Chapter 21 021 Saving the Beauty: A Swift and Decisive Move
Chapter Twenty-One
In short, regardless of whether Lin Yuan cast a curse or not, the popularity of "A Tear in a Cup" is indeed declining.
Compared to other popular dramas, the decline of "A Tear in the Night" was even more dramatic.
The series has only been airing for three days, and its popularity is already hovering around 8500. Whether it can hold onto 8500 is still unknown.
The trending topic "A Tear" was still hanging on the hot search list with a popularity score of over 9400, and many fans were leaving comments. However, not long after, the popularity score dropped by almost 1000.
If a drama's popularity doesn't rise, it's usually because its quality isn't high enough to attract new viewers. If its popularity drops, it's because it can't retain the existing audience. The rapid decline of a drama like "A Tear" can usually be explained by only one word—it's bad.
If it weren't visually appealing enough, its popularity would drop, but it definitely wouldn't drop this drastically.
Xingyao Video is clearly eager to reverse its decline and has intensified its marketing efforts for "A Tear". Not only has the homepage screen been filled with "A Tear", but the number of trending topics related to "A Tear" has also reached twice that of the first day of its premiere.
In the latest episode, the male lead finally develops feelings for the female lead.
"A single sip from a cup of water is enough to satisfy any lover; of all the waters in the world, I only choose one." The way he looks at the female lead is so affectionate, how can I not be a fan? It's so sweet!
"This is the flavor of love, so refreshing!"
"It's so good! You absolutely have to watch 'A Tear'!"
The scene of Xie Yu gazing affectionately at Chen Zhuo was played repeatedly, and almost every marketing account in the entertainment industry had one.
However, the popularity of "A Tear in a Cup" is still declining.
Even 8500 couldn't be held—the episode that made the "Yu Yin Yi Zhuo" CP stare at each other so passionately only had a popularity score of 8300.
"What exactly happened?"
This is a question raised simultaneously by Star Glory Video, DA Entertainment, and Kite Entertainment.
Xie Yu and Chen Zhuo worked very hard to promote the show. Before the series aired, Xingyao Video believed that the show had the potential to rival "Shi Hua Zhao" and arranged for Xie Yu and Chen Zhuo to film many interview videos in advance. When "Shi Hua Zhao" became an unexpected hit, the platform was unprepared. When they wanted to arrange the show later, the two actors' high prices and busy schedules made it difficult for them to meet the demand, resulting in a significant loss of profits for the platform.
Xie Yu and Chen Zhuo not only showered each other with affection during the interview and shared many interesting stories from filming, but they also frequently interacted on Weibo, addressing each other as "teacher." No matter how you look at it, it was only natural that the two became a popular couple.
The lack of popularity of the drama series resulted in the following: the videos of the two interacting were released by Xingyao Video with very few views, unlike when "Shi Hua Zhao" was airing, when even a small piece of material made the CP fans go wild, and the endorsements of the two leads together made a lot of money, and even the interactive live broadcasts attracted a lot of traffic.
The people who ship the "Yu Yin Yi Zhuo" CP are the same people today, and the same people tomorrow. Some people ship this CP today, and tomorrow they'll be raving about other CPs.
The platform bet that "A Tear" would be a hit, and the two lead actors received a lot of commercial offers as a result. However, because the series was canceled early, those commercial offers did not achieve the expected popularity.
DA Entertainment was also hoping that Xie Yu would gain a lot of fans through this drama, and had negotiated a lot of resources for Xie Yu for this purpose, but now, these resources may not be fulfilled.
The question is, why did the popularity of "A Tear" drop so drastically?
At least they have the existing fanbase of "Shi Hua Zhao"!
...
In fact, on the first day of the premiere of "A Tear", amidst the cheers of fans, many viewers raised questions.
Many viewers tuned in because of "The Blooming of Flowers," and many say that "A Tear in a Cup" is a sister series to "The Blooming of Flowers." Although the actors have changed, the main creative team remains the same, the director is still the same, and only one of the screenwriters has changed, so the overall quality should be about the same.
However, the plot of "A Tear" on its opening day did not meet their expectations at all.
The pacing is so slow it's almost boring, and the lead actor's performance is also uninspiring.
Most viewers won't say much. If a show doesn't suit their taste, they won't rush up and criticize it; they'll just walk away quietly.
With so many good dramas, which one can you choose to watch?
Some viewers would offer their opinions:
"The pacing is strange; the story doesn't always revolve around the main plot."
"The male lead was always trying to look handsome... The depth of his affection for the female lead was not as deep as the affection he showed when he looked at his own reflection in the river."
"Hahaha, the person upstairs said exactly what I was thinking."
"They're both so handsome and beautiful, like two peacocks, but they have absolutely no chemistry as a couple."
These comments were immediately slammed as negative – “Are you a fan of Lin Yuan?”
Lin Yuan, witnessing this scene, was speechless.
#A giant pot fell from the sky#
The decline in the popularity of "A Tear" has nothing to do with Lin Yuan. When the popularity soared to over 9,000 on the first day, Xie Yu's fans told him to "go eat shit" and Lin Yuan wasn't angry. But now that the show has flopped, the blame is being placed on him, and Lin Yuan is a little unhappy.
First of all, he doesn't have that many fans!
He really wanted it, but he didn't.
So on this day, after seeing the comment "Lin Yuan instructed his fans to lower the popularity of 'A Tear'" for the nth time, Lin Yuan posted a new Weibo post.
Lin Yuan: [-100.]
"What are you doing?"
