Wallace Chung’s “Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils” Canceled Mid-Way Due to Poor Ratings
Despite being considered one of this year’s most anticipated wuxia dramas, the newest television adaptation of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils <天龍八部> has been officially pulled from Hunan Satellite TV’s broadcast schedule because of its subpar performance.
Starring Wallace Chung (鍾漢良) and Kim Kibum (金起範), Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils began airing in December during Hunan TV’s 7:30 pm. timeslot. Although its first few episodes received acceptable ratings, its numbers began to slip when both Hunan TV and CCTV-1 started broadcasting the historical drama Mao Zedong <毛澤東> at 8 pm.
Originally scheduled to air three episodes a day, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils was cut to a single 25-minute-long episode per day in order to accommodate the airing of Mao Zedong. The ensuing awkward editing caused Demi-Gods to fall as low as number 18 in the ratings.
To make the situation worse, Zhejiang Satellite TV also began broadcasting Demi-Gods in mid-January. Airing three episodes a day, the Zhejiang TV broadcast did not suffer the same edits as that of Hunan TV, leading to better reception from viewers. Moreover, Hunan TV’s loss of its exclusive broadcasting rights threatened the station’s advantage with advertising companies.
After 42 episodes had aired and with just 24 more episodes to go, Hunan TV decided to cancel the remainder of Demi-Gods – the second time in the past three years that the channel has made such a choice.
Director Unable to Control Drama’s Fate
Director Samson Lai (賴水清) expressed unhappiness regarding the many edits that had plagued the Hunan TV broadcast of Demi-Gods, which he thinks was the cause for the falling ratings. “Because they aired only twenty minutes per day, the number of episodes has gotten disordered,” he pointed out. “[This] messed up the audience’s viewing habits – watching only a little bit each day cannot satisfy the audience’s enthusiasm. They may even have felt like they were overlooked, so they switched to watch Zhejiang TV.”
However, Lai conceded that he has no control over his projects after they finish production, since directors cannot demand that their creations remain intact and unedited. Although SARFT created a new stipulation in 2010 that sought to prevent television stations from editing dramas at will and thus “infringing on the lawful rights of the pertinent copyright holder,” editing remains a common occurrence.
One business insider revealed that as long as stations do not cut out the list of credits at the end of each episode, then any other edits they make cannot be considered violation of the law. “SARFT has not issued any regulations regarding other issues, such as how many episodes to broadcast or whether the content needs editing,” the insider added, “so the station has the right to decide.”
Fans Angered over Han Dong’s Demise
As Huace Media’s first adaptation of a Jin Yong (金庸) novel, Demi-Gods features mostly actors signed to the production company, including popular mainland Chinese actor Han Dong (韓棟). However, his screentime was significantly cut in the Hunan TV broadcast, and his character, Xu Zhu, ended up appearing only in the very last aired episode.
“Xu Zhu is one of the three main characters – how could he appear for just a little bit? Can this still be considered Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils?” wrote one irate Han Dong fan on Sina Weibo. His fans also clamored for Hunan TV to issue an apology to their idol, calling the station “immoral” for their senseless editing.
Li Meng (李萌), a member of Han Dong’s promotional staff, revealed that the actor is currently on vacation and did not know about his deleted screen time prior to the broadcast. However, he plans to send autographed photos to his fans to thank them for their support.
Though Han Dong is reportedly optimistic about the situation, Li feels that the actor was wrongly treated: “He spent two to three months filming this… [and] the weather is extremely cold when you’re filming at Hengdian [World Studios] in the winter. We were also extremely cooperative during promotions.”
It is rumored that Hunan TV will rebroadcast Demi-Gods in its entirety during the daytime, though a specific timeslot is still being negotiated.
Source: Sohu.com
This article is written by Joanna for JayneStars.com.
I watched this series and to be honest,,, I felt so sick to watch it…around 25 episodes is better,, they don’t use that much of graphic,, still…. so sad.. and super sad,,,
TOO MANY DUMB REMAKES FROM MAINLAND CHINA…
China’s Golden Boy actor can’t save this series…or HK
AND DONT DELETE MY POST…
Youre so negative that I find it hilarious and more entertaining to read rather than the actual article LOL
I watched one episode then stopped right away.. Kim Ki Bums wardrobe was just downright wacky and acting wasnt the best..
Random questions but how come TVB doesnt do remakes of wuxia dramas anymore? Is it cause the ratings or usually down? Or cause China always beats them to it? I remember how they made so many wuxia dramas in the past with Flying Volant Fox Mountain, Return of the Condor Heroes, Demi gods & Semi devils, The Deer & Cauldron etc.
tvb does not have any copyright to do is anymore.
