Feature Shows Extravaganza - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: What’s A Yo-yo?

Translator: Henyee Translations

Editor: Henyee Translations

After running up and down the country for half a month and talking to all sizable provincial satellite TV channels, Meng Lang finally reached his goal and was ready to head back to Jiangchuan.

As soon as he got back, he received a phone call from He Yifan, the actor playing the main character Li Fei in Blazing Teens.

“Director Meng, I heard that our show is on air. Is this true?”

Meng Lang wondered who the leak was and asked, “Who did you hear it from?”

“My nephew. He said he saw me on TV, so I had a look. It was Jiangchuan Children’s Channel, I think…”

He Yifan sounded a little excited. “Director Meng, the first episode is already out. How’s the viewing rate?”

Already?

Although Jiangchuan Children’s Channel was the first TV channel Meng Lang reached out to, it was obvious that their broadcasting schedule was already full. Mr. Tao had said that he would make time for Blazing Teens as soon as he could manage, but Meng Lang didn’t find it very likely that Jiangchuan Children’s Channel was going to be the first to broadcast Blazing Teens.

The fact that they had aired it so soon could only mean that they had replaced something scheduled to be broadcasted next with Blazing Teens.

Mr. Tao was so decisive!

Quickly finishing up the phone call with He Yifan, Meng Lang tapped open his Wechat and found Mr. Tao in the contact list.

“Mr. Tao, is the viewing rate out yet?”

“Hold on. The number’s still being calculated!”

Mr. Tao replied succinctly, then there was radio silence for almost half an hour.

Just when Meng Lang couldn’t wait any longer and was about to visit Jiangchuan TV station himself, Mr. Tao sent him a picture.

It was a tree diagram of the viewing rates released by a data-collecting authority. Although there were discrepancies in their viewing rate statistics, especially in remote rural areas where there was a lot of missing data, the statistics on the viewing rates in a big modern city like Jiangchuan were almost always accurate.

The tree diagram showed the statistics of viewing rates of all the TV programs broadcasted in Jiangchuan between 15:00 and 16:00.

Among those, “Let’s Cook” of Jiangchuan Comprehensive Channel was the most popular one, with a viewing rate as high as 17.1%!

The next one down the list was “Know It All” of the News Channel with a viewing rate of 15.6%!

Those two programs were unbelievably popular!

Both were the most viewed programs throughout the year in Jiangchuan, but nationally, they were nowhere to be found on the nation-wide viewing rates list.

Right behind the two regulars, Blazing Teens was the third down the list!

The local viewing rate in Jiangchuan was 10.31%!

Mr. Tao then sent him another statistics chart, which displayed the national viewing rates covering all TV networks.

Blazing Teens performed miserably nation-wide with a viewing rate of 0.013%!

“Well, Mr. Tao, you’re the professional here. Can you tell me how good or bad this viewing rate is?” As the layman here, Meng Lang was utterly confused. He had to turn to Mr. Tao, the professional, for help.

“For the viewing rate alone, my opinion is that the show has reached the passing line, but it’s not good enough.”

Mr. Tao added. “In order to be the first to air Blazing Teens, we’ve removed an old cartoon, Candy Girl, from that time slot. This first-round viewing rate is about the same as Candy Girl…”

About the same as Candy Girl?

Meng Lang was dumbfounded.

Candy Girl was a cartoon targeted at very young kids and had once been a hit show nation-wide. Its broadcast rights had been sold repeatedly and Jiangchuan Children’s Channel had broadcast it for what seemed like a million times.

And Blazing Teens couldn’t even beat such a show…

Was it really that bad?

Mr. Tao went on, “Don’t give up. It’s only the first episode and the viewing rate doesn’t mean much. I’ve discussed with my supervisors and starting from tomorrow, we’ll give the prime time between 18:00 and 19:00 to Blazing Teens, so that we can air two episodes in a row. I think we’ll see some improvement in the future viewing rates!”

Meng Lang was rendered speechless.

He didn’t understand it. If the viewing rate wasn’t good, why would they move the show to prime time?

Mr. Tao’s decision baffled him!

“But why? Mr. Tao, didn’t you just say that my show’s viewing rate was even worse than Candy Girl?”

“It was!”

Mr. Tao replied with a “you idiot” meme, then went on explaining. “Blazing Teens had no PR whatsoever! Without PR, how can you get good viewing rates? Many people don’t even know that we’re broadcasting it for the first time today! It’s only natural that your viewing rate is bad.

“Without any promotion, a viewing rate like this for a first-round broadcast is already very good!

“And you know what? We received nearly a dozen phone calls after the first episode. All the callers were parents asking where they could buy those yo-yos!

“This show is going to be so popular!”

Hearing this, Meng Lang was finally at ease.

He was right!

No matter what universe this was, all kids couldn’t fight the temptation of flashy yo-yos!

After the chat with Mr. Tao, Meng Lang was about to put his phone away and go to talk to his old man about the mass production of yo-yos when he saw an incoming notice from his Wechat moments, saying that a “special friend” had an update.

Before he knew it, he tapped and opened it.

“Xiaobao keeps nagging me today, asking me to buy him a yo-yo! Does anyone know where I can buy this toy? I’ve asked in several malls, but none of them have it!”

The update was posted less then 10 minutes ago by Meng Lang’s dream girl as he remembered from his previous life.

The dream girl was Zhang Jing and she was five years older than Meng Lang. She used to work as a librarian in the Jiangchuan University library.

The memories from his previous life were filled with things about this dream girl. During his four years in university, he almost hadn’t done anything worth remembering other than going to the library pretending to read, when in fact he was stealing glances at Zhang Jing.

As much as he loved the girl, he was so timid that he had never talked to her once during the four years.

And the result of that unrequited love was…

His goddess was a mother now! And the father was the child of a young teacher from the medical department!

What a heartbreaking story!

Why would Meng Lang keep a married woman in his “special friend” group in his contact list?

A certain young teacher should have paid more attention to that!

Apart from his rather baffling mature women complex, Meng Lang was no home-wrecker and had no intention of stealing other men’s wives.

Compared to the goddess herself, Meng Lang found the yo-yo mentioned in that post a lot more important.

The post contained a picture taken with a phone, showing a TV screen. Just from one glance, Meng Lang knew that it was showing Blazing Teens!

And the replies were equally interesting.

“Yo-yo? As in the thing that looks like a tire attached to a piece of string? I’ve been looking for it, too!”

“A toy that looks like a tire with a string?”

“Xiaobao is so adorable! Jingjing, tell Xiaobao that his godmother is going to bring him a robot dog, the most popular toy in the States, when I go back home. He’ll stop nagging you right away!”

“A robot dog? Qianqian, can you get one for me, too? I’ve racked my brain, trying to think of something to give to my nephew for his birthday!”

“No problem!”

The married women carried on and the topic soon digressed.

However, Meng Lang had noticed the potential of yo-yos through that post.

Now, Jiangchuan Children’s Channel was the only one showing Blazing Teens. As more satellite TV channels aired the show, covering the entire country, there was no way that the yo-yo wouldn’t become a hit toy!