Chapter 473: Phase Two

Chapter 473: Chapter 473: Phase Two

Following five consecutive days of intensive recording, which officially began at 9:00 AM daily with the staff waking up at 6:00 AM and battling on until midnight, there were only brief lunch and dinner breaks in between.

Hundreds of amateur contestants harboring musical dreams took the stage in batches; some possessed stunning vocal talents that amazed everyone, while others suffered stage fright and underperformed.

Some excelled at emotional ballads told with gentle ease, while others were obsessed with upbeat songs and dances that ignited the atmosphere, and every day in the studio countless scenes of mentors turning around in surprise, the disappointment of regrettable eliminations, and the lively hustle of fighting over quality trainees played out.

Violet led the entire production team in withstanding the high-pressure rhythm of back-to-back operations; camera work, lighting, stage design, and preliminary editing of raw materials were pushed forward simultaneously

The mentors’ schedules and rest, the contestants’ food, lodging, and comforting, as well as on-site safety control were all thoroughly implemented, without a single major mistake occurring or any negative off-site controversies breaking out, handing in an execution report card that was dazzling enough.

When the last audition contestant walked off the stage at 9:00 PM on the fifth day, the five-day blind audition stage officially came to a successful conclusion.

Upbeat background music played at the scene, and all the trainees who successfully advanced and were taken under the wings of the four mentors marched out from backstage in order, standing neatly behind their respective mentors’ chairs.

Their young and tender faces were filled with anxiety and excitement, and their eyes hid infinite longing for the upcoming competition schedule.

Among them, Britney gained 10 trainees, Steve Winwood gained 12, Bonnie Raitt gained 11, and Kanye West gained 9.

Kanye West’s team had never been full, so all trainees who entered the blind auditions took the stage to perform.

Helplessly, until the end, Kanye still had not gathered a full team, but he did not feel any regret; suitability was the most important thing, because reluctantly accepting someone just for the sake of a quota was being irresponsible to himself and to the show production team.

The spotlights all converged on the center of the stage, and the host, dressed in a custom hosting gown, slowly walked to the front of the stage, holding cue cards and wearing a professional and calm smile.

To all the staff present, the recording equipment in front of the lenses, and the group of advancing trainees behind, the host clearly announced the brand-new format rules for the second phase, which was also the new round of brutal competition everyone was about to face — the team internal PK elimination match.

"Congratulations to everyone for successfully passing the blind audition barrier and officially becoming a member of the four mentors’ teams. Next, we will enter the intra-team fusion and evaluation stage."

The host’s voice echoed through the speakers across the entire studio, clearly breaking down each detailed rule:

"For the entire week ahead, each contestant will follow the mentor of their respective team for closed-door rehearsals. Team members will freely pair up in twos to perform the same designated song in the form of a duet, completing a full stage performance.

After each duet performance, the person with the highest decision-making power is everyone’s direct leading mentor.

Based on comprehensive dimensions such as the two persons’ stage completion degree, harmony fit, stage performance expression, and personal room for improvement, the mentor will directly choose one out of two to finalize the sole advancing quota, while the other contestant will directly stop at this round of the competition and be regrettably eliminated."

"Because the number of team members under mentor Bonnie Raitt and mentor Kanye West are both odd numbers, trainees from both sides will each draw lots to select a trainee to team up with for a PK."

As the words fell, many trainees offstage instantly held their breath, their originally relaxed expressions becoming a bit more tense.

Seeing this, the host continued to supplement the most crucial highlight setting in the rules, which was also the core mechanism to increase the suspense of the competition and the interest of mentor game theory:

"Of course, elimination does not mean completely bidding farewell to the stage. After each round of intra-team PK produces eliminated candidates, the mentors of the remaining three teams will have a precious [poaching] permission, allowing them to press the corresponding button on the spot and absorb their favored contestant eliminated by the original mentor into their own team, gaining a second chance to participate."

The host paused slightly to give everyone time to digest the rules, and then explained the deep intention behind this set of rules:

"Designing the team intra-team chorus PK mode, first, is to give all mentors and team members sufficient one-on-one deep fusion time, figuring out each trainee’s shortcomings and sparkling points during the rehearsal process to build a more cohesive team system; second, it is also to let all contestants jump out of the comfort zone of solo singing, exercising harmony coordination, dual-stage tacit understanding, and teamwork abilities, polishing comprehensive stage literacy in all directions."

"Reminding everyone of an important change additionally." The host raised their volume, pointing out the brand-new test for the next stage recording:

"The intra-team PK elimination match a week later will still be recorded in this Disney studio, but by then the studio will be fully open to the public.

Through online public registration and system random drawing, over a thousand live audience members will be seated to watch the match. Close-range cheers, applause, sighs, and comments will be intuitively transmitted to the performers on stage.

The noisy live atmosphere and the psychological oppression brought by the audience are all difficulties everyone needs to overcome. I hope everyone makes good use of the one-week preparation time and goes all out to prepare for the next round of competition."

After the complete rules presentation was finished, warm applause rang out in the studio.

The four mentors respectively took simple group photos with their team members to cheer them up, and the staff began to orderly organize the trainees to exit, register for groupings, and collect rehearsal schedules.

Irene walked a step ahead to the backstage office area, finding Violet, who had just removed her walkie-talkie and was covered in a thin layer of sweat.

The two sat in front of the workbench and checked the backstage data of audience recruitment one by one.

All offline viewing quotas entirely adopted the method of network-wide public voluntary registration and system pure random lottery draws, maximizing the objectivity of the live audience and avoiding a one-sided bias towards a certain mentor or a certain trainee.

Violet opened the backstage statistical spreadsheet and reported all details such as the total number of drawn people, arrival verification procedures, live seat zoning, and security arrangements to Irene.

Irene looked through them item by item, confirmed there were no loopholes, and felt relieved.

After explaining trivial matters such as the logistics support of the production team during the subsequent rehearsal period, the use of mentors’ exclusive rehearsal rooms, and accompaniment arrangement docking, Irene walked alone through the backstage corridor toward Britney’s exclusive private lounge.

Britney had just finished a brief meeting with the first batch of trainees in her team.

Having removed the exquisite and heavy makeup from stage recording, she only wore a loose white knitted sweatshirt, casually curled up on the sofa, flipping through a thick stack of personal files of her team’s trainees in her hands.

Seeing Irene push the door open and enter, her eyes immediately lit up, and she enthusiastically beckoned her to sit by her side.

"Come and take a look at my treasure team members. Over the past few days of auditions, I have dug up several wonderful seedlings blessed with natural talent. The more I look, the more satisfied I am."

Britney’s tone was jubilant as she impatiently opened the trainee data, meticulously counting each person’s timbre characteristics, proficient musical styles, and stage shortcomings with Irene one by one, sharing her team’s harvest like a walking encyclopedia.