General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Produce Camp 2020 (创造营2020)

Produce Camp 2020 (创造营2020; also CHUANG 2020) was a 2020 Chinese girl-group survival competition produced by Tencent Video, in which 101 female trainees from domestic and overseas agencies competed for seven places in a debut group. It was the third season of the 创造营 franchise that began with Produce 101 China (创造101) in 2018, and it ran on weekends from its premiere on May 2, 2020 to the finale on July 4, 2020, airing against the rival series Youth With You 2 on iQiyi.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Broadcaster / run	Tencent Video, weekends; premiere May 2, 2020, finale July 4, 2020; 19 episodes per one episode database¹^•³^•⁴
Format	101 trainees; debut spots cut from 11 to 7; the A-to-F class system replaced by a starting lineup, main team, reserve team, and bench team²
Coaches	Huang Zitao, Luhan, Mao Buyi, and Victoria Song (宋茜); Da Zhangwei replaced Show Luo (罗志祥), who withdrew, and Kris Wu served as special coach²
Theme song	《你最最最重要》, lyrics by Guo Jingming (郭敬明), composed by The Anteloops, released May 2, 2020⁵
Result	BonBon Girls 303 (硬糖少女303) formed on July 4, 2020: Curley G (希林娜依·高, center), Zhao Yue, Wang Yijin, Chen Zhuoxuan, Nene (郑乃馨), Liu Xinening, Zhang Yifan⁶
Reception	Douban opening score of 7.1; a mid-2020 report listed it at 6.2, above Youth With You 2's 5.7, though it trailed on hot-search counts and effective views¹^•⁷
Aftermath	BonBon Girls 303 were a two-year limited group and disbanded after a farewell concert on July 24, 2022⁸

Spoilers

Competition and finale

Notable trainees included Curley G, a former member of Na Ying's team on Sing! China, the dance coach Gao Zhi, returnee trainee Lin Junyi, and the Thai actress Nene, who communicated with the coaches partly in English.²^•¹² The starting lineup shifted repeatedly in early episodes; after several rounds of battles, Curley G, Liu Xinening, and Gao Zhi were displaced from the starting seven, while Lin Junyi, Li Zimeng, Chen Zhuoxuan, and Nene held their seats at that stage.²

Fifteen trainees reached the July 4 finale, performing the group stages 《摩登天后It's a Bomb》 and 《火羽 Phoenix》 plus individual showcases. At the end of the night, Curley G, Zhao Yue, Wang Yijin, Chen Zhuoxuan, Nene, Liu Xinening, and Zhang Yifan debuted as BonBon Girls 303 (硬糖少女303), with Curley G taking the center position; Liu Xinening placed sixth overall. R1SE appeared as senior guests, and Mao Buyi performed 《入海》 as a farewell to the trainees.⁶^•⁴

Format and rule changes

The season's slogan was “敢，我有万丈光芒” (roughly, “Dare, and I have boundless radiance”). It was announced officially on March 11, 2020, with the coach lineup confirmed on March 16 and the 101 trainees announced in April.⁵ At an online press conference on April 21, the program confirmed it would reduce the debut lineup from 11 members to 7.⁵ Tencent's Ma Yankun later explained the cut was decided around November 2019 with the group's post-show operations in mind.⁹

The A-to-F grading used by earlier seasons of the 101 franchise and by Youth With You 2 was dropped. Trainees were instead sorted into a starting seven-member debut lineup, a main team, a reserve team, and a bench team. In the first episode, trainees who considered themselves the strongest dancers or vocalists stepped up for individual battles, from which the coaches selected four dancers and three vocalists to form the first starting lineup; their teams rose with them, and the others entered the bench team. Bench-team trainees could then challenge the starting lineup in team battles, in which the whole group had to perform at a consistent level.² The theme-song assessment added a tiered practice system: starting-lineup members had one day to learn the song, the main team three days, and the reserve and bench teams five days, with lower-tier trainees free to attempt the one-day track to move up, at the risk of falling to the bench team if they failed.¹⁰ Commentators read these changes as a stricter, skill-first selection standard that also asked trainees for courage and self-assessment.¹⁰

Coaches and personnel

The coaching panel consisted of Huang Zitao, Luhan, Mao Buyi, and Victoria Song. Show Luo was originally announced but missed early recordings because of the COVID-19 pandemic, was dropped after a personal scandal, and was replaced by Da Zhangwei; Kris Wu was reported to join as a special coach.² The premiere opened with the coaches performing the theme song together.² Series director Sun Li led production under Tencent, with operations by Long Danni's Wajijiwa Entertainment, which had also handled the franchise's earlier groups Rocket Girls 101 and R1SE.¹¹

Reception and comparison with Youth With You 2

The premiere drew a reported 237 hot-search topics across platforms and a Douban opening score of 7.1, which the trade press called the top score among comparable Chinese variety shows at that point.¹ A mid-2020 industry report later placed the show at 6.2 on Douban against Youth With You 2's 5.7, and noted 430 million cumulative views for the first episode by June 13.⁷

On reach, however, the rival led: an end-of-year industry ranking put Youth With You 2 at nearly 2 billion effective views for 2020's new online variety shows, with Produce Camp 2020 third.¹³ Commentators attributed the gap to the show's avoidance of contestant-centered controversy: its promoted topics centered on the coaches rather than on personalities or scandals, which spared trainees negative coverage but left strong performers with less public attention, and Youth With You 2 benefited from viral moments such as the “淡黄的长裙” meme and contestant Yu Shuxin.¹⁴^•¹⁵ The series was named Audience Choice Program of the Year at Tencent Video's Star Awards on December 20, 2020.⁵

Commercial model and legacy

Sixteen brands sponsored the season, led by title sponsor Mengniu's Zhenguu brand, with Colgate, JD.com, Puma, Lancôme, McDonald's, and others joining, and sponsor tickets remained part of the voting economy of the 101-format shows.¹^•¹⁶ Tencent treated the show as a two-year project rather than a one-season program: Ma Yankun described the group's operation as a two-year commitment, and BonBon Girls 303 ran on a plan that included group albums, a reality series, and fan platforms.¹⁷ The group disbanded at the end of its two-year term on July 24, 2022, in a farewell concert on Tencent Video, and was described at the time as the last idol-survival-debut girl group in China before the format was curtailed.⁸

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Reality and competition franchise editions › Reality and competition franchises — overview and format history

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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