My TVB Rant# 29: TVB’s 50th Anniversary Awards – the “lowlights” and “WTH” moments…

It's been a long time since I've done one of my "TVB Rants" (I actually had to go back to check which rant number I was on and realized I last did one back in 2016).  Not that there wasn't anything to complain about – believe me, with TVB, there is ALWAYS something to complain about, especially nowadays where it seems that they never fail to irritate me in one way or another – it's just that I've had more important things to do so unless the "transgression" was particularly egregious, I didn't want to take precious time out of my busy day to write about them.  Well, with TVB's 50^th Anniversary Awards that just took place this past weekend, it turned out that there was plenty to complain about – much of it in the "egregious" category – so here I am dusting off my "TVB rant" board once again.

This year's anniversary awards show was beyond disappointing – not just in the results (which I will get to in a minute) but in many other areas as well.  First of all, with this year being such a huge milestone (50^thanniversary), I would've expected at minimum the following: 1) a grand gala event with all the bells and whistles and whatnot that would've made this year's award show memorable and stand apart from all previous year's award shows  2) special guest award presenters who are non-TVB people and many of whom we haven't seen in a long time, 3) special performances and/or special tributes to commemorate 50^thanniversary, like maybe a montage clip showing past winners or something along those lines, 4) one or more award with special meaning / significance to give out only this year (to someone deserving of course) to commemorate the occasion.  Not surprisingly, TVB did not deliver on items 1 through 3 and only partially delivered on #4.  

1)      Instead of the grand gala event I was expecting, we ended up getting the same anniversary awards show that we typically get from them every year – a cheap-looking, disorganized production that felt like it was made on a shoestring budget with limited resources. The hosting was mediocre, the production was nowhere near professional-looking, and the memorability factor was severely lacking. 

2)      In terms of award presenters, there was no excitement whatsoever – in fact, I would say that I was largely disappointed in this area because every year, I look forward to seeing the presenters more than I do the actual nominees and winners.  This year, the award presenters were all mostly TVB people – many of whom were fellow nominees who had to be there anyway so might as well have them present – or people associated with TVB in some way, either directly through actual collaboration on movies (via Shaw Brothers) / TV series (i.e. Wong Jing) or indirectly through a family member's connection with TVB (i.e. Law Kar Ying and Ti Lung).  I'm honestly not sure whether TVB decided to go this route with the presenters out of laziness (i.e. not wanting to take the time to come up with a guest list and then having to call up each person to see if they could attend) or they truly couldn't get anyone outside of TVB to support them because the anniversary awards have been such a disgrace in recent years that many non-TVB artists wouldn't bother to waste their time attending.  My guess is that it was a little bit of both…

3)      I found it truly disappointing that TVB chose not to do anything special to commemorate their 50^thanniversary milestone.  Sure, it can be argued that they kind of "celebrated" already with the anniversary gala but honestly, this is different, as the anniversary awards is supposed to be their biggest show of the year.  I would've expected something similar to what Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards did to commemorate their 50^th anniversary (which was to pay tribute to Best Actor and Best Actress winners from the past 50 years by inviting them all to attend the ceremony and having them appear on stage while the audience gave them well-deserved applause – that was one of the most memorable award moments ever for me!).  Of course, I recognize that this would've been a difficult feat for TVB, since most people don't take their awards seriously anymore so most non-TVB artists wouldn't even bother attending even if they were invited – ok, fine….but how about perhaps doing a video salute then, like putting together a montage of past winners and then having as many of them as possible record a current video clip expressing their thoughts on the 50^th milestone?  This would've been simple enough to do, as all of the past TV King and TV Queen winners are still active in the industry (some even still work for TVB now) and several of them even filmed for TVB in the past year or two.  But yet, there was nothing….

4)      The one "special" thing that TVB did this year was to take the Lifetime Achievement Award and "dedicate" it to everyone who has worked at TVB over the past 50 years (artists in front of the camera as well as those behind-the-scenes).  Liza Wang accepted the award on everyone's behalf and gave a speech that basically was a plea to TVB management to treat their artists (and behind-the-scenes crew) better.  While TVB dedicating the award to "all" of their past employees is definitely a good thing, I feel that they only partially delivered in this area because it was more of a symbolic gesture than an actual award….though on second thought, I guess a "dedication" is better than no recognition at all?

By now, I'm pretty sure most people know the results of this year's awards and may even have seen the "backlash" on the various forums and social media. I'm not going to comment on all the winners (or losers) because to be honest, I really don't see the point – so the below is mostly my reaction to the few "surprises" that has everyone talking (more like yelling and screaming?) at the moment as well as some comments on a few less heavily contested categories.  

So here it goes….

The biggest shocker for me was Rebecca Zhu winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in that time-travel Eunuch series (too lazy to go look up the series' English name right now).  My first reaction when I found out she had won that award was WTF?????  I was pissed, but even more so when I actually watched the awards and saw who made it to top 5 – honestly, every single one of the other 4 actresses nominated for BSA were better than Rebecca in terms of acting (plus their characters were more memorable), yet TVB chose to give Rebecca the award over them?  Ok, so you may be wondering why am I pissed when I barely watched any of last year's series, plus I wasn't rooting for anyone in this category anyway since I didn't like most of the nominees.  Well, for me, it boils down to a matter of principle.  Those who are familiar with the anniversary awards' history will probably remember that the current iteration of the BSA award actually evolved from the "Powerhouse Actor/Actress" award, which was created to recognize those artists with great acting prowess but didn't qualify for TV King or Queen due to their roles being supporting rather than lead – so in a sense, the BSA award is the one most closely associated with actual skill in acting.  Most years, the award usually went to veterans, which made perfect sense --  of course, there were some years where TVB strayed and gave the award to someone less deserving, but for the most part I was ok with most of the past winners (with 1 or 2 exceptions of course).  This year though, was especially ridiculous because TVB essentially gave the award to someone who can't act, for a role that very few people even remember!  At first I was really puzzled why TVB would choose to give Rebecca this award when she was so obviously the least deserving of the lot, but then it dawned on me that TVB is planning to heavily promote her in the coming year (with a movie in the works as well as lead roles in several series) – so in essence, TVB used this award to advance their internal agenda (not that this is anything new on TVB's part, since they do this all the time with the TV King and Queen awards, but still…).  I think this year in particular, it was harder to stomach having this award go to someone so unqualified (and with so little acting experience) because veteran artists were largely shut out from the awards this year, with TVB choosing to award mostly the younger generation. 

