The undeniable advantage of artists "reappearing
Reality shows are considered a game of breakthrough. However, when artists who made their mark in the previous season continue to appear, the balance of competition changes somewhat.
At "Anh Trai Vuot Ngan Chong Gai" season 2, the crew bringing "Biet Doi Lai Ban" including 5 familiar faces of the first season such as Jun Pham, BB Tran, Duy Khanh, Thanh Duy and Neko Le has created many mixed opinions. Many viewers believe that these artists have a large fan base after the success of the first season, so they have a great advantage in voting and recognition right from the time the program aired. After the explosive debates in episode 2, the organizers had to post an apology letter, affirming that they did not promote drama and listened to the audience's comments.
Similarly, "Hello Brother" season 2 also witnessed debates when Negav returned and then won the championship. According to the announced results, Negav received more than 6 million votes, surpassing the runner-up with a gap of hundreds of thousands of votes. This result makes many viewers question whether the number of fans accumulated from the previous season has become too great an advantage in the race that depends heavily on public votes.
Not only programs for male artists, "Sisters Who Make Waves" also shows a trend of taking advantage of the appeal of familiar faces. In season 2, My Linh and Thu Phuong return. However, instead of becoming direct competing contestants, both take on a special role to accompany and support the new "sisters". This arrangement is considered by many viewers to be a harmony between maintaining brand appeal and limiting the feeling of unequal competition with new people.
In fact, the advantage of old artists is not only in the number of fans. After one season of broadcasting, they have understood how to operate the program, are used to recording pressure, know how to make an impression on stage and have experience in handling communication. Meanwhile, new artists must get used to all of these things right from the first episodes.
The producer's problem: Maintain attraction or ensure fairness?
From a production perspective, inviting old artists back is an easy choice to understand. A successful program always wants to retain faces that once created effects.
However, the benefits of communication lead to pressure on fair perception. If the result depends heavily on audience voting, artists with large fandoms have almost an advantage right from the starting line. Meanwhile, new faces, even if they perform well, still need a lot of time to build a large enough fan community to compete.
This is not a private story of Vietnamese shows. Many entertainment programs in Korea and China have also faced similar debates.
However, it is also necessary to recognize that the return of old artists does not mean the program is unfair. If the rules are designed reasonably, the role of the judges, professional scores and elimination mechanism are balanced with votes from the audience, the advantage from the number of fans will be somewhat narrowed down.
After all, what the audience wants is not to eliminate old artists from reality shows. What the public expects is a playground where the final achievement accurately reflects the performance in the program, instead of being too dominated by the number of fans accumulated from previous seasons. Only when these two factors are balanced can reality shows both maintain their heat and maintain the trust of viewers.
