Other Television Shows

China's "The Apprentice" (Reality)

Reality shows are very popular in China. Ying Zai Zhongguo (“Win in China”) is a reality show inspired by Donald Trump’s The Apprentice which features fledgling entrepreneurs presenting ideas to a panels of judges that has included some of the best known names in Chinese business such as Jack Ma of Alibaba.com.. The winner at the end of th run of the show is awarded $1.3 million in seed money from a venture capitalist to start the business and he presented it.

The judges on Ying Zai Zhongguo grill the entrepreneurs on their ideas and evaluate them as they compete in teams and perform tasks such as rasing money for a charity or coming up with a solution to a business problem. Contestants on winning teams come back for the next show. Those on the losing team go through various other trials to decide who comes back and who goes home. In the “PK,” or “Player Kill”, segment two contestants face off against one another issuing questions, challenges and taunts under a timing and buzzer system with the audience at the end determining which player gets “killed.”

Dating Shows:

One of the most popular television shows in China is a matchmaking program called We Meet Tonight, which is sort of a cross between the Dating Gameand a talent show. "We receive very few applications from young women who are willing to appear as contestants," the host of the show told the New York Times. "The men are much more bold about agreeing to appear. And they are bold because they have to be."

Viewers are encouraged to write in for a date with contestant. "Maybe a man who appears on the show will get 30 letters," Ms. Yang said. "But a woman will get over 50, sometimes 60. Sometime many more. Our record holder is a 24-year-old woman who got more than 500 letters." The show’s host claims he has set up several hundred marriages.

China's "American Idol"

The Chinese version of American Idol--Supergirl Idol--has been enormously popular, attracting up to 400 million viewers, nearly a third of the population of China, with many of them voting for their favorites with text messages. The winner of the contest, Li Yuchan, who received 3.5 million text message votes ahead of 3.2 million for her nearest rival, became so popular she took the No. 6 spot on the Forbes list of China’s hottest and richest celebrities.

The sponsor of Supergirl Idol, the milk company Mengniu, saw it sales increase fivefold while the show was aired. Supergirl Idol, which originated on a Hunan satellite channel, was so successful that in August 2007 the Chinese government labeled the show “coarse” and shut it down. The crack down, Beijing said, was part its campaign against the declining quality of television programming but many think that it was really shut down over worries by the government that viewers being allowed to vote for favorites on a television show could lead to demands for democracy