Chapter 190: Definitely Toxic

Before the host Liu Shao’s voice even faded away, the audience in the venue had already burst into thunderous cheers!

Although the dual-theme format was a signature innovation of *The Rising Star* and a major draw that initially attracted viewers to the show, any themed competition format inevitably suffers from a common flaw: the constraints of the designated themes always result in uneven performances among the contestants.

More importantly, a dual-theme format meant that an entire round of competition would be saturated with songs of the exact same genre and style, leaving the audience with a rather lackluster viewing experience.

Take the traditional Chinese style category this current episode focused on, for instance. Aside from Su Chen, who possessed extraordinary talent and breathed new life into the genre by creating an entirely original traditional-style song, everyone else performed tired, old-fashioned theatrical tunes that were not only thoroughly worn out but had long since been eliminated by the market.

For the live audience not to have fallen asleep right there in their seats was already the utmost respect they could show the production team!

Clearly, Director Wu Tong, who was stationed backstage and monitoring the live streaming room's barrage of comments, had also realized this underlying problem.

When the viewers' viewing enthusiasm began to show signs of fatigue, Wu Tong could hardly afford to ignore it.

After all, taking advice from the audience is the key to success! In the variety show business, the audience is, quite literally, the lifeblood that puts food on your table!

Driven by this realization, Director Wu Tong made a spur-of-the-moment decision and gave direct instructions to Liu Shao right then and there.

For the grand finals, everyone would have the freedom to perform whatever they wanted! They could sing whatever they were best at, whatever the audience loved to hear, and whatever carried its own natural hype and traffic!

Doing this would not only boost the audience's engagement and enthusiasm for the competition, but it would also elevate the overall viewing experience for everyone watching the finals by leaps and bounds!

Of course, Director Wu Tong hadn't suddenly experienced a wave of pure conscience.

The ultimate goal behind all of this was to ensure that *The Rising Star*, this massive hit variety show, had a spectacular finish from start to end.

Wu Tong also harbored a grander ambition: he wanted to see if *The Rising Star* could shatter the historical viewership records of Chinese variety shows!

He wanted the ratings and the concurrent online viewer count of the final episode to reach unprecedented new heights!

If he succeeded, Wu Tong's name would be permanently etched into the history of Chinese variety television, making him an untouchable legend that everyone could look up to but never surpass!

At the mere thought of this, experienced veteran though he was, Wu Tong couldn't help but gasp for breath in mounting excitement!

Meanwhile, back in the live streaming room, the viewers upon hearing Liu Shao’s announcement immediately erupted into jubilation and cheers.

"Holy shit! *The Rising Star* is finally willing to change its competition format? I honestly thought they were going to stubbornly walk down that dead end all the way! This is truly a day for celebration!"

"If they hadn't changed it, we loyal, long-time fans definitely wouldn't have been able to keep watching. Even though the dual-theme format felt refreshing and caught my eye at the very beginning, as the episodes progressed, I simply got too sick of it!"

"Exactly! To be honest, if the grand finals of *The Rising Star* still used the dual-theme format, I definitely wouldn't have bothered watching, unless it happened to land on a theme I particularly liked."

"Yeah, the drawbacks of the dual-theme format are really hard to ignore. It practically double-filters the audience and contestants alike—it tests both the contestants' capabilities and adaptability, as well as the viewers' acceptance threshold. If the show hadn't been so entertaining overall, *The Rising Star* would never have reached this level of popularity."

"Hahaha! Come to think of it, the production team really has an eye for picking mentors! First Zheng Huayu, then Cai Xukun—the sheer comedic and dramatic effect is maxed out!"

"Wu Tong ought to kowtow to these two guys in gratitude, hahaha!"

"I think that might be a bit difficult. Zheng Huayu is currently busy making license plates in prison; you'd probably need official government approval just to go kowtow to him!"
......

Wu Tong skimmed right past these trivial banter-filled comments, grasping their core message: the audience's overwhelming approval of the format change!

