Chapter 507: Red-Hot

Chapter 507: Chapter 507: Red-Hot

Overnight, "The Voice" blew up across the entire internet without having aired a single main episode.

Relying solely on the offline recording of a top-tier grand finale with zero ticket price, the authentic word-of-mouth of four thousand live audience members, an intensely suspenseful nationwide champion prediction vote, and the frenzy over rare, limited-edition mentor blind box figurines, the show’s topic was propelled straight to the top of public discussion across America.

Two core trending topics each surpassed one hundred million views, dominating the top spots on Facebook’s trending list and continuously occupying the number one spot on social media platforms across America for twelve hours, with no signs of slowing down.

Countless netizens, entertainment viewers, variety show enthusiasts, and fan bases continuously joined the discussion.

The stage styles of the top four contestants, legendary live performance moments, top-tier finale stage design, supreme fan-pampering perks from the production team, and the scarcity craze for Britney’s hidden-edition blind box figure combined into the hottest topic matrix on the internet.

Even more astonishingly, this popularity fermented completely naturally. The investors hadn’t even had time to inflate the numbers before being stunned by this genuine traffic.

The four thousand lucky audience members who attended in person were the only group on the entire internet to have witnessed the complete finale stage.

Their genuine, detailed, and filter-free live impressions convinced everyone online that this un-aired new variety show harbored a top-tier dark horse that North America’s talent show market hadn’t seen in years.

What followed was a collective shockwave across the entire North America entertainment industry.

Industry insiders, variety show producers, TV station executives, and film and television investors all turned their attention overnight to this new variety show that seemed to appear out of nowhere.

Amid the current industry state of old, established talent shows suffering from declining popularity, rigid formulas, and audience fatigue, "The Voice" demonstrated infinite market potential and mainstream crossover power with its brand-new format, fair stage, top-notch production design, and forward-thinking operational approach.

In an instant, the top four commercial television networks in America—CBS, ABC, NBC, and FOX—all set their sights on this coveted piece of meat.

These four networks had long monopolized American ratings charts, holding top-tier broadcast channels, the widest audience coverage, and the most mature variety show publicity systems, representing the absolute apex of the North America broadcast landscape.

For a long time, the Big Four held their own territories and competed against each other, tightly controlling broadcast resources for premier variety shows, TV dramas, and major galas. Almost no new show could bypass the Big Four and achieve nationwide explosive popularity on its own.

Yet the phenomenal popularity of "The Voice" allowed the Big Four to keenly sense immense commercial value and ratings dividends.

One must keep in mind that the current hottest talent show in North America, "American Idol," had topped the ratings for years, generating a steady stream of advertising revenue, topic buzz, and brand traffic for Fox Broadcasting Company, long cementing its place as a flagship IP.

Meanwhile, the newly emerged "The Voice"—judging by its innovative format, stage quality, contestant talent, audience reputation, and online hype—possessed full potential to rival or even surpass "American Idol."

Securing exclusive broadcast rights would be enough to guarantee any TV station the throne of annual ratings champion.

Thus, on the morning after the grand finale’s hype fermented, investment heads, program acquisition directors, and project collaboration specialists from the four major networks tirelessly reached out to the production team of "The Voice" through various industry contacts and collaboration channels, offering olive branches to compete for the show’s first-round TV broadcast rights.

Each network presented terms with unique advantages, offering unprecedented concessions and top-tier channel resources, all desperate to nab this phenomenal new variety show first and seize the year’s ratings trend.

Yet everyone knew very well that Irene herself owned an independent television station and exclusive broadcast channels, making her fully capable of carrying the show’s full broadcast independently without relying on any established network.

This was precisely what all the television networks feared and felt most anxious about.

Although Irene’s local TV station had not aired any other programs so far, it boasted advantages such as high freedom, absolute independence of copyright ownership, and a flexible operating model free from the constraints of traditional networks.

However, the drawbacks were equally obvious: the acquisition was recent, the station’s existing audience base was limited, and its offline coverage, national recognition, and nationwide ratings influence could not compare at all with the Big Four networks, which had deep roots built over decades and full national coverage.

If Irene chose an independent broadcast, although the show could retain complete copyright, control all operational initiative, and remain unconstrained by capital and platforms, its reach would be severely limited.

It wouldn’t rapidly reach audiences of all social strata and age groups across America, making it difficult to top the national ratings in the short term and wasting this once-in-a-lifetime peak momentum.

On the other hand, rashly partnering with the Big Four carried a high risk of falling into traditional network traps: platform interference in editing, manipulation of format presentation, taking cuts of copyright, tying the show into long-term contracts, and restricting future derivative development, ultimately turning this meticulously crafted IP into a mere tool for platforms to harvest traffic.

For a time, partnering versus broadcasting independently became the most crucial choice facing Irene.

Sitting in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the production team’s temporary office area, she lightly tapped her fingertips on the online hype report on her desk.

Looking at the topic views that surpassed hundreds of millions, the surging user expectations, and the collaboration offers sent alternately by the four TV networks, her expression remained calm and composed.

She did not immediately reply to any platform or rush to finalize a partnership, instead calmly weighing the pros and cons and patiently waiting for the most suitable partner and the safest terms.

CBS offered the highest share of premiere advertising revenue but demanded editing rights and content cuts; ABC promised prime-time broadcast across all time slots but wanted to tie down exclusive renewal rights for at least the next four seasons; NBC offered top-tier promotional resources but aimed to carve up commercial revenue from merchandise derivatives and blind box cultural creative products.

All four platforms had their own ambitions, each wanting to seize the upper hand in the collaboration and lock down the long-term value of the IP.

Just as Irene was filtering through the options one by one and deliberating on the details, a call to her private phone line broke the silence of the office.

Caller ID: Adelaide Griffin.

Seeing the name, the tension in Irene’s brow instantly softened.

The two had known each other for years, with a personal friendship far exceeding ordinary business relationships. As the CEO of 20th Century Fox, Adelaide was most likely calling on behalf of Fox Broadcasting Company, which Irene understood completely.

Sure enough, as soon as the call went through, Adelaide proactively stated the purpose of her call.

As the exclusive producer and broadcaster of "American Idol," Fox Broadcasting Company was the most skilled platform in America at operating national talent shows.

It possessed the most mature publicity system, the most complete audience operation mechanism, the richest practical experience in competition formats, and the largest nationwide audience base.

In the talent show track, Fox’s industry accumulation, hands-on experience, and audience foundation were unmatched by the other three networks.

Fox executives keenly realized that the emergence of "The Voice" was highly likely to disrupt the existing talent show landscape, inheriting the nationwide hype of "American Idol" to become a new generation’s blockbuster show.

Therefore, top management specially commissioned Adelaide Griffin, who had the best personal relationship with Irene and belonged to the same corporate group, to make the call personally to negotiate and strive to secure this precious collaboration opportunity.