Chapter 357 It's not time to be discouraged yet!
Li Zhibai returned with broad beans and shredded squid, sat down, and kicked Lu Yanhe.
Lu Yanhe moved his legs a little, and Li Zhibai then sat down.
“You wrote the script for ‘My Own Swordsman’ yourself, so it’s normal for you to have a lot of ideas. It’s not like they’ve worked with someone like you before, so they have experience dealing with you,” Li Zhibai said. “Don’t think that it’s wrong for you to stick to your own opinions. They’re not necessarily right either. If they could make it work 100% according to their methods, why would they hire you?”
Lu Yanhe: "Sigh, actually I'm just not that confident."
"Why?"
"Because no success can be replicated 100%."
What Lu Yanhe wants to say is that a project that succeeds in another world may not necessarily succeed in this world.
However, Li Zhibai interpreted it as meaning that the success of the previous project did not necessarily lead to the success of the next project. He thought that Lu Yanhe was worried that "My Own Swordsman" could not replicate the success of "Friends" because "Friends" was too successful.
Li Zhibai said, "Old Lu, do you remember what you said before?"
"What?"
"If you fail, you fail. Everyone fails sometimes. If you fail, just get up and start over."
"Sigh, it's one thing to say that, but it's another thing to actually face it," Lu Yanhe honestly admitted. "I'm not very enlightened."
"It's already pretty good," Li Zhi said confidently. "Sister Ziyan is absolutely right. Why do you like to belittle yourself so much?"
Lu Yanhe fell silent.
Does he like to belittle himself?
Li Zhibai suddenly remembered something and chuckled, "Let's not talk about that for now. I have something to tell you. Isn't 'The Seventeenth Floor' going to air? I heard that other platforms are preparing other shows to compete with yours."
"confrontation?"
“Yes, and it’s not even a direct confrontation. Didn’t you plan to broadcast ‘The Seventeenth Floor’ weekly? I heard that other platforms are using daily broadcasts to compete with your weekly broadcasts.” Li Zhibai shrugged. “Of course, I don’t know if it’s true or not. Maybe it’s because your show is getting so much attention that people are busy targeting you.”
Lu Yanhe said, "Isn't it said that other platforms usually avoid producing big-budget dramas like ours?"
“But it’s a weekly broadcast, not a daily broadcast. It only airs two episodes a week, so people can watch them easily. Even if it’s popular, it won’t affect what shows people watch normally,” Li Zhibai said. “The viewership is there, but it can’t steal much from them.”
Lu Yanhe was speechless, because he felt that what Li Zhibai said made a lot of sense.
As they gradually gained a better understanding of film and television production, they also developed a deeper knowledge of the industry.
If shows like "The Seventeenth Floor" are broadcast on Aurora Video, because they are weekly shows and we know they are quite popular, then other shows that are released at that time will definitely be able to benefit from the platform's increased traffic.
The number of views for the platform's splash screen ads and carousel banners alone will increase significantly.
However, for other platforms, this also means that for five out of seven days a week, this wildly popular drama will not be updated.
That means that even during these five days, there is still a base of traffic to compete for.
There is still room for big-budget dramas to survive.
This is no longer an era where only one drama can dominate the market.
There are often several shows airing at the same time, competing fiercely and creating a vibrant and exciting scene.
-
Under these circumstances, "The Seventeenth Floor" finally premiered.
The premiere is on Friday nights from 9:30 to 10:30. Because it is an hour long, the TV station only has so much time to schedule it. It is not like Friends, which is only 20 minutes long and can be operated flexibly.
The time slot from 9:30 to 10:30 is considered a very good broadcast time.
Lu Yanhe and Li Zhibai watched the premiere at Ziyuan Bridge.
Yan Liang couldn't join them because he had work to do.
The series opens with Chen Bige. She sits in a café in a bustling city, beautifully and sexily signing for a local delivery under the watchful eyes of everyone, and then walks out of the café carrying the package.
She returned home with the package, opened it, and found an invitation and a USB drive inside.
The scene then shifts to Lu Yanhe.
He sat in a study filled with books, wearing glasses, and blankly opened an identical package with a knife. His expression changed only when he saw the invitation inside.
...
Everyone's appearance is brief, with Chen Bige having the longest screen time. The later the character appears, the less screen time they have. This editing rhythm subtly gives the impression that the pace is gradually accelerating, as if someone is urging them on.
The next second, the camera shifts, and seven people appear simultaneously on a dock.
The seven people introduced themselves to each other, tested each other, and then boarded the ship.
The ship was also filled with the clash of swords and the glint of blades. People probed each other before striking, only to discover that those on board were no ordinary individuals.
After they disembarked, they soon found themselves on a deserted island.
There is only one building on the deserted island.
Behind the door was a letter addressed to everyone.
The letter stated that they were all carefully selected players. They were participating in a treasure hunt game that was very famous in the dark web world.
