Super Girl or Super Voice Girls (; literally: "Super Female Voice", as it is homonym with "Super girl") was a Chinese singing contest for female contestants, organized by Hunan Satellite Television between 2004 and 2006. The show's official name was Mengniu Yoghurt Super Girl Contest until 2009; later it was known as BBK Music Phone Super Girl Contest, after the company that sponsored the series. It was generally described as the unofficial mainland Chinese version of the global television franchise Pop Idol (2001) and became one of the most popular entertainment shows in the country. Despite Super Girl'''s major popularity and success, the show was heavily criticised by Liu Zhongde, a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He essentially claimed Super Girl was poison for the youth.
The program was relaunched in 2009. The Chinese title was changed to Happy Girls () though the official English title remains unchanged as Super Girl. In 2011, the Chinese government banned Super Girl from airing, claiming the program to be too long. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) told the Hunan station that Super Girl broke time rules for this kind of show. They should be no more than 90 minutes long, but episodes of Super Girl can last more than three hours. More than 2.5 billion people watched the show.
Huanan announced a third incarnation of the show on October 30, 2015. Auditions for the series closed on April 16, 2016.
Outline
Partly inspired by the many spinoffs of the UK show Pop Idol, the competition was open to any female contestant regardless of her origin, appearance, or how she sings. The almost unrestricted audition sessions drew contestants of ages ranging from 4 to 89 years old. The 2005 season attracted more than 120,000 applicants during the preliminary selection rounds, held in the five provinces of Hunan, Sichuan, Guangdong, Henan and Zhejiang. Many applicants travelled long distances to take part in the competition hoping to become a star. Each contestant was allowed 30 seconds to perform in front of judges and find out if they were selected for the preliminary regional rounds. To prevent another overwhelming audition season, a minimum age of eighteen was later set during the 2006 season.
Following the selection of contestants in the five regions, the competition began with the preliminary rounds. Preliminaries were held in each of the five locations where auditions were located. Television viewers were able to watch each of the preliminaries and vote for their favorite singers. Voting was conducted by telephone and text messaging.
The regional preliminaries were followed by a weekly broadcast knockout competition held in Changsha, Hunan province. Viewers called in to vote for their favourite singers, and the weakest two—as voted by the judges and the audience's weekly SMS— faced-off subsequently in a PK, short for Player Kill. The term is derived from kill-or-be-killed multiplayer online games. The singer with the fewest votes was then eliminated. Unlike Pop Idol, the last event was contested between the final three, rather than the final two contestants.
Unlike American Idol, judges for the competition were selected from different backgrounds in society, but they were all still Chinese. A few dozen "audience judges" were selected in addition to several professional judges.
History
The original version of the show was known as Super Boy, and aired in 2003 on Hunan Entertainment Channel, a local broadcaster based in Changsha, Hunan province in South Central China. The show was a success and its counterpart, Super Girl, aired at the beginning of 2004 with the slogan, "Sing as you want, sing out loud," and became the most viewed show in Hunan. However, the programme's impact was limited as the channel does not broadcast outside the province.
On May 6, 2004, Super Girl was introduced to a national audience by its producer Liao Ke through Hunan Satellite Television. In addition to broadcasting the original episodes created by Hunan Entertainment Channel, the network also developed this show in other 3 cities: Wuhan in Hubei province, Nanjing in Jiangsu province, and Chengduin Sichuan province. This show attracted an average of 10,000 contestants in each city and received nationwide attention.