Speaking of which, that leads me to the second biggest shocker, which was of course Sisley Choi winning the Favorite Female Character award.  This one was shocking in that it made no sense whatsoever, especially since this award (along with the Favorite Male Character award) is traditionally viewed as the "consolation prize" for not winning TV Queen (King).  Even if we look at this award from the perspective of "popularity contest" (which technically is what this award is about), it makes even less sense because Sisley is nowhere near popular.  Yes, she has improved tremendously in terms of her acting from the time she first started (in my book, she went from "previously unwatchable" to "currently tolerable"), but she is still nowhere near the "good" level and quite honestly still has a long way to go in order to get there.  It definitely would've made more sense to award her Most Improved and give the Favorite Female Character award to someone else more deserving.

In terms of Natalie Tong winning TV Queen – yes, it was a shock, but not at the same level as the two mentioned above.  Acting-wise, Natalie is decent (and depending on who we're comparing to, I would even say her acting skills are quite good) -- however she lacks onscreen charisma and quite honestly is a boring actress overall.  One thing's for sure -- she's definitely  not an artist I would bother turning on the TV for.  The controversy concerning her win of course is whether she should have appropriately been nominated in the TV Queen category in the first place, since her role in My Unfair Lady was largely viewed as supporting rather than lead.  Since I didn't watch that series, I can't comment on whether her screen time was enough to warrant a nomination or not but the part I do agree on is that the main reason why she won TV Queen was because Jessica Hsuan did not attend the awards ceremony (my pick for TV Queen was actually Nina Paw, but I would've been okay with Jessica winning it).  Overall though, I would say I am largely indifferent toward who wins TV Queen because this award is one that I stopped caring about long ago (the last actress whom I felt truly deserved this award was Sheren Tang back in 2010 – everyone else who won after her was largely undeserving in my book and only won due to the lack of adequate competition).

As for Mayanne Mak's win for Most Improved Female Artist (not necessarily shocking but rather unexpected due to the fact that she is a host, not an actress) -- I actually feel that the problem with her win isn't that she doesn't deserve Most Improved because she definitely does…the fault lies primarily with TVB for combining this award into one when it should have more appropriately been split into two.  I remember back in the day when the anniversary awards first started (back in 1997 through the early 2000s), TVB used to separate out their awards into "drama series" awards and "non-drama series" (variety/informational programs) awards.  The MI award used to have 2 sets of winners, one for acting in drama series and the other for hosting variety programs.  This is actually the way it SHOULD be and the way most awards ceremonies around the world do it, so I don't understand why TVB still combines it.  To be honest, out of all the female award categories this year, I actually feel that Mayanne's win was the most deserving, as she truly did do a great job this past year.  Personally, I'm actually happy to finally see a female host who has the potential to be Dodo Cheng's successor someday, as it is VERY MUCH needed at TVB right now.  There are plenty of up-and-coming male hosts to take over for Eric Tsang but how many are there on the female side?  Like two? (I'm talking hosts actually signed with TVB, not the ones they "borrow" from the various radio stations).   It's definitely not very many, that's for sure!  Hosting is not an easy job and not everyone is cut out for it – I would much rather see TVB having the likes of Mayanne hosting more variety programs than forcing us to endure those awful MHKs trying to fumble their way through a hosting gig that they obviously were not cut out for.

With all that said though – in terms of MI award, even though I feel that Mayanne is deserving of the award, I can understand the "backlash" due to the expectation that an actual "actress" was expected to win.  However, like I said earlier, the "backlash" should really be directed toward TVB and not Mayanne, since TVB should never have combined that award into one in the first place (it used to be separated out between drama and non-drama back in the old days).  Also, by having one MI award for both drama and non-drama, TVB basically locked themselves into a corner, since it's obvious the direction that they were trying to take with this year's awards was to promote up-and-comers – they could've given the MI award on the female side to both Mayanne and Sisley and then give the Female Character award to someone else and everyone would've been happy.  Aiye TVB – once again making all the wrong decisions!

In terms of Most Improved Male Artist –  sure, Mat Yeung is deserving, but um, he should have won like 10 YEARS AGO!!   I mean, how ridiculous is it for an artist who has been in the industry for 20 years (most of that time with TVB) to be receiving an award that is traditionally reserved for newbie up-and-comers?  Not only that, but how many times has Mat been nominated in this category?  Way more times than necessary, that's for sure!  I'm all for rewarding Mat for his improvement, but TVB really needs to work on redefining their award categories so that they line up more with reality.  They should either change the criteria of the Most Improved award (i.e. restrict it so that only newcomers who've been in the industry/TVB less than 5 years are eligible to be nominated) – or if they don't want to do that, then create a true "Newcomer" award so people can stop associating MI with newbies and instead let MI be purely improvement-based regardless of years in the industry.

Concluding thoughts…..

