Wanwan continued scrolling.
She discovered that almost all the comments were criticizing the production team.
“I’m really speechless… Production team, are you planning to turn this into a romance show for Tang Luocheng and Chen Siqing? Do you really think we came here just for these two people? The other five people combined don’t even have as much screen time as these two. Do you have to be this disgusting?”
“I want to see the Japanese girl and Lin Yuxi being close like sisters. I don’t want to watch some stupid Tang-Chen couple!”
“Same contract, same status as guests, but the difference in screen time is this huge? Are you serious? Are the other artists not artists too?”
“Before, Pu Tong was so interesting, but you didn’t film him. Fine, he was just an ordinary person, so not filming him was understandable. But now you’re not even filming the other celebrity students? What exactly are you trying to make?”
It was ridiculous.
Why were people even mentioning him?
Pu Tong frowned slightly but did not say anything.
“Looks like your popularity is still very high.”
Ni Hui patted Pu Tong’s shoulder with a meaningful smile.
“That’s obvious.”
Lin Yuxi sneered.
“My manager is even one of their CP fans!”
“She asks me every day whether Pu-Yu are together or not. She’s driving me crazy!”
“Cough cough…”
Yu Wanwan quickly interrupted the topic.
“Let’s continue looking at the gossip.”
She closed the video and directly opened Weibo.
“Are you sure it’s okay for you to openly eat gossip on Weibo like this?”
Pu Tong was worried.
If someone discovered that she was secretly following this controversy, it would be difficult to explain.
“Of course I use a small account for gossip!”
Yu Wanwan smiled awkwardly.
“For public figures, using their main account to browse online really isn’t convenient.”
Pu Tong agreed.
Of course, although he was also considered a public figure now…
He simply didn’t browse social media.
“Things that Pu Tong and Yu Wanwan have to tell…”
Yi Zhi Xuenai suddenly read the title aloud.
“Wanwan, your small account’s recommendations are really strange!”
Only then did everyone notice.
The recommendation on Yu Wanwan’s so-called private account homepage was exactly this kind of topic.
So this girl usually used her small account to look at these things?
“The recommendation system is just weird!”
Yu Wanwan quickly changed to the trending topics list and continued eating gossip.
At that moment, the number one trending topic was:
“When You Are Young Screen Time Distribution”
And it had the tag:
🔥 Trending
The discussion was extremely intense.
“This has become quite a big problem!”
Everyone secretly clicked their tongues.
It seemed like this situation would not end easily.
The fourth episode had abandoned the original school-life theme.
However, because the Jade Journey (Qiongyu Xing) production crew was involved, its popularity and discussion level were still very high.
Although the reputation was not very good, there were still many people who enjoyed the combination of different fandoms.
Overall, opinions were divided.
Some people loved it.
Some people hated it.
But this fifth episode…
It had truly become universally criticized online.
“Director Xu probably can’t sit still anymore, right?”
(End of Chapter)
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