I guess not many people in Melbourne are familiar with Chinese media industry. Actually, there are lots of great ones that I would like to introduce to you, such as “A bite of China”(2015), “The infelicity in the society”(2016) and so on. In this post, I am going to talk about one of my favourite TV reality shows–“Who’s The Murderer” which is a star reasoning show launched by Mango TV, a network platform of Hunan Radio and Television Station in mainland China. It was first broadcasted on Mango TV on the 27th of March, 2016.

There are six star players in each episode. In each scenario, one person acts as a detective and the other five people play their roles, which they are also suspects. There is a real murderer hidden among the five suspects, and only the murderer can lie. The players point out the murderer by voting. The detective has two voting rights and each suspect has one voting right. The players can win only by successfully voting the murderer.

The quality of the program, the core content and the guest lineup provide the viewing security for the program. It also attracts netizens to participate in the show so that the majority of netizens get the chances to become a “Sherlock Holmes” detective. Localised classic cases were adopted to restore the “crime scene”. The show has the main theme of the “brain burning plot” and “suspicious reasoning”, combined with the characteristics of TV dramas and variety shows. Every episode is divided into multiple investigations and evidence collection, and the plot is compact and gradual. there are summary and review of the suspects’ testimony, the inspector’s analysis and summary and other three rounds of fierce identification, and thus enhance the sense of participation of netizens and the suspense stories really attract the audience. Netizens use social media to join in and can win the “Mango Beans”. “Who is the murderer” successfully make the content, brands and fans fully integrated. Moreover, the main line of “Finding the Real Fierce” makes the netizens themselves become more justical. The spokesperson of the detective helps the advertiser to establish a high-quality brand image.

From the second series, the detective also has an independent role, and the detective identity is hidden in the character card, randomly selected by the player. In the third series, additional real-world cases will be added to conduct a search in the actual building to increase the sense of presence.

According to the staff, “the main strength of scriptwriting is a group of people whose average age is about 24, their thinking will be more compatible with the netizens who are watching now.” Each script will meet countless challenges from prototype to screening and to recording. Each topic needs everyone to brainstorm, to smooth each character’s line, to clarify the suspense and logic, and then start recording. Many details will be modified according to the different scenes. In the first two seasons, the show was recorded in the shed. In the third series, in order to make the original suspense more authentic, the director group set up a 4000 square meter real scene on the Xiangjiang River in Changsha. There are more than a dozen rooms in the building. Every item in the building is a real one.

I believe that the success of this show is inevitable. It combines the exaggerated effects created by the TV script with the real reaction of people from the reality show. The effect of combining multiple fields is significant. I feel that the key to the popularity of non fiction production is definitely connected with people which means that it needs to be more diverse and “younger”.