Peak Showdown, Betting on Trends, Born for Newness: Variety Shows Are Heating Up in Q3

In the summer Q3 of 2026, the variety show market has fully rebounded. Major video platforms have deployed diverse tracks covering travel, talk show, rap, food, romance variety, escape room and other segments. Top long-running variety IPs are launched in clusters, and new niche works stand out from the market, forming a new industry landscape of "stabilizing the market base with established IPs and breaking through audience circles with innovative content". Based on data from platforms including Yunhe and Maoyan, multiple programs have ranked high on the popularity charts, and the market vitality of the variety show track has picked up remarkably.

However, industry pain points such as content homogenization, obvious script traces, public opinions on guests, and insufficient content polishing still exist, and the creation of hit programs still faces multiple challenges.

From an overall perspective, platforms continue to increase investment in mature IPs, tap new creators in niche segments, and try content innovation in Q3. But how to balance the relationship between traffic, script and real content? How to avoid public opinion risks and break away from homogenized creation routines? These propositions are still the core issues that all production teams need to continuously overcome.

Stabilization + Breakthrough: Can "Super Fresh Earth 2" Maintain Strong Momentum Throughout Its Run?

Do you still remember the performance of the first season of "Super Fresh Earth"? It has maintained a high score of 8 on Douban so far. The peak in-platform popularity on Tencent Video exceeded 26,000 upon its premiere, refreshing the annual premiere popularity record of variety shows on the platform. The total full-video play volume across the whole network exceeded 210 million 48 hours after launch, with a Vlinkage online variety index of 83.88. It topped the daily ranking for 54 days within 57 days of broadcast, and took up 45.6% of the new variety show market share counted by Yunhe. As Tencent Video's S+ level original travel exploration reality show, the first season of "Super Fresh Earth" stood out in the 2025 variety show track with its "stranger group narrative", achieving a win-win situation of both high popularity and good reputation.

On June 27, the second season of "Super Fresh Earth" (hereinafter referred to as "Earth 2") premiered, and its in-platform popularity on Tencent Video exceeded 24,000, making it enter Tencent Video's "Hit Club". Although Douban has not yet opened the scoring channel for the show, it has topped the Maoyan variety show chart.

Yunhe Data shows that the show recorded a Yunhe popularity score of 25353 on its premiere day of June 27, and once topped the variety show chart. Up to now, its Yunhe popularity score still remains at 22276. On July 10, 2026, its Yunhe rating reached S+ for the first time.

The data has proved the high quality of the show's content, and according to the observation of Cultural & Entertainment Value Officer, "Earth 2" is trying to make innovations and breakthroughs based on the success of its first season.

The first highlight lies in the shooting location. This season the crew chose to go to New Zealand, which guarantees the audience's visual enjoyment. Content such as glacier hiking, skydiving and outdoor adventure fits perfectly with the natural scenery of New Zealand, and also fulfills the core concept of "traveling around the earth". However, after the show was broadcast, some audiences began to question that even when the crew had arrived in New Zealand, they still arranged basic indoor games, and expressed dissatisfaction with the game settings.

The second highlight is the guest lineup. Guo Jingfei replaced Chen He and brought new rhythm and viewing effect. Some audiences think that Chen He's exit makes the show more innovative; while some viewers complain that the comedy rhythm has slowed down, and Guo Jingfei's garrulous ad-libbing cannot replicate the precisely designed twist punchlines that Chen He created before for now.

Liu Yuning has been a resident guest for two seasons, and is also called a "hit maker" by his fans. His fan group actively boosts the popularity of the show to keep its heat at a high level. However, in the mud game, the interaction between Liu Yuning and Gong Jun triggered netizens' discussions about "safety". Liu Yuning immediately posted an article admitting that there is room for optimization in the propriety of their interaction, and stated that the two are good friends. But the controversy led to a downward trend in the show's viewing performance and popularity, which also reflects the double-edged sword effect of the fan circle.

At present, the show has aired its 5th episode. The editing team seems to have taken the audience's feedback, and arranged more scenery and cultural content of Paris in the program, but a large number of game segments set in the cabin in the second half of the show are indeed lack of innovation and entertainment. However, in the current inert environment where most variety shows rely on acquaintance groups, the guest lineup of "Earth 2" is a group of strangers who are not closely connected, which creates a fresh social interaction effect. Judging from the market response, "Earth 2" is a top-tier summer variety show. If the production team actively adjusts the content settings later, it can at least maintain the performance of the first season.

"Stand-up Comedy 3" and "Talk Show & Friends 3": The Two Wheels of Stand-up Comedy Are Running Simultaneously

In the 2026 summer season, China's two major stand-up comedy IPs continue to launch at the same time. "King of Comedy: Stand-up Season 3" (hereinafter referred to as "Stand-up Comedy 3") on iQiyi and "Talk Show & Ta's Friends 3" (hereinafter referred to as "Talk Show & Friends 3") on Tencent Video jointly bring laughter to this summer.

According to Yunhe Data, "Stand-up Comedy 3" has a market share of 8.9%, and ranks first on the Yunhe Data variety show chart as of press time.

