Cecilia Cheung’s Drama, “Love Can’t Wait”, Flops in TV Ratings
Although Cecilia Cheung‘s (張栢芝) comeback in new romantic series Love Can’t Wait <如果，愛> generating buzz earlier, the drama ended up being a major flop.
Many of Cecilia’s fans were eager to see the single mom return to the television screen after a 10-year absence, but they were met with much disappointment. Although no one doubted Cecilia’s acting ability and beauty, viewers thought the series was slow, outdated, and overly exaggerated at times.
While the praises were reserved for Cecilia, who gave a wonderful performance as a sad, tragic wife, the storyline was not captivating enough to keep viewers. With 47 episodes in total, netizens are worried about the turnout as 10 of those episodes have already aired but were received poorly in general.
Besides the good turnout for the premiere, the ratings for each episode have been declining quickly, with last Friday’s episode hitting an all-time low of 0.368%, the lowest in history for Hunan Television station.
Although the television ratings were poor, the online views seemed to be strong, drawing in 800 million views in total. In contrast to the negative reviews the drama received in Mainland China, viewers over the Internet enjoyed the series, offering praises for both Cecilia and the touching storyline. Hong Kong viewers seemed to also like the drama.
Source: HK01
This article is written by Su for JayneStars.com.
Younger viewers who prefer online viewing likes Cecilia Cheung’s drama more than families who are tuning in through regular TV?
@jayne wouldn’t say younger? I found a lot of the online viewers can also range from 30-50. I’m myself in that range. So maybe those age grp are what contributing the online viewers?
Reading the synopsis though, it did not interest me, the plot seems old and pretty predictable. I think there used to be a Taiwanese drama with this storyline! Also cdrama needs to shorten their modern drama, almost like TVB style, I’m not saying always 20 episode but they do not always need 40-50+ ep either!
@jayne I guess so? Logically online viewers should be younger generation and busier lifestyle hence prefer to watch online? Are they referring to real time viewing? What is online viewing vs tv viewing? 50 eps? Holy cow. Even contemporary dramas are as long as the ancient costume dramas?
@mangotango cdrama these days average 50ep regardless of its genre >_<
I don’t really understand why producers try to drag a drama on for 50+ episodes. Aren’t people paid per episode anyways? So the more they film, the more money they lose? Or is it, the more they film, the more money sponsors pay?
@coralie No idea. Maybe something to do with sponsorship?
@coralie the longer the drama the more it can sale for. So yea, more sponsors basically, more ads xD I think they have gone away from the paid per episode? As the recent article has been listing the celebrity’s earning per drama, rather than per episode?