I've said many times before that if TVB wants to remain relevant in the awards game, they really need to re-assess what type of awards they give out and see if what they are doing currently still makes sense.  I'm sure TVB knows that pretty much no one takes their awards seriously anymore and if they don't change, I can totally see the anniversary awards going down the same path as JSG (in fact, this already started happening years ago).  And when I say change, I mean true change, not all this gimmicky crap that they claim to do but never really follow through on (i.e. allowing audiences to vote and actually taking those votes into consideration).  One of the most irritating things about the anniversary awards in recent years is how TVB keeps touting the fact that they allow audiences to vote for the "big categories" but looking at the results, that is obviously a bunch of hogwash, as most of the winners are obviously artists that TVB is planning to promote in the coming years.  With this year's awards in particular,  I think this became even more clear when, after the awards show, TVB exec Virginia Lok mentioned that several of the winners (referring specifically to Rebecca and Sisley) are artists that director Wong Jing especially pegged as his choices to lead in a few of his movie (and TV series) projects in the coming year.  So basically, TVB used their anniversary awards as a platform to fast-track the artists they have huge plans for in the coming year to the positions they need them to be in, which to be honest isn't good at all for those artists because they haven't reached those levels yet…forcing them into those "big shoes" that they are not yet capable of filling is going to do nothing but bring them (the artists) backlash and hate.  To me, the biggest disappointment isn't really the results of this year's awards, but rather, it's seeing that TVB is up to their old tricks again, which tells me that TVB really hasn't learned anything from their past 50 years in existence.

My 'TVB Rant' #28: Wow, just....WOW: TVB's bullying taken to new heights.....

TVB did something this past week that I'm so pissed about, I have to write about it to vent my frustration (as if I haven't written about it enough already in various discussion forums and such, lol).

Anyway, the big entertainment news from this weekend was the huge fallout (second one in less than a decade) between record company Universal and TVB over copyright terms for using Universal artists' songs on TVB programs feature on their Internet channels (i.e. myTV, myTV Super, TVB.com).   The way it works is that the record companies give TVB contracted rights to use their artists' music/songs for a period of 3 years and after that, the contract gets renewed if both parties agree on the terms.  Well, TVB's latest contract with Universal expired on 5/1/16 so both parties got together to discuss contract renewal as they've been doing for the past few decades.  TVB sent Herman Ho - the head of their own music label Voice Entertainment - to discuss contract terms with Universal's higher ups (I'll explain in a minute why I have a problem with this arrangement in the first place) and departing from usual terms, this time around, TVB put in a requirement that is at the same time ridiculous and impossible to fulfill.  TVB basically requested that Universal sign over the exclusive rights to use their artists' songs FOREVER (yes, you read it right - the word used was FOREVER!) - which meant that TVB could continue to use Universal copyrighted songs in any program they feature on their Internet portals even after the contract terms are up without having to worry about getting copyright approval (which implies that they don't have to pay Universal royalty fees) and also that Universal can't allow other stations to use those songs.   Universal of course said HELL NO (kudos to them!!!) and decided to not renew their contract with TVB (lol...the Universal execs reacted quite professionally - if it were me, I would've told Herman Ho to go to hell!)  Based on the contract terms, TVB has 3 years from expiration date (so 4/30/2019) to either remove all Universal copyrighted songs from their Internet programs (which of course would be a lot of work) or take down the affected programs from their Internet portals entirely (note that these terms don't apply to programs aired on TVB's regular free-to-air channel).  So basically, TVB was once again trying to be the arrogant bully that they are but this time, it backfired on them because Universal refused to bend to them.

I don't think any of us need to be rocket scientists to understand what type of impact this is going to have on the HK television and music industries.  Herman Ho claims that TVB still 'welcomes' all Universal artists to participate in their programs provided their appearance doesn't violate contract terms (meaning there is no singing / music involved), however knowing TVB's track record, that is pretty much lip service, as we all know that TVB is petty and will now be 'banning' Universal artists just like they did during the royalty dispute 7-8 years ago.  Besides, who the hell gave Herman Ho the right to speak for TVB as a whole when he's only the head of their record label?  Oh, that's right - his wife is Sandy Yu, who, on paper, is only the head of the variety programs department (and is at the same level as Catherine Tsang, who is head of the drama department), but in reality, she is the actual one 'in power' at TVB now.  Go figure!  The fact that TVB sent Herman Ho to negotiate with a fellow record company is conflict of interest first of all (since both are heads of rival record companies) and it also reeks of insincerity on TVB's part -- if TVB CEO Mark Lee felt it was beneath him to negotiate with a mere record company, then at least send one of the GMs who oversee all production to negotiate with Universal...after all, the outcome of the talks will for sure impact all of TVB's programs, not just music-related ones.  With this arrangement, TVB already started off on the wrong foot (though to be honest, I'm not sure whether this was a deliberate move on TVB's part to "pay back" Universal for opposing them so many times over the past few years or the current execs over at TVB are just dumbaxxxs who have no clue what they are doing....I personally think it might be a combination of both).  The reason I threw that 'pay back' thing in there is because Universal's execs said that they've had the same contract with TVB for decades and the discussions have always gone smoothly, but this time around, TVB dropped that "forever" clause on them out of nowhere, which is what caused the discussion to go sour (why the sudden change in terms, TVB???)

