The second day.
Around noon.
Central TV's Department 11's program team began contacting every contestant to inform them that the preliminary round had been completed. They asked them to gather for the recording of the next round of competition rules by 2PM.
This year's rules and competition progress were slightly different from the previous years. The pace of this year’s competition was much faster than before, with the preliminary rounds, which had taken 3-4 days before, now shortened to only one and a half days. This was because Central TV had approved the usage of many more recording studios, so even with over a thousand groups of contestants and 10 minutes per performance, the recording progress moved very quickly.
At the venue.
The contestants were all gathered before 2PM.