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after two years, talk shows have returned "doubled". unlike the first five seasons of "talk show conference" which were only broadcast on tencent video, at the end of august, "the king of comedy stand-up season" (hereinafter referred to as "xidan") and "talk show and ta's friends" (hereinafter referred to as "talk show friends") were successively launched on iqiyi and tencent video, and the talk show world was "split into two", and the two major platforms were launched at the same time. according to the data of lighthouse professional edition, as of now, in the variety show sector, "xidan" and "talk show friends" ranked second and third in the total network broadcast market share, reaching 8.07% and 7.21% respectively.

lighthouse screenshots

on the one hand, the separation of the original "talk show conference" into two new programs is actually the result of the diversion of the core actors and creative team of "xiaoguo culture"; on the other hand, the talk show market is gradually transitioning from the "monopoly" of the top brands to the "competition" of large, medium and small brands. at the same time, after experiencing ups and downs, the talk show industry has also begun to move towards more mature and diversified development.

"etao" vs. "xiaoguo" split

"go home often, go home, remember to laugh, no matter how hard life is..." on august 20, tencent video officially aired "out of friends". at the beginning of the show, an adapted version of "go home often" was sung. four days before the broadcast of "out of friends", the original stand-up comedy competition show "happy list" produced by iqiyi and initiated by stephen chow was launched in advance.

following the fifth season of "talk show" in 2022, talk show variety shows finally returned in late summer of 2024. the rotation of "happy list" and "talk show friends" was regarded by many viewers as the separation of the original "talk show conference", and who is better began to cause heated discussions.

currently, on weibo, the topic #talk show and his friends# has 1.011 million discussions and 400 million views, while the topic #comedy king single-mouth season# has 861,000 discussions and 440 million views. on xiaohongshu, the number of notes on the topic "who is the real talk show (the sixth season of "talk show conference")" has reached more than 1.75 million.

judging from the cast, "happy list" has recruited four talk show "veterans" pang bo, wang jianguo, yang li and zhou qimo to lead the team from the beginning. in addition to zhou qimo, pang bo, wang jianguo and yang li were all artists under "xiaoguo culture". among the contestants, xiao lu, tang xiangyu, mao dong, hei deng and others are all senior talk show actors who have participated in "talk show conference".

as for "talk show friends", a new program launched by tencent video, the "hometown" of talk shows, it has more shadows of "talk show conference". most of the actors of "xiaoguo culture" stayed in "talk show friends", including hu lan, xu zhisheng, he guangzhi, zhang boyang, meng chuan, etc. at the same time, the contestants of previous seasons, such as zhao xiaohui, zhang jun, bu jingyun, wang zihan, etc., also appeared on the stage of "talk show friends" again.

judging from the invited comedians, they are still mostly familiar guests. wu zhenyu, guo qilin, yang tianzhen, and xu zheng are the atmosphere group leaders of "happy list", and jiang long is the host. yang tianzhen and xu zheng were both comedians of "talk show conference". da zhangwei, lu yu, zhang yuqi, and dou wentao are the comedians of "talk show friends", and zhang shaogang is the host. except for dou wentao, the others are "old friends" of "talk show conference".

from the perspective of brand sponsors, the current partners of "happy list" include the title sponsor kyoto nis jiom, the co-sponsor uni-president green tea, the chief special sponsor "aptamil zhuoao 3" and lao cunzhang liquor; "douyou" cooperates with six brands: haitian oyster sauce, lao cunzhang liquor, quduoduo, qiehuang beef noodles, pulse, and royal friso. in fact, kyoto nis jiom, haitian oyster sauce, lao cunzhang liquor, and qiehuang are all frequent sponsors of talk show variety shows in the past.

it is worth noting that the competition between "happy list" and "trouble friends" not only means that "talk show conference" and "xiaoguo culture" have been separated on stage, but also the team behind the scenes. it is reported that the chief producer of "happy list" tan xiaohong, the chief director yang xiaoyu, and the executive producer shen sijia were all the core creators of the "talk show conference" series, and wang jianguo (formerly known as kang hong) in the chief screenwriter team is still a shareholder of beijing xiaodu culture media co., ltd. under "xiaoguo culture". the chief director, producer, and producer of "trouble friends" jia sihao has directed talk shows such as "super nice conference" of "xiaoguo culture", and the chief screenwriters are cheng lu and meng chuan, senior screenwriters of "xiaoguo culture".

