TVB to Air Select Dramas 7 Days a Week
Starting April 27, dramas that are chosen to be broadcast during TVB’s third prime-time slot (between 9:30 and 10:30 pm) will be airing seven days a week rather than the original five days a week. The Mainland Chinese drama The Empress of China <武則天> will be the first drama to occupy this new lineup.
Produced by and starring Fan Bingbing (范冰冰), The Empress of China is about the rise of Wu Zetian, the first female sovereign of Ancient China. The drama features an all-star cast from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, including Zhang Fengyi (張豐毅), Aarif Lee (李治廷), Janine Chang (張鈞甯), Chang Ting (張庭), and Kathy Chow (周海媚). It will premiere in Hong Kong on April 27.
Before, TVB primetime dramas are usually shown from Monday through Friday, starting at 8:00 pm. Weekend prime-time slots are usually occupied by variety programs. After purchasing the broadcast rights of Fan Bingbing’s The Empress of China, which just completed its run in Mainland China, TVB decided to extend its third prime-time slot to seven days a week. However, dramas airing in the first and second prime-time slots will remain unchanged.
Due to the changes in lineup, TVB’s upcoming dramas Eunuchs Leave the Palace <公公出宮> and The Vampire <殭>, which are currently in production, will be getting more episodes than originally planned.
In the past, TVB was airing finales of its popular dramas on the weekends to increase viewership. No Regrets <巾幗梟雄之義海豪情>, starring Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯) and Wayne Lai (黎耀祥), achieved high ratings when the series aired its two final episodes on Saturday and Sunday.
Current weekend variety programs – Sunday Song Bird <Sunday靚聲王> and Johnson Lee’s (李思捷) Sze U Tonight <今晚睇李> – have been raking in high ratings. Johnson Lee said he has heard about TVB’s new lineup plans, and revealed that due to the change, TVB ordered more episodes for Sze U Tonight.
Source: ihktv.com
This article is written by Addy for JayneStars.com.
I finished watching the empress of China and it was really good!
Oh my goodness… Look at that…wig? Headpiece? It’s so overly fussy and waaaay too much. Like an octopus with short tentacles…. Gah.
I rather watch variety shows…five days of dramas is good enough for me, i like to watch different things
me too … 5 days of drama is just right, 7 days is too tedious to watch … will have to chase and watch online instead … variety programmes are nice to watch too.
Boobies or no boobies ver?
I’m pretty sure it’s “no boobies” version lolol. I couldn’t help but notice the chests when I was first watched it original version before they decided to edit it all out. Thank goodness they did, or at least made it less obvious because it was really a distraction lmao.
I watched several episodes and stopped. To be honest, I don’t understand why they casted Aarif Lee to play Li Zhi. A total miscast!
TVB is enjoying the good life after ATV and HKTV crash…
TVB is enjoying the good life which mean viewers are getting crap TV. I am still cheering for HKTV and hope they’ll generate some real competition so TVB will stop producing crap dramas. HKTV’s The Menu is really good. Hopefully there will be more dramas like that.
I really like the Menu too. Very interesting
Agreed. Menu is good drama. Good job HKTV
I don’t mind the new change of the 7 days airing, but wouldn’t this also put more pressure on the filming schedules of artists to be more hectic and production crew members too?
I don’t really see how airing it on weekends would have a massive impact on the ratings anyway. Just because other previous dramas aired episodes on weekends did reasonable well in ratings, doesn’t mean it will be the same for upcoming dramas…seems like more people nowadays download and rewatch it in their own time rather than watch it live on Tele or watch it online streaming instead. The time or day of airing doesn’t have such a big impact imo. And if the dramas are going to be bad, it’s going to get poor ratings no matter the changes in the airing schedule lol
Imo, it’s the quality not the quantity they need to focus on…
Very obvious TVB want to finish airing ‘The Empress of China’ as soon as possible.
Why are they bothering with it in the first place? Didn’t they learn from the Jouney to the West fiasco?
Simple. Bcos tvb is sucking up China too. $$$$
People back then must have had a. Lot of hair or wigs are earths earliest invention.
MaybE this is a better series.
“Current weekend variety programs – Sunday Song Bird and Johnson Lee’s (李思捷) Sze U Tonight – have been raking in high ratings.”
So 16-17 points in ratings is considered “high” nowadays?
More eps = more draggy scenes. Yay….smh.
If they want more viewership, they should air the good ole dramas from the late 90s and early 2000s….
1980s/early 90s would be better when 40 to 60 episode series felt epic and well-written scripts helped them dictate popular culture. HKTV got that part right, only the scriptwriter is allowed to change the script and all other departments must fully cooperate when change is needed.
