The popularity of "News Queen" is rising, why does the workplace version of "Palace Scheming" hit mainland audiences?

Text: Xiaoyu

In the past week, TVB's new drama "News Queen" has made a beautiful comeback.

On the Guduo list, the average weekly popularity of the show climbed from 67.09 in the first week of broadcast to 76.54, which is close to the popular idol drama, and at the same time, the Douban score has gradually increased from 7.9 to 8.2.

The "low opening" of this drama is easy to understand, after all, the fame of Hong Kong dramas has been consumed, but why it is "high" is worth exploring.

is also a strong lineup joined by the queen and the emperor, and the first three Taiwanese dramas this year have received mediocre responses, and the finale of "News Queen" somewhat relieved TVB. The drama focuses on the infighting of media companies and the ecology of the news industry, and the workplace dramas that don't fall in love, the female group portraits of "all the villains", and the sharp lines of sober people in the world are all highlights, which are in stark contrast to mainland dramas.

On this basis, the fact that "News Queen" can have such a high degree of discussion is also related to the application of the promotion model of mainland film and television dramas. The show has set up official accounts on major social media, and the leading actors also cooperate to participate in the microphone sweeping and frequently interact with netizens, and the hot search entries formed by this have also greatly contributed to the continuous breaking of the content of the series.

After a long absence, "News Queen" gives people a new glimpse of the prosperity of Hong Kong dramas.

Break the stereotype of female workplace dramas

"You can't even imagine a dog biting a man, the world of a man biting a dog is not for you, find a man to marry. ”

This is the widely circulated out-of-the-circle line of "News Queen", the first half of the sentence points out the cruel truth of the news workplace, and the second half of the sentence is praised as the most vicious swearing. Taking this as a facet, we can see that the show's presentation concept of workplace struggles and women's situation is obviously different from the stereotypical workplace dramas that prevail in the family-style workplace and regard marriage as the destination of women. And this is the key to its ability to hit mainland audiences.

As a female workplace drama, the beginning of the heroine in "News Queen" is not the low point of life in which the parents are short, the husband betrays, and returns to the workplace. Wen Huixin (played by Charmaine Sheh) is the leading female anchor of SNK News, a well-known media organization in Hong Kong. Under the deliberate restraint of the proprietress Fang Tai and the director Fei Ye, she and the male anchor Liang Jingren (played by Ma Guoming) at the same level set up their own factions, and the two of them are on the same page, and they both want to be among the company's management.

The workplace scenes in the play account for the largest proportion, and the changes in the roles also revolve around work, in the words of the audience, "at least they look like they are coming to work". Including emotional relationships, it is basically an integral part of the workplace drama in the play, playing a role in promoting the plot and perfecting the characters, and will not dominate.

is different from the mainland drama routine in which the male and female protagonists inevitably fall in love with each other, the male and female protagonists of "News Queen" are mortal enemies in the true sense of the word, and they cannot be reconciled at all at present, let alone develop into a love relationship. Of course, they also have their own emotional lines, and they are somewhat similar. Both maintain a physical relationship with their young subordinates, but they are always sober and self-controlled, and at the same time they both have the "White Moonlight" ex in their hearts.

It is worth mentioning that Wen Huixin does not rely on men to pass all the way, but Liang Jingren, who is a man, is a man who is left and right in the play. They all dig out their power tricks, but the former still has their own career bottom line, while the latter has completely lost their news literacy, and they often seek workplace benefits by flirting with female subordinates.

In addition to this, "News Queen" does not use the stupidity of the supporting characters to set off the cleverness of the protagonist, and it can be said that each character is not a fuel-efficient lamp. Including the heroine, the play presents a workplace appearance of "all the villains", which is also in stark contrast to mainland dramas.

can become the anchor of the fiercely struggling SNK News Department, Wen Huixin's character is by no means an innocent and kind little white flower. She still has a bottom line in doing news, such as insisting on making valuable news and refusing to entertain news. But in the struggle for power and profit, she is almost unscrupulous, using a slap and then giving a sweet date to PUA subordinates, not reporting the corruption of welfare institutions in order to attract sponsorship, and instigating subordinates to take risks to break into the fire to shoot materials, etc., all show the gray side of her character.

