Who said this top flow is crazy! This top flow is awesome!

Chapter 445 Dominating the Chinese Entertainment Industry, a Phenomenon-Level Founder, Unprecedented in History
Is "Joy of Life" a historical romance drama?
Before "Joy of Life" was released, at least those in the industry, including the viewers who were looking forward to the broadcast, believed that it was a historical romance drama—although the trailers did not show any romantic scenes between men and women.

But this doesn't prevent everyone from following the most logical reasoning.

Idol dramas are a popular genre in the industry, and they are further divided into modern idol dramas and historical idol dramas.

Everyone knows that Ikeno is the emperor of modern romance dramas. With two phenomenal modern romance dramas, he has gained a name all over the world.

However, historical romance dramas have always been a more popular genre than modern romance dramas, and are more sought after by many investors and artists. Before Chi Ye rose to prominence, modern romance dramas in the Chinese entertainment industry had been relegated to a mere backdrop to historical romance dramas.

At present, Chi Ye has taken the initiative to "step back" and "give way to the younger generation," and at such a critical time, he is willing to risk the loss of his own project (hitting himself) to appear in "Joy of Life."

Adding historical romance dramas to modern romance dramas—isn't this a clear indication that they're unwilling to give up and want to reclaim their market share?

However, after "Joy of Life" aired, the first wave of viewers didn't think so. They thought, "This is not a period drama... How could there be such a good period drama?"

If we consider political intrigue as a genre, then "Joy of Life" is clearly not the purest historical drama about political intrigue, but it is definitely the best in terms of political intrigue, plot, and character portrayal among Chinese period dramas in the last decade.

With these factors combined, and given that Chi Ye was already well-off during the filming of "Joy of Life," Yeguo's investment in this drama was one of the largest among the projects they initially collaborated on with Kiwi, easily ranking in the top three.

If there's still no splash, it's not that Ikeno is being disrespected, it's that the audience is being disrespected.

"What's going on with this 'Joy of Life'?! Where did it come from?"

"Who understands! Our Qing is truly the quality of a blockbuster drama of the year."

"Listen to me, don't miss this show, it's so damn good! I'm someone who never watches TV dramas, but now I'm forced to watch every episode, it's so good."

"I'll only say four words: Ikeno is a god!"

"A true genius needs no introduction. I never imagined a screenwriter could play such a role. A script of 'Joy of Life'—completely original and fictional—can you believe it?"

"Dancing in shackles, flirting with the edge of censorship, including the previous 'The Silent Truth'. Now, seeing those crazy fan groups makes me want to laugh. What Ikeno is most underestimated is his screenwriting ability."

"Indeed, Ikeno's greatest talent is his storytelling ability, which is the biggest reason why he has come this far. Ironically, even now, those fan groups still think they can threaten Ikeno."

"Five stars for now, I'll revise later. The quality of the first ten episodes surpasses all period dramas in the Chinese entertainment industry in the last decade. Note that this is not a period romance drama, but a period drama."

"Mango TV is really stupid. They didn't recommend such a good show at all. If I hadn't seen it trending on Weibo yesterday and watched two episodes out of curiosity, I would have almost missed out on a show of this caliber."

"Please, Chi Ye, change your ways! Stop clinging to your little bit of popularity and focus on being a good screenwriter and director. I'll support every single one of Ye Guo's productions from now on!"

"...!"

Like a mountain collapsing and the sea surging.

There's a saying in the industry: minor fame comes from promotion, major fame comes from fate. Sometimes you have to believe in this kind of metaphysics. If a hit drama wants to become a phenomenon, it must first go through all the "conventional" processes that can be experienced.

These routine processes include, but are not limited to: obscurity, sudden emergence, accusations of inflated ratings, failure to meet metrics on other platforms (failing in all aspects), a drama that doesn't make the actor a breakout star, and ordinary works targeting lower-tier markets, etc.

Even a show as powerful as "The Storm," which was initially a ratings and popularity sensation, was questioned for being pre-planned, with some arguing that young people didn't like this kind of genre...

This shows how terrified and frightened people in the industry are by such phenomenal occurrences.

Currently, the situation of "Joy of Life" has already progressed to the point of "padding".

A certain Douban platform.

Amidst the widespread praise on Weibo and the astonishment of many teams and investors in the industry, this place stands out as a breath of fresh air.

