2001 Media Godfather

Chapter 107 The Unconventional Main Theme

The current public beta version of "Honor of Kings" (Dota), after Chu An's haphazard planning, is roughly equivalent to version 6.48 of the Dota 1 era.

The ultimate late-game setup: Naga Siren vs. Drow Ranger. Mid-lane Shadow Fiend, paired with a Tidehunter in the offlane for enhanced crowd control. Add two strong supports, and that's practically the meta-defining combination.

But Chu An on the other side doesn't play by the rules at all.

Spectre (ultimate ability to descend across the entire map) is good for the late game, Zeus is good for the mid lane (ultimate ability to descend across the entire map), and Prophet comes to the offlane with his ultimate ability to descend across the entire map.

Two support heroes teamed up: one, Lion, had both control and burst damage; the other, Bounty Hunter, used stealth to scout ahead.

Damn it, if a fight breaks out, the other side will have all five of them attacking at once. Xiang Lintao even suspected that President Chu had planned the tactics first, and then asked him to develop the game.

What really threw Mr. Xiang off guard was the idea of ​​five people and five necromancer books!?
You can't take a joke, huh?

He then posted on Weibo, "Chu An is no good person!"

These remarks, coupled with his previous public criticism of the Glory production team, immediately led to misunderstandings among netizens.

"The feud between Green Field Company and Teacher Chu is still unresolved!"

Someone stood up and said to Xiang Lintao:
"If it were me, I wouldn't be able to figure it out either! They spent tens of millions on publicity, and in the end, they invested in a patriotic film."

"The game 'Glory' has fallen so badly, Mr. Xiang must be getting anxious."

Anyone with a discerning eye can tell there's some juicy gossip to be had here.

However, the news only spread on Weibo and did not cause any significant stir.

After all, Weibo was launched quietly without any eye-catching promotion, and so far it has only been used as a fan home by fans of Chu An, Lin Wanxing, Xu Shu and Su Manqing.

Moreover, Su Manqing, whose largest fan base is overseas, did not participate in the gaming event, so the reach was limited.

With July approaching and summer vacation just around the corner, television stations are pulling out all the stops to dominate the summer TV time slot.

This is the allure of market competition: TV stations with strength and a large audience dare to spend big money to buy big dramas, earning millions or even tens of millions of yuan from a single title sponsorship.

The less profitable a TV station is, the less money it has to spend on advertising; it can only take on ads for things like fertilizers and men's health clinics.

Leaving aside the other smaller-budget dramas, on July 1st, "Blazing Human World" kicked off the summer battle.

Because its competitors, "You Are My Glory" and "Palace Lock Autumn", are not expected to be released for several days, "Blazing Human World" has gained a great advantage.

On its first day of broadcast, it got off to a great start with no strong competitors.

When the statistics came out the next day, Shen Jin, the production company, and Shanghai TV, which had won the premiere, all breathed a sigh of relief.

The premiere episode garnered a 6.87% viewership rating, with the end credits reaching 8.65%. The peak viewership, which was for Lin Wanxing's most captivating speech, "Torchlight," was 9.03%.

With a peak viewership of only 9%, this result can only be described as mediocre.

But I am not pessimistic.

First, the initial promotional campaign for the show was a complete failure, as Liang Guoliang's criticism sparked widespread discussion.

Despite the production company and Shanghai TV changing their promotional strategies, focusing only on the period drama and deliberately downplaying its patriotic themes, it was only slightly better than "Glory".

The low viewership rating of 6.something points at the start of the show shows that viewers' expectations for the series are not low, but rather that they dislike it.

It's important to understand that without competition from major dramas, a score of only 6.something is less than that of a poorly made martial arts drama or historical romance drama.

The problem is that the viewership ratings steadily increased after the broadcast, peaking at 9%. Moreover, this figure remained almost unchanged until the end of the two episodes, only dropping by less than 0.4 percentage points.

This indicates extremely high audience retention!
In other words, those who haven't watched it say they don't like it, but those who have watched it keep it and acknowledge its quality.

The next steps are clear: Shanghai Metropolitan Government and the production company only need to wait for word-of-mouth to spread and provide supplementary publicity to boost viewership.

There is at least a 10% chance of success.

Moreover, they can take advantage of the fact that "Palace Lock" is still a few days away from airing to solidify its reputation. Even after "Palace Lock" premieres, it's not impossible for them to retain viewers.

To put it bluntly, a 10% viewership rating is average for CCTV, but it's quite good for a local satellite TV station.

Shen Jin and his team's goal is to maintain a top 10 finish!
As a result, Lin Wanxing no longer had time to play games.

Starting from the second day after the premiere, he got busy, running around to various radio and television stations, and participating in various interview programs with Shen Jin and the main cast and crew.

By July 6th, less than a week later, the viewership rating of "Blazing Human" had reached a peak of around 15% and stabilized at 13%.

Shen Jin was overjoyed.

"It far exceeded my expectations!"

Okay, actually Shen Jin wasn't that panicked.

The script, written by Mr. Ruan Wenlin and further polished on the spot by Chu An, with Lin Wanxing also present, tells the story of a female martyr.