Several amazing dark horses have contributed to the high popularity of "Stand-up Comedy 3". The first one is WHO, a practicing lawyer from Northeast China. His dual identity brings natural contrastive sense of humor. In the court trial scene of the grassroots county court, his Northeast accent mixes with legal terms, and he delivers one pun after another. He joked that the judge asked the defendant "Do you have any objection?", the defendant replied "It has educational meaning"; when asked "Which part do you disagree with?", the defendant answered "I disagree in my heart", making the audience laugh out of breath.

Haiyu, a boy from the plateau, is also a new online actor who comes from Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. He has shown his unique personal style since the first episode. He first teased the stereotype of people from Garze, "Do you have Ding Zhen's WeChat?" He said that "cattle and horses" is a commendatory term on the plateau. Urban office workers may already feel a sense of pain when they hear the phrase "cattle and horses"; but in his hometown, cattle and horses represent freedom, wildness and unrestraint. The same phrase has a completely different positive meaning in different places. Urban children are forced to compete for grades from an early age, and they will fall into great anxiety once they fail the exams, leading to endless psychological problems. In his hometown, a simple sentence "you think too much, just relax" can solve all these problems.

In this season of "Stand-up Comedy", the number of contestants has expanded from 48 groups to 60 groups. In addition to veteran performers such as Lin Jianqi, Xi Ha and Zhai Jianing, new performers with solid skills but low public awareness take up a large proportion. This lineup thickness guarantees the freshness of the whole season.

"Talk Show & Friends 3" seems to be slightly inferior in popularity. It has not been on the Yunhe chart for many days, its popularity is lower than "Stand-up Comedy 3" in the same track, and it even fails to catch up with the small-scale romance variety "Love in the Ordinary Life". However, as a key player in the talk show industry, "Talk Show & Friends 3" still has many highlights, especially in the selection of guests: Lu Yu and Niaoniao ensure the intellectual and professional perspective, while Zhou Shen, Yan Ni and Da Zhangwei guarantee the comedy effect.

In terms of contestants, Xiaoqi has become the well-deserved "pillar" of "Talk Show & Friends 3". His performance from stage style to joke creation has reached a superb level, and every performance brings widely spread punchlines to the show.

"Talk Show & Friends 3" also has impressive new contestants, such as the Island Owner, who said he does not need makeup and styling for the show. Because he has his exclusive look: a set of beachwear with unified upper and lower color and printed coconut tree patterns, paired with a pair of flip-flops. In Hainan, beachwear is called "island suit", and he almost only wears island suits during his stay in Shanghai this time.

The 24-year-old Xiaodie has a chicken as her pet. "Chicken is actually a very thoughtful animal." Observing the chicken also gives Xiaodie a new perspective to observe herself. "The process of raising it makes me understand myself better, and also understand my family." The Cultural & Entertainment Value Officer's favorite part is Zhao Yue's joke about his mother: she worked hard all her life and was always busy. When he finally said "Off work, Ms. Yuan", the eyes of the audience were all wet.

Although "Stand-up Comedy" and "Talk Show & Friends" are in a competitive relationship, the existence of these two shows brings vitality to practitioners in the talk show industry. Little-known offline new performers can stand on a larger online stage, be recognized and liked by more audiences, and then extend their influence to offline tours... But online shows are also a double-edged sword. Once the strict check on talk show content is loosened and the screenwriters' skills are uneven, the hard-won audience trust will also collapse quickly.

"Rap of China 2026": The 10-year Report Card of Chinese Rap

As netizens on Douban said, this iQiyi show is the best answer to the 10-year development of Chinese rap. It has persisted for ten years in producing a niche and unpopular style of music variety show, supporting and cultivating a generation of rap stars in this process. Those rap singers who once had no commercial performances can now participate in variety shows and endorse brands, so the show itself has achieved great success with its value.

As of press time, "Rap of China 2026" (hereinafter referred to as "Rap 2026") ranks 3rd on the Douyin hot variety show chart and 2nd on the Maoyan variety show chart (31 days after launch).

After the elimination and rescue round was broadcast on July 25-26, under the cruel 14-to-9 elimination system, many powerful rappers including VaVa, Wang Yiheng, PACT and Huang Xu were eliminated. Music critic Chen Qingyang's comment that the original lyrics of Kung Fu Peng and RANZER are "inferior to AI" triggered Yan Haoxiang's on-site refutation, which topped the hot search list, and the topic popularity of the show continued to rise.

In addition, the dispute between VaVa and Liang Yuan in the show also created a dramatic on-site confrontation, making netizens exclaim "This is the real hiphop!"

The performances of the contestants also bring constant surprises. First of all, Jia Mu's "Family Letter" samples Han Hong's "Jiu Er" and integrates suona, which is commented by Er Di as a "neo-folk" route that combines popularity and local characteristics. AThree's "Footprints" presents Xinjiang tap dance for the first time on Chinese rap stages, integrating the Nazkum music system, which is both international and full of local ethnic characteristics. Yamy's Cantonese rap work "Ask Love" has received more than 1.03 million likes on Douyin, becoming the 4th most-liked stage in all previous iQiyi rap shows.