Zhaonan TV Station's annual meeting was held quite grandly. Not only were their own station's people present, but many partners were also invited over.
A large broadcast studio was fully packed.
It was Chen Ran's first time attending the TV station's annual meeting, and he felt it was quite novel.
Because Zhaonan TV Station spared no expense, the stage layout was extremely exquisite; it could even be used directly to film the Zhaonan Spring Festival Gala.
Listening to Lin Fan whispering, Chen Ran learned that this stage was actually leftover from producing the Zhaonan Spring Festival Gala.
Not only were the live stage and equipment top-notch, but even the hosts were of Spring Festival Gala caliber. Besides the station's own leading hosts, they also invited two currently popular celebrities to rotate hosting duties.
"Respected leaders, colleagues, and guests..."
Following the opening remarks from the hosts, Zhaonan TV Station's annual meeting officially kicked off.
The flow of the annual meeting was relatively simple. It opened with singing and dancing, with the hosts singing together.
Subsequently, the channel summaries began, along with the program performances prepared by each channel.
Singing and dancing, comedy sketches, and even cross-talk emerged one after another.
Everyone was a TV station staff member. Aside from those hosts, the others didn't exactly have a talent for performing, so it looked slightly awkward.
However, in this kind of environment, not many people cared, and they watched quite happily.
When it was the entertainment channel's turn, Chen Ran perked up slightly.
At any rate, he had participated in writing the script for this program, so he wanted to see how the reaction would be.
The program was aimed at TV station colleagues, so the punchlines everyone discussed during the screenwriting were almost all things that could be encountered inside the TV station.
Sometimes a single line of dialogue would make the colleagues smile knowingly, and sometimes it struck a chord, making them feel deeply resonant.
When the program ended, it received enthusiastic applause.
The people from the entertainment channel were all quite happy. Everyone had participated in the program, and now that the response was good, they also felt proud in their hearts.
Next up was the award ceremony segment.
The award ceremony segment was saved for last every year. It was to reward outstanding programs or individuals, and also to motivate those who didn't win.
The TV station set up quite a few awards: Best Director, Best Planner, Best Program...
Hearing these awards, Chen Ran suspected for a moment whether he was at a movie award ceremony.
The first award presented was the Director's Award.
This had nothing to do with Chen Ran and their entertainment channel.
The writer-directors invited by the satellite TV channel were naturally top-tier talents, and the programs produced by their teams were also major productions.
A program with the scale of I Love Remembering Lyrics was too small; the director didn't have much room to flex his skills.
Let alone the entertainment channel, even for the satellite TV channel, most people knew it had nothing to do with them.
In the end, it was won by the director of the satellite TV channel's program ‘Celebrity Travel Season’.
"I didn't expect that I would still have the chance to win the station's Director's Award..." The old director smiled. Having worked at the station for decades, he was a true veteran.
However, he considered his abilities average. The programs he produced had won grand variety show awards before, but those were team awards and had nothing to do with him individually.
He thought he would just work like this until retirement, never expecting such a surprise at the very end.
The old director's acceptance speech was deeply sincere, entirely about his experiences at the TV station. When he stepped off the stage, thunderous applause erupted from everyone.
After the award presentation, it was time for the invited celebrities to perform.
Chen Ran and Lin Fan weren't too interested and whispered to each other in the audience.
Most of the time it was Lin Fan talking, giving Chen Ran a rundown of this old director's background information.
Chen Ran said in surprise, "I didn't expect you to be such a know-it-all, knowing the satellite TV channel's people so clearly."
Lin Fan laughed, "My dad has a pretty good relationship with this director. He occasionally comes to my house to sit for a bit. Sometimes I just listen to him chat with my dad from the sidelines, so I know a bit."
While the two were whispering, the presentation for the Annual Best Program began on stage.
I Love Remembering Lyrics was nominated for the award. The people from the program crew all watched with serious expressions. Even knowing the hope wasn't too great, they couldn't help but look forward to it.
There's always a "what if" for everything, after all.
The shortlisted nominees included two programs from the satellite TV channel. Both were large-scale variety shows, and their viewership ratings weren't bad.
During their broadcasting periods, they were either second or third, and occasionally a single episode had even taken first place.
Next were the entertainment channel's I Love Remembering Lyrics, and the public channel's Zhaonan Focus.
Seeing the shortlist, the people from those two program crews of the satellite TV channel couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
In previous years, the Best Program award basically went to satellite TV programs. This time, however, two had smashed their way in at once, and both were not to be trifled with.
If bringing out I Love Remembering Lyrics meant the gap between everyone wasn't that big, then Zhaonan Focus was simply unreasonable.
The Best Program didn't just look at viewership ratings. Once it reached a certain level, the advantages of a program like Zhaonan Focus were infinitely magnified.
At the final moment, when the large screen stopped on Zhaonan Focus, a burst of cheers came from the public channel's side.
The result did not exceed everyone's expectations. Given the performance of Zhaonan Focus, it would only feel strange if it hadn't won the award.
The public channel's viewership performance within the station hadn't been good in the past. Initially, producing Great Beauty Zhaonan earned them quite a bit of good word-of-mouth, and now with Zhaonan Focus winning Best Program, their prospects were very good.
Next, it was time for Chen Ran to be somewhat apprehensive.
What was about to be presented was the Annual Best Planner.
The people from the entertainment channel were all looking at Chen Ran, which made his newly calmed mood start to get nervous again.
Previously, he hadn't placed so much importance on whether he won the award or not. But his conversation with Director Zhang last night made him worry about gains and losses.
If he didn't win the award, Director Zhang would definitely help him fight for an opportunity. Chen Ran really wanted to go to the satellite TV channel, but he didn't want to trouble Director Zhang.
Following the award presenter's introduction, the shortlist appeared on the screen.
Jiang Weiliang, chief planner of the satellite TV channel's ‘Celebrity Travel Season’; Wang Mingyi, chief planner of ‘Love Connect’; Chen Ran, chief planner of the entertainment channel's ‘I Love Remembering Lyrics’ and ‘Challenge the Microphone’, and former chief planner of ‘Zhaonan Focus’; and Qi Yongjie, chief planner of the metropolitan channel's ‘Family Seven Thirty’.
Chen Ran was originally still pondering how to persuade Uncle Zhang if he really didn't win the award, but seeing the introduction on the large screen, he was stunned for a moment.
Challenge the Microphone being included was expected, but what was going on with Zhaonan Focus?
Zhaonan Focus was done by him in the public channel; it shouldn't have been counted. He remembered the director seeming to have said so.
Not to mention Chen Ran, Jiang Weiliang and Wang Mingyi from the satellite TV channel's side, as well as Qi Yongjie from the metropolitan channel, were all dumbfounded when they saw Zhaonan Focus.
They knew Chen Ran because the program shortlist came out. They had heard before that a new program had appeared on the entertainment channel, but they were too busy themselves; how could they have so much time to care?
They originally thought they were evenly matched, but suddenly throwing a Zhaonan Focus in there—this was a bit scary.
This was the program that had just won the Best Program award with crushing momentum and zero suspense. Even if the weight of the planner wasn't high, it was enough to add a lot of points.
Qi Yongjie was fine; he hadn't held much hope to begin with. But Jiang Weiliang and Wang Mingyi were somewhat dumbfounded.
On stage, after the shortlist was announced, the station head began to announce the winner.
He lowered his head and read out word by word:
"The winner of the Zhaonan TV Station Annual Best Planner is..."
"The chief planner of the entertainment channel's I Love Remembering Lyrics, Chen Ran!"