Costing several thousand yuan with commercial orders quoted at 150,000 yuan, will AI variety shows have an impact on real-person variety shows?

AI is fully invading the film, television and variety show sectors, and the entertainment industry has stepped into the virtualization era.

The worldwide booming of AI manhua dramas is obvious to all. Previously, the satellite TV-aired AI long drama *Post Journey to the West* pushed up Mango's stock price. The first AI theatrical film *Sanxingdui: Future Past* produced by Bona Pictures will be released this Friday, and a batch of AI variety shows and their operators have also become widely popular.

After transforming to AI variety shows, the account @100000 Challenges gained 1 million new followers within half a year, the total play count of its AI variety works reached 300 million, and it now has 2.3 million followers. It launched *Chalk Battle* that gained over 1.89 million likes on Douyin, and its commercial order prices on Xingtu range from 80,000 to 150,000 yuan depending on the duration. Other well-known AI variety shows include *The Plasticine War in Universities* launched by @Chua Le Ju, *The Great Conquest of Deification* launched by @Daytime Fun Shop, *The Reshaping Project* and its eponymous account, etc.

With the help of AI tools, its production cost per episode has been reduced to several thousand yuan, and the production cycle has been shortened to one week. Compared with the single-episode cost of millions to tens of millions of yuan and the preparation period of several months for top-tier variety shows, the effect of cost reduction and efficiency improvement is very significant.

However, compared with film and television works, variety shows rely more on "long-term interactive companionship with audiences", "celebrity effect" and "real human vibe", so they are relatively less impacted by AI variety shows. Current AI variety shows are positioned similar to "micro-variety shows", which bring new inspiration to real-person variety shows.

Growing New Species: AI Versions

Competitive Challenges, Romance Variety Shows, Talent Shows, Character Observation Programs

The law that "all content products are worth remaking with AI" also applies to variety shows. At present, multiple types of AI variety shows have emerged, including competitive shows, romance shows, talent shows, and character observation shows, with more unrestrained creativity that can achieve what real-person variety shows cannot, such as cross-species settings and settings that ignore physical rules.

Competitive challenge AI variety shows are easily associated with the impossible challenges launched by MrBeast, the "world's top internet celebrity", who offers huge cash rewards. Most of them also add supernatural fantasy elements, integrate Marvel-like settings and ACG culture to enhance viewing appeal.

For example, *Chalk Battle* draws on the foreign work *Chalk Warfare*, setting that 1000 students and 100 teachers fight with magic chalk in the school, and the winners share 1 billion tons of gold equally. With the magic chalk similar to that of Ma Liang, the contestants draw magic wands, Death Notes, Captain America's shields, Hot Wheels, helicopters, super mechs and space battleships, upgrading the story to superhuman fights and interstellar wars.

Romance AI variety shows are more exaggerated than real-person ones, with frequent settings of helicopters and island villas. At the guest level, they introduce "social topic concepts" such as constellations and personalities, striving to trigger wider resonance, sense of substitution and public attention.

"Fatal Heartbeat" under the Malt brand is one of the early entrants. Its first season added infinite-flow battle royale suspense and thriller elements, where participants whose heartbeat value does not reach the standard will be "deleted". Its second season creates an AI romance variety show with 12 constellations as anthropomorphic guests, set in a sea-view villa where 3 pairs of ex-lovers are hidden among 6 guests. The 8 episodes have accumulated more than 1.55 million likes in total, 4 of which are commercial orders, and the account has gained more than 370,000 new followers.

The previously AI-generated fruit romance variety show *Fruit Love Island* became a hit on TikTok, gaining 3 million new followers 9 days after its launch, topping the US new follower growth list, with an average view count of over 10 million for 21 episodes, inspiring the domestic account @Chou Sha to create the Chinese version of "Fruit Island Romance Variety Show".

Most AI talent shows copy the gameplay of the "Produce 101" series. *12 Star Trainee Competition* under the Malt brand covers all links from contestant appearance, initial stage rating, assessment team formation, to public performance for debut spots, fully equipped with stage focus shots, off-air behind-the-scenes footage, and fan station photo outputs. The contestants also have their own support clubs and data stations, and the comment areas are filled with idol support cheering lines. Only half a month after its release, the total cross-platform heat has exceeded 100 million, and the official account has gained more than 400,000 new followers in half a month.

There is another gameplay, that is, using AI to reproduce well-known variety show IPs, especially those far-reaching programs that have stopped broadcasting. The character observation AI variety show *The Reshaping Project* is based on *X-Change*, with characters like rebellious girl Zhao Ruonan who solves problems with fists, and boy Lu Xiaonao who is full of internet memes. Both the characters and famous scenes can find prototypes in the original program, verifying that topics such as social class gaps and human nature conflicts are eternal traffic codes. The show *Pseudo Ha* imitates the show *HaHaHaHaHa* in a absurd and exaggerated way.

Another type suitable for AI is the "food + fantasy" category. Last year, the show *Make 6 Dishes from Ancient Mosasaurus* attracted nearly 10 million views on Bilibili, setting the story as "how 6 chefs around the world make 6 dishes from an ancient mosasaurus that has been extinct for 65 million years". Due to its hyper-realistic pictures, many netizens praised it as "actual shooting".

It is not difficult to see that the above AI variety shows show strong input-output ratio and commercialization potential. Among them, the most viral show *100000 Challenges* has advertisements in more than 20 consecutive episodes. Most of these AI variety shows combine their own lightweight content features and adopt relatively "light" placement methods such as oral broadcasting, embedded placement, and short skits, while full-season naming rights will only be available for more top-tier IPs.

