095. A Special Audition Method

For the next three days, Li Daniu paid no mind to the uproar his online remarks had stirred, and he declined a number of interviews from the press.

In the newly leased offices of TC Entertainment Media, Li Daniu took his first step toward ruling the entertainment world.

"Quin, have you gotten in touch with the television network?"

Quin was TC Entertainment's newly appointed general manager. His first assignment after taking office had been to do exactly as Li Daniu instructed and negotiate with the network for airtime.

"It's settled. According to your instructions, on next Wednesday and Thursday, from eight to nine-thirty in the evening, ABC Television is ours," Quin replied. Then he added, "Chairman, our time may not be enough."

Not enough? That was truly an American way of thinking. They simply could not understand that what the people of Huaxia were best at was stealing time from time itself.

Li Daniu smiled. "Time is always squeezed out. There is no such thing as not enough. And the matter of the mentors?"

"Three have already been contacted, and one more is still awaiting confirmation." Quin felt no pride at all in having accomplished so much in so short a time, because he believed that anyone else could have done the same.

Whether it was buying airtime from the network or reaching out to superstar singers to serve as mentors, everything was directly tied to money. And in his rush to seize time, Li Daniu did not care at all whether the show would make money; he simply threw money at the problem.

"Did I not tell you not to put all your eggs in one basket?" Li Daniu was not entirely satisfied with Quin's efficiency. "Give them a final ultimatum. If they still can't confirm, replace them at once. I don't believe that in such a huge country as America, we can't find four capable singers."

"No problem, Chairman."

Quin did not care whether Li Daniu's method of spending money would ultimately pay off. He believed that with Li Daniu's wealth, any loss could easily be borne. Besides, as long as his salary was paid, he had nothing to lose.

"Has stage construction begun?"

"It has, but because your requirements for the stage and sound equipment are so demanding, I honestly don't believe they'll finish before next Monday. You know, there are only five days left until then."

At this, Quin looked worried, because if the work could not be completed before Monday, then all the investment would amount to losing half of it in vain. After all, the network would not be willing to shift its airtime for you.

"Trust them, but make sure the quality is properly supervised." The reason Li Daniu said this was that he had hired a construction crew from Huaxia. It had to be said that when it came to endurance and hard work, Huaxia workers utterly defeated the Americans. So long as overtime pay was in place, they could keep working around the clock. Americans, by contrast, were different. Most of them only wanted to work eight hours a day, and even those few willing to stay late would never go beyond twelve hours.

The stage and the mentors were basically no longer problems, and the production crew had also been rented from the television network, so that too was settled. As for the host, there was even less need to worry. Hollywood might be paradise for filmmakers, but it was not short of talent in related fields. Li Daniu believed that during the coming days of interviews, they would certainly find a host suited to the program and sign him.

After thinking for a moment, Quin asked, "Chairman, so far neither the title sponsorship fee nor the advertising fees have been settled. How are we going to recoup our costs?"

TC Entertainment Media was merely a company newly established by Li Daniu, with its headquarters in Tuvalu. In the United States, it existed in name only as a branch office. Although Li Daniu was already quite famous, that fame owed more to his identity as a bestselling author and to the public seeing him as a capricious king. The new television program he was producing was not highly regarded at all, and no one was willing to pay the kind of advertising fees Li Daniu had in mind.

"It doesn't matter. For the first season, we won't take any advertising." Li Daniu expected that this program could run for many episodes, even many seasons. In his previous life, this show had run for more than a dozen seasons in America, and he did not place much value on the advertising revenue from a single episode, or even a single season.

More importantly, Li Daniu's real purpose in making this program was not to make money from commercials, but to profit from the singers it would uncover.

Quin had already become somewhat immune to Li Daniu's willfulness. Ever since Li Daniu had boasted online about being rich and capricious, and had even directly given the people of Tuvalu a monthly living allowance as high as three thousand dollars, Li Daniu had acquired the title of the most willful king in history.

"All right. But Chairman, where are we supposed to find our contestants? It's already too late to hold open auditions."

Quin raised the question that worried him most. Any talent show basically began with open auditions. Not only did they help select contestants who could go straight into filming, they also built momentum and warmed up the audience before the show aired.

"I'll handle that." Li Daniu also knew that holding open auditions would bring considerable benefits, but since he was not truly making a show in the professional sense, he could only take a different path.

Logging into his EyeBook account, Li Daniu ignored the provoking reply from the singer Big J and instead posted a new update.

"There is an old saying in Huaxia: thoroughbreds are everywhere, but the one who recognizes them is rare. I believe there are many voices of heavenly beauty in this world that have been buried and hidden. Now let me be your selector. Please send a recording of your singing to XXXXX email, and wait for me to contact you."

By now, Li Daniu's fan count had reached an enormous seven million. Even if only one third of those fans were willing to repost this update, the number of people who would see it would still reach tens of millions. And how many people were there in all of America?

Once tens of millions of people learned of this news, even if only one ten-thousandth of them were willing to send in recordings of their singing, it would still be enough to select at least several dozen contestants with decent vocal ability. With such contestants in hand, filming and broadcasting the program would certainly not be affected.

In fact, this unconventional method of open auditions could even increase the show's ratings.

Quin watched, dumbfounded, as Li Daniu posted the update, and he was instantly stunned. Could auditions really be done this way? And they only asked for audio, not video. What if it turned out to be a woman in her sixties or seventies? Were they supposed to let her on too? Who would want to watch people like that on a show? Everyone likes handsome men and beautiful women, don't they?

Before Quin could voice his doubts, Li Daniu had already begun issuing instructions.

"Tell the people in the music department to log into that mailbox and screen the contestants with the best voices. Contact them. Then start advertising online and in the real world at the same time. Before the show premieres, I want all of America bombarded with ads for our new program."

"Chairman, that will take a lot of promotion money." Quin began doing the math for Li Daniu. "The stage construction alone has already cost thirty million dollars, and the airtime from the network is five million dollars per episode. Our plan is for twelve episodes, which comes to sixty million dollars. Add to that the appearance fee of eight million dollars for each mentor, along with other expenses, and we will need to invest at least one hundred and thirty million dollars. If we want to achieve the promotional effect you require, that's at least another twenty million dollars in spending. In total, the production cost of this program will be one hundred and fifty million dollars. Can we really recoup our costs?"

Li Daniu shook his head. This was the difference in vision. Quin was diligent and responsible in his work, but his perspective was still too narrow. By contrast, Li Daniu now stood on the shoulders of an entire world when he looked at things.

"It doesn't matter. I have money. Even if I lose it, it doesn't matter. Think of it as paying tuition." Li Daniu smiled and said, "I only want to choose the voice of heaven in my heart. After all, some singers are simply far too unpleasant to listen to."

Quin was embarrassed. This was truly willfulness beyond words.

After thinking for a moment, Li Daniu added, "You can leak what I just said to the media. They should like news like that. And now, what you need to do is promote our show, The Voice of America."