As long as the audience thinks it's right, then it is good!

Wu Tong has never been one to be stubbornly thick-headed; he knows how to listen to good advice!

At this very moment, Liu Shao, standing on stage, was continuing to brief everyone in advance on the detailed rules for the "Night of the Peaks."

"The format for the Night of the Peaks is that there is no format! Contestants are free to choose songs according to their own personal preferences, including but not limited to rock, rap, sing-and-dance, and various other styles and genres."

"However, please note that the selected songs must not contain any content that violates regulations. The specific rules and guidelines will be published tomorrow on the official Weibo account of *The Rising Star*, so please stay tuned."

Liu Shao deliberately refrained from elaborating on the exact boundaries of these "violations," not because the scope was vast, but rather out of fear that he might accidentally step on a landmine himself.

This was because "violations" didn't just refer to songs with inappropriate or unhealthy content; they also encompassed certain songs that were *too* politically correct.

Some people might find themselves baffled: why would a song that is overly correct be considered a violation?

Shouldn't those be the best kind of songs?

What they failed to realize, however, was that sometimes, things that are too correct simply cannot be brought onto a competitive entertainment stage.

For instance, during the finals, if two contestants had comparable skills, but one sang a love song about romance while the other sang a stirring hymn praising the motherland, how were the judges and mentors supposed to score them?

In such a scenario, if the judges failed to cast their votes for the song praising the motherland, what were they supposed to do?

Put another way, if the hymn praising the motherland lost to a song about romance, how would the production team handle the fallout?

The show would probably be taken offline and suspended within minutes!

Therefore, the closer it gets to the finals, the more ordinary music variety shows scrutinize the contestants' song choices. After all, some contestants lacked experience and awareness, and one could not entirely rule out the possibility of a few harboring questionable intentions.

When it came to this particular issue, the production team would definitely crack down with zero tolerance!

With all of that addressed, the showdown between Yan Mi's team and Cai Xukun's team finally came to an official close.

As Su Chen and Meng Xiaotian were dismissed from the stage by Liu Shao, Cai Xukun let out a long, heavy sigh of relief.

He had developed an inexplicable sense of panic whenever he saw Su Chen now; Su Chen had practically given him PTSD. Throughout the entire segment, he had sat rigidly upright, hardly daring to speak a single word, and only felt slightly better after watching Su Chen step off the stage.

*Without Su Chen around, I should finally be able to speak my mind freely during the rest of the show, right?*

Cai Xukun thought to himself with lingering trepidation, though the mere flash of Su Chen's face in his mind made his heart tighten abruptly.

*S-forget it... Sister already told me: speak less, make fewer mistakes; say nothing, make no mistakes. If I cause any more bizarre trouble because of my own mouth, it'll be even worse!*

At this thought, Cai Xukun couldn't help but smile bitterly.

He had clearly come to *The Rising Star* simply to add some prestige to his resume and act as a decorative mascot—how on earth had things escalated to this point?

He was ending up with a resume stained like a scandal-ridden problematic artist instead!

And the root of it all was simply that there had already been a Zheng Huayu before him!

Damn it all, there must be something wrong with Su Chen!

This brat is absolute poison—the ultimate nemesis of pretty-boy idols!

Meanwhile, Su Chen, having stepped off the stage, didn't bother waiting for the final results of the match between Zhou Zhiqian and Han Hong's teams. He directly hailed a cab and headed back.

Since it was late and there were no longer any assigned private cars available, and the Hunan Broadcasting and Television Building was a bit too far a walk from the hotel where Su Chen was staying—falling right into that awkward distance where walking was too far and hailing a taxi felt almost unnecessary—Su Chen ultimately gave in.

Unable to bear the blistering summer heat—Changsha being one of the most notoriously scorching furnace cities in the country—Su Chen reluctantly spent a bit of money, hopped into a ride-hailing car, and returned to his hotel while enjoying the driver's air conditioning.