Bab 32: Follow the Trend
Editor: Henyee Translations
Trend-following was human nature.
When the boys who had been attracted to the new show because of Blazing Teens realized that Balala the Fairies wasn't something they had expected, they switched channels without hesitation.
However, the viewing log wouldn't lie. Despite insisting that they wouldn't watch some "girlie transformation", many boys went back on their word within the next 30 minutes.
Of course, there were also boys who had given up on the show completely.
But only less than half of the boys belonged to the second category.
The other half almost all switched back to CCTV-14 after they realized that nearly all other channels were re-broadcasting the New Year's Eve Gala.
Compared to the gala that would be replayed a million times and the variety shows, Balala the Fairies might not have been the boys' first choice, but it was better than having nothing.
Because CCTV-14 had mentioned Blazing Teens during the promotion of Balala the Fairies, many boys were intrigued and went to watch the first episode. They switched channels in disappointment after realizing that it wasn't what they had expected, hence the fall in the viewing rate of the first episode.
That was the promotion campaign's fault!
What happened after that surprised everyone.
The rise in the viewing rate could be attributed to the returning boys, but what about the 4.58% average viewing rate of the third episode on the following day? That couldn't have been because of the boys.
It was thanks to the girls!
The debut of Balala the Fairies soon attracted the attention of a large group of primary and middle school students.
The girls began to discuss the show as if they were in a spell. They talked about how sweet Meiqi and Meixue's parents were, how big their room was, how good the school looked, how cute Xue Feifei was, and how pretty the fairies' dresses were…
The fairies' story wasn't that much different from a fairytale.
Meiqi and Meixue were the Cinderellas who had found Blue Fairy, their "fairy godmother". She then turned the sisters into pretty fairies before defeating the evil dark fairy…
But children were simple, and they would always be moved by unsophisticated stories, not to mention that the theme of Balala the Fairies wasn't all that simple. It advocated that love and peace could save the world!
Whether it was the young fairies, the "Dancing Baby", or the foreign live-action magic-themed shows, as long as they were feature shows targeting teenage girls, the message was pretty much the same.
With that theme, there wasn't much the script could do. The screenwriter would be considered to have done a very decent job if they could come up with a positive, cheerful, and all age group appropriate story.
Balala the Fairies became a great hit!
Compared to Blazing Teens, Balala the Fairies' success was unprecedented. Viewing rate wise, it had set another milestone for Pengda Pictures.
It was the first month of the new lunar year, when all major TV channels were on vacation.
Even so, the heads of the TV channels had instructed the channels to start showing Balala the Fairies as soon as possible, so as to make use of this great trend.
The national channel had taken the lead. If they didn't hurry up, the national channel would take all the benefits, leaving them with nothing.
With the popularity of Balala the Fairies, the show's peripheral products were launched in great volumes as well.
They consisted of stickers of the characters and fairy props, stationery with the image of the fairies, fairy dresses as seen on the fairies themselves (wigs included), lighter tone post-it notes printed with the characters in the show…
And most importantly, the toys, which had been produced at the greatest volume.
The toys included all the instruments the fairies had used in the show: Fairy Crystal Necklace, Colorful Fairy Stone, Fairy Encyclopedia, fluffy toys, and figurines of the characters, so on and so forth.
As expected, the toys sold very well.
Probably because it was right after Chinese New Year and the kids still have a lot of lucky money in their pockets, they didn't even blink before they paid for the toys.
Mr. Old Meng was over the moon.
With the fairy flute and the yo-yo, he would empty the pockets of both boys and girls.
Whether it was their lucky money or pocket money, Pengda would take it all…
The turnover of the factory kept making new records, and thanks to the licensing of the characters, Meng Lang's Pengda Pictures had much more capital in the account.
Seeing how popular Balala the Fairies had become, many of Meng Lang's peers began to make their own plans.
"This Mang Lang boy is really something. He has actually turned the situation of feature shows around."
Should they have followed the trend?
That shouldn't have even been a question. Of course, they would. Since companies had joined the scene for casino movies, zombie movies, and coming-of-age movies, there was no reason that they shouldn't have done the same for feature shows.
However, before they did that, they decided to check some Weibo posts first.
The scene over there was boisterous.
"Helpful" netizens couldn't wait to make the name of a certain director a popular topic. Now that the fairies had become a thing, they wondered if the eating sh*t deal was still on.
Although the director had deleted the original post, he had forgotten about something called a "screenshot".
The picture soon got around. As cheerful onlookers, the netizens couldn't care less about how the man felt.
"You live to learn and eat sh*t!"
Having no other choice, the director had to have some chocolate made into the shape of a pile of poop and he got it over with. Otherwise, this thing might have never really blown over.
The director didn't seem to care much about the face-slapping. After working in this business for so long, this wasn't the first time that he had made a bad judgement.
He went on saying whatever he wanted, not affected at all.
"It's a toy advertisement disguised as a TV show!"
Since the man always spoke what was on his mind, this time, he wasn't criticized as harshly.
Many people even left comments, suggesting the director to make a TV series of his own, so that he could show other directors how to make one properly!
That rendered the director speechless.
Could he make one?
The general opinion was that TV shows weren't as "high-end" as movies, and that opinion made movie directors somehow feel more superior to those of TV shows.
But in fact, they were two different categories.
There was no guarantee that a director used to making movies would make good TV shows.
Vice versa, a director used to making TV shows might not become a successful movie director.
The director was quite famous as a movie director. His works still received criticism, but they usually had good box offices.
But the suggestion of making a TV series… Well, no thanks.
He could do it, but there was no point.
Meng Lang didn't seem to be affected by anything happening on Weibo at all.
Come to think of it, he had to thank the director.
Without the director's influence, Balala the Fairies wouldn't have become so well-known, with its petty PR budget of a few million and all.
If the director hadn't made all that noise, even if Balala the Fairies could have become a hit show on its own, it would have probably taken the route of its original version. That was, the viewing rate would have only started rising when the show reached the second half, rising again in the re-run.
Now that the show had been hyped up like many big budget productions, it was only natural that it had gained its popularity so quickly.
It was just that…
Meng Lang's fellow directors had moved in way faster than he had expected!
It had only been days since Balala the Fairies' debut and it was already a circus out there…
-- Hadiah diterima