The homogenization bottleneck has begun to appear. After *12 Star Trainee Competition* became popular, similar topics such as zodiac talent shows and MBTI 16-personality talent shows emerged immediately. After *The Reshaping Project* became popular, a large number of similar accounts such as *New Life Project* and *Exchange Project* emerged. But in the same track, usually only the first person to eat the crab can get the biggest dividend, so the sensitivity to audience pain points and the novelty of creativity are very important.

Although many AI variety shows still show traces of drawing on mature IPs and have a strong personal DIY style, relying on the real-time feedback of short video platforms, the rapidly iterating AI variety shows, like AI manhua dramas, present the characteristics of "content first, de-celebrity orientation". Their timely follow-up to internet hotspots, capture of audience psychological needs, and expertise in creating abstract entertainment to bring joy to the public and provide emotional value are the key to attracting young audiences, which is worth learning for real-person variety shows.

Variety Shows Are Trying "AI+"

Is Real Human Vibe the Ultimate Barrier?

Variety shows need new tricks.

According to Yunhe Data, in the third quarter of 2026, the total effective full-episode play count of top 20 variety shows across the network reached 3.3 billion times, down 17% year-on-year compared with the same period in 2025. Eight major video platforms launched a total of 70 seasonal variety shows, 27 less than the same period last year, a decrease of 28%. Among the top 20 programs, 19 are long-running variety IPs, and new IPs only account for a small proportion.

The above data reflects the double contraction on the traffic side and the supply side. Cost reduction, efficiency improvement, quality enhancement and quantity optimization have always been the key themes in recent years.

In recent years, many variety shows at home and abroad have tried to introduce AI elements, using "AI+" to endow traditional content with futuristic tech sense and connect with the most popular trend at present.

Some variety shows take AI as a part to increase the fun of programs. For example, *Happy Fun Breeze* and *Music Fate Plan 2* use AI to "tell the offensive truth". The AI-created work *Skill Gomoku* became a hit across the network last year, and the fifth season of *Shining Days* launched an AI special episode.

Some variety shows introduce virtual humans as guests or directors to realize the "mix of AI and real people". For example, the digital human "Li Li" from Alibaba Youku serves as the question setter for the show *The Cat in the Box*, and the Chinese-style AI digital human "Guo Xiaofeng" acts as the topic starter for the show *Chinese Style Super Playful*. In the show *We Three*, the AI director "Ai Mang" plans itineraries for guests, edits Vlogs and interacts with guests.

The experimental program *The PD Has Disappeared* from South Korea's MBC lets the AI director M-Phago decide the casting copy, program process, game design, real-time editing and performance fee distribution. Although there are confusing situations, it has broadened the creative boundary.

Some variety shows directly take AI as their core theme. Not long ago, South Korea's SBS launched the first human-AI romance variety show *My AI Partner: Strange Love*, allowing guests to date with AI partners customized according to their ideal types. Shows including *Hi! AI - Music Season*, *Future China · AI Season* and *I AI 2025* all put AI in the C position. Hunan TV and Mango TV previously announced that they will launch China's first all-AI singer music variety show *Phantom Singers*, gathering 9 virtual AI singers, which has aroused widespread heated discussion.

At the moment when AI continues to impact the content industry and AI-related products have become new sponsors, "AI+" may become the long-term development direction of variety shows at home and abroad.

At present, different from the huge impact of AI manhua dramas on real-person short dramas, AI variety shows that mostly attract attention with spectacular grand scenes are more like a supplement to real-person variety shows, similar to an alternative type of "AI video" or "AI short drama" with pre-determined scripts. It is difficult for them to depict delicate character emotions and growth arcs, or capture unpredictable real-time unexpected situations, so they have not reached the level of replacing real-person variety shows.

Another irreplaceable part of real-person variety shows is celebrities. As the part that accounts for most of the cost expenditure in real-person variety shows, celebrity guests as brand spokespersons can directly attract sponsorship and linkage, deeply bind fan groups, and top-tier artists can drive both sales and exposure to rise. Although AI variety shows cut the cost of celebrity guests, they also set an upper limit for their commercial cooperation.

Although a number of virtual protagonists of manhua dramas already have fan stations, behind-the-scenes footage and have started live streaming to sell goods, it is still difficult for them to have more complex and diverse growth possibilities like real celebrities, and truly break the cross-border path of film-variety show-music. Their hit works have already limited their appearance and persona, so it is difficult for them to get rid of the established impression of the audience, and their commercial value is relatively weak.

In front of AI, the most fundamental barrier of real-person variety shows is of course the "real human vibe". As a cultural and entertainment product with low attention threshold that can be watched in fragmented time, the public still needs to empathize with tearful moments or even awkward and painful experiences during the months of daily casual variety show watching, and develop real emotional attachment.

The hug of Guo Keyu in the first season of *Goodbye Lover*, various discussions about full-time housewives triggered by Mai Lin in the fourth season, the confrontation between Zhang Jiaqi and her mother in *My Little One*... Those moments when the "god of variety shows" descends and top the national hot search list, which are out of control and real, usually hit the long-existing but rarely recognized common emotions of the public, triggering multiple cross-border discussions in sociology, psychology and other fields, which cannot be captured and reproduced by algorithms.

In fact, the real human vibe is not only the most important moat of real-person variety shows, but also the ultimate barrier of all real-person content. However, it is becoming more and more scarce and more and more difficult to achieve.

This article is from WeChat official account "Entertainment Unicorn" (ID: yuledujiaoshou), author: Mia, editor: Tangchao Dashan, published with authorization from 36Kr.