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, 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 are followed by a weekly broadcast held in Changsha, Hunan province. Viewers call in to vote for their favourite singers, and the weakest two—as voted by the judges and the audience's weekly — face-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 least number of votes is then eliminated. Unlike ''Pop Idol'', the last event is 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. A few dozen "audience judges" were selected in addition to several professional judges. The show's professional judges also do not have the distinct personalities of ''American Idol'' 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 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 Chengdu in Sichuan province. This show attracted an average of 10,000 contestants in each city and received nationwide attention.
Hunan Satellite Television introduced a second season of ''Super Girl'' on March 19, 2005. The preliminary rounds were filmed in five cities: Changsha in , Guangzhou in , Zhengzhou in , Hangzhou in , and Chengdu in . By the middle of the season, the competition captivated a nationwide audience and became one of the most watched television entertainment shows in mainland China with tens of millions of viewers. The final peaked at 280 million viewers at a given time, dwarfing the 12-million-viewer figure for the finals of ''Pop Idol''. Despite the show being condemned by China Central Television as being "vulgar and manipulative", a third season of the show was launched and finished in early October 2006.
On January 18, 2006, China National Philatelic Corporation released a postage stamp issue featuring 2005 winner Li Yuchun. The set was released ahead of Li's 22nd birthday in her commemoration.
Some who were not chosen as winners have also been able to enter the recording industry through other means. Ji Minjia, who ranked 5th overall in the 2005 contest, worked in Los Angeles in 2006 to help with production of the title song for Japanese anime series ''The Galaxy Railways''. On March 15, 2007, Japanese recording group Hello! Project announced Li Chun, one of the top 50 contestants in the 2006 Changsha regional, as one of two new members of ancestry of its pop group Morning Musume.
The contest has also inspired television producers to create other talent search shows, including ones based on American shows such as ''''.
The show was the feature of a 2007 documentary titled "Super, Girls!", produced and directed by independent Chinese filmmaker Jian Yi during the 2006 contest season and released at the Cambridge Film Festival. An ARTiSIMPLE Studio production, "Super, Girls!" is the only independent feature-length documentary ever made about the "Super Girls."
Democratic expression
One of the main factors contributing to the show's popularity was that viewers are able to participate in the judging process by sending with their mobile phones to vote for their favorite contestants. During the 2005 regional contest in Chengdu alone, 307,071 message votes were cast for the top three contestants, each vote costing 0.5 to 3 .
Over 800 million text messages were sent during the third season of ''Super Girl'', and fan clubs began to appear throughout the country. The show was the feature of a 2007 documentary titled ''Super, Girls!'' released at the Cambridge Film Festival.
Criticism from CPC
Liu Zhongde of the 's Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference criticised both the show and its negative influence on society. Saying the audience watches the program under a distorted mentality and in an unhealthy condition. He claimed that the government departments oversee culture and art, and they should not permit something like ''Super Girl'' to exist. He admitted it was the choice of the market while claiming it as low culture. He said it wasn't as back as the 1983 Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign, but the elements are there: cultural invasion, suspicion of market forces, spiritual health, preservation of national culture, and allegations of popular entertainment spreading corruption among the youth, all facing off against a new concept of socialist morality.
2004 season
The first season of ''Super Girl'' aired from May 6 to September 22, 2004. Although the winners of the competition were not promised recording contracts, the top three winners signed such deals.
|align="center" style="background:#ccffcc;"|Wang Ti
|align="center" style="background:#ccffcc;"|
|align="center"|Yin Tingting
尹婷婷
|-
|Nanjing
|align="center" style="background:#ccffcc;"|An Youqi
|align="center"|Zhang Yue
张玥
|align="center"|Liu Ning
刘宁
|-
|Wuhan
|align="center"|Sun Yipu
孙一卜
|align="center"|Chen Wenya
陈文娅
|align="center"|Guo Juan
郭娟
|-
|Changsha
|align="center"|Strings
|align="center"|Yang Yang
杨暘
|align="center"|Zhang Chen
张琛
|}
Final contest
*An Youqi Champion
*Wang Ti 2nd place
* 3rd place
2005 season
The second season of ''Super Girl'' aired from March 19 to August 26, 2005. The announcement of Li Yuchun as the season's grand champion came under scrutiny as she had been leading voting results despite having the weakest voice among the top finalists.
Qualifications
Final contest
2006 season
The third season of ''Super Girl'' aired from April 2 to September 30, 2006. Shang Wenjie's selection as grand champion over Tan Weiwei, who is a professional vocalist from Sichuan Conservatory of Music, raised questions at each candidate's public appeal. Speculations arose that Shang, who appeared to be a copycat of Li Yuchun's image, was voted grand champion due to the appeal of her Cinderella story.
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