The other characters also have their own characteristics, rather than being an accessory to Wen Huixin. Xu Shiqing, who used her beauty to compete for the top position, dared to say in the face of chastity criticism, "In the end, he eats me or I eat him, who can say"; Xu Xiaowei, who was pulled by Wen Huixin, although she lacks ability and has a lot of handles, also has the consciousness that "obedience is the way to survive"; Zhang Jiayan, who only wants to do a good job in journalism, has outstanding professional ability, and always adheres to her original intention in the face of the two factions...

The characters portrayed in this drama, especially the female characters' pursuit of careers and their views on emotions, are eye-catching. Putting aside the exaggerated conflicts of intrigue and life-and-death in film and television dramas, women don't have to give up their families for the workplace, and they don't have to be ashamed of age and chastity shackles, which have won many audience praises.

Perhaps in reality, the vast majority of women are still trapped in bad habits, and the family and workplace environment they are exposed to are not as open as those presented in the play. But sometimes literary and artistic works should be more advanced, and they should subtly promote the environment to break the old and create the new, rather than fooling the audience and sticking to the old ways.

The workplace version of "palace scheming" can't escape the suspension disadvantage

Due to the large focus on the power struggle of TV stations, many viewers feel that "News Queen" has the shadow of TVB's classic palace fighting dramas "Golden Branches Desire" and "Palace Scheming". Gu Duo's perception is consistent with it, and the heavy sketching of the power struggle line makes the play really a cool drama with a workplace theme, and therefore, many plots have made concessions in professionalism and authenticity.

In news events such as bus rollovers, elections for the Benevolence Foundation, and the wounding of mentally ill people, the truth is always reversed and reversed. The Wen family army led by Wen Huixin defeated Liang Jingren to win the final victory every time, even if she was forced to resign halfway, the reason had nothing to do with professional ability, but she was abandoned by the boss's wife. In addition, Wen Huixin quickly regained Fotile's trust with the "fire rat" incident and returned to the company as a manager. From Wen Huixin's perspective, there are many thrills along the way, but it can always turn danger into relief, which can be said to be exciting and comfortable.

Although the power line is too heavy, "The Queen of News" is also seriously portraying the news industry.

At the beginning of each episode, a famous quote from journalism will be quoted, and the content is connected to the plot to a certain extent, which is undoubtedly a manifestation of intention. The professionalism presented by characters such as Chinese Huixin and Zhang Jiayan in the drama is also very convincing, such as unscripted news broadcasting, diligent running on the scene, and hitting the key interview questions.

Many of their expressions are also quite professional. In the face of the difficulties of the boss of Guangxiang Heavy Industry, Wen Huixin replied calmly: "That's right, news has no economic benefits, but the truth is, it can ask for people's lives, it can also expose people's scars, and it can also help people build bridges and pave the way, hide evil and promote good." She does not deny that public opinion can be manipulated, but she always agrees with the value of truth.

But it should also not be ignored that "The Queen of News" has obvious suspension drawbacks.

When Moon Hye-shin first joined SNK's news department, the topic she wanted to cover was rejected due to a high-level power struggle, and she complained angrily that she "fights every day, how to do good news". Years later, she became the kind of person she once disliked.

The company is full of infighting, full of bad habits such as power trading, framing and confrontation. Employees go to work every day with 800 hearts, and every sentence is said with a deep meaning, and some people even do not hesitate to kneel in public in order to keep their jobs. This oppressive workplace environment is at least not in line with the real experience of most people in the workplace.

CCTV reporter Wang Meng and former TVB anchor Mai Shimin both shared their views on chasing dramas on social platforms, and they said that plots such as threatening the leader 20 seconds before the countdown to the live broadcast, deliberately turning off the teleprompter when others broadcast live, touching up makeup in the live broadcast room and helping to wear headphones are too exaggerated and very different from real news work.