The latest 'development' in this absurd saga is that as of yesterday, TVB (um, actually Herman Ho - but I guess he represents all of TVB now) was "crying a river" to reporters, claiming that Universal was the one being "unreasonable" by forcing TVB to take down/remove Universal copyrighted content within 3 years.  How INSANE is that????  TVB is the one who started the dispute by putting forth a RIDICULOUS to the max requirement that NO ONE in their right minds would agree to - now when Universal says NO and proceeds with terminating the contract as per terms, TVB is trying to make themselves look like the victim by shifting the blame on the record company instead?  WTF?  Oh, but it gets better....in the same "crying a river" interview, Herman Ho goes on to contradict himself by saying that the 'impact' of this dispute to TVB won't be much at all, as 'only a handful of programs will be affected' (yeah, right!!!!).  Um, if only 'a handful of programs' is being affected, why the bloody hell is TVB (via Herman Ho) trying to shift the blame to Universal?  Herman Ho is actually outright lying, as it's obvious to anyone with a brain that the impact of this is going to be huge, especially since the copyrighted songs date all the way back to the 80s/90s (which includes all the songs under Polygram, which Universal bought out in the 90s).  Even TVB's former GM Stephen Chan said that he hasn't been paying much attention to the details of the issue, but he knows for a fact that if TVB has to remove/take down all copyrighted programs, that will definitely be a huge problem for them.  With Universal being one of the largest international record companies out there with practically half the HK music industry signed to them (including many of the industry's 'biggest names' such as Alan Tam, Jacky Cheung, Hacken Lee, Sandy Lam, George Lam, Eason Chan, Kelly Chan, etc.), it will obviously be TVB's loss if they don't rectify the situation and proceed to 'ban' Universal (as is widely speculated).  Universal definitely does not need TVB, as they have a plethora of other options and platforms to promote their music (including TVB's rival free-to-air station ViuTV - which they already have collaborations with - as well as the cable networks and of course, internet platforms such as Youtube).

To be honest, I am actually a bit surprised that TVB would make such a bonehead, stupid move at such a sensitive point in time when their reputation is already in the toilet, their production quality is at an all-time low, artists and behind-the-scenes people are jumping ship left and right, and their own in-house produced singers (the Voice Entertainment crowd) are being heavily criticized for lacking actual singing skills.  Also, in this day and age, with all the technology and resulting doors that have opened up with Internet platforms, there's no way that TVB doesn't know that the record companies have tons more options than they've ever had in the past to promote their artists' music.  Does TVB really think they are that 'high and mighty' as to demand that the record companies collaborate ONLY with them and forego all other opportunities to make more money?  What record company would be stupid enough to cut off a large part of their revenue source just so they can cater to TVB's ridiculous whims?  (Ok, ok, I know that there ARE some record companies out there who would be willing to do it because they are so pro-TVB...not that I'm going to name names though, lol).  What planet are these TVB execs living on?  Like I said in another forum - either Herman Ho is deliberately trying to sabotage TVB's relationship with other record companies in order to boost his own record label or TVB has gotten to the "arrogant beyond saving" stage where they are stupidly flexing their power to see who will bend to them without giving a crap about the consequences.

Lastly...I don't think it's lost on anyone reading this that there will be one more 'consequence' that none of us HK television fans want to see happen:  the television screen for the next 3 years (and perhaps beyond that) will essentially be 'dominated' by Voice Entertainment singers (argh, please kill me now...) and the JSG awards ceremonies will go back to being "the EEG + Voice Entertainment Music Awards".  TVB just gave me more reason to stop watching their programs!  I swear, TVB is slowly chipping away at the small circle of 'support' that I still have for them - if it weren't for the few artists and behind-the-scenes people I care about still working for TVB, I would've abandoned this station a long time ago.

Words of wisdom to TVB from a long-time 'follower' (me - though of course, not that TVB gives a damn, lol):  Stop testing our patience with the arrogant attitude and pettiness!  Despite the fact that you have let us down time and time again, many of us still continue to 'support' you to some extent because of sentimentality (and other) reasons.   Stop taking advantage of your audiences' goodwill and stop treating everyone like brainless sheep who must adhere to your every beck and call.  Let ATV be a lesson on how NOT to manage a TV station (though looks like it's too late for this one) because if you fall, it will be 100 times worse and the damage will be far-reaching....

My ‘TVB Rant’ #27: The ‘Big Bad Bully’ strikes again…..

I haven’t done a ‘rant’ in a while, but after reading about some actions that TVB took recently, I decided to take some time out of my busy schedule to write up this post about it.

As I’m sure most of you have heard by now (since this ‘news’ technically came out last week but only got widely reported on the last day or so), TVB submitted a requested to the trademarks and patents bureau to ‘trademark’ the HKTV name (in Chinese and English) alongside their own logo – AND THE REQUEST GOT APPROVED!   So basically, this means that the ‘HKTV’ name now ‘belongs’ to TVB, so anyone who attempts to use the name without authorization from them could get sued for copyright infringement (yes, that means Ricky Wong and all the artists / behind-the-scenes people who work for him aren’t allowed to call themselves ‘HKTV’ employees anymore otherwise they risk being ‘fined’ or even going to jail..).  

So what was my reaction the first time I read about this?  I’ll be blunt – my first reaction was:  WTF?????  Damn bastards!!

Of course, anyone with even half a brain knows what TVB is trying to do – since it’s not like TVB is ever going to use the HKTV name anyway, it’s obvious that they are making this move to ‘spite’ Ricky Wong and in so doing, ‘kill off’ any chance his company may have had to make a comeback, which is why I find TVB’s actions absolutely shameful and abhorrent!!  I mean, come on now – TVB already emerged victorious from the TV license battle and they already have a monopoly on the entire HK television industry, so why is there a need for them to make such a ‘low-blow’ move?  Since TVB already won the war, why not just leave it at that and win graciously rather than ‘beat a dead horse while it’s down’ like they’re doing now?