First, there's the domestic drama production team, which is of most concern to industry insiders. This team was the first to question the issue of inflated data in "Joy of Life".

They presented data from multiple dimensions, including Baidu, Weibo, Douyin topic volume, Bilibili fan creations, and even the data from "Around Us is the World," to refute the claims—whether the data for "Joy of Life" was inflated, and whether Yeguo and Chiye were pre-made sensations.
"To be honest, it's really a bit inexplicable."

"The overwhelming praise on Weibo made me laugh. This show has received absolutely no attention in reality. Is it really a dream hit?"

"I think it should have some popularity, after all, it's a work written by Ye Di. But there's no need for the paid trolls in the posts to push it too hard. So far, 'Joy of Life' has only had 23 trending topics, which is a huge drop compared to the phenomenal success of the past."

"Indeed, besides, Mango TV's popularity has never been the most authoritative in the group, right? Of the three most popular platforms, only iQiyi is the most stable. Tencent has already crashed. Kuaishou's popularity is slightly lower than iQiyi's. Mango TV's popularity exceeding 10,000 doesn't feel real."

"The issue of Mango TV's popularity has always been a key point of discussion in our group. It's undeniable that Mango TV has become more active thanks to a few dramas, but its foundation is indeed much weaker. I just saw a poll in the group, and those who think that Mango TV's popularity is the only one who's being paid to promote it are obviously paid shills from some company."

"Since its release, 'The Deliberate Mischief' has generated over 200 trending topics, a tenfold increase. I don't know what those fans are bragging about. Your idol is underperforming, and you're already getting anxious?"

"The person upstairs is really good at putting others down. Delete it. This post is about whether 'Joy of Life' and Mango TV's popularity should be abandoned. Don't mention other dramas."

"My post went viral...it got reposted, holy crap."

"..."

The hashtag #JoyofLife'sPopularityInflated# trended on social media, with hundreds of marketing accounts seemingly colluding to repost content and copy almost identically, using the most popular post on Douban's domestic drama section.

Adding to the mix is ​​the data issue surrounding "My Sunshine," since both dramas are currently airing on Mango TV, and Mango TV's popularity has always been controversial.

For example, the previous dramas co-produced with Yeguo were discussed during their broadcast, but their popularity was far less than it is now. This time, with the scale of "Joy of Life," it's clear that they are aiming for a phenomenal historical drama, so they have to be cautious.

The discussion became even more heated as a result.

Mango TV has been around for so long, but it has always given people the impression that it is inferior to the three major platforms and that its popularity is cheap. It seems that this heated discussion will bring a conclusion and change this impression.

But Mango doesn't have time to care about these things right now.

They are crazy.

Yes, Mango has gone mad.

The sequence of events is as follows.

The veteran director received the news immediately after the significant increase in the ratings of "My Sunshine" and "Joy of Life" tonight. His initial reaction was surprise and astonishment, not for the former, which they had anticipated, even though its initial performance was not ideal due to various reasons.

But the pairing of Ikeno and a modern idol is just too strong, making it impossible for them not to have high expectations. The main source of confusion here comes from "Joy of Life".

It's like a dark horse that suddenly appears. Just when you think it's a dark horse, you turn around and take a closer look, only to find that it's not a dark horse at all, but a golden horse!

What is the Golden Horse Award?

From that day on, "Joy of Life" began to rise at a speed that no one could have imagined, a speed that was visible to the naked eye.

The rise here is no longer about the one-sided online buzz like "The Silent Truth" or "Love O2O," but rather a comprehensive, real-world phenomenon.

The index, which was questioned on the first day of its rise, seemed to have been bought by the index. The next day, it jumped from the lowest point of this period to the top spot. Then there was Douyin, which was flooded with posts and generated a large number of fan-made content from viewers and passersby.

Note that these are not paid marketing accounts or online trolls; they are simply viewers and casual observers who got hooked on the show.

The actor who played Teng Zijing in "Joy of Life," who was criticized for not being a breakout star, has become a sensation. Veteran actor Wang Qinian has experienced a career resurgence, and the veteran actor who played the emperor has suddenly become a top star. Even the male lead, Chen Pingping, and a minor supporting character have all achieved mainstream success.

As the saying goes, everyone gets to eat and everyone gets a share of the profits.

What is a phenomenon?
The most obvious difference between a blockbuster and a phenomenon is that a blockbuster only makes the male and female leads famous, while a phenomenon always involves the entire cast. Any production team that achieves this will be called a god-tier team.

