Jiang Yuan

Jiang Yuan is one of Zhang Ye's recurring enemies. He is the Deputy Director of Central TV Department 1 and he was the one who invited Zhang Ye to work in Central TV.

## Background

Jiang Yuan's child studies in Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School in the sixth grade.

## History

### **The Voice of China Arc**

He heard from his child that Zhang Ye appeared Beijing No. 2 Experimental Primary School, so he waited for him and invited him to work for Central TV because of Zhang Ye's promotion into the B-list Celebrity Rankings and the success of Do You Remember. Nevertheless, as a newcomer, they couldn't give the Friday and weekend time-slots to him as that would be too much of a risk, so they only gave him a primetime slot on Thursday at 9 PM.

Zhang Ye agreed to join Central TV Department 1 on two conditions: (1) he must be the executive director and have the final say on the operations and production of the entire program and (2) he must be able to retain the copyright for the program that he creates, including its name and format. Jiang Yuan agreed to the first condition instantly as long as they have an executive producer on their side, but hesitated on the second condition, as it has never been done before. After discussing with his management, they agreed to let Zhang Ye keep the copyright with their own conditions.

After discussing the station's requirements with Zhang Ye, he appointed Fu Sihong as the program's executive producer.

He and the other leaders were not optimistic for The Voice of China, but they still gave Zhang Ye the go-ahead to do The Voice, but the average ratings must not fall below 0.8%. He gave the program team initial funding of 20 million RMB, a budget far from enough for Zhang Ye.

When Zhang Ye asked for more funding, Jiang Yuan rejected him but promised that as long as Zhang Ye can sell the title sponsorship, it can directly be injected into the program team's funding and be freely allocated by Zhang Ye.

When rumors began spreading that The Voice's title sponsorship was sold for 100 million RMB, he thought that Zhang Ye was spreading fake news for publicity and hype. Later, he and some other leaders signed the contracts with Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, Fan Wenli, and Zhang Yuanqi as the authorized signatories for Central TV. He was shocked by Zhang Yuanqi's sky-high joining fee, but he felt it was worth it.

Jiang Yuan later told Zhang Ye that The Voice must broadcast one month ahead of schedule, as the program they were supposed to replace was suddenly axed due to its host's scandal. In exchange, they will provide anything they need, including equipment, manpower, even Central TV Department 1’s and other channels’ resources. They also allocated another 75 seconds of free publicity to them as compensation.

On the day of The Voice's first broadcast, Zhang Ye called him to report that they were able to finish all preparations. Jiang Yuan quadrupled the team's month-end bonuses and many other benefits to reward them for working non-stop to meet the deadline. He and Central TV Department 1’s leaders came to the studio for the recording of The Voice's first episode.

After the first episode finished recording, he and the other leaders felt that The Voice was so exciting that it had surpassed his expectations of excitement. He and the leaders of Central TV Department 1 were so impressed by Zhang Ye that there was nothing they could criticize him on. He was also one of the people who panicked when he saw the rumors that the SARFT was planning to ban The Voice, so he made some calls to check out the situation.

Later, he threw a celebratory feast for The Voice's program team after the successful broadcast of the first episode. When Zhang Ye wanted to make a toast for him, he insisted that the first toast should be given to Zhang Ye. He later announced that an online video hosting service offered 80 million RMB to secure the exclusive online broadcast rights to The Voice, but he sought Zhang Ye's opinion first before deciding to sell.

He was dumbfounded when he saw that The Voice's first episode had a viewership rating of 2.01%. He called Zhang Ye to his office the next day to praise him for a job well done and to remind Zhang Ye that due to the great success of the first episode, the second episode will have a heavy burden of following through.

### **College Entrance Examinations Arc**

When Zhang Ye was appointed to be a question setter for the Beijing college entrance exam, Zhang Ye applied for leave from Jiang Yuan. As the question setters cannot return home or contact the outside world until the day of the college entrance exams, he was worried about how The Voice's program team will handle their work, but Zhang Ye assured him that they have already recorded three episodes and ready for broadcast while he's gone. He thought it wasn't appropriate if he didn't allow him to go, as being part of the college entrance examination's question setting team is not an opportunity that comes knocking frequently. Nevertheless, he asked Zhang Ye to try to see if he can stay in contact on the phone at all times.

He immediately called Zhang Ye to make sure of his safety when he saw the news that he got into trouble again. He felt a sense of relief after verifying that Zhang Ye had not been arrested by the police and it would not affect the recording of The Voice.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 628: Signing the contract with Central TV!
2. ↑ Chapter 722: Rage smash!