Assimilation and Reassembling in Entertainment and Media Industry -- Analysis of Innovation Theory Applied on Case Studies of Chinese Variety Shows

Entertainment and Media industry has enriched human life and is indispensable in contemporary society, in which variety shows play an essential role. In terms of contents and types of variety shows, people are constantly exploring and innovating, creating entertaining programs dealing with topical references. Based on the status quo of Chinese variety-show market, this paper provides insight into successful cases of incorporating Chinese unique characteristics into prevailing shows via innovative modes, in pursuit of both commercial and social values. Mixed research methods, including comparative case study, Semi-structured interview and analysis of existing statistics, are employed to explore this topic. We have four interviewees from distinct fields, which helps us to conduct more comprehensive analysis on the innovation modes applied in both cases-Sisters Who Make Waves and China Poetry Congress, in view of Schumpeter’s classical definition of innovation. We find that new reassembling of traditional components gives the variety shows a cutting edge, reflected in the application of new technology or the destruction of conventional modes. In fact, the essence of both cultural innovation and mode innovation relies on creative assimilation of original elements. Generally, Chinese variety shows are supposed to enhance the production quality and impacts of platforms through content innovation, mode diversification and giving full play to celebrity benefits.


Introduction
Americans cumulatively spend at least 140 billion hours and more than $280 billion on legal forms of entertainment each year, mostly media-dependent. Meanwhile, the total global annual spending is approaching one trillion dollars on entertainment [1]. Needless to say, entertainment and media have been at the center of everyday lives or even shaped them.
Remembering that media is the plural of the term medium, which refers, essentially, to the means through which content is communicated between an origin and a destination [2]. Lasswell took a step further by breaking the process of media communication into five factors: Who, what to say, in Which channel, to Whom, with What effect. His model designs to ensure the orientation of the audience and strive for affecting them. When the goal of effect comprises entertaining others, the communication process has something to do with entertainment, which can be depicted as "the act of diverting, amusing, or causing someone's time to pass agreeably; something that diverts amuses, or occupies the attention agreeably" [3]. When entertainment and media are combined to make a new phrase, global entertainment and media refer to media commodities produced, distributed, marketed, exhibited, and consumed in many different countries, and which intend to provide viewers with amusement and media conglomerates with profit [4].
Rather than referring to a single Entertainment and Media industry (E&M), it is preferable to speak of a plurality -such is the diversity of E&M sectors and organizations. For an instant, it can be identified sectors of entertainment and media, connected to different formats, such as movie, music, television, publishing, broadcasting, social media, games etc., and various sub-sectors within each. Such horizontal distinctions, however, are becoming blurrier as a result of processes of media convergence and the enhancement of digital and online communications [2].
The representative type of entertainment media this article primarily focuses on is the variety shows, theatrical entertainment of successive separate performances like songs, dances, skits, and acrobatic feats, traditionally regarded as a subsector of the television industry. Variety show has been introduced into China for more than ten years, which occupied a dominant position in the early stage of the TV industry. The variety shows began with diverse types, such as survival challenge, gameplay, talent shows etc. One of the shared traits of all of them is non-professional players, yet with the development of the TV industry, an obvious transition from non-professional participants to superstars has been shown in pursuit of high ratings and economic benefits.
Powered by considerable conversion of cultural and social identities in the context of new media, and the remodeling of perspectives in consuming habits, values, and aesthetical opinions in our generation, the form of variety shows just cater for the audience' thirst under the tide of idol consumption and thrives within a short time [5]. One typical example is the classical entertainmentoriented program Happy Camp which was launched in 1997, produced by Hunan Satellite TV. Some scholars call it a big variety show because it integrates art, entertainment, news, interviews, curiosity, stunts, etc. The show became such a hit among Chinese teenagers ever since the beginning of 21 century and its star + play mode including interaction, games, interviews from idol stars etc., has profound impacts on the whole industry, like the highly-assimilated tendency on the mode of shows [6].
In the context of China, as an increasing number of shows chose to take the short-cut by imitating existing successful modes, the severe homogenization within Chinese variety show programs can no longer be neglected. For lack of innovation domestically, the frenzy of introducing variety shows from other countries emerged, which soon brought numerous setbacks like non-sustainability in development, high expenses and dispute in copyright, and visual fatigue of the audience [7]. The role of innovation in economic growth is perceived differently by different schools of thought. To better elaborate the concept of innovation inherent in the development, Schumpeter proclaimed that the evolution of innovation is not forming something brand-new from scratch, but updating several elements from the old system into a new one, in order to render it enduringly dynamic [8]. Inspired by Schumpeter's innovation theory, the essence of innovation has been defined as a process of upgrading and reassembling existed components to combine a new meaningful system. There will be two diverse ways of recombination of elements shown in our research via two typical case studies of popular variety shows in China. This research aims at justifying these two kinds of successful innovation via two cases of prominent original programs with legally strong Intellectual Property (IP) ---Chinese Poetry Congress launched by China Central Television (CCTV) supported by the center government and Sisters Who Make Waves produced by the streaming video platform Mango TV supported by local enterprise. Within the comparative research, a range of key factors relating to their brilliant innovation will be illustrated. Practically, we hope to find out practical methods to help rectify the market as well as possible ways to ameliorate the status quo on monotonous contents.