【I am casting a spell.】
"???"
Netizens discovered that something magical happened—every time Lin Yuan posted a -100, the popularity of "A Tear" would drop by 100.
Lin Yuan added a tag to his profile in response:
#ChosenOne-100#
"??????"
"The curse was successful?"
Although netizens know that superstition is unacceptable, for some reason, they always feel that after Lin Yuan posted N -100s, the popularity of "A Tear" dropped even faster.
Even within Xingyao Video, "A Tear" didn't generate as much buzz as "Mercury Chronicles," which had no promotion at the time of its premiere.
"Whether it's cursed or not, with such terrible pacing, terrible acting, terrible chemistry between the leads, and the male lead's 75-degree tilted mouth, isn't it normal that this show won't be a hit?"
"Only half of the CP is left, and the P is the only one left."
"A Tear" is a super big production with a high investment cost.
Despite Xingyao Video's best efforts, including hiring editors to cut out the best clips, the popularity of "A Tear in a Cup" just wouldn't go up.
The show couldn't even maintain its 8,000 ratings halfway through its run.
"What does this number mean? Xingyao Video has broadcast 51 dramas this year, and 'A Tear' is currently ranked 28th in average popularity. The key point is that this is an S-level production, which is really a huge loss. And the most amazing thing is that this drama had the highest popularity on its premiere."
"I suggest the platform stop investing money in advertising. Marketing costs money, so it's better to save the money and do something else."
Xingyao Video clearly thought the same thing. After confirming that the popularity couldn't be salvaged, "A Tear" gradually disappeared from the trending topics list.
Since then, the popularity of the series has become even more apparent. If nothing unexpected happens, "A Tear" will probably rank outside the top 35 on Xingyao Video's overall drama list this year.
...
Many people in the entertainment industry know that Xie Yu is an actor that Xingyao Video is betting on. Every once in a while, a video platform will engage in in-depth cooperation with a certain new actor. Once the new actor becomes popular, the platform's gains will always exceed its investment.
Otherwise, the project "A Tear" would not have been given to Xie Yu.
Following "A Tear", Xingyao Video plans to collaborate with Xie Yu on other dramas.
But now, everything is uncertain.
"Xue Yi got the rights to 'Green Glass,' and Ye Liuchuan has been replaced as the tour guide for the travel variety show produced by Xingyao..."
Before the agent could finish speaking, Xie Yu suddenly let out a sneer: "Now it's their turn to laugh at me?"
The agent could only remain silent.
Xie Yu herself must be aware that with "A Tear" flopping so badly, Xingyao Video has suffered significant losses, and she has to vent her anger no matter what.
Rivals will also take this opportunity to snatch Xie Yu's resources.
In the entertainment industry, there are far more monks than porridge, and everyone wants good resources.
Xie Yu is, after all, an actor who is transitioning from supporting roles to leading roles. He is not at the point where he can ruin a drama and emerge unscathed. His resources are good, but they are almost all subsequent projects.
In other words, all the production teams are taking a wait-and-see approach.
"Right now, we can only shift the blame outwards." After a long pause, the agent cautiously suggested, "Fortunately, you and Chen Zhuo are co-starring in this drama, so we just need to..."
The agent made a pushing motion.
DA Entertainment has always been good at this kind of thing.
Xie Yu nodded.
Xingyao Entertainment needs an explanation, but it didn't say that it had to be him who provided it.
The agent and Xie Yu were discussing how to proceed, how to distance themselves from the situation, what to post on Weibo, how to apologize tearfully during the live stream, and most importantly, how to stir up the fans' emotions and shift the blame for the show's failure.
Xie Yu is quite good at this.
After discussing it for a while, Xie Yu's depressed expression gradually faded. Suddenly, he looked up and asked his agent, "Can't we post something related to Lin Yuan?"
Lin Yuan has been acting all high and mighty lately, and he really can't stand the other person.
The agent shook his head: "I'm afraid that won't work; the boss doesn't recommend it."
Lin Yuan has been getting increasingly bad luck with Xie Yu lately.
The two had just finished discussing and were about to arrange for the public relations department to follow up when the agent suddenly received a phone call. The next second, his face visibly darkened.
Xie Yu looked at him.
“Kite Entertainment made the first move,” the agent said.
Kite Entertainment is Chen Zhuo's management company.
At this moment, the number one trending topic is #SaveTheBeauty#.
"My goodness, did Sister Little Pepper really suffer so much injustice?"
"So it's true that Sister Xiaozhuo fainted. She only did it to make the drama better by catering to the marketing of the drama and creating a CP with Xie Yu. Sister Xiaozhuo is so dedicated, sob sob."
"What an awful guy! Ugh! During their interactive video, he acted like he disliked Xiaozhuojie, reaping the benefits of their on-screen couple status while trying to please his fans. It's absolutely outrageous."
"Save the beauty! What did she do wrong? Nobody said our Little Zhuo Jie acted badly in the drama 'A Tear in the Night,' the problem is clearly with the male lead."
Xie Yu: "..."
To be honest, since "The Road to Stardom," no one is more skilled at creating fake couple pairings and profiting from others than Xie Yu. As for blaming co-stars for a flop, he has done it more than once.
Xie Yu had never suffered such a great loss.
He had no idea that Kite Entertainment would act so quickly.
Xie Yu looked down and saw that the next hashtag for #SaveTheBeauty# was #ChenZhuoTearsOnLive#.
She cried during her live stream, so what should he stream now?
Should I boil water?
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Author's Note: [Let me see][Let me see][Let me see] Update~~
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