What You Might Want to Know About *I Am a Singer* Before Tonight's Finale

Never watched I Am a Singer? No problem. Read this and you can still join the griping on Moments tonight without missing a beat.

The Season 3 finale of I Am a Singer is about to begin. While you wait for the broadcast, QDaily has pulled together the key facts to help you understand the hottest variety show of the moment, and to tell you what to watch for during tonight's live show.

Where I Am a Singer Comes From

First, let's be clear: I Am a Singer belongs to South Korea.

Seriously, though: the show was launched by South Korea's MBC in 2011. Its first few episodes did not stand out in Korea's crowded variety market, but they drew unexpected attention on social media. Some "Big Vs" (influential verified accounts) in music and cultural circles praised the show's "respect for music." So in a South Korea ruled by K-pop, a music contest among "elderly" musicians (the first-season singers averaged 38.6 years old and 15 years since debut) became a surprise hit.

Ratings then rose steadily. The first season peaked at 20.7%, and the songs these "uncles and aunties" sang on stage (many of them classics every Korean household knows) quickly climbed to the top of the major music charts. The show even got a thumbs-up from the South Korean president.

Hong Tao (chief director of I Am a Singer, the one whose slow reading of the rankings drives viewers crazy), who was looking for a new show format for Hunan Satellite TV, spotted the show and brought it to China. Two things happened in 2012: the broadcasting regulator (SARFT) barred Hunan Satellite TV from running talent-search shows for a year because Happy Girls had broken the rules, and Zhejiang Satellite TV launched The Voice of China, which became a sensation overnight.

The success of The Voice of China put competitive pressure on Hunan Satellite TV, but it was good news for I Am a Singer. On one hand, The Voice stirred up a nationwide enthusiasm for music not seen in years. On the other, the many imitators that followed all leaned on "talent search" and "grassroots" contestants, so I Am a Singer, built around "professional singers," "unexpectedly" became the obvious alternative.

Hunan Satellite TV took the opening. It played up this difference in its promotion, and it made the show its first program of 2013, riding the enthusiasm left over in the months after The Voice ended to set up a clash of two heavyweights.

On January 18, 2013, I Am a Singer officially arrived in China.

How Popular Is the Show

When The Voice of China and I Am a Singer premiered, their first episodes drew ratings of 1.477% and 1.434% respectively, nearly level. By the end of the first season, The Voice was still well ahead of I Am a Singer in ratings.

Even so, I Am a Singer averaged 2.11% over its first 12 episodes and 4.12% for the finale, first in its time slot. Its 13 episodes drew nearly 700 million online views. On the "King of Singers" night, the "I Am a Singer" trending topic on Weibo passed 100 million views. On Baidu, user attention and media attention for "I Am a Singer" reached 1.2 million and 40 million respectively. All these dry numbers simply say that the first season of I Am a Singer did pretty well.

Because of the "ban," Hunan Satellite TV won only 18 ratings titles in all of 2012. With I Am a Singer leading the way, it won back 20 in the first quarter of 2013 alone.

Over the next two years, the average ratings of Seasons 2 and 3 of The Voice of China both fell from the first season: 2.35% for the second and 2.01% for the third. It was still first in its time slot, but its influence and its buzz were far below what they had been. I Am a Singer, meanwhile, drew more and more big-name singers and traced a completely different ratings curve: 2.11% for the first season, 2.17% for the second, and an average of 2.66% for the third, when top-tier singers such as Han Hong, Sun Nan and Hu Yanbin joined.

(Han Lei won not only the "King of Singers" title but also a lot of young fans who find him "adorable.")

You can feel the show's popularity another way. When you tell someone you're a Li Jian fan, most people no longer ask "Who is Li Jian?" or mix him up with Li Zhi. You can put Han Lei's and Huang Qishan's songs on your phone, or call yourself their fan, without worrying about odd looks from friends. And those of you who have loved Gu Juji and Huang Liling for years have finally found your tribe. You can rise up and boldly pour out, on Moments, the feelings you have kept bottled up for years.