Sure, people can argue that TVB has a legitimate claim to the ‘HKTV’ name, since they used that name in the 70s and 80s – I’m not disputing that fact at all.  To me, the issue isn’t whether TVB has the right to lay claim to the HKTV name because it’s obvious they do have the right – the issue I have is with the TIMING of it all.  If TVB truly intended on keeping the HKTV name or if they are making this ‘trademark’ move without any ulterior motives (as they claim), then why didn’t they do it back in the 80s or even 90s?  Heck, why didn’t they do it 2 years ago when Ricky Wong announced that he was changing his company’s name from CTI to HKTV?  It’s not like Ricky did it in secret or anything – he actually held a press conference event announcing his decision and even mentioned the fact that TVB had used the name in the past.  Why wait until now to make such a move?  (Honestly, I would like to see TVB ‘explain’ their way out of this – to me, no ‘excuse’ that they manage to come up with is going to make any sense).

The part that ticks me off the most about this whole issue is the impact this will now have on HKTV’s artists.   I guess it’s not enough that many HKTV employees were already forced out of a job because of the TV license decision – in addition to worrying about their futures and how they’re going to put food on the table, now they also have to worry about the ‘legal’ ramifications involved if they do something as simple as ‘associate’ themselves with HKTV.   So I guess it’s also not enough that TVB screws over their own employees and mistreats them to the point of being inhumane – now they feel the need to screw over another company’s employees as well!   Honestly, where is the logic in that??  I don’t care how much TVB hates Ricky Wong and wants to get back at him for ‘poaching’ from their company – the management on both sides can battle it out and kill each other for all I care, but they shouldn’t drag their innocent employees into the fray and compromise those employees’ livelihoods, reputations, and dignity!  

Obviously, I’m frustrated and, once again, disappointed in TVB.    At times like this, I’m reminded of Felix Wong’s ‘Totally Very Bad’ moniker for TVB…well, I’ve come up with a moniker of my own for them:  BBB – BIG BAD BULLY!!

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 26: Wow…those ‘bonehead’ execs at TVB are at it again!!

After doing back to back rants earlier in the month, I was ‘hoping’ to get a break from ranting about TVB for a while (after all, it truly is exhaustive to write these rants and puts me in a bad mood too…) – but unfortunately, TVB did something stupid again recently and so I can’t help but rant about it.

I’m sure most people have read the news reports about TVB ‘blacklisting’ Sheren Tang and saying that they won’t collaborate with her anymore due to her recent criticisms of Beauty At War’s scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming and the negative impact that his ‘habit’ of on-the-fly scripts has on actors/actresses (for more information on the ‘criticisms’, read the ND Daily interview that I posted up a few days ago).  TVB’s General Manager Mark Lee (yes, that dude again – those who’ve been following my posts about the TV wars probably know that I don’t think highly of him at all) claimed that other artists ‘complained’ about Sheren’s ‘negativity’ and felt that her comments ‘damaged’ the camaraderie / morale of the BAW cast/crew, so TVB decided that it was best not to collaborate with her anymore.  He actually made an ‘announcement’ about this publicly too, which was very surprising.

As if that weren’t enough, TVB’s other General Manager Peter Au told the press today that they weren’t ‘boycotting’ Sheren, rather there just aren’t any further opportunities for collaboration in the coming months (yea right!  Come up with a better excuse, will ya? Every time TVB ‘freezes’ someone, they always deny it and use the ‘no opportunities to collaborate’ excuse – IT’S GETTING OLD!!!!).  Further to that, he said that he ‘hopes artists talk to management about their grievances instead of publicly airing them to the Media’.

I don’t know about you guys, but that last part totally ticks me off!!  The way I’m interpreting Peter Au’s comment is basically that artists are not allowed to publicly criticize TVB and instead must keep all grievances internal and they’ll deal with it internally.  WTH???  So does this mean TVB is trying to take away their artists’ freedom of speech and expression?  WOW….seriously???  

But wait, it gets better….

At their “Amazing Summer” event today, Peter Au also ‘declared’ that starting in 2014, they have told the production teams that all scripts must be 80% completed (and in the artists’ hands) prior to filming – this is a ‘procedure’ that they are planning on implementing as part of their overall ‘renovation plan’ to improve productions.  HOWEVER, Mr. Au vehemently denied that this ‘change’ came about because of Sheren’s criticisms (since this was exactly the thing she had been complaining about since before BAW even started airing) – he said that this was something they [TVB] were ‘already planning on doing since the beginning of the year’.

Um, ok, now that I’ve laid it all out, here’s my reaction to Mr. Lee and Mr. Au’s ‘announcements’:  What a bunch of hypocrites!!  On the one hand, TVB publicly ‘denounces’ Sheren for speaking up about the poor filming practices on set (all of her criticisms are true by the way and have been publicly confirmed by various TVB people), yet on the other hand, by making the change with the scripts, they are ‘indirectly’ acknowledging that Sheren’s ‘complaints’ are actually valid (though of course, they deny that the change had anything to do with Sheren – as usual). 

Honestly, does TVB expect us to believe this nonsense BS?  Do they think we (the general public) are stupid or something?  I mean, come on – who the hell is going to buy the argument that TVB decided to make this ‘change’ [with the scripts] because they finally ‘recognized’ that it was a problem and NOT because Sheren complained about it?   This on-the-fly script thing has been going on for at least 40 years already and up until this point, TVB never made an effort to acknowledge the issue or make any changes (so are they trying to tell me that the management had ‘fallen asleep at the wheel’ for 4 decades and finally just ‘woke up’ yesterday??) – yet, the minute Sheren starts complaining about it, TVB suddenly makes this ‘sweeping’ change!  Sorry, but that CAN’T be a coincidence!  If I were one of the reporters present during that event, I would have drilled Mr. Au on his freakin’ contradictory comments (but of course, HK Media either don’t seem to care or are just plain dumb).