Years later, they will leave their own legendary mark on the Chinese entertainment industry.

From this perspective, "My Love from the Star" cannot be considered to have achieved this effect. It can only be said that "My Love from the Star" is another extreme, an extreme where whoever plays the male or female lead will achieve a tremendous breakthrough.

In reality, it has gone from being unknown and unnoticed at the beginning to the point where "all my colleagues are watching it," "Little Master Fan," "fighting with my parents for the remote control," and "people who never watch TV dramas are watching it."

Phenomenal, and well-deserved.

While witnessing these changes firsthand, the veteran director's heart rate soared every day, rising and rising until he couldn't even guarantee how high it would go, and he was almost scared to death.

"How did it become so popular?"

Director Lee, who was also a firsthand witness, was actually more shocked than the veteran director because this event was comparable to the earlier "My Love from the Star" and "Goblin," the latter two of which starred Ikeno himself.

Such a powerful impact, such a sudden and phenomenal event, would leave anyone bewildered, because they are all involved and, moreover, beneficiaries of it.

"Yeah, how did it become so popular?"

The other bigwigs from Hunan TV around them were also in a daze. Everyone said they were superstitious, but with Chi Ye's abilities, how could they not be superstitious?

"Um... I have a question."

In the ensuing silence, an executive asked, "Should we... allocate some promotional resources to 'Joy of Life' for online streaming?"

This sounds like nonsense at first glance. With "Joy of Life" being so popular, asking such a question seems a bit unprofessional.
But this time, Hunan TV is really not an amateur. They are now facing the most painful happiness of their careers—yes, painful happiness.

—The drama "My Sunshine" is just as good!
Although it didn't achieve the same level of success and popularity as "Joy of Life," "My Sunshine" also took off like a rocket after that day.

It has been proven that Ikeno's acting skills are historically unparalleled, number one.

"My Sunshine" is another hugely popular modern romance drama after "Love O2O". Although it is a little short of being a phenomenon, modern romance dramas are different from period dramas.

Compared to the current hype surrounding "Joy of Life," "My Sunshine" has already demonstrated an extremely terrifying ability to rake in money.

The most remarkable thing is that in just two or three days, Hunan TV actually achieved a level of revenue that other TV stations wouldn't even dare to dream of, simply by temporarily adding celebrity endorsers.

Moreover, this is only the first round. It is said that the outside world has already started "independent bidding". In other words, the competition is too fierce, there are too few spots, and there are too many manufacturers with money. In order not to delay each other, everyone has tacitly started the game of the highest bidder wins.

This can be described as setting a precedent in the history of the Chinese entertainment industry once again. Although similar incidents have occurred occasionally before, none have been as large in scale or as impactful as this one.

All of this is because Chi Ye's own name is related to the current success of "My Sunshine" and even "Joy of Life".

The culmination of years of hard work exploded all at once, a "treatment" that even "My Love from the Star" never received.

Leaving such a money-making monster around and diverting all resources to "Joy of Life"...

My suggestion is a 50/50 split!

At this moment, Director Li suddenly said something that even he found ridiculous: "This is the easiest way to do it."

"...Actually, I've always had this illusion that I'm dreaming. Has our Mango TV really become this awesome?"

One of the big shots asked the others very seriously, "Are you dreaming?"

Everyone: "..."

The senior leader waved his hand, took a deep breath, and asked the staff member who had been monitoring the data, "What are the cloud and solar data for today?"

"Yesterday, the cloud-based ranking for 'Joy of Life' reached a record high of 55%, while 'My Sunshine' was slightly lower at 37%..."

Everyone: "?"

"What about the others? What about the 'Gu Miao Ling'?"

"Uh, 5% for 'The Decree of the Ancients,' 2% for 'Royal Power and Wealth,' and the rest will be divided among the final 1%."

"look."

The big shot who loves to dream clapped his hands: "I told you it's like a dream, but don't you think this is a bit too outrageous?"

Yunhe, one of the most authoritative national popularity and viewership rankings, is widely recognized as the most reliable data for reference. Market share exceeding 30% signifies dominance, while 50% indicates a phenomenon, boosting the overall market. Currently, "Joy of Life" has 55%, and "My Sunshine" has 37%...

Together, these two brothers account for 92% of the national market?!
Unprecedented!

(End of this chapter)