Practice makes perfect

All doctors have to start somewhere, though.

"When joining this show and getting exposure in media, they will probably face the risk of being doubted," Wang Xinxuan, producer of the program, says. "But they want to show the process and enable people to see how a medical student becomes a doctor.

"They might be elites in their respective classrooms, but here in the clinical departments, they are beginners," she says. "Their effort enables people to better understand the job of doctors. It's a precious opportunity for the audience."

First released in 2019 to much acclaim, the previous two seasons of The Exciting Offer focused on young job seekers vying for a job at a prestigious law firm. When preparing for the new season, Wang wanted to switch it up and cover a different sector, one that would be "mysterious, yet widely expected by young people". Medical students seemed the obvious choice to her.

"Medical issues are closely linked to daily life," she recalls. "The pandemic has encouraged many young people to switch their attention to health and hospitals, but they lack knowledge about how a hospital is operated daily. Everyone gets to see doctors, but do we really understand them?"

However, the decision has caused some minor controversy, with some criticism being leveled at the crew from some members of the public for seemingly trivializing the serious business of medical care by making it the theme of a reality show for people's entertainment.

"A reality show is merely a platform," Wang explains. "Most people's impression of medical students is based on artistic expression of films or TV series and, this time, we'd like to show the reality of that."