Method
Mixed methods have been applied and available existing statistics are utilized in this study. Semistructured interviews are used to obtain data from two representative innovational cases of Chinese variety shows, and the data is analyzed via a cross-case study method to delve into two specific patterns of innovation.

Case Study
Case studies are very common in social research, which refers to an in-depth examination of a single instance of some social phenomenon. As Charles Ragin and Howard Becker point out, researches scarcely reach a consensus on what may constitute a case, and thereby the term is used broadly [9]. The prime purpose of case studies may be descriptive. Researchers may seek only an idiographic understanding of the particular case under examination, or just form the basis for the further development of more-general, nomothetic theories [10]. Michael Burawoy and his colleagues have developed an extended case method to discover flaws in, and then modifying, existing social theories [11].
One typical criticism of the case study method is the limited generalizability of what may be observed in a single example of some phenomenon. This risk can be reduced, however, when there is more than one case studied in-depth, or more precisely, using the cross-case study method. Hence this article takes two distinctive original Chinese variety show as focused cases ---Chinese Poetry Congress and Sisters Who Make Waves, both enjoying high ratings and causing continuously heated discussion online via the agenda-setting function of media.

Semi-structure Interview
Semi-structured interviews (SSI) refer to informal interviews conducted according to a rough interview outline. This method has only several basic requirements for the conditions of interviewees or the questions to be asked, which is suitable for figuring out previously unknown qualitative trends and issues, explore new areas and in phenomenon graphic studies. Conducted conversationally with one respondent at a time, the SSI employs a blend of closed-and open-ended questions, often accompanied by follow-up why or how questions. Rather than adhering slavishly to verbatim questions like in a standardized survey, dialogues may meander around the topics on the agenda and accordingly can explore unforeseen issues [12].
Though interviewees in this research are picked via nonprobability sampling, to enhance the representativeness of samples, all of them have different occupations and are relevant with one of the cases. The fundamental information of the four interviewees can be seen in Table 1. All interviews are conducted face-to-face, lasting about 1 hour respectively.

