Chapter 457: Alternative Solutions

Chapter 457: Chapter 457: Alternative Solutions

American Idol had topped national talent variety charts for many years, long monopolising market traffic and commercial sponsorship resources to securely hold its position as the industry overlord, and naturally would never allow a brand-new variety show to rise and shake its ruling status.

Especially given The Voice’s crushing 100,000 applicant count, the backing of a top-tier mentor lineup, its novel and fair competition system, and its word-of-mouth trending in advance, the American Idol production team felt deeply threatened.

To completely stifle the rising momentum of its competitor and solidify its own market position, the American Idol production team directly mobilised deep resources and offered lucrative terms to forcibly bind Ryan Seacrest’s cooperation contract, pressuring him to give up his hosting job on The Voice.

By doing so, they hoped to severely disrupt the show’s preparation pace before its premiere, attempt to plunge the project into stagnation, cause it to miss the summer slot, crash its reputation, and kill it in the cradle entirely.

After figuring out the opponent’s malicious suppression intentions, a flash of chilliness swept across Irene Coppola’s eyes.

Market competition in Hollywood has always been this cruel; behind the glamorous film and television variety industry, it is forever filled with unscrupulous gaming and positioning.

But she was not anxious because of this. Instead, she became increasingly certain that the more she was feared by opponents, the more it proved the potential and value of The Voice.

The most crucial thing right now was to quickly finalise a new host, perfectly fill the vacancy, and shatter the opponent’s suppression schemes.

Calming down, Irene Coppola carefully reviewed the profiles of the three alternative hosts compiled overnight by Violet.

Each of them was a high-quality candidate selected through layers of screening, suited for the variety track, and equipped with mature hosting experience, each with their own advantages and compatible tones.

The first candidate, Tom Bergeron, was a veteran nationwide host who had deeply cultivated the screen for many years, with a resume that could be called perfect.

He successively hosted the ace morning news variety Good Morning America, the national fun variety America’s Funniest Home Videos, and the classic variety interview Hollywood Squares, spanning multiple major tracks of news, reality shows, and entertainment interviews.

His hosting skills were extremely solid, his industry seniority deep, his audience base massive, and his national recognition extremely high.

Tom Bergeron’s hosting style was steady, gentle, approachable, and magnanimous, naturally carrying the inclusiveness of a mature elder.

Like a patriarch whom everyone could trust, his control of the stage was rock-solid and measured, and he excelled at balancing on-site atmospheres, coordinating guest rhythms, and resolving on-site awkwardness.

Facing four top mentors with distinct styles and full auras, Tom Bergeron’s calm tone was indeed the safest, most adaptable, and most stage-commanding choice, capable of perfectly stabilising the rhythm of the entire scene without issues of aura imbalance or out-of-control atmosphere.

The only shortcoming was that Tom Bergeron was currently in deep discussions for cooperation with ABC’s ace reality show Dancing with the Stars, and his schedule was heavily likely to be locked.

Wanting to poach him temporarily for an emergency rescue would definitely require a significant price and face extreme difficulty.

The second candidate, Lauren Sánchez, had a resume with a strong sense of layers.

In her early years, she served as a news anchor for a local television station in Phoenix, Los Angeles, coming from a professional background with solid basic skills and dignified, appropriate speech.

Later, she auditioned for ABC’s ace interview program The View. ℴℴ𝘮

Although she unfortunately failed to be selected, it allowed her to accumulate sufficient screen experience, after which she smoothly transitioned into a film and television actress, starring in the classic film Fight Club and broadening her screen expressiveness and camera sense.

In 2000, she successfully secured the hosting seat for the ace entertainment news program Extra, deeply cultivating the entertainment track for years, being extremely familiar with the style of artists in the entertainment and music circles, and her on-the-spot reactions were lively, agile, and full of variety show sense.

Currently, her career was rising steadily and her momentum was fierce, with even Fox News taking the initiative to poach her with high salaries, which was enough to prove her personal ability and market recognition.

It was just that her style leaned towards flashy entertainment, lacking a bit of steadiness and not quite fitting the professional tone of a music talent show.

The third candidate, Carson Daly, was an all-around player with immense strength among the new generation of hosts.

Since 2002, he not only hosted the late-night talk show Last Call with Carson Daly, but also served concurrently as the program Producer, possessing the dual thinking of front-stage crowd control and backstage production, understanding show rhythms, camera language, and process logic better than a pure host.

In his early years, he hosted MTV’s top-traffic program Total Request Live, deeply cultivating youth culture and pop music tracks, and was familiar with the music industry ecology and young audience aesthetics.

In addition, his cross-industry ability was extremely strong.

In 2003, he starred in the comedy film Along Came Polly, and appeared multiple times as a guest on top-tier variety shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, maxing out his variety sense and on-the-spot adaptability.

In 2004, he even joined the top workplace reality show The Apprentice, thoroughly mastering the full set of recording logic for American reality shows.

In terms of current popularity, national recognition, and seniority, Carson Daly fell short of Tom Bergeron, who had cultivated the industry for decades, seemingly making him the most inconspicuous choice among the three.

But after seeing this name, Irene Coppola basically already had a conclusion in her heart.

Carson Daly was precisely the designated core host across multiple seasons of The Voice in her past life.

His style was relaxed and natural, without stealing the spotlight, knowing when to leave blank spaces.

He could both drive the atmosphere of young audiences and respect senior musician mentors, balancing relaxation with tension, perfectly matching the pure, sincere, and spotlight core of The Voice.

More importantly, compared to the other two candidates whose schedules were tight and who held premium invitations, Carson Daly was currently the only host among the three whose schedule was completely free, without any locked cooperation, and needing no consideration for other projects.

His career was currently in a steady upward period, and he urgently needed a national-level ace variety show to consolidate his industry position and open up national popularity.

There would be no risk of schedule conflicts, temporary price hikes, or running away halfway, making him the optimal solution for an emergency rescue at this moment.

Without the slightest hesitation, Irene Coppola immediately finalised her decision, directly instructing Violet to give up the first two candidates, take full charge of connecting with Carson Daly, initiate a cooperation invitation at the first instance, and proactively communicate about interview matters.

Violet’s execution ability was efficient as always.

Upon receiving the order, she immediately led a team to dial Carson Daly’s exclusive agent phone number, clearly, sincerely, and completely introducing The Voice’s program positioning, brand-new blind audition system, whole-network popularity, 100,000 audition base, top-tier mentor lineup, and the cooperation demand for this emergency rescue.

After receiving the invitation, Carson Daly was full of interest in this brand-new talent variety show that subverted tradition and focused primarily on pure vocals.

Talent shows on the market in the past mostly relied on looks, scripts, and persona hype, suffering from severe homogenisation that had long caused audience aesthetic fatigue.

Meanwhile, The Voice’s brand-new model of not looking at appearance and only listening to the voice allowed him to see brand-new possibilities in the variety show market.

Coupled with the fact that his schedule was currently free and he was seeking an ace project that could leverage his own advantages and fit the music track, he immediately showed great sincerity and deep interest after listening to the introduction.

He immediately finalised his itinerary and flew specially to the New York Disney studio the next day to participate in on-site interviews and project docking.