The second season of Super Girls, a TV pop star contest, came to a close on Friday night, but, after generating massive ratings and similarly huge earnings, organizers could be forgiven for not paying too much attention to who actually won.
The Hunan Satellite Television show’s ratings have reportedly overtaken the benchmark CCTV Spring Festival Eve gala performance the first time a local channel has achieved such a feat. By Friday afternoon, so many people were babbling about the phenomenon that, on Sina.com alone, they left a trail of 2.4 million postings.
Pundits have been furiously reading tea leaves to decipher the secret formula for the runaway hit…
But a more fundamental question is: How come an imitation of a democratic system ends up selecting the singer who has the least ability to carry a tune?
See also “In China, it’s Mongolian Cow Yogurt Super Girl” from the Christian Science Monitor. This topic on the web, via Google News.