China’s Got Reality Shows

by Zhao Yue

The much anticipated second season of The Voice of China premiered this July on Zhejiang Satellite TV as scheduled. The Voice of China is a reality singing show adapted from a Dutch program. In the show， contestants attempt to achieve stardom by enduring a series of “trials” before winning the chance to compete for a record contract and the opportunity to perform in a highly visible and prestigious concert.

The programs inaugural season proved remarkably successful， with revenue from ads and royalties topping 300 million yuan in only four months after its debut in July 2012.

Talent shows are relatively new to China. Many Chinese television stations werent even familiar with the concept until a decade ago， but such programming has quickly become commonplace in the East. Producers learned talent show operating modes， how they deal with copyrights， and that their foreign counterparts produced television programming similarly to shooting a Hollywood movie.

In 2004， Hunan TV launched a talent show known as Super Girl， which marked the introduction of the Western talent show model on Chinese TV. At first， reality shows were mostly directly copied from the West without copyright consideration， as evidenced by the few early popular programs such as Happy Camp， Super 6+1， Lucky 52， and a few others where the “original foreign looks” remained noticeable.

In recent years， many international television producers have become smitten with the large Chinese market. They have surmised that although Chinas television production has gradually improved with the development of the economy， Chinese producers still seem to lack experience in creating and running such shows. Yet， at the same time， Chinese spectators are creating higher demand for similar domestic programming due to the proliferation of internet video， which makes foreign programs more accessible.

Against this backdrop， in 2007 Chinese TV stations began buying and localiz-ing foreign programs. But this didnt prove very successful at the beginning.

In 2007， Jiangsu Satellite TV bought the rights to Who Dares Sings from the British ITV company. Almost simultaneously， Hunan TV developed a highly similar program. When questioned about the striking similarities， the latter insisted that their concept was original， although they did concede that they learned and borrowed certain ideas from foreign programs.

Disputes persisted as Chinas reality show market continued emerging. Soon， the same two stations met the exact same problem once again. At the end of 2009， Hunan Satellite TV broadcast We Meet It， a program focusing on love and marriage， based on Take Me Out from the British Fremantle company. Several weeks later， Jiangsu Satellite TV premiered a similar program called If You Are the One. In April 2012， Jiangsu Satellite TV launched Stars in Danger based on High Diving， copyrighted by the German Banijay International Company. Almost at the same time， Zhejiang Satellite TV began broadcasting Celebrity Splash， a program adapted from a show of the same name purchased from the Dutch Eye Works company.

In 2010， Shanghai Dragon Television produced Chinas Got Talent， based on the program owned by the British Fremantle Media Company. Chinas Got Talent was a huge hit， with stellar ratings and good reviews， which helped Dragon TV boost its position in Chinas satellite television market.

Ever since， Chinas reality shows have entered a “module” age. Imported reality TV concepts have covered a wide spectrum of themes from singing， dancing， blind dating， and dream realization to diving. At the same time， foreign copyright holders have become stricter with Chinese producers by asking them to closely follow the original shows. This is especially true for The Voice of China， in which the same advertising video appears at the beginning， the logo remains identical， and even the way pop star mentors swivel around in globally familiar chairs is exactly the same as the original Dutch show.

However， not all imported reality shows have been as lucky as The Voice of China and Chinas Got Talent – many were not well received because they were not well-adapted for the local audience. Some programs suffered a drop in viewership because they were similar to each other. For instance， We Meet It， its twin If You Are the One and Stars in Danger， and its doppelganger Celebrity Splash all failed to meet expectations.

Even so， many Chinese TV stations are still enthusiastic about purchasing and importing foreign programs. Some criticize the trend as evidence of a lack of creativity in the field. Others have postulated that many TV stations just want to learn how their foreign counterparts produce an entertainment program through the purchases. Some industry veterans believe that under the current TV production and administration policy， imported copyrighted formats will continue to be the major form of cooperation between Chinese and foreign TV companies.

According to Liu Xichen， president of Shixi Media company， which imports overseas copyrights into China， China is now in an early stage of the importation of foreign programs and it will take three to five years to mature， and the creative period， in which China will be able to develop its own original programming models， will arrive even later.