Episode summary
The first X-Fire episode premiered on Saturday Nov. 21, 2015 on ZheJiang Satellite TV at 10pm. This episode was filmed a month earlier on Oct. 22, 2015. The day before this aired, Xiao Zhan expressed his excitement and nervousness about it in his Nov 20, 2015 weekly vlog.
The show opened with introductions of the mentors: Li YuChun is the mentor for the White Team; Shu Qi is the mentor for the Red Team. Their assistants are Yi Yi for the White Team; and Bai Ju Gang for the Red Team. The show also introduced the judge panel, whom the show referred to as “The Boss Group”: Hua Shao, ZheJiang Satellite TV host; Long DanNi, (former) CEO of EE-MEDIA; Su Mang, (former) CEO of Trends Media.
The 16 X-Fire competitors are (in order of appearance):
| Name | Alias | Age | City | Song |
| Wu JiaCheng | Wi-Fi | 22 | Taishan, Guangdong province | “Messy Hair”《头发乱了》 |
| Xia ZhiGuang | Big Man | 16 | Hefei, Anhui province | “Boyfriend” |
| Yan XuJia | Big Eye Cutie | 14 | Shenzhen, Guangdong province | “Listen to Mom”《听妈妈的话》 |
| Lu SiHeng | Geek in Disguise | 22 | Guangzhou, Guangdong province | “Singing in the Rain” |
| Bai Shu | Prince Bai | 22 | Beijing | “A Dream”《梦一场》 |
| Bin JunJie | Magical Sound | 25 | Changsha, Hunan | “Sky”《天空》 |
| Wang YuWei | Virgo | 17 | Hangzhou, Zhejiang province | “All the Things You Never Knew”《你不知道的事》 |
| Zhou Lei | Different Channels | 16 | Xiamen, Fujian province | “Ordinary DISCO”《普通DISCO》 |
| Peng ChuYue | Sugar-coated Shells | 22 | Guangzhou, Guangdong province | “Wings of Light”《光之翼》 |
| Guo ZiFan | Nine-headed Snake | 17 | Qingdao, Shandong province | “Ba La Ba La Sakura Flower”《芭啦芭啦櫻之花》 |
| Xiao Zhan | Hot Soda | 24 | Chongqing | “Cruel Moonlight”《残酷月光》 |
| Gu JiaCheng | Unlike a Powerhouse | 23 | Kunming, Yunnan province | “Refuse to Play” 《拒绝再玩》 |
| Han MuBo | Little Old Man | 23 | Jining, Shandong Province | “Trap” |
| Dai YunFan | Sakuragi Hanamichi | 18 | Shenyang, Liaoning province | “General Order”《将军令》 |
| Xiao DeJun | Right? | 16 | Dongguan, Guangdong province | “All”《所有》 |
| Chen ZeXi | Beautiful Monkey King | 23 | Canada | “Ought Control” *I don’t know if this was a spelling error by the show and the title should be “Outta Control? |
In the first episode, the two mentors both vie to select the best talents to build their team of eight—studying each competitor intently, evaluating and visualizing how they will fit on their team, and racing to press the I-choose-you buzzer.
Perhaps due to time constraints, since this was filmed directly after the final assessment, the competitors all sang the same songs from their last assessment. At least, from what we can see when Xiao Zhan took the stage—he sang “Cruel Moonlight.” This episode is so good because if you watch the whole thing you can see how strong the final 16 competitors are. Despite their young age, the talent is top-notch!
Later, the mentors must pair up the competitors, taking into consideration each person’s strengths, to form a compatible duo. I won’t spoil it here for you You must watch the episode to find out who got paired with whom.
Lastly, the judges called each pair back on stage where they are ranked based on the total points they gained from their performance. The groups that ranked from one to six are safe, but the groups that are ranked 7 and 8 are in danger of elimination.
So who ranked 7 and 8? Did you watch the episode?
I’m going to sneak in my own thoughts after watching this first episode. Clearly Wu JiaCheng, the first competitor to perform, has won the judges over with his incredibly strong performance. The guy is super talented and the judges love him. This is obvious as the competition goes on. That said, to this day I still think about what if Chun Chun had kept her original plan to pair Wu JiaCheng and Xiao Zhan together? Had Shu Qi not appeared and told Chun Chun to pair Wu JiaCheng and Gu JiaCheng together instead, perhaps everything that would happen to Xiao Zhan in episode three would not have happened. Just a thought.
