The first performance concluded.
Song Yunxiao and Zhou Yijie temporarily held the top spot in the overall popularity ranking.
Mainly because there was no one else on the list yet.
Although Zhou Yijie was the top e-sports streamer, a goddess in the hearts of countless otaku and gaming enthusiasts, for the general public, she was too niche.
Many people didn't know her.
So, the online voting heat wasn't too high.
Almost all of the votes and comments came from gaming enthusiasts.
Various goddess titles were flying everywhere.
Other passersby looked bewildered.
What kind of goddess?
With that appearance, does she even qualify as a goddess?
Who crowned her?
Upon hearing she was from the e-sports circle, passersby shook their heads in silence.
Alright!
Let them like her.
...
Soon, the second performance was about to begin.
The contestant was Zhao Yiming, and the assisting guest was Yu Baoyu.
Regarding Yu Baoyu, online opinions were mixed.
Most comments indicated he was irrelevant.
Because Yu Baoyu started with a bang.
He became popular across the internet and entered the public eye by starring as Jia Baoyu in the remake of 'Dream of the Red Chamber'.
At the peak of his fame, he had a continuous stream of acting offers.
He held a large number of high-quality resources in his hands.
But then?
Somehow, he faded from the public eye and has now successfully fallen into the ranks of third-tier actors.
Why?
Online rumors claimed he had poor character.
He acted like a big shot and had a bad temper.
When he was with his girlfriend, he even resorted to domestic violence.
When participating in variety shows, he arbitrarily changed the rules, not only screwing over his teammates but also complaining incessantly.
When filming, he complained about having too few lines.
He privately added scenes for himself on set.
In short, he had a pile of negative publicity.
No matter the industry, if your character is bad, sooner or later, everyone will turn against you; that's the rule.
So now, Yu Baoyu, at only thirty years old, has reached a point where he has no roles to play.
It's unknown through what channels Zhao Yiming managed to bring him here.
Seeing Yu Baoyu's expectant and excited expression, it's clear how much he wanted to use this opportunity to become popular again.
The segment Zhao Yiming and Yu Baoyu performed was a story of a father traveling thousands of miles to find his son.
Zhao Yiming played the father who lost his son.
Yu Baoyu played the son.
A journey of a thousand miles to find his son.
After finding his son, the son didn't recognize his father.
That was the scene.
It had some tear-jerking potential.
However, after the two of them put in a strenuous and heartfelt performance on stage, the audience's reaction was lukewarm.
Zhao Yiming's acting skills were lacking.
After he put on makeup, his appearance was acceptable.
He played a middle-aged father who had endured hardships, searching for his son all over the country.
Hua Zai had actually portrayed this image.
That image was very classic.
So, with such a masterpiece before them, many people instinctively compared Zhao Yiming to him.
In comparison, he fell short.
Furthermore, Yu Baoyu played a mischievous son, with stiff and exaggerated acting, turning the image of a lost child who grew up in the countryside and became mischievous into that of a rebellious son desperately needing to participate in a transformation program.
It felt out of place!
As a result, after the performance, applause was sparse.
Few people were moved.
The tear-jerking plot wasn't even as effective as Zhou Yijie's emotional outburst and unrestrained crying on stage.
After their performance ended.
When the judges were giving their comments, Yu Baoyu even 'discussed' his understanding of the character with the judges on the panel.
It was as if he was protesting that they didn't understand his interpretation.
Is it my fault?
Finally, the two left the stage.
Online voting began.
As expected, their popularity increased extremely slowly, even far less than Song Yunxiao and Zhou Yijie's popularity.
Thus, they temporarily ranked second on the list.
...
At this point in the competition, the performances of the miscellaneous participants were over.
What remained were the classic scenes the public anticipated.
Online.
The exciting part is coming! I want to see International Zhang. She's my goddess! Everyone move aside, I'm ready to worship her on screen.
Hahaha, I just love watching Heitu's performances.
As a Southerner, I don't understand Heitu's humor; I don't get what's funny about it.
Is International Zhang old?
Upstairs, report your apartment number. How dare you talk about my goddess? Just wait and see if I find you.
Sigh, us post-80s still prefer Hua Zai. Looking forward to Hua Zai's wonderful performance.
We post-90s disagree. Is Hua Zai only for post-80s? We post-90s like him too, okay? Hua Zai is our idol too.
I say Chen Feng is my idol, does anyone object?
...
...
Are you looking for a fight?
I have a feeling Chen Feng will become an idol sooner or later.
What about Li Han?
Hmm, he's also an 'idol' (with a pun on 'vomit-like').
Upstairs, your IP address betrayed you. Do you think you can insult the Beijing Circle Prince? Get ready to be attacked.
I like the 'little rascal'.
Damn, something strange just slipped in.
...
The audience's excitement slowly increased.
There were fans for everyone.
But basically, everyone was focused on the assisting guests, and the three contestants participating in the competition had little discussion.
Only Chen Feng had slightly more topics.
Therefore, the higher the Status in the industry of the assisting guest, the lower the presence of the competing contestant.
This is a double-edged sword.
At the very least, you yourself need to have a certain degree of topic relevance to match a big-shot assisting guest.
Like Chen Feng.
In the previous elimination rounds, he had already shown very special performance effects, which led to a surge in online topic relevance.
He had long surpassed Li Han and Xu Yao.
If it weren't for the fact that the top three competition allowed for assisting guests, Chen Feng could probably have crushed Li Han and Xu Yao based on popularity alone.
Now, the most discussed person online was Heitu.
His image was too deeply ingrained.
Even if Southern audiences didn't quite understand Heitu's humor, the topicality and discussion were unaffected.
Next was Hua Zai.
This veteran artist from Hong Kong was truly a model of virtue and artistic integrity.
He was one of the most beloved Hong Kong artists in mainland China today.
In his youth, he was a true male god.
Although his acting in his youth was somewhat exaggerated, always with a show-off style of performance, he was criticized by Director Du Qifeng as the first person to exaggerate hair-flicking.
However, later, under the influence of Director Du, Hua Zai gradually moved away from the idol path.
The older he got, the more profound his image became.
By now, many of the classic characters Hua Zai has portrayed have become textbook examples of acting.
Furthermore, Hua Zai rarely participates in variety shows.
This might be his first time participating in a variety show in mainland China, so the audience was highly anticipating it.
Finally, there was International Zhang.
Her popularity had actually declined compared to previous years.
Perhaps it was due to her aging beauty, and also because the image of women preferred by young people is becoming increasingly diverse, so International Zhang has shed her beauty halo.
Additionally, she hasn't produced any good works in recent years.
She can only occasionally appear on some variety shows, so her discussion is far less than Heitu and Hua Zai.
Finally.
The third performance was about to begin.
The one scheduled to appear third was surprisingly the Beijing Circle Prince, Li Han.
This arrangement gave everyone the feeling that, in the program team's assessment, Li Han and International Zhang's popularity might not be as high as the other two groups.
Because under normal circumstances, the main acts are reserved for the finale.
This is to keep the audience watching until the very end.
So, Li Han and International Zhang weren't given much importance?