And this whole thing about other artists ‘complaining’ about Sheren’s ‘poor behavior’ (hence TVB’s action of ‘banning’ Sheren)?  Well, I really want to know what these artists think about TVB’s new 80% script policy then – if they feel Sheren was ‘wrong’ in complaining and that ‘on-the-fly’ scripts are perfectly fine, then why don’t they just continue to film with those scripts then and not ‘benefit’ from the change (I dare those artists to go up to the TVB higher ups and say ‘Oh I’ll pass on the 80% script thing – just give me a scene summary and I’ll work off of that…it’s perfectly fine with me!’).  In my opinion, these artists should be ‘thankful’ to Sheren for speaking out on their behalf and getting TVB to make these changes that will make their lives as actors/actresses easier – but unfortunately, instead of being grateful, these artists ‘condemn’ Sheren and practically ‘crucify’ her for it!  Wow….just….w.o.w.!  

Bottom line for me – if the piece about other artists complaining is true (I’m holding out hope that perhaps TVB made that part up as an ‘excuse’ to justify their actions toward Sheren), then they are definitely hypocrites as well and shame on them for doing what they did! 

With all that said, the part that REALLY pisses me off is Mr. Au’s comment (which I highlighted in BOLD above) asking TVB artists not to air their grievances to the Media.  Um, sorry, but isn’t this essentially restricting artists’ freedom of speech?  Hmmm, so if artists aren’t allowed to publicly ‘criticize’ TVB, then does that mean they aren’t allowed to publicly ‘praise’ TVB either?  Well, that certainly has to be the case otherwise it would be a contradictory statement – after all, it’s a two-way street….if you’re not allowed to criticize, then you shouldn’t be allowed to praise either (actually, I have a better idea – TVB should just tell their artists that they aren’t allowed to talk to the Media period and anyone who dares to open their mouths to say one word will be fired!)

Honestly, I would think that as one of the higher ups, Mr. Au should be aware of how TVB operates.   I mean, does he honestly think that artists (Sheren for example) like to complain to the Media just for the heck of it?  Many of the artists who have publicly complained about TVB (Sheren, Felix Wong, Michael Tao, etc.) had already tried talking to management internally about it first – in fact, many of them had been voicing their concerns for years, but did TVB do anything?  Of course not – most of the time, management just tries to sweep things under the rug in the hopes that the issue will just ‘go away’.  Come on now – the artists aren’t dumb…they know how TVB operates and they know full well that majority of the time, their ‘complaints’ will fall on deaf ears…the only way TVB management will take action is if the issue is made public and the audiences pressure them to do something (how many examples have we seen of this already in the past few years??).  So for TVB to make such a ‘statement’ is really ridiculous beyond words (Why have the other artists not said anything?  Do they not care that their freedom of speech is being restricted?  Or are their hands tied because they have to be ‘obedient’ to the ‘almighty’ TVB or risk losing their jobs, so they’d rather just ‘suck it up’?) 

Obviously I’m frustrated and beyond disappointed at TVB’s actions.  I feel that they’ve definitely gone too far this time around in publicly ‘condemning’ Sheren while at the same time arrogantly ‘flaunting’ their pettiness and their ‘I have the power to do whatever the hell I want’ attitude!

I can honestly say that in the close to 40 years that my family and I have been ‘supporting’ TVB (in more ways than just watching their series), this is the first time that I truly feel ticked off to the point of wanting to cut off ties with them completely (though whether that will truly happen remains to be seen)!  The unreasonable, irrational ‘monster’ that this TV station has evolved into these past couple years has really made me ashamed to even be remotely associated with them (as a long-time, once ardent fan).  Yes, these words may sound harsh (and to be honest, 10 years ago, I didn’t think I’d ever write such words), but then again, TVB is no longer that once ‘beloved, respectable’ institution that I grew up with either!  Sometimes I wish that all my favorite artists (yes, there are many of them still working for TVB) would just leave TVB so I can cut that company off completely!  One can only wish….

Lastly, I do want to make one thing clear….despite my ‘rant’ about TVB’s pitiful, lame-arse actions, I’m almost 100% certain that Sheren really could care less about TVB ‘boycotting / banning’ her – she is a great actress with tons of opportunities and job offers in HK and Mainland, so she doesn’t need TVB at all.  Yea, so ‘ban’ Sheren all you want TVB – it’s your loss anyway!!

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 25: TVB’s Recent Ratings Slump – Is It Really That Big of a Deal??

First off – quick apology to the readers and followers of my blog for the lack of updates in recent weeks…I’ve actually got a long list of ‘posts’ and translations that I want to publish, but haven’t found the time to truly sit down and polish them off.  Hopefully those posts will get to see the light of day at some point in time (don’t want to promise anything though, since I’ve got a lot of stuff going on right now).

Anyway, while catching up on Weibo and other ‘happenings’ in the world of HK entertainment the past few days, I kept seeing headline after headline about TVB’s recent ratings slump (specifically in reference to the pathetically dismal ratings for TVB’s currently airing series Bullet Brain and Beauty at War) and the reaction from various people (from producers to scriptwriters to artists themselves) towards this issue.  After several hours of being inundated with information, I felt inspired to write this post and express my view on this whole ratings situation.

Before I start my rant, I have to make the following point clear (for the record) in terms of my position / opinion / stance towards the whole ‘ratings phenomenon’ in general (this shouldn’t come as a surprise to those who’ve read stuff I’ve written in the past, as I’ve mentioned this numerous times in various places).  Basically, my position is this:  I don’t give a ‘rat’s arse’ (excuse my language) about ratings – never have, never will!  

