Chapter 362 News about Season 2
At 9:30, the third episode of "The Seventeenth Floor" aired on Beijing TV.
The real-time viewership ratings reacted immediately.
The initial 1.47% start surprised everyone who was paying attention to this data.
Online, many netizens are updating their videos of themselves watching TV shows in real time.
Chen Siqi noticed that many people watched the first two episodes of the Aurora Borealis video and were eager to see the third episode, so they chose to watch the TV on Friday nights.
She keenly sensed that this would be a big topic, and immediately sent her thoughts to the "Jump Up" self-media group, asking the editor on duty that day to write about the topic.
The "Jump Up" self-media platform currently has four full-time editors, who work in shifts. Their shifts aren't for anything else, but rather for handling unexpected, unforeseen topics that arise and require the on-duty editor to write about them immediately.
Self-media places great importance on seizing opportunities first.
The speed he honed meant that the script was already finished before the third episode had even finished airing.
"The Seventeenth Floor: Online Broadcast Boosts TV Ratings! Lu Yanhe Achieves Another Ratings Miracle."
Chen Siqi clicked her tongue and immediately deleted the last sentence.
It will incite hatred.
"Send it." After reading it, she only made this one change.
At 10:30, after the third episode aired, online discussions about "The Seventeenth Floor" grew exponentially.
Chen Siqi watched TV at her house.
Her father and Liu Wei'an had social engagements that evening and neither of them came home.
Chen Yuanzhi had already been taken to bed by the nanny.
She was the only one on the first floor.
Chen Siqi turned off the TV, looked around, and suddenly an idea popped into her head.
Can she buy a house herself now?
That way, she won't have to live here anymore.
“I watched ‘The Seventeen Floors,’ and I don’t know if you can understand, but I actually found myself somewhat understanding Li Meng. No, not understanding, I even envy Li Meng. She’s an orphan, and although her life is tough, she’s avoided a terrible family,” Chen Siqi said. “In the past two years, my dad and Liu Wei’an’s attitudes towards me have clearly changed, especially my dad. Now he treats me very politely, like a guest. When I was little, I really hoped he would be like that, so he wouldn’t be so easily swayed by Liu Wei’an’s meddling in my affairs. Now that he can’t interfere anymore, and he clearly doesn’t want to anymore, I feel a little sad. People are just like that.”
Chen Siqi seemed unable to accept her own suffering.
Lu Yanhe sighed and said, "It's only natural. He's your father, and you can never sever ties with him in this lifetime."
Chen Siqi: "But I think he's quite capable of letting me go."
Lu Yanhe wanted to say, "Don't say things out of spite," but he felt that if he did, Chen Siqi would probably really hang up the phone in a fit of pique, so he swallowed his words back.
"Putting that aside, 'The Seventeenth Floor' is quite good, and I have a feeling that this show will become a hit later on, even though it's already very popular now," Chen Siqi said. "I feel like a lot of people around me are watching it. I feel like the last time I watched a show on such a large scale was when 'Friends' was around."
Lu Yanhe: "The subject matter of 'The Seventeen Floors' itself has a natural advantage. Once people get into it, they will definitely be attracted to continue watching."
“Indeed, and the script is very well written and edited. Each episode presents a new challenge, with a main storyline, yet each episode is relatively independent,” Chen Siqi said. “I feel that the success of ‘The Seventeenth Floor’ with its weekly broadcast will encourage many dramas to truly explore the weekly broadcast model. After all, weekly broadcasts can maintain a drama’s popularity for longer. Previously, weekly broadcasts didn’t work in China because the few weekly dramas that tried it didn’t perform well and many flopped. Both ‘Friends’ and ‘The Seventeenth Floor’ were very successful this time, with very few episodes, one eight episodes and the other a dozen or so. Although the cost per episode was high, the total cost was much lower than many TV dramas, which also made it easier for the platform to control risks. Everyone can see that this success is not an isolated case. There were two in the first half of this year alone, and I expect many projects to try to replicate the weekly broadcast miracle in the future.”
Lu Yanhe said, "But there aren't many scripts suitable for weekly broadcasts right now. The current scripts are still mainly based on the original long-form drama scripts. If they want to make short dramas, they will start from the script stage to create scripts based on the characteristics of weekly broadcasts."
Chen Siqi: "Well, you might find it hard to believe, but several of our magazine's authors have received invitations from film and television companies to write scripts."
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised and asked, "Are they looking for our authors? Why don't they look for established screenwriters?"
“I don’t know the specific reasons, but film and television companies tend to cast a wide net when looking for screenwriters, and they cultivate them in a nurturing way,” Chen Siqi said. “Basically, anyone who works with words has received such an invitation to some extent.”
Lu Yanhe: "Do we have anyone to do it?"
