Zou Shiming (left), a former professional boxer and Olympic champion, and Lin Yongjian (right), a TV series actor, with their sons, in the season 3 of Dad, Where Are We Going? [Provided to China Daily]

The frenzy continued this year. Hunan TV launched another show called Wonderful Friends in January. Jiangsu TV introduced We Are in Love in May, and Dragon TV started airing Go Fighting in June.

These shows cover areas ranging from outdoor sports to overseas journeys, bonding with pets and relationships. And celebrities who enliven these shows range from iconic singers to movie stars, sports figures and yesteryear entertainment industry luminaries.

Advertisers and sponsors accorded different treatment to each of the shows, depending on their popularity. While popular shows had no difficulty in attracting advertisers and fierce bids for sponsorship, some little-known programs received modest sponsorships only after the broadcast of first few episodes, said Feng Jun, a senior analyst of EntGroup Consulting, a Beijing-based entertainment industry consultancy. "They have polarized the advertising revenue."

Money poured into shows in different forms. For example, Running Man, Season 4 fetched 500 million yuan in main sponsorship from Yili. Online tourism firm Tuniu Corp and cell phone manufacturer Oppo Electronics Corp forked out 150 million yuan and 130 million yuan, respectively, for special partnership rights. Internet rights, ad imbedments and single-project partnership were other forms of revenue for TV show producers and broadcasters.

"A single season of Running Man has generated more than 2 billion yuan in advertising revenue for Zhejiang TV, the producer of the show. Two seasons of this show in one year have created almost half of the total ad revenue for the TV station," said Peng Kan, research and development director of Legend Media, a Beijing-based consultancy.

Peng has extensive experience in advising on variety shows for a number of TV stations and media companies. "More and more TV stations are into outdoor reality shows as they have more room for advertising, and have the potential to work more deeply with brands."

For instance, in Dad, Where Are We Going? Season 3, one episode of the show was shot in Yili's pastures in near Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in northwestern China. In this way, Yili's brands forged deeper bonds with consumers-cum-viewers, which was much better than subliminal advertising.

Although advertising remains the main source of revenue, reality show producers also make money by allowing movies with the same titles to be made, and through merchandising by way of mobile games, books and toys.