Here is one more test: after 7:30 tonight, scroll through your Moments feed and watch all kinds of friends turn into chatterboxes.

What Are the Singers on the Show Like

Getting singers who are already famous, evenly matched, and in many cases friends of many years to go up on a stage and compete for real is extremely hard. It was especially hard at the start, before the singers could see what the platform might do for them.

This is why the first-season lineup of I Am a Singer looks so much "shabbier" than the current third season's. Chief director Hong Tao said in an interview that assembling the first season's singers "nearly used up the connections I'd built over 20 years."

The Korean I Am a Singer first attracted singers who had debuted long ago and were past the peak of their fame, but who could really sing. Some had already made their name and treated the show as a bit of fun. Others hoped it would bring them a "second spring" in commercial value and influence.

The Chinese version followed the same approach. Look at the first season's lineup: Yu Quan, Lin Zhixuan, Yang Zongwei, Huang Qishan, Peng Jiahui, Xin Xiaoqi, Zhou Xiaoou, Sha Baoliang, Shang Wenjie, Chen Ming, Qi Qin and Huang Guanzhong. You have heard of most of them and like one or two of their songs, but if you had to pay to see them in concert, you might hesitate for a long time.

(Lin Zhixuan became a "heartthrob" in the first season of I Am a Singer.)

What I Am a Singer sets out to do is give them one more "push," so the show helps them turn their commercial value into money more smoothly. That is the singers' main reason for coming on, and so it is also what the show needs to stay hot.

What the Show Does for the "Singers"

Every season of I Am a Singer produces one or two standout figures who win huge attention in a short time: Lin Zhixuan and Huang Qishan in the first season, G.E.M. (Deng Ziqi) and Han Lei in the second, and Li Jian in the third.

The first gain is in influence and fan numbers. Take the second season. According to the "I Am a Singer Season 2 big data" published by LeTV (the second season's exclusive online broadcaster), the three singers whose Sina Weibo followings grew fastest from the start to the end of the competition were Han Lei (up 1,124.26%), G.E.M. (up 575.42%) and Cao Ge (up 230.11%).

Next come higher fees for commercial gigs and stronger concert ticket sales. Media reported that a month after joining I Am a Singer, Huang Qishan's fee for a commercial show had multiplied several times to 500,000 yuan. Right after the show, G.E.M. launched a mainland China tour; every show sold out, and the organizers had to add dates to meet demand. The latest example is Taiwanese singer Huang Liling from the third season: her concert tickets sold out within two hours of going on sale, and host Wang Han gave the concert an on-air plug during the finale rehearsal.

(G.E.M. is the show's biggest beneficiary since it first aired.)

Then there are more opportunities. After I Am a Singer, for example, Cao Ge took his daughter onto Where Are We Going, Dad? (where she stole the spotlight). Yu Quan, the first season's "King of Singers," toured, released two albums in a row, and was invited onto variety shows such as Best Harmony, Sing My Song and Running Man, turning a duo once rumored to be splitting up back into "China's great duo."

How Much Has Mango TV Spent on It

Clearly, "Mango TV" (Hunan Satellite TV's nickname) has spent a lot of money to make such a hit.

Earlier media interviews quoted a "Hunan Satellite TV insider" as saying each first-season episode of I Am a Singer cost 5 million yuan to produce. With 13 episodes in the first season, that comes to 65 million yuan. Add the one-time upfront hard costs for stage design, lighting, sound and the like, and the first season's total investment was about 80 million yuan.

On that account, Hunan Satellite TV's budget for the three seasons would fall between 200 million and 250 million yuan.

A producer at a Chinese production company said the figure seems a bit high. He told QDaily: "The first few episodes usually cost more. Later, once things settle down and the show is better known, costs actually come down."

In a thread on Baidu's "Hunan Satellite TV" forum asking about this, one reply said: "The first episode cost 6 million yuan because it included the early preparation. From the second episode on, each episode cost about 1 million yuan." It added that "the most expensive items are the equipment and the band; the guests get almost no appearance fee."