Case 1. Sisters Who Make Waves
Hunan Television or Hunan TV is a provincial satellite TV station. It launched in January 1997 and is currently China's second-most-watched channel, second only to CCTV-1, owned by China Central Television [13]. In recent years, audiences gave Hunan TV a nickname as Mango TV which is accepted by Hunan TV as an official by name, because the shape of its logo looks like a golden mango. The nickname is especially useful as there are 22 provinces and the official channel name can be easily confused with other television channels.
As early as 2013, Hunan TV's population has exceeded 1 billion and it produces many self-made varieties shows and TV series every year. Hunan TV is the most favorite provincial satellite TV channel among Chinese audiences, with 358 million favorite viewers, ranking first in provincial satellite TV [14]. It always insists on its own most characteristic "entertainment". It can be seen that Hunan TV has a strong TV platform that has grown into an influential and valuable "multi-dwelling platform" in China, Asia and even the global media pedigree.
In the past few years, live broadcast platforms and short videos have emerged, and many online video platforms have emerged. At this time, Mango TV relied on its powerful resources and insisting on producing long video content, formulated its own strategy "Single Broadcast Strategy". For its foundation, Mango TV has built its own long video production team, and successively established 20 variety show production teams, 3 TV production teams, and 18 TV drama strategy studios [15].
According to Quest Mobile (China Mobile Internet Data Research Corporation), the monthly usage time of Mango TV has surpassed that of Youku video a video hosting service platform that has been founded for 17 years entering the top three [16]. In 2019, Mango accounted for 6 of the top 10 variety shows in China, ranking in the top 100 Mango TV accounted for 49 of the variety shows [17].
Sisters Who Make Waves is a variety show with better ratings in China in 2020. It features 30 female celebrities over 30 years old who must compete to debut in a seven-member girl group. The audience watched them train, perform and live together. 500 randomly women were selected to vote for their favorite "sister". Sisters Who Make Waves follows the general formula idol group reality shows like Produce 101 and Idol Producer, but with the twist that participants are already well-known celebrities and are all aged 30 and above, with an average age over 35 years old.
One of the reasons for the success of this variety show is that it is a show. In fact, in the history of Chinese variety shows, there has never been a shortage of talent show variety shows, from Super Girl in 2004 to Youth with You 2 in 2020, although people cannot deny that the success of these shows, we must admit that the audience has become tired of such shows. On the other hand, with the prominence of the status of women, more and more variety show with women as the main body have emerged. The Up Idol variety show, also produced by Hunan TV invited many very popular female celebrities, which also attracted a lot of attention at the time, and continued to produce two seasons. This variety show aims to let the stars fade from the glow of stars with show the real and normal life, and expand the audience of the program to people from all walks of life, seek the resonance of the topic of the whole society, and expand the "idol" level to the daily life of the general public. It can be seen that Sisters Who Make Waves is the combination of the above two hot issues and has its own style and innovation, and finally created such an excellent and highly topical variety show.
The variety shows Sisters Who Make Waves breaks the prejudice of age that has been imprisoned for a long time in society. It has a positive leading role not only in TV programs and entertainment circles but also in the overall consciousness of society.
Firstly, the TV show breaks the traditional aesthetic standards created by the girl idol industry that has emerged in recent years, such as Produce 101 and Youth with You 2, the average age of the girl group members selected is less than 25 years old. It intensified society's expectation of women's youthful and beautiful appearance. This is also from the introduction of foreign program copyrights to the use of Chinese cultural elements and aesthetic spirit to transform localized programs so that original programs are available and have achieved good influence.
Regarding this point of view, Xiaohe Huang, an entertainment media professional and radio anchor said that today's entertainment industry can be said to be idols everywhere, especially in recent years, after China has introduced the Korean talent show model, as viewers, we were full of expectation from the beginning to gradually numb, but at this time, the appearance of Sisters Who Make Waves made us refresh. (Interview with Xiaohe Huang, Sanming Radio Station, December 23rd, 2020) The interviewee said he still remembered that the highlight of the first episode comes from all the sisters' full-open microphone solo show, Yuqi Zhang performed the song "Pink Memories" even she plays with the same as hand and foot and the national element songs are sung by A Duo, that represents the world. Huang said, "I have to say that this show is a leap from imitation to innovation." Secondly, in this variety show, showing the diversity of middle-aged women will help society to have a more comprehensive understanding of this group. In traditional media content, middle-aged women are mostly mothers who revolve around the family. This show breaks the stereotype. Middleaged women, a group of aphasia in the past, are shown in high profile in front of the public in the form of group portraits.
Thirdly, the variety show also helps to build a female subject and inspire the awakening of female audiences' physical consciousness. Women over 30 can still be handsome, chic, and sexy, and even over 50 still have feminine beauty and femininity. Women of any age can show colorful charm. Nowadays, women are no longer attached to men and no longer set standards to discipline themselves from the perspective of men.
Lixian Zhu who is a 32-year-old married woman said that "After I gave birth last year, I quit my job and became a full-time mother. On the one hand, I am very appreciated that my baby son is like the best gift God has given me, but on the other hand, I really regret that I can no longer continue my career. At first, I tried to convince myself that these are what I should do, but to be honest, after watching the show, women who are much older than me can still sing and dance on stage and pursue their dreams. I am both envious and admired, and I am also grateful that Sister Who Make Waves can bring me confidence that age is not important, young mentality is the most important one." (Interview with Lixian Zhu, Café in Putian City, December 1st, 2020).
At the time the show was broadcast, Sister Who Make Waves was a top spot in terms of topic volume. The topic volume was as high as 4.429 billion, and it far exceeded the second-ranked Running Man by 230 million [18]. As of July 10, Sisters Who Make Waves has been broadcasted 1.82 billion on Mango TV, with 25.33 billion super-talk readings and 9.567 million super-talk discussions on its Weibo [19]. After the show went live, it also led to an increase in Mango Excellent Media's share price and the heat of Her Variety Shows [20]. The female celebrities who participated in the show also received varying degrees of attention as well as the amount of attention was greatly increased.