How could I possibly fall flat on my face!
This whole period of time was caused by Liang Guoliang.

13%, which is already considered a major annual drama on Shanghai TV.

With this, Shen Jin successfully completed his mission, adding a significant achievement to his record in the industry.

But that's about it!

Because "Palace Lock" and "You Are My Glory" will be broadcast simultaneously on the 7th.

The three-way battle has officially begun.

The ratings for "Burning Human World" will definitely decline by then, but Director Shen is confident that it will stay at 10 to 11.

Feeling refreshed, he also made a phone call to Chu An and Lu Mingze respectively.

"Brother, don't get worked up. Your skill level is definitely top-notch in the country. It's just that Glory was unlucky enough to be targeted by Gong Suo and me working together, haha!!"

He and Chu An are now quite familiar with each other and can joke around.

"You're something else, insisting on airing on the same day as 'Palace Lock.' Why didn't you listen to me and let them air together? We could have grabbed a lot of viewers first, wouldn't that have been better?"

Chu An, sitting opposite him, remained silent, clearly not in the same mood as him.

After a long silence, they said, "Gather in the bottom lane and push the tower, forcing the enemy to engage in a team fight."

Shen Jin, “.”

How can you be so carefree?
On the other side, Chen Ru, looking at the ratings data for "Burning Humanity," was also heartbroken, "We were careless!"

Did the Fiery Human Realm steal a wave of towers?

However, it’s not a big problem!
If "The Fiery Blaze" can reach 10, then "The Palace" will definitely be no problem! Hunan TV's 60 million viewers are a sure thing.

Just after 8 p.m. that evening, Hunan TV and CCTV simultaneously launched new dramas.

As Chen Ru predicted, everyone had high expectations for the Tiandu series.

Wherever Hunan TV is available, people immediately tune in to the channel, eagerly awaiting the broadcast of "Palace: The Lock of Spring".

As for "You Are My Glory"? Who the hell watches patriotic films?

Zhang Linlin, as one of the earliest fans of Chu An, can be said to be extremely loyal.

But this time she doesn't plan to stand on "You Are My Glory".

There are two reasons:
First, besides being a fan of Chu An, she is also a die-hard supporter of the Palace Lock series.

This is why Qing Dynasty dramas are criticized every day, yet they are still made every day—because a large number of women enjoy watching them!
Many women enjoy that kind of dynamic: one man, several women, several beds, and constant rivalry.
Zhang Linlin was no exception.

Secondly, she plans to watch the premiere of "Palace Lock" and then wait for the rebroadcast of "Glory" to support her idol.

Well, it’s such a happy decision!
At 8:10, the show "Palace Lock" started as scheduled. Zhang Linlin was so engrossed in watching it that she didn't realize it was time for an advertisement during the show.

Hunan TV is so annoying; their ads are everywhere.

Zhang Linlin then reflected on it for a moment. Well, the quality of the series was decent, Xu Shu didn't disappoint as always, and Qu Lang was considered a very good actor among the younger generation.

It's not very original. The new director is capable, but it lacks the delicate and concise style of Lu Mingze.

Overall, it's decent, with a slight decline, but still within acceptable limits.

During the commercial break, Zhang Linlin pressed the remote control and switched to Shanghai TV to watch "The Fiery Human World".

Suddenly I feel like it's better than "Palace Lock".

If you're talking about heartbreaking stories, the relationship between Lin Wanxing and her good-for-nothing boyfriend from the Republican era is even more heartbreaking.

If you're talking about fighting back and forth...
The struggle between humans and the flames was extremely fierce, a matter of life and death for a nation! Plus, the screenwriter was the idol Chu An.

Even when it's a mainstream story, there's never a lack of interesting elements.

I thought to myself, maybe I should just watch The Burning Flame!
I've already watched over ten episodes of "The Blazing Fire," and suddenly I can't put it down.

"The Palace" can be watched during reruns, as for "Glory".
There will always be other opportunities in the future!

No sooner had this decision been made than commercials appeared in the film, including "Fireball," and Shanghai TV wasn't much better off.

Bored, Zhang Linlin, wanting to catch a glimpse of her idol, finally switched to CCTV.

Then, after watching for only a few dozen seconds, Zhang Linlin was stunned.

What's going on? Did CCTV change the program?
Isn't this supposed to be a patriotic story? Why is it a story about a female celebrity playing video games?

But that's right!

Zhang Linlin still recognized Su Manqing's stunning beauty.

In the series, Qiao Jingjing, played by Su Manqing, infiltrates Yu Tu's gaming team and constantly sabotages her teammates.

The following plot involves the superstar Qiao using his exceptionally high emotional intelligence to win over Yu Tu's close friends and completely manipulate Teacher Yu.

Zhang Linlin smiled knowingly at times, and at other times exclaimed in admiration at how high Qiao's emotional intelligence was!

Are all female celebrities like this in real life?
Just when we were looking forward to Qiao Jingjing and Yu Tu's reunion, the result was...
Gone! !
The second episode has already aired.