Jin Yong (金庸) does not like the way tvb make his story. but i think is more the money thing, China tv have more money to pay for the copyright. And they change the story completly sometime and Jin Yong (金庸) did not say anything.
China drama like to make this very long & less entertaiment.
I Still love the tvb way… not too boring.
agree,tvb wuxia has always be the best,i really miss it. its a pity they didnt have the copywright anymore.i hope they will do any of gu long’s novels again,like luk siu fung,chor lau hung,and reincarnated天蠶變.
I wonder who has the copyright now for ‘Reincarnated’, ATV or Huang Ying.
‘Reincarnated’ was an original wuxia series created by ATV and later adapted to book form by Huang Ying.
For those who hope for another TVB wuxia series, TVB has also produced an original wuxia series (that Cold Mountain series), but, don’t know when it will air. I hope it will be as good as those adapted from novels.
The series will be the studio. The story and book, if still within copyright laws then it should be the author. And the author can sell the right to anyone else.
There’s no need for TVB to remake those wuxia series anyway, since they have done them already. However, what I don’t get is why they don’t try to make original wuxia series – but then again, not much originality left in TVB.
i’m not sure if it’s a money issue because i heard jinyong used to sell rights to his stories for $1 to tvb. apparently, he was displeased with flying fox 99 and downright hated heaven sword 2000. i don’t blame him but if anyone’s watched recent mainland adaptations of his novels, they also took great liberties with the original plots. probably tvb can’t be bothered with them anymore, since they’re expensive to produce and will never surpass the series from the 80s.
not shocking since everybody felt this series was stupid in the first place.
just the 1st episode, you will stop…
Hahaha, I tried… 5mins in, I’m like ok, had enough -.- everything about the series feel wrong. And I agree, crappy china tv and their crappy remakes are ruining drama!!! They love to do long, corny, unoriginal series -.- and if they runs out of scripts, no worry, remake korean drama! The whole Chinese drama industry deserve my face palm -.-
In fact by looking at the promotional gimmick that this series has, I am not keen to download the drama at all.
It is a pity that for such an originality the story was remake to such an extent..
In fact, the first 20 episodes are very boring. The failure of this film is choosing Kim Ki Bum casting as Doan Yuan. He is very annoying and is not able to act. However, if you watch the remaining episodes, since A’zhu appeared, the drama has become more interesting
I have never seen any other remakes of this series before, but I felt Duan Yu’s character wasn’t as bad as people make it seem. On the other hand, I wasn’t too fond with A Zhu’s acting.
Reading these reviews, I’m really interested in seeing the previous version to compare heh.
Is the series that bad?
Maybe this series suffered because of the editing.
This series has been very enjoyable so far. While the casting might have been off-putting initially, I thought almost everyone fit into their roles very well. It really has a wuxia feel that series nowadays are missing, despite CGI use and fake sceneries. Wallace Chung as Qiao Feng and Jia Qing as AZhu/AZi have great chemistry together.
Half of the negative comments are from people who didn’t even bother watching for more than one episode. I wouldn’t put much weight on comments like those. SPCNET has a lively discussion on this show if you’re interested in learning more.
I think people are just sick of remakes regardless of who is in it. We need a new story lines and new novel adaptions, not the same old novels over and over again,
But if they add new elements to those novels, they would be criticize as well. Look at Yu Zheng.
Actually I find Yu Zheng’s Yin Jong series are more enjoyable than Zhang Ji Zhong’s.
Yes, I admit that Jia Quing is very talented actress who save the rest of this drama. This series has been very interesting and enjoyable since AZhu and Azhi appeared.
Well, it isn’t a surprise for this one to be cancelled. It’s actually draggy, fake CGI and full of miscast. The outfits are just meh. Wallace Chung shouldn’t act Qiao Feng, Kim Bum has no emotions and Zhang Meng’s makeup, outfits are even terrible than Michelle Chen’s Sailor Moon XLN. Han Dong hasn’t appeared so no comment.
Ppl are saying tat this series is even worse than Yu Zheng’s. I agree with that. I like many ppl in the cast, but the series still miscasted them.
It’s time to move on with new ideas and stop remakes. How many time can you watch these series over and over again? They have over 1 billion people…find new writers or novelists!
Well, an aging HK uncle plus an inept (acting wise) K-Pop idol = a recipe for rating disaster. LOL!!
The drama has been replaced by a historical drama on Chairman Mao; boy, they really pulling the big guns now.
Since you people actually pay attention to mandarin drama?LOL