Case 2. Chinese Poetry Congress
CCTV is one of the most competitive mainstream media in China today. It has many functions, such as news dissemination, social education, cultural entertainment and information service. CCTV programs have been broadcast in 171 countries and regions. At the same time, it has built Asia's largest and world-class audio and video archive, with 1.3 million hours of audio and video materials [21]. CCTV has formed a diversified business pattern of all-media publicity, advertising and industrial expansion with TV communication as its main business and film, newspaper, audio and video publishing and new media supporting each other.
In the face of competitive pressure, CCTV gave a positive response. Based on years of experience in television communication and the foundation of cultural product production, the direction of building a cultural brand based on its own advantages has been determined. Based on high-quality talents, CCTV concentrates on high-quality resources to explore the cultural connotation of products and enhance the height of creativity. Chinese Poetry Congress is a masterpiece produced in the process of carrying out this development concept.
Chinese Poetry Congress is a cultural puzzle program independently developed by CCTV, which has been well-received since its launch in the first season of 2015. The second season of 2016 was even more successful in terms of word-of-mouth and ratings. According to CCTV data, the total audience of all 10 episodes of the second season reached 1.163 billion [22]. Behind the remarkable performance of "Poetry", the advantages of the program provide reference significance for TV media to further enhance the communication power and grasp the initiative of the dissemination of values.
Chinese Poetry Congress focuses on online and offline interaction and poetry competition. It is not only in full swing on the TV stage but also in the official microblog. In the 10 days of the broadcast, the program team and the audience sent out more than 30,000 Weibo posts, received more than 60,000 comments, more than 180,000 reposts, and more than 330,000 likes. That is to say, for every one Weibo sent, there will be 2 comments, 6 reposts and 10 likes. One Weibo has attracted 18 times attention, with 18 times of communication effectiveness, and its influence can be seen [23]. Besides, WeChat platforms have been on a strong rise. In other words, the show soon gained sustained attention on WeChat. Compared with TV communication, the WeChat platform has the advantage of point-to-point interpersonal communication, which can introduce media issues into interpersonal communication and make it an integral part of People's Daily practice. In terms of the WeChat dissemination of Chinese Poetry Congress, through the mutual forwarding of WeChat friends, the poems and the aesthetic style contained in the section are gradually internalized and absorbed by people, which enhances the sense of cultural participation, acquisition and identity of the general audience.
Shuyao Li, a contestant in the fifth season of Chinese Poetry Congress, said that what has opened her eyes is that advanced technology has brought new life to traditional culture in the interview. Technological innovation uses high-tech means to package traditional culture, realizing the leap from "reading words" to "reading pictures". High-tech technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) break the boundaries of time and space and truly reproduce the poetic and artistic flavor of traditional cultural resources. (Interview with Shuyao Li, Fujian Normal University, July 16th, 2020) On the other hand, experts have been talking about what is behind the sudden enthusiasm for poetry, and how such a show on traditional culture is proving more popular than light entertainment programs. The show was catering to a growing demand for more content about traditional Chinese culture. Meanwhile, the combination of ancient poetry and a competition-format entertainment show has made it easier for audiences to accept. China has become the world's second-largest economy, and with its rapid growth, an increasing number of people have been paying more attention to their spiritual needs, rather than being solely satisfied with material abundance. The rejuvenation of traditional culture is perhaps just one aspect of a new trend forming in the country.
As an excellent self-created variety show, Chinese Poetry Congress has achieved good innovation. Firstly, it pinpoints Chinese characteristics and concentrates on traditional essence. Taking the unique Chinese language art as the entry point, it organically integrates the expression form of TV media and Chinese traditional culture.
Alex Guo, a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, argues that the show balances traditional Chinese culture with the worldview of modern viewers, and westernizes the people's attitudes. By balancing these two points, the show makes the audience feel that although it is talking about traditional Chinese culture, it is not too tacky. The professor also mentioned that CCTV has very good control of stage choreography. In the Chinese Poetry Congress, the audience will feel natural instead of deliberate. The audience will feel that it is telling a very traditional cultural story, which enhances the visual effect of the program and better achieves the purpose of spreading culture. It has firmly grasped the cultural identity and belonging of Chinese audiences, enhanced people's cultural consciousness and cultural confidence, and reflected the attraction of mainstream values themselves. People speak highly of such excellent TV programs that promote mainstream values. (Interview with Yijun Guo, Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, December 3rd, 2020) Secondly, it plays the dual role of mass media and human communication. Generally speaking, a TV host is the key element of interpersonal communication. In today's TV programs, the host has gradually abandoned the traditional and rigid mode of communication, began to appropriately show their own emotions and personality, impress the audience with true feelings, and communicate with the audience as friends. In the program Chinese Poetry Congress, the Host Qing Dong's profound literary foundation, sophisticated stage experience and gracious hosting style have become a beautiful scenery of the program. From the communication trend chart of the host (see Figure 1), it can be seen that during the broadcast of the second season of Chinese Poetry Congress, there were numerous reports on Host Qing Dong, which has shared a similar rising trend with the number of reports on the program itself in various platforms (see Figure 2), and once surpassed 6700 [23]. The discrepancy between the two charts emerged after the end of the season, exposure of the program itself declined slowly around February 18, while the reported trend of Host Qing Dong appeared at a small peak, reaching 5,600 [23]. In addition, Chinese Poetry Congress has set off a wave of reciting poetry by the whole audience as well as driven people's attention to other cultural variety shows analogous to it. Several review guests and contestants well-known to the audience through programs like Lecture Room, The Readers, etc. have developed distinct personal images that narrows the distance between programs and the audience and accordingly raised the emotional temperature of the shows. Thirdly, Chinese Poetry Congress are spread through full-media platforms. It has made a beneficial attempt in cross-media linkage. At the very beginning of the contest registration stage, it adopted various channels including WeChat name to recruit contestants and an on-site audience. During the broadcast of the program, the audience can scan the QR code at the bottom of the TV screen or download the CCTV-audio-and-video client to answer the questions with the contestants simultaneously. They can also follow the relevant official microblog, WeChat and other ways, or log in to the special section of the program on the CCTV network to participate in the interaction. The communication mode of new media gives the audience more opportunities to interact and participate, and gives the audience more initiative from the experience of audience to users. The linkage communication enables the ideological and cultural communication of TV programs to penetrate the hearts of the audience in multiple channels and multiple dimensions, thus realizing the good communication effect of multi-screen resonance.