In addition, many of the plot settings are not very reasonable. When socially significant news events occur, the police and firefighters are always slow to find the truth, apparently deliberately downplaying their presence in order to highlight the news industry. In the case of a mentally ill person's madness, the truth is that the non-compliance of the nearby radio stimulates the person's mental state, which is within the audience acceptance threshold. But as soon as the radio is turned off, the person concerned will regain his sobriety.

Of course, "News Queen" is not essentially a drama created to reflect the face of the news industry in an absolutely true way, and it is understandable that the plot should be as exciting as possible in order to attract the audience to the greatest extent. It can only be said that the audience's acceptance is different.

Content bottoming, marketing assistance,

Co-production dramas are interesting again

Judging from the broadcast feedback, the trade-off of "News Queen" was a success. Although it is not as good as the workplace dramas at the peak of TVB, it also meets the expectations of mainland audiences for Hong Kong dramas with fast-paced, strong plots, constant struggles, and frequent golden sentences.

In addition to the rising popularity and bullish word-of-mouth in the mainland, the highest rating of the show at the time of its premiere on TVB reached 23.4 points, which was on par with TVB's ratings champion "Invisible Team" in the first half of this year, and it can be said that it is the best performance among Taiwan's celebration dramas this year. Prior to this, "Hong Kong People in Beijing", "Romeo and Zhu Yingtai" and "Shadow Sniper", the three celebration dramas that have been broadcast on Taiwan, have received average responses.

From the mainland alone, the "News Queen" can "start low and go high" is inseparable from the promotion and marketing. Since the broadcast of the show, it has been on the hot search on Weibo almost every day, and most of the entries are in the direction of Hong Kong drama rejuvenation and comparative domestic entertainment.

The mainland dramas that have been compared are not limited to workplace dramas, but the recently hit idol drama "Love as the Camp" has a high appearance rate. The reason is that the heroine of the show is a financial journalist by profession, but many of her practices violate professional rules and are quite controversial. In the case of the audience's poor perception of mainland dramas, the effect of "News Queen" taking advantage of the marketing seems to be very good.

And the reason why it was able to get such an amount of publicity resources is due to the fact that this is a co-production drama between Youku Video and TVB.

In recent years, there have been few successful cases of TVB's co-productions with the mainland, most of which have annoyed Hong Kong entertainment audiences and failed to please domestic entertainment audiences. According to incomplete statistics, TVB and Youku Video co-produced "White Strongman 2", "Forensic Pioneer 5", "Apostle Walker 2" and "Iron Detective" co-produced with Tencent Video, and "Blind Barrister" co-produced with iQiyi, etc., all have Douban scores below 8 points, and the number of scorers is below 50,000, and the reputation and attention are not high.

Although the feedback from audiences in the two places on the co-production drama is not good, TVB has always attached great importance to this business line. In August this year, its wholly-owned subsidiary, 77 Studios, signed a cooperation framework agreement with Penguin Films, a subsidiary of Tencent Video. One of the contents is that 77 Studio will cooperate with Penguin Film and Television to promote four customized dramas, including "The Cliff of Women and Heroes 4", which has been postponed for nearly two years due to various reasons, "Corporate Strongman", which focuses on entrepreneurs in the Greater Bay Area, the large-scale police drama "Anti-Black Hero" and the suspenseful reasoning detective drama "Criminal Investigation 12".

is also produced by 77 Studio, and the hit of "News Queen" is undoubtedly a good sign. If the drama can continue the current trend and break the law that co-produced dramas must be pounced, this is of great significance to TVB and Hong Kong dramas.

After all, if you want to break through the limitations of your own funds, aesthetics, personnel and other aspects, co-production is an inevitable trend of TVB and Hong Kong dramas. However, how to give full play to the strengths of Hong Kong dramas and retain the original flavor, and make reasonable use of mainland resources to achieve renewal, still needs platforms and creators to continue to explore and try.