For me personally, ratings have never been a ‘reliable’ indicator of whether a program (TV series in this case) is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ because of several (very obvious) reasons: 

1)       Credibility:  Currently, there isn’t a consistent, universal way of calculating ratings that is the same no matter which part of the world you go to – this in itself I find to be a huge flaw, as having different companies each have their own method of calculating and according to their own set of criteria leaves way too much room for argument and dispute (case in point – just take a look at all those ‘arguments’ TVB and ATV constantly have about who truly has the most audience share and claims from both parties about each of their respective rating calculations to be ‘inaccurate’).  If there was only 1 way to calculate ratings and everyone used that same method, then we wouldn’t have any of these arguments – only then would the ratings truly be ‘accurate’ and ‘credible’.

2)       Curiosity Factor:  If you’re a human being, you will have a natural element of ‘curiosity’ inside of you, just like I do.  Unfortunately though, people sometimes seem to forget that this trait exists and ‘conveniently’ brush it aside in their attempts to justify how ‘good’ a series was based on how ‘high’ the ratings number was.  I mean, honestly, how many times have you heard the comment:  “Wow, that series got a 45 point rating – with so many people watching, it must be a good series!”  Um, wrong.  A lot of times, people tune in to watch a series (or part of a series) due to curiosity and not because the series is particularly worth watching --  audiences might be willing to watch a particular series / movie just so they would have something to talk about with their friends or co-workers the next day or they may have heard things about the series (good or bad) and decided to tune in (even if for a little while) just to see what all the hype is about.  I’m sure all of us have done this at some point in time (tune in to watch something out of curiosity) – I know I have, many times! 

3)      ‘Idol’ Factor: How many of us have tuned in to watch a series merely because actors/actresses we like are in the series and we wanted to show ‘support’ for him/her?  Or tune in merely because we are a ‘fan’ of a particular artist and therefore absolutely cannot ‘miss’ any series he/she is cast in?  I call this the ‘idol’ factor (watching certain series to support artists we like), but in reality, it’s not just referring to ‘idols’ or ‘fans’ (I just used the word ‘idol’ cuz that’s the first word that came to mind and was too ‘lazy’ to come up with another word) – it can refer to artists, producers, scriptwriters, and just about anybody who participated in the series in any way, shape, or form.  There have been many times where I’ve sat through ‘horrible’ series just to support certain artists I like (though when it comes to TV series, I do ‘cheat’ sometimes in that I forward through certain scenes / episodes / artists’ performances and only watch the artists I care about).

4)       External Factors: Basically, these are factors beyond our control that could impact audiences’ ability to tune in to a particular series and thereby affect ratings numbers – for example:  timeslot schedules, weather, natural disasters and other acts of God, holidays, and people pretty much just being ‘away’ for any reason (work, vacation, illness, etc. etc.).   Look at how many times we’ve had to ‘argue’ that a particular series could have gotten better ratings if it had been broadcast in a ‘better’ (i.e. non-cannon fodder) timeslot?  Or how about the weather?  I’m sure everyone probably remembers Three Kingdoms RPG hitting 42 points in ratings last year (one time in the series’ entire run) due to the typhoon in HK (and majority of people staying indoors due to safety concerns) – does that mean the series was any good, just because it broke the '40' mark?  (well, depends on who you ask cuz not everyone is going to remember down the road that the weather played a part in it).    So pretty much, in the complicated world we live in, anything can happen and that ‘anything’ can have a huge impact on something as ‘minor’ (in the scheme of things) as our TV watching habits.

Of course, I’m sure people can probably come up with more ‘reasons’ why basing any type of judgment of the quality of a series on ratings alone is ‘foolish’ and ‘unreliable’, but since these 4 reasons get the point across, I’ll leave it at that for now.

So in summary….. very simply put, ratings is merely a ‘quantifier’ – a number that tells us how many people tuned in to watch a particular show at a particular time.  Sure, quantity can perhaps indicate how ‘popular’ something is, but that is totally different from the ‘quality’ of that same something (it’s amazing how many people in this world confuse ‘quantity’ and/or ‘popularity’ for ‘quality’).   Quantity DOES NOT equal quality (by the same token, a ‘lack of’ quantity doesn’t equal a ‘lack of’ quality either)!  I can think of a whole list of series that got poor ratings but were really great series as well as ones that got ‘through the roof’ ratings but pretty much sucked….so yea, basically ratings are not a good indicator of ANYTHING (not in my opinion at least).

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Ok, so now that I’ve clarified my position (no, I’m not done yet…in fact, I’m just getting started!  LOL), it makes what I have to say next a bit easier. 

Even though I personally could care less about ratings and I never use it to judge the ‘quality’ of a series, the unfortunate reality is that, like it or not, ratings are a HUGE DEAL to the TV industry.   In fact, such heavy emphasis is placed on these ‘numbers’ that ratings have pretty much become the primary ‘pass/fail’ indicator to the ‘quality’ of a series – in other words, ratings have become the ‘standard’ by which every series / program and even the participants themselves (artists, behind the scenes crew, etc.) are judged.  While, on the one hand,  I can understand why the TV industry chooses to use ratings as their primary ‘measurement’ tool, that doesn’t mean I agree with it – to me, using the ratings in this manner is merely the ‘lazy’ way out (i.e. it’s easier to take a series with poor ratings and just ‘generalize’ an entire series and the actors/actresses who participate in that series as “they all suck” rather than take each element apart and try to find the root ‘problem’ of the series).  But of course, as usual, I’m ‘in the minority’ on this subject once again, as it’s obvious that not many audiences think this way.