Innovation Modes in Chinese Variety Shows
As Schumpeter proclaimed that the nature of innovation is a process of upgrading and reassembling existed components to combine a newly meaningful system, innovation can be concluded as a creative process of destruction and must be able to create some new economic value. Invention always comes before innovation, which is the discovery of new tools or new methods, and innovation is the practical application of new tools or new methods [8]. Via combining his definition of innovation, innovation modes have been analyzed from four perspectives that can be regarded as the basis for the division of the two innovation modes: which old elements have been remained, which new tools or methods have been chosen during the reorganization, which old forms have been destroyed, and what new values have been recreated. The innovation models of these two different innovation cases that both have made considerable achievements in the Chinese variety show market will be further discussed.
In the program Chinese Poetry Congress, poetry was used as an existing cultural symbol or a typical component extracted from conventional culture, to form new interactions or meaningful interpretations among the audience, as a result of which, the recombination of elements is also a process of deepening the audience's cultural identity. In addition to using the existing content element of poetry, traditional components also reveal in the stage layout and competition rules. The creative retention of old components not only tests the astonishing accumulation of poems reserved in competitors' minds but also highlights the uniqueness of the program among all competition-based shows.
Schumpeter assumed that valuable competition is not a competition in price, but the competition of new technologies, new supplies, and new forms of combination [8]. In terms of applying new approaches and implements, mainly relying on the official mainstream media and backed by the wellfunded CCTV, Chinese Poetry Congress has utilized numerous high-tech designers to enhance the audience's watching experience. For instance, the program has integrated artificial intelligence (AI) function into traditional competitive mode Flying Flower Order, which also has been launched on its official account in WeChat, a general platform in China Mainland. New methods magnified the efficiency and precision of cultural communication, makes up for the shortcomings of traditional oneway communication and ameliorate the sophisticated mode of content production. Traditional elements sparkle again through the popularization of new technologies.
The application of new methods employed in the Sisters Who Make Wave is inseparable from the destruction of old structures, just like the creative destruction process developed by Schumpeter when innovation takes place. Economic innovation constantly revolutionizes original structures from inside while new structures are built. Common all-girl pop group variety shows often feature young, beautiful, and versatile interns as protagonists of the show. Stable fandom is supposed to be formed through the mode of "cultivating idols". Despite the cliche-ridden components of an all-girl pop group, Sisters Who Make Waves mashed the normal cultivating mode and boldly chose mature female stars, who are more than 30 years old and have debuted for a long length, as the protagonists of the show. Since the mature female beauty that hinges on their age and experience is precisely what young girls have lacked, the gigantic contrast between remaining from old mode and disruption of old mode became the decisive selling point. Although generally speaking, it hasn't escaped the routine of talent shows, but the reorganization of social issues like women's increasingly severe age anxiety and the form of all-girl pop group shows becomes a big hit.
After reorganizing and regenerating the remaining elements, the two programs with distinct features both created new economic value while fulfilling the social responsibilities that people expect from mainstream media. Rooted in traditional culture, for one thing, Chinese Poetry Congress successfully drove people's enthusiasm for traditional poetry and boosted people's confidence in their own culture; for another, it subverted the audience's view of traditional competitive programs in mainstream media, which helps to lay a solid foundation for CCTV to launch a succession of traditional cultural programs such as "the Reader" and "Letters Alive ". Relies on the sweeping effect of the Internet, the success of Sisters Who Make Waves indicates its extraordinary value more in the economic level compared with Chinese Poetry Congress. Yet simultaneously, since the media can influence the audience's "what to think about" through the function of agenda-setting [14], via constantly emphasizing the issue of women's age anxiety, Sisters Who Make Waves has also raised the public's awareness to some extent, for gender equality.

