Chapter 1175: Zhang Ye commentates the Olympics (Part 1 of 5)

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The next day.

It was the fifth day of the Olympics.

Zhang Ye practically pulled an all-nighter by himself in the studio to research his new role for today. He had listened to commentary for an event from the last Olympics while his desk was littered with all kinds of information, such as the detailed schedules and rules of each event, the referees' judging criteria, the world records for the events, the athletes' best results, the likelihood of someone winning a medal, etc. Zhang Ye had spent the entire night going through the thick stack of information prepared for him by his staff. If one wanted to go on a live broadcast to commentate the Olympics, it wouldn't be possible without a foundation. Zhang Ye knew that he had to at least do some basic research to be ready for it. Since he accepted the job, he wouldn't go into it without making preparations.

The phone rang.

It was his mother. "You didn't come home yesterday night?"

Zhang Ye said: "Ah, I was kept busy at the office."

His mother asked: "Why didn't you call then? Are you coming back later?"

"Probably at night. I have some work to handle during the day." Zhang Ye said with a laugh: "Oh, mom, remember to watch the Olympics live coverage this afternoon at 1. Let Dad know too."

His mother wondered: "What for?"

Zhang Ye said: "Haha, you'll know after watching."

In the morning, the official Weibo of Zhang Ye's Studio also posted an announcement.

@ZhangYeStudio: "Everyone, please remember to catch the live coverage of the Olympics this afternoon at 1 PM. There will be a surprise in store."

The netizens were also unsure of what this meant.

"The Olympics live coverage?"

"What surprise?"

"I don't understand. What do they mean?"

"Are they doing a promotion for the Olympics? I heard that Central TV Sports Channel's viewership ratings these days have dropped a lot. Several key people at Central TV are panicking, and the hosts are also reminding everyone to pay more attention to the developments of the Olympic Games. After all, this is the first time our country is hosting it. It wouldn't look nice if the ratings are too low."

"Ai, that's because our performance this year isn't that good."

"Yeah, I didn't really pay much attention to it."

"I'm still watching. No matter how badly they're performing, I'll support our athletes!"

"I wonder what Zhang Ye's Studio is hinting with that announcement?"

Everyone felt rather confused.

Just before noon.

In the Olympic grounds.

Zhang Ye arrived at Central TV's live coverage studio. The morning's events had ended and there was a short break at noon. The staff were all eating box lunches, with some of them eating and reading their transcripts simultaneously as they prepared for the afternoon's events.

"Yingyi," Zhang Ye greeted.

Yu Yingyi lightly pushed aside her box lunch and looked up. "You're here? Have you eaten?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Not yet."

Yu Yingyi immediately called out, "Get Teacher Zhang some food too."

A staff member quickly brought over a box lunch for him.

"Thanks." Zhang Ye didn't say anything else and immediately pulled over a chair to sit down. Then he began eating with relish.

When a lot of the people in the studio saw Zhang Ye, they gave him several more looks as it was their first time meeting a legendary figure like him.

Yu Yingyi also gave him a look. "You're such a big shot. Why are you still eating box lunches like the rest of us?

Zhang Ye was amused and waved around the box in his hands. "Why can't I eat this? The food provided here is already quite good. Back when I was filming on location for A Bite of China, we didn't even get something like this. We were always freeloading off of the locals, and those millet pancakes were so hard to chew that we couldn't even get them down our throats with water, hur hur. If you think that this box lunch is bad, you guys would probably have starved to death if you went along with us for those shoots."

Yu Yingyi laughed. "I always thought that you led a pampered life."

"Oh, come on." Zhang Ye said with a laugh, "I've only been going through hardship all these years."

At this time, the executives of the Central TV Sports Channel arrived.

One of the executives said pleasantly and cheerfully, "Teacher Zhang, we're depending on you this time."

Zhang Ye held the box lunch in his left hand and extended his right to shake hands with the executive.

Then they had a simple exchange regarding the later work matters.

The executive asked, "Has Little Yu briefed you yet? Are you familiar with the requirements of your role?"

Zhang Ye replied, "More or less."

Another executive said nervously, "Don't take it so lightly, Teacher Zhang. We're depending on you to help increase the viewership ratings. You've never done any sports hosting before, so you'll be lacking much of the foundation." He quickly took out a large stack of documents. "This is an overview of the events taking place this afternoon and the related information. There's a list of who the previous gold medalists were and what the best records for each event are. It's all written in here. Please take a look so that you won't get it wrong later."

Zhang Ye took the documents from him and flipped through them. Then he returned them to him and said, "There's no need for these. I've already memorized all of the information and statistics related to the Olympics."

Yu Yingyi was taken aback. "How did you memorize it?"

"I just did." Zhang Ye said, "In all the time that I've done hosting, I've never needed a script."

The people around also looked at Zhang Ye in disbelief. Everyone in Central TV knew that Zhang Ye had never depended on using scripts before, but this was not exactly like the shows he'd done in the past. This was live coverage for the Olympics, and it involved a great amount of statistics that were just too detailed to be memorized. And then, there were a whole lot of foreign names involved, so who could possibly remember all of that information? Not even a professional sports commentator like Yu Yingyi could do it!

Yu Yingyi asked in distrust, "Who is the world record holder for the Women's Hammer Throw?"

"Irina."

"And the distance?"

"81.05 meters."

"Who had the best result in the Men's Pole Vault this year?"

"Robert, with a height of 6.1 meters."

"In the Women's Balance Beam, who is ranked eleventh in the world?"

"Japanese athlete Toyama Yoko."

Someone quickly went to check in disbelief!

"Eleventh?"

"Who is it?"

"Holy shit!"

"It's really Toyama Yoko!"

Only silence could be heard.

Then, Yu Yingyi cried out, "You've really memorized everything?"

Everyone looked at Zhang Ye like they had seen a ghost. Him memorizing the world record holders or the best results of the year was acceptable. That was because those disciplines were some of the most popular and anticipated events. But how the fuck did he remember so clearly who the world number eleven was in the balance beam? How could this memory of yours be so good!

Zhang Ye simply shrugged and finished up the last bit of his lunch. "What did you think I was doing spending the entire night awake? I am a professional host, so don't doubt the foundations of my professionalism."

Yu Yingyi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "But aren't you being way too professional like this! Does that mean that I'm just an amateur?"

Everyone here was utterly convinced!

The executive gave him a thumbs up. "Professor Zhang is indeed worthy of his reputation. He is indeed the smartest person to come along in a century. I've truly broadened my horizons today. We were still worried that you would be unfamiliar with doing live coverage for sports, but it seems like we were worried for nothing. You're truly such a great professional! Amazing!"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Don't say that. I'm just performing my duty so that I can get paid. Since I've already accepted the role, I'll definitely want to do it well. Don't worry about it. If you guys have any suggestions, you can mention them to me as well."

The executive nodded and said, "We might have been covering the Olympics too traditionally, too old-fashioned, too outdated. The expectations of the audience these days are getting higher and higher, so the things they like are different from the past. We've analyzed that other than our country's delegation not performing to their potential, those factors are also part of the reason why the viewership ratings kept dropping. We've invited you this time as we also wish to make some changes and implement some new ideas to the commentary."

Zhang Ye nodded in acknowledgment. "I understand."

By appointing Zhang Ye as an Olympic commentator, the Central TV Sports Channel was taking an enormous risk. They had discussed it for an entire day during their meeting before finally making this decision! This was a very bold attempt, but what would it lead to? Nobody knew!

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