Since the end of the TVB drama "News Queen", which has been highly popular among the people, discussions around the sequel "News Queen 2" have continued to heat up on major social platforms. In May 2024, director Zhong Shujia released a news on Weibo that actors were asking for recommendations, which opened a large-scale "job hunting" scene in the entertainment industry, and artists voted for "olive branches" to recommend themselves.
Among them, Li Hao from "Let's Farm the Land" and Xiang Zuo, Zhao Qing, Li Mingde, Huang Ling and other artists who are participating in "Infinite Transcendence Class" have also publicly released "self-recommended resumes" on the Weibo platform. The enthusiasm of the artists not only aroused heated discussions among the majority of netizens, but also set off a dream linkage between a number of popular variety show IPs and "News Queen 2". Within two days, 11 hot searches dominated the screen, the popularity soared by 200 million, and the discussion degree was as high as 10w+. I have to say that this session of netizens knows how to fill the expectations of the new drama.
"The world of humans and dogs is not for you, find a man to marry!" How many people have fallen in love with Hong Kong dramas again because of this sharp line in "News Queen". In addition to nostalgic fans of Hong Kong dramas, many viewers who did not pay attention to TVB TV dramas before also became interested in chasing dramas. The ratings of the show have been popular all the way after it was launched, and it took only four days to get a high score of 8.2 on the Douban platform.
According to statistics, "Queen of News", created by TVB Qishiqi Studio and Youku platform, is not only extremely popular in Hong Kong, China, but also set off a movie-watching frenzy in the mainland market, with a cumulative effective broadcast volume of nearly 1 billion times on the Youku platform, and won the TVB annual ratings championship drama with an astonishing record of 26.9 points in a seven-day total cross-platform rating. In addition, the topic of "News Queen" has aroused widespread discussion on the whole network, and has accumulated nearly 3.4 billion views on the Weibo platform alone; On the Douyin platform, the number of views of related topics is as high as 6.4 billion, once on the Douyin drama list Top1, and the total topic views of Xiaohongshu exceed 3 billion, and it has been highly recommended by platforms such as Station B, Yunhe, Maoyan, Lighthouse, and Detawen.
"News Queen" starring Charmaine Sheh, Ma Guoming, Li Shihuan, Gao Haining, He Yiting and other artists, and the director is Zhong Shujia, a famous director with many word-of-mouth masterpieces. Straddling the two fields of film and television, Zhong Shujia is famous for his diverse shooting techniques and unique work style. Whether it is the early TVB dramas such as "Laughing at the Storm" and "Difficult Brothers", or Hong Kong-style comedies such as "Seventy-two Tenants", or the TV series "King of Lanling", "Good Days and Good Scenery Know Geometry", "Choosing the Sky" and so on. Director Zhong's works have not only been well received by the industry, but also impressed many audiences.
At the Hong Kong International Film and Television Festival in March this year, Zhong Shujia revealed that "News Queen 2" has completed the assembly of the starring echelon, and the original cast such as Charmaine Sheh and Gao Haining will return to star. When referring to the background of the creation of the new characters, he said that with the construction and development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the integration and exchanges between Hong Kong, China and the mainland will become closer and closer, and the new Hong Kong drama also needs to inject more elements with the development of the times. It can be seen that this online casting will also be a new attempt.
Regarding the enthusiastic participation of the majority of artists, Zhong Shujia said that it is a particularly good thing for actors to dare to publicly recommend themselves in public channels, which in itself requires a lot of courage. From the director's point of view, the adaptability to the plot content and character design is the only criterion for online casting, and TVB will also unswervingly follow the route of content quality, responsible for the work and the audience. In the future, it is expected that TVB will give back to the market with quality and word-of-mouth, and live up to the expectations of the audience.
Text/Yangtze Evening News-Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Nan
Editor/Qiao Ying