beijing business daily reporters contacted tencent video and iqiyi regarding the layout planning of the two programs "happy list" and "talk show friends", future talk show variety shows and market development trends. as of now, no relevant response has been received.

market development is far from reaching its ceiling

speaking of talk shows, we have to mention "xiaoguo culture". even many domestic audiences know talk shows from the "tonight 80s talk show" program founded by ye feng, the founder of "xiaoguo culture" in 2012. from 2017 to 2022, "xiaoguo culture" produced five seasons of "talk show conference" in one go. at the same time, its offline performances and talk show training camps are also developing in full swing. "xiaoguo culture" has also become the top of the pyramid of domestic talk shows.

he xiaoxi, ceo of "xiaoguo culture", once said in an interview with the media that the company's positioning is to become the first choice, or even the only choice, in the talk show industry. under the leadership of the giant ship "xiaoguo culture", the talk show industry has also gradually become hot. the "talk show marketing white paper" shows that in 2009, the earliest talk show club in mainland china, the takeaway club, was established. until 2016, there were less than 100 people working in the talk show industry nationwide. in 2021, the number of talk show performers reached 10,000, and as of may 2022, the number of clubs has jumped to 179.

however, just as xiaoguo culture was aiming to "monopolize" the talk show industry, the "house incident" in may 2023 dealt it a heavy blow. the highly anticipated sixth season of "talk show conference" was aborted, offline performances were forced to be suspended, and many of its artists and behind-the-scenes staff began to leave. the impact of the "house incident" also began to spread to other talk show clubs and practitioners.

talk show actor li de told the beijing business daily reporter that even though the offline talk show market has not been completely cut off due to the cultivation of early variety shows and markets, the "house incident" rectified the giant "xiaoguo culture", which dealt a heavy blow to the industry. the number of talk shows of many offline small and medium-sized brands has also decreased, and the performance atmosphere has weakened a lot.

with the return of talk shows, the separation of "xiaoguo culture" and "tuyou" has also quietly changed the "protagonists" on the stage of "xidan" and "tuyou". not only has the proportion of newcomers and cross-border players increased significantly, but the exposure rate of small and medium-sized labels has also increased. whether it is "tuyou" or "xidan", the names of the actors' labels will be marked in the program. before the broadcast of "tuyou", it also cooperated with offline clubs in different cities to jointly carry out preview activities.

according to statistics, the ratio of new and old contestants in "toutouyou" is almost the same. more than 70% of "xidan" contestants are new and cross-border contestants, and they are basically not actors from the two major talk show labels ("xiaoguo culture" and "shanliren"), but from smaller labels across the country, or independent actors. for example, the new contestants of "xidan" da lao wang and qiqi are from "xifan comedy"; fu hang is from "fu hang talk show", and liu rencheng is also its resident actor. in addition, in the first episode of "toutouyou", the rapper haha cao, who defeated hu lan with a high vote of 188, is from the changsha talk show label "xiaoma comedy".

"from the previous dominance of the top labels to the rise of small and medium-sized labels, more newcomers and new labels have the opportunity to show their faces, which is a good thing." lide said that for people in the industry, one more program means one more opportunity. the more labels there are in the program, the more diverse the industry is, the more prosperous the offline talk show market is, and the more confident the actors will be.

wei pengju, dean of the institute of cultural economics at the central university of finance and economics, told the beijing business daily that at present, the talk show industry has begun to move towards a more mature and diversified development. the competition between the two major programs "talk show friends" and "happy list" is also a reflection of this development trend. at the same time, in the process of industry standardization, the participation of multiple parties can also play a role in healthy competition and mutual supervision.

in addition, playwright and director xiang kai pointed out that the development of the domestic talk show market is far from reaching its ceiling. in the post-epidemic era, with the growing audience demand for comedy and healing film and television performances, both online talk show variety shows and offline talk show performances have great development potential, and capital enthusiasm will return accordingly.

beijing business daily reporter jin chaoli cheng liang