Development & Status Quo of the EM Industry in China
The development of China's media industry in China has entered a critical period. It is very important to maintain a sense of location and a grasp of the development trend in such a critical period.
Making innovations is the fundamental underpinning of all business and operational problems. The precipitous decline in advertising revenue, user size and influence are becoming a source of crisis for traditional media. The multiple crises faced by the media also highlight the necessity of innovation in the media industry in many aspects. In the future, from the perspective of the development of the media industry itself, channels will become a surplus source, and content provision and content control will become one of the commanding heights of the competition. The traditional media industry is less entertaining and often unpopular. Under the impact of emerging media, the income of traditional media declines and its influence gradually weakens. For new media, the lack of technical level and production process unfamiliar is also a big problem. In the context of the current media industry reform, Chinese media should actively explore new business models under the framework of social responsibility, to cope with the crisis and achieve sustainable development.

Findings of the Two Cases
This paper unpacked the essence of innovation and applied the theory into the E&M market to try to find out possible ways to resolve the homogeneity issue of Chinese variety shows. By applying the innovation theory into our case studies, two diverse ways of recombining elements to reshape the homogeneous programs into innovative ones can be extracted respectively. The popularity of traditional culture in Chinese poetry and variety shows featuring over thirty-year-old female stars have risen after the newly reassembling of meaningful old components.
Whereas, the creative destruction theory also pointed out the periodic marketing law. When the economy suffers depression, some entrepreneurs are obliged to ponder the question of whether to exit the market or to yearn for a breakthrough, namely to innovate to survive [8]. If redundant competitors are screened out while some successful innovations truly happen, it will proliferate the economy and increase production efficiency. As the whole market is profitable again, new competitions will begin and accordingly new investors will be attracted. When an evitable process of diminishing profits reappears, it calls for a return back to the previous state. Therefore, every recession comprises the possibility of technological innovations, which can also be stated in reverse: the result of technological innovation forebodes the next expected depression [24]. The concept is quite applicable to the Chinese variety show market. Like other general cultural competition programs or all-girl pop group programs, the newly opened market is incapable of escaping from the loop that homogeneous shows are in flood, audience fatigue accumulates, the market is becoming saturated, and profits are diminishing. Consequently, innovation should be an inner process that never ceases, since the reorganization of the old elements implies disintegration and remodeling in the future, yet the new permutations combined with the application of new technologies and new methods can once again bring new economic value. The repeated emphasis on meaningful old elements has fulfilled the task of media programs in respect of response to social needs and shape values.

Possible Solutions & Suggestions
To move forward, inspired by the creative modes extracted from two cases, this research proposes possible approaches to rectify the market and stimulate innovative thoughts. Firstly, the old-fashioned program mode can be fashionable again when combined with cutting edge technology and presented to the audience in a brand-new way. Secondly, existing elements can still be refreshed under the latest prevailing social issues. Pay attention to where the public's attention is seized and find new methods to reassemble old components. Furthermore, always bear in mind that people can neglect their cultural advantages. Seek for meaningful cultural relics and make good use of traditional wisdom, which can be the enduring fertile soil evoking the inexhaustible innovation. Taken together, our findings expand the understanding and bring new thoughts of innovation modes in the Chinese E&M market.