Chen Siqi: "No authors have tried it yet. Although film and television companies have invited us, it's not really about asking them to be the lead writer. They're all just doing assistant work for well-known screenwriters. The pay isn't high. They've all signed contracts with us and can earn their royalties honestly by publishing their works and writing books. Why would they want to earn that little bit of money from them?"
Lu Yanhe suddenly realized.
Chen Siqi: "Jump Up is just our base. Now we have many self-media accounts, covering film and television, entertainment, food, reading, interviews... There are thirteen of them in total, and the demand for articles is also very large. If you want to earn more money from your articles, you can also write columns on these self-media accounts. As long as it fits our theme, if you write well, we will publish it."
Lu Yanhe was quite surprised when he heard what Chen Siqi said.
"That's all?"
“Yes,” Chen Siqi said. “Of course, the main reason is that several of our editors have opened their own accounts, and we have signed contracts with their accounts and have cooperation with them, managing and operating them as one of our managed accounts.”
Lu Yanhe suddenly realized.
So that's how it is.
He said, "Thirteen numbers? That's too outrageous."
Chen Siqi said, "Currently, only three out of the thirteen accounts are profitable; the others are still developing."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
“That’s really impressive,” Lu Yanhe said to Chen Siqi. “I didn’t even realize we had so many self-media accounts now.”
"The development of self-media is an inevitable trend, while running a magazine is going against the current," Chen Siqi said. "We are doing quite well now."
Lu Yanhe: "Impressive."
Chen Siqi: "The Li Bi you found is quite a troublemaker. He keeps applying to me for additional special funds to do things. But he's very decisive. Although he spends a lot of money, he has accomplished a lot and his achievements are impressive."
“He used to be a paparazzi. Paparazzi work is very tough. If he can do it, he can certainly do other jobs well if given the opportunity,” Lu Yanhe said.
Chen Siqi looked at Lu Yanhe with considerable surprise and said, "Well, I didn't expect you to think so highly of paparazzi."
“It’s mainly in the last year or two that I’ve been constantly outwitting them. Sometimes I feel like they’re everywhere, and I really think they’re pretty amazing,” Lu Yanhe said with a smile. “Sometimes I also think, since they have such amazing abilities, why don’t they use those abilities for proper work? With those abilities, they would have achieved worldly success long ago.”
Chen Siqi nodded. "So you think we can recruit more paparazzi?"
“We still need to be more careful, after all, most paparazzi… well, they don’t have any bottom line. I thought Li Bi was okay, so I let him give it a try because he secretly photographed me and actually went to rent a house.” Lu Yanhe laughed as he spoke. “Actually, renting a house isn’t really a matter of having any bottom line. Thinking about it carefully, it really isn’t. I just thought he was quite different back then, and I didn’t expect to actually meet such a capable person.”
Chen Siqi: "You have a keen eye for talent; you're really good at this."
-
The average viewership rating for the third episode surged by nearly 0.5 percentage points to 1.37%, leaving the industry stunned.
again? !
How did the viewership ratings reach such an exaggerated level again?
Apart from CCTV, almost no other local TV station can achieve this level of viewership in this era.
At the beginning of the year, Friends did it, and now this summer, The Seventeenth Floor has done it again!
After the ratings were released, Jiang Lan's phone vibrated like it had a vibrator installed, and it never stopped ringing.
Her face was almost frozen from smiling.
Everyone came to offer their congratulations.
With this kind of momentum, it's clear that "The Seventeenth Floor" is about to take off.
I was a little disappointed that there were no new Northern Lights videos tonight.
Everyone says that this is because the first two episodes were broadcast so well on Aurora Video, which actually brought a lot of viewers to the Beijing-Taiwan TV dramas.
Many impatient viewers chose to watch the premiere on Friday.
There was some concern within the Northern Lights Video team: would this affect their online streaming data?
Regardless of the thoughts of the two broadcasting platforms, once this ratings result was released, Chen Bige and Lu Yanhe completely reversed the public opinion situation that had been ridiculed by many haters.
Both of them already hold high positions in the entertainment industry, and they are not the kind of people who have status but have retired from the front line of performance.
There aren't actually that many actors who are truly recognized by film and television companies and platforms as having the "ability to carry a drama," especially those who can carry any type of drama.
The success of "The Seventeenth Floor" has made Lu Yanhe the first actor this year to have two leading roles in dramas with viewership ratings exceeding 1%.
Chen Ziyan certainly wouldn't miss this opportunity.
When it's a time to promote achievements, Chen Ziyan absolutely doesn't care that Lu Yanhe is constantly trending on social media and needs to maintain an air of mystery as an actor.
At times like these, it's essential to publicize it openly and enthusiastically, letting everyone know just how capable Lu Yanhe is in his work and how outstanding his achievements are.