The most recent report on the show's production costs says preparation for the Season 3 finale cost more than 10 million yuan, with stage design and costumes, the animated promo film, and artist fees each exceeding 1 million yuan.

(Where I Am a Singer is recorded: Hunan Satellite TV's 1,200-square-meter studio.)

A Hunan Satellite TV staff member declined to comment on any of these figures. He said only: "All spending is matched to income. When income goes up, production will certainly be upgraded too, things like equipment and hiring bands."

From what we experienced at yesterday's finale rehearsal, the sound in this 1,200-square-meter studio, combined with live accompaniment from the dozens of musicians behind the singers, really is more moving than watching on television. If you're interested, Zhihu has two expert write-ups on the show's sound system and its musicians and bands.

How Much Money Does the Show Make

Like every TV program, I Am a Singer makes its advertising money mainly from three sources: title sponsorship, product placement and commercial breaks.

Title sponsorship is a fixed sum, usually paid by one company. I Am a Singer has always been title-sponsored by Liby. The fees for the first two seasons were 150 million yuan and 235 million yuan, and for the third season the deal, including various other rights, reached 300 million yuan. On these figures, I Am a Singer has earned 620 million yuan from title sponsorship alone.

(Next to Liby laundry detergent, every star looks like a supporting act.)

Product placement and commercial breaks are far more flexible than title sponsorship. When the first season began, a 15-second commercial slot sold for 86,000 yuan; a few episodes later the price had jumped to 130,000 yuan, and in the ad bidding for the first season's finale, a single 15-second spot went for as much as 630,000 yuan. Tonight's finale reportedly has a most expensive 15-second ad quoted at 35 million yuan.

Putting earlier media reports together: the first season's title sponsorship fee was 150 million yuan, plus about 150 million yuan in other advertising, for a first-season total of 300 million yuan. In the second season, Liby again won the title sponsorship, for 235 million yuan, and at the ad auction the various slots sold for 167 million yuan, for a total of about 400 million yuan. That does not count finale revenue or the exclusive online broadcast rights.

Even on this basis, Hunan Satellite TV's net revenue from three seasons of I Am a Singer comes to 1 billion to 1.5 billion yuan.

Now for the Main Event: Tonight's Finale

If you've sat through my dry economics and made it this far, here's your reward. Below are a few tips from us about today's finale.

1. I don't know who the King of Singers is, because tonight's show is live. I do know who it was at yesterday's rehearsal: Li Jian. (But that was only a run-through. The rehearsal ran so late that the audience had all gone home and nobody voted, yet Wang Han still asked Li Jian, "What is your acceptance speech for the 40-odd audience members still in the hall?")

2. Tonight's broadcast has been moved up to 19:30. So if you're unlucky enough to see this only around 22:00, no problem: keep calm and carry on.

1. More singers will appear today, all as friends helping the seven competing singers. Who is helping whom, and the song lists for the first and second rounds, are already out. If you want to see them, click here. If you'd rather keep the suspense, we respect that, so we won't tell you that Han Hong and Eason Chan sing "Ten Years."

2. Today's format is a little strange, especially toward the end. Pay close attention to this: in the second round, the six contestants are split into three pairs for head-to-head battles, and the three winning "King of Singers candidates" will not sing another round (my guess is there isn't enough time, and if Mango TV forced it through it would be banned for another year, heh). So there are really only two rounds, with each singer performing two songs.

3. You won't see me on TV, because today's audience is completely different from the one at yesterday's rehearsal. Today's 500 public judges signed up online and were picked by Hunan Satellite TV after some tests (no, they really didn't test anyone's acting). There's a post on Zhihu by someone who once served as a Hunan Satellite TV judge, explaining how people are chosen and why so many in the live audience look so swept away. You can click here to read it.

4. There will be a lot of ads today, up to 6 minutes of them. So if you skipped straight to the end for the spoilers, use the ad break to go back and read the rest.

5. Finally, don't overlook the Korean contestant.