You know who they need? Gan Kwok Leung. The guy is a master at the art of meaningful dialogue in scripts. I did catch some of that in To be or not to be / Hakka Sisters. Combined with a performance from Prudence Liew worthy of her ‘movie queen’ status and you’ve got something reminiscence of the golden days.
Imo, mainland dramas are doing the same thing except with a bigger budget so it looks glamorous but it’s just throwing more money at the production as a band-aid fix. Sort of like playing a game with a lot of fluff items to customize and make your characters look nice but the game itself is poorly designed.
All in all, more quantity won’t resolve anything. If they have this kind of money to throw away, might as well try a decent script for once.
Well-said, SD! It’s definitely the quality that counts, not the quantity. Extending the series to 7 days a week versus 5 days won’t do any good if the series lack quality to begin with – but then again, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, as TVB has always been about ‘in your face’ promotional tactics. And definitely agree that more effort should be placed in producing quality scripts, as that will always be the core of any series (the ‘be all, end all’ so to speak) — even the best actors/actresses in the world cannot save a horribly written script, no matter how hard they try. HKTV obviously understands this concept, which is why they use the method that they do – and it shows, as their series are definitely of way higher quality. [sidenote: I’m currently chasing The Menu as well and it is an EXCELLENT series, right up there with To Be or Not To Be (which I loved), The Election, and Borderline].
Sadly, I don’t think the Hong Kong TV industry will ever get back to the golden days of the late 70s/80s/mid-90s. HKTV was once that beacon of hope for this to happen, but unfortunately not anymore given the turn of events the past 2 years and knowing that the ‘powers-that-be’ will continue to do everything they can to prevent HKTV from being any type of formidable direct competition in the market. And now with TVB focusing more and more on the Mainland market (as per their official announcement earlier in the year), there will be even less motivation for them to improve the quality of their series to meet HK audiences’ tastes….as long as Mainland audiences support their series and they get a lot of ‘hits’ (views), then the series are considered successful.
i seriously don’t enjoy watching mainland drama no matter who is in them. they are too draggy regardless of the storyline or good acting. also, i can’t stand dubs even if it is in mandarin.
Storyline in those long mainland dramas are very repetitive and draggy. For example, the whole story of the drama “The Empress of China ” is about how different people one by one plotting to harm FanBingBing, one case after another. Same as the drama “Jouney to the West”, the monk was harmed by monsters one by one during the adventures and the monk’s disciples need to rescue the monk everytime. Sooooo draggy.
You guys should not stereotype all mainland series as repetitive and draggy. Many series are very good. I actually find many TVB series unwatchable. The new series with Ron,Him and Myoile that many claimed was good ended up being pretty bad to my family and I. We did not enjoy it at all. Has TVB truly lost its touch forever?
Oops typed the wrong email address.
Wow, what’s wrong with my previous message? Why is my comment awaiting moderation? I didn’t swear or anything.
i totally agree with m0m0 … if half of my money is going into a china drama on a tvb channel i would rather cancel my cable tv and buy dvd, at least i watch only what i want to watch and not pay for programmes that i don’t want … it is costly so it is really not worth it.
I prefer Monday to Friday so I have time to take a break from TV and do other things. But if they do end up 7 days permanent, then I’ll probably record it than sit in front of the TV 24/7.
Ok, Mondays to Fridays for dramas. Weekends watch variety or family time doing something else.
To attracts more people watching, please please please air the not edited version (aka booby version)…..
LOL. Well, according to Catherine Tsang and Sandy Yu — when they were asked which version they would be airing, they replied that it would be the “TVB version” (Sandy specifically said that the series will be “edited to fit HK audience’s tastes’ AND that it’s a version that ‘no one has seen before’). Interpret that how you wish (good or bad, we’ll have to see once the series airs). 2 things for sure though: the series will be dubbed in Cantonese (obviously) and the music will be changed as well (Joey Yung will sing the theme song for the HK version).
I personally am not interested in watching Empress of China, as I don’t have the patience to sit through that many episodes of draggy plot…but in the event that I do watch, I would definitely go for the original version in Mandarin, since I can’t stand anything that’s dubbed, period!
Does HK have dual language version?
Mandarin also dubbed.
People predicted the death of TVB when to the new channels and due to people’s changing habits with preference on online content…man, TVB proved all their pundits wrong. They are a really amazing powerhouse. They continue to control the entertainment landscape in fussy HK which is not an easy feat.
TVB will never die. Predictions of death were OTT. And even predictions of competition is good is also OTT. What competition? Within HK no competition. They only need to compete with outside HK and even then they don’t need to; just buy the series and broadcast it. TVB will live long and prosper.
LONG! LIVE! T!V!B!
So, this is TVB’s hope of a “Jewel in the Palace” redox.
Given the drama’s performance in China, I think there is high probability that it will also be successful in HK. But as to the same degree as Dae Jeung Geung? that would be a tall order.