When the ratings for the fourth episode remained at 1.26%, everyone knew that the ratings for "The Seventeenth Floor" were secure.
-
It was at this time that Aurora Video announced that Lu Yanhe would be working with Aurora Video to develop a battle royale-themed web series called "Squid Game".
Riding the wave of popularity of "The Seventeenth Floor," the "Squid Game" project, despite not being the first to be officially announced, still easily made it to the top of the trending searches.
Besides the official announcement, rumors have also been circulating.
"The Squid Game" will star several popular actors, including Huang Kairen, Zeng Qiao, and Jiang Yuqian, with whom Lu Yanhe has previously worked.
The cast immediately became a trending topic.
Then, Zheng Huai-ren, the content manager of Aurora Video, clarified: "Currently, 'Squid Game' has indeed contacted some actors, but the list circulating online is not true."
Lu Yanhe went to shoot an advertisement and was intercepted by the media at the entrance of the studio.
"Is there anything you can tell us about 'The Squid Game'?"
"It's all still a secret for now," Lu Yanhe said with a smile. "The only thing I can reveal is that my script is almost finished. The first draft has been submitted to Aurora Video, and there should be a few more rounds of revisions afterward."
"So 'The Squid Game' was written a long time ago?"
"After filming 'The Seventeenth Floor,' I had the idea to create a story about battle royale," Lu Yanhe said with a smile. "Director Lian Bei was very supportive of my idea, so I tried writing it. At that time, an overseas streaming media company wanted to discuss a collaboration with me on 'The Squid Game,' but the terms were not suitable, so I refused. I thought it would be shelved, but I didn't expect Aurora Video to be very interested."
"With so many projects underway, how do you manage your time?" the reporter asked in surprise. "It seems like you've written a lot of scripts in the past year or two."
"Actually, I've been accumulating knowledge since graduating from high school. At the time, I was just writing for fun and didn't show it to anyone. Now, it's all come out in the last year or two. Of course, I didn't write it all in the last year or two," Lu Yanhe said with a smile.
"Which actors are you currently in contact with for 'The Squid Game'? Could you reveal one or two? Are any of the actors on the rumored list real?" the reporter asked with a smile.
Lu Yanhe sighed and said, "You know perfectly well I can't say this, but I can say this: all the actors on the rumored list will indeed be working with me on new projects later. Everyone can look forward to it, not just for 'The Squid Game.' Also, 'The Seventeenth Floor' has only aired four episodes so far; the later episodes are even more exciting. Please help us promote it! I have to start filming soon, so I can't chat with you any longer. Bye!"
After saying that, Lu Yanhe stopped answering questions and went into the photography studio.
-
The immense popularity of "Squid Game" has also caught the attention of the Beijing-Taiwan region.
During an internal meeting, someone said, "Is it okay for Lu Yanhe to take advantage of the popularity of 'The Seventeenth Floor' to collaborate with Aurora Video on 'Squid Game'?"
"If someone wants to ride the wave of popularity, can you stop them?"
"Who would have thought?"
Some people say, "The script was already finished a long time ago. It's not like they're trying to ride the coattails of 'The Seventeenth Floor.' They wrote a show like 'Friends,' why would they need to ride the coattails of 'The Seventeenth Floor'?"
"Why announce it now, either earlier or later?"
"Why don't we buy the exclusive TV broadcasting rights to 'The Squid Game'?" someone suddenly suggested. "It feels like this show is clearly going to be a big hit."
"The bidding hasn't even started yet, who would agree to buy it?"
"What if other TV stations snatch up 'Squid Game'?"
Everyone was talking at once.
Jiang Lan tapped the table and said, "Today we're going to discuss the second season of 'The Seventeenth Floor,' not 'The Squid Game.'"
Her words calmed everyone down, and they got back to the main topic.
"The ratings for 'The Seventeen Floors' have already reached our expected target. As long as it doesn't collapse, we will definitely film a second season. This project is also a trilogy project," Jiang Lan said. "In particular, this project has done a lot of derivative development, which is a new attempt for us. We want to continue the popularity of this IP."
“We signed a three-season contract with director Lian Bei, but the actors didn’t. If we’re going to film a second season, they’ll definitely ask for a pay raise.”
"Does that mean even the director's salary won't increase?" Jiang Lan scoffed. "I didn't come here to discuss this kind of thing. What you should be discussing is when the second season will be produced and when it will air. There needs to be a timeline. Hurry up and talk to the production team and actors. If you don't secure the release date early, you'll be passive in everything you do later."
...
That afternoon, Jiang Lan announced some news to the media she knew:
Jingtai is preparing for the second season of "The Seventeenth Floor," with the entire cast returning!
This news was not an official announcement, but was released under the guise of a rumor.
The news immediately went viral. As the most popular TV series right now, news of its sequel is highly anticipated.
(End of this chapter)
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