During that time, Zhang Linlin didn't even change the channel during the commercial breaks between episodes. To be precise, she forgot to change the channel!
What palace lock? What fiery human world?
Go play somewhere else!

Excited, Zhang Linlin watched the preview for the next episode and, after confirming that Qiao Jingjing would meet Yu Tu offline in the third episode, immediately turned on her computer and posted on Weibo: "Is 'You Are My Glory' a proper patriotic drama?!"

At the same time, countless viewers of Honor of Kings were in an uproar.

"So this is your true story! You've been hiding it well!"

And Shen Jin.
Chen Ru
These people were dumbfounded!
Shen Jin was furious and immediately called Lu Mingze. He had intended to call Chu An, but Teacher Chu didn't answer.

As soon as Lao Lu answered the phone, Shen Jin started cursing.

"You fucking messed with me!! This is supposed to be the mainstream ideology? It looks more like an ad for Green Field and Weibo, okay?! You have the nerve to call it the mainstream ideology?"

Chen Ru stood there stunned for a long time, unable to process what was happening.

My mind was filled with one thought: "Have I been tricked by CCTV and Chu An?"

I have a feeling that something terrible is going to happen.

Chen Ru didn't sleep a wink all night because of this.

Just after midnight, I immediately contacted CCTV-Sofres to obtain real-time viewership data from the measurement instrument.

结果
The ratings for "Palace Lock" were 18.97% at the start of the series, 18.06% for the second half of the first episode, and 16.56% for the end of the second episode.

"The Flame of the Human World" premiered with a rating of 8.84, a slight decrease from yesterday.

The peak score was 12.84, and the score at the end of the second episode was 11.65.

This shows that the broadcast of "Palace Lock" did have an impact on "The Burning Human World", but not as much as Chen Ru had expected.

It was only a 1.5 percentage point drop from the average viewership of 13% before yesterday.

As for "You Are My Glory".
As expected, it had a dismal start, but as expected, it also followed an unprecedented viewership curve.

"You Are My Glory" only achieved a 4.71% viewership rating upon its premiere, marking the lowest opening rating among all major dramas premiered on CCTV in recent years.

This clearly demonstrates the extent of the impact of the preceding public opinion.

This also confirms where the nearly 19% opening success of "Palace Lock" came from.

However, 4.71% was also the lowest viewership rating for "Honor of Kings".

From here, it rose slowly and steadily, reaching 5.23% in the first phase.

Then, a series of steep drops appeared in the first episode, precisely during the time when Hunan TV and Shanghai TV were airing commercials, causing a sudden jump of 1 percentage point.

Then it rose steadily again, but in the second part of the episode, it dropped by one point.

At the end of the second episode, the viewership rating reached 9.34%.

This level of viewership is slightly lower than the average viewership of CCTV dramas, but it was enough to give Chen Ru a fright.

What does this viewership curve indicate?
This shows that "Honor of Kings" is defying public opinion and that viewers are voting with their actions.

Although compared to the other two dramas, "Palace Lock" leads with a 16% viewership rating.

But everyone can see that the palace is on a downward spiral.

Meanwhile, Honor of Kings is bucking the trend and rising.

In fact, the audience's true psychology is reflected in the ratings.

That night, discussions about the three new dramas never stopped on major websites.

Especially "Honor of Kings," it really fooled everyone.

"No wonder CCTV hasn't released the trailer yet, they've been holding back a big one!"

"To be honest, the Palace Lock series without Lu Mingze feels a bit outdated. While 'Blazing Human World' was good, it was just average. But 'Glory' was such a pleasant surprise!"

"CCTV, if you're going to film patriotic propaganda like this, then I'll have to give you a huge compliment!"

On July 8th, episodes 3 and 4 of "Glory" were released.

After a day of fermentation, even some people who hadn't watched Honor of Kings became curious. Is a patriotic drama really that good?
The ratings remained stellar, with the first two episodes showing the lowest ratings, but by the end of the fourth episode, the ratings had reached 13%.

Those viewers who came specifically for the show, and those who questioned whether it was really that good-looking, now had their answer: "It's good!! It's fucking good-looking!"

"This is the best idol drama of the year, and the most down-to-earth patriotic drama in history!"

The third day.
Honor's impressive viewership ratings continued to climb, reaching an average of 17.08%.

In contrast, "Palace Lock" has almost lost its popularity to Honor of Kings, leaving only a little over 10%.

Chen Ru is going crazy! Don't let it drop any further! Another 6000 million will be gone!

Chen Ru wasn't the only one feeling troubled; Shen Jin was also a bit bewildered.

Didn't they say they could maintain 10%? How come it's only 8% left? What the hell?

The current "Glory" is a hit across the board; not only is "Palace Lock" suffering, but all dramas currently airing on all TV stations are experiencing a drop in ratings.

What's even more terrifying is that this has only been three days!
Traditional media haven't caught on yet and haven't followed up with reports. Viewers are only discussing and praising it on Weibo, and it hasn't spread to the whole internet yet.

Shen Jin suddenly realized, "Honor of Kings" might not break records, right?
.

(End of this chapter)