"You must rely on yourselves to escape from this building. Only those who reach the rooftop can use the only satellite phone on the roof to call a helicopter and leave here."
Only then did they realize that they had been scammed.
They became guests on live streams in the dark web world—specifically, live streams featuring their thrilling and desperate experiences facing life and death.
-
Lian Bei ruthlessly cut out all the minor details, and after the first advertisement, the seven people were forced into the secret room for the first test.
If they don't find the key to escape this secret room within ten minutes, the flamethrowers around the room will burn them to ashes.
Some people didn't believe it was true and thought it was just a joke.
But some people know that it's true.
While facing conflicts with each other, they must also find ways to solve the puzzle.
Jiang Jun plays Fatty Li, a retired soldier who originally took on the role of team leader, but after making two mistakes, he was disliked by the others and kicked out.
Chen Bige's character, the orphan Li Meng, astutely finds the real key and opens the secret room door five seconds before the muskets fire. Seven people escape in succession. At the appointed time, all twelve muskets simultaneously unleash flames, engulfing the entire room in flames and sending a wave of heat crashing down. The last to escape, Wang Dushi, lets out a scream of agony—fire has reached his back.
Fortunately, she managed to escape at the last moment and close the door.
That concludes the first episode.
-
The moment Lu Yanhe heard the end credits song start, he breathed a sigh of relief. The first episode was a smooth and engaging experience from beginning to end, with almost no dull moments.
After watching it himself, he had only one feeling: this drama should be a success.
But when he took out his phone, he suddenly froze.
Because the real-time viewership of "The Seventeenth Floor" has been declining over the past hour.
There was a brief surge in the first ten minutes of the broadcast, from 0.81% to 1.27%, but then it fluctuated and declined, eventually dropping to 0.75% by the end of the first episode.
The chat history of the "Seventeen Floors" production team stopped at this screenshot of real-time viewership ratings, and no one spoke again.
When Li Zhibai saw Lu Yanhe's expression suddenly change, he wondered what was wrong and asked, "What's going on?"
Lu Yanhe then showed his phone to Li Zhibai.
"The ratings trend is not very optimistic."
Li Zhibai frowned in confusion upon seeing this.
"Why does it keep decreasing?"
Lu Yanhe shook his head.
He didn't know either.
Of course, judging from the premiere, the ratings for the first episode were quite good, with an average rating of 0.93% per episode.
However, compared to the massive publicity campaign surrounding "The Seventeenth Floor," this viewership rating seems to confirm director Lien Bei's statement that if the viewership rating doesn't break 1, it's considered a failure.
-
This viewership rating has even become a trending topic on social media.
The key phrase is: "The Seventeenth Floor" viewership ratings are declining in real time.
There are indeed many people paying attention to this show, and so are its rivals.
As soon as the ratings were not as good as expected, everyone immediately started kicking them while they were down.
This isn't about being petty; it's all about profit. Before "The Seventeenth Floor" aired, it received so much attention that advertisers flocked to it. Now, they want to bombard everyone with messages saying that "The Seventeenth Floor" isn't doing as well as expected, so you don't need to flock there anymore.
Beijing and Taiwan reacted very quickly. Less than half an hour after the trending topic "The ratings of 'The Seventeenth Floor' dropped in real time" entered the trending list, the trending topic "The high reputation of 'The Seventeenth Floor' won the praise of the audience" also entered the trending list.
Indeed, compared to the continuously declining ratings, online comments about the show are overwhelmingly positive.
Many people praised the show, saying it's rare for a domestic production to have such a fast-paced story.
Moreover, many people say that when the time was almost up in the first level, they felt the same thrill of being about to be burned, just like the main characters.
The plot is very engaging.
Lu Yanhe spent a long time browsing the internet, unusually, until 1 a.m.
There is still no word from the creative team behind "The Seventeenth Floor".
The ratings issue has clearly been a blow to everyone.
People had such high expectations for this show, even if its trajectory was upward, it would have been fine, as it would have shown that the show could retain its audience. But the current trajectory seems to indicate that while there were quite a few viewers initially, many of them left.
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that most of the genuine netizens online (rather than trolls hired by unknown individuals) genuinely found the first episode of the show entertaining, thrilling, and exciting.
He said in the main cast group: I spent more than two hours online, and most of the viewers praised this show. I think the declining ratings are probably because the main audience of Beijing and TV stations is still middle-aged and elderly people over forty years old. It is normal for them not to like this kind of show. I think the online viewership will definitely be good when it goes online on video websites tomorrow. Don't be discouraged, it's not time to be discouraged yet!
Lu Yanhe didn't expect that Chen Bige would give him a thumbs up as soon as he sent his message.
She said: Yes, I've been reading the comments from netizens carefully. Everyone says our show is good and praises me for choosing scripts.
Yan Zhimeng said: Even I made it onto the trending topics, which shows that there are still quite a few viewers who like and discuss our show.
(End of this chapter)
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