Given the importance of ratings in the TV industry (just remember that ratings = everything), it’s not hard to understand then why even someone like me would sometimes find myself ‘rooting’ for a particular series to get ‘high’ (or ‘decent’) ratings – I may not care about ratings, but everyone else in the industry does, so if I like a series, I would want it to ‘do well’ (ratings-wise) for the sake of that series’ artists and production team.  I know, it might sound a little contradictory at first, but if you think about it more deeply, you’ll understand what I’m trying to get at (ooops, sorry – I probably shouldn’t have used the words ‘think deeply’…people probably don’t want to hear those words anymore after watching Beauty At War…LOL).

Ok, since I’ve bored you guys enough with my long-winded rant, let me wrap things up now with a ‘quote’ that I came across on Weibo a few days ago.  The ‘quote’ is from former TVB ‘golden’ producer Gary Tang (鄧特希) -- TVB fanatics probably know who he is but in case you don’t:  he was the producer of ‘classic’ lawyer-themed drama Files of Justice (all 5 installments) as well as the first installment of Healing Hands [key word is ‘first installment’ – he didn’t produce either of the 2 sequels because he already left TVB by then – this is important because it is widely believed that HH2 and 3 were never able to live up to the ‘glory’ of the first HH and a huge reason for that was because of the change in producer (which resulted in a change in direction/focus of the sequels)].

Apparently,  Gary Tang had been (quietly) observing this whole TVB ratings debacle thing from the sidelines and finally decided to speak up with his thoughts on the whole situation.  As an experienced producer with both ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ to his credit (he produced his fair share of ‘hits’ and ‘flops’ both at TVB and ATV), I feel that Gary’s words are quite powerful and telling and so far, the ‘closest’ match I could find to my own thought process on this whole ratings issue. 

To me, Gary’s message is simple:   let’s stop trying to come up with various excuses and trying to put the blame [for low ratings] on audiences.  At the end of the day, TV series are only a form of entertainment and audiences don’t ‘owe’ the production crew anything, so it’s unfair to place a set of ‘rules’ on audiences trying to dictate to them ‘how’ they should watch series.  The production team should accept the feedback (whether good or bad), reflect on it, and move on.

Definitely ‘words of wisdom’ from one of TVB’s most experienced and respected former producers / scriptwriters! (Note:  Gary Tang started with TVB back in the early 80s and participated in numerous series during that era as a scriptwriter.  Even when he was promoted to producer in the 90s, he still continued to do scriptwriting duties for the series he produced.):

Source:  Gary Tang’s Weibo (posted 5/5/13 at 02:18) [**Source link to be posted later]

Translation:  

“With regard to TV series’ ratings not meeting expectations, there have been various interesting discussions lately, such as:  the pace was slow in the beginning [of the series] due to having to introduce  many characters in the first episode; audiences need to have patience when they watch series; audiences must watch every single episode in order to understand the plot….etc. etc.  TV series are only a form of entertainment – audiences don’t have any obligation to be empathetic or understanding towards the production team.  If the series is good, then watch it; if it’s not good, then go about other business.   Producers should have enough breadth of mind to face and accept opinions from audiences, self-reflect on it, and start off anew.”

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 24: Will the TVB ‘Name-Dropping’ Ever Stop??

I know I just ‘ranted’ about TVB a few weeks ago and to be honest, I didn’t think that I’d have to rant about them again so soon (LOL), but hey, when the situation presents itself, sometimes got to just let it out…

Recently, a few articles came out (in various newspapers and magazines) detailing how Eric Tsang has plans to produce a new series for TVB (filming to start in May) tentatively titled “Aerobic Girls” and will be casting many ‘heavyweight’ (aka ‘big name’) actors/actresses in the series – many of the actors/actresses will be ones whom audiences have not seen in a long time so it will definitely be something ‘to look forward to’ (his words, not mine).  Almost immediately after Eric opened his mouth (more like before he even finished speaking), speculations and rumors started to formulate about who those ‘long time no see’ actors/actresses would be.  One of the first names ‘dropped’ was award-winning film actor Tony Leung Ka Fai – he was of course an ‘easy target’ for the Media to ‘associate’ with this series, since Eric had very publicly ‘announced’ prior to this that Tony had approached him voluntarily to ask about ‘helping’ TVB out by filming TV series for them.  Around the same time, there were ‘rumors’ that the female leads being considered for the series included Teresa Mo, Veronica Ip, Vivian Chow (just to name a few) – the funny thing is that even though Vivian’s manager immediately denied the rumor and Vivian herself even said that the chance of her returning to TVB to film series was very slim (pretty much ‘zero’), there were still a lot of people out there who were ‘excited’ about seeing Vivian return and started talking about the series as though that particular ‘casting’ was a ‘done deal’ already. 

Of course now, several weeks later, the ‘rumored’ leads for the series have changed (I wonder what those people who previously insisted on the Tony / Vivian / Teresa / Veronica casting think now??) – the latest ‘rumor’ is that Lawrence Ng (aka Dr. Paul Ching – just had to point that out, since I know of at least 3 Lawrence Ngs in the HK entertainment industry and wanted to make sure people didn’t get confused…LOL) will be participating in the series and the ‘rumored’ female leads have changed to Teresa Mo, Flora Chan, and Sheren Tang.  As of right now, none of the 3 rumored female leads have confirmed anything and both Lawrence and Eric are remaining purposefully ‘vague’ about the whole situation (as he did before, Lawrence dropped a ‘hint’ that the 3 leads were actresses he had worked with before – um, yea, like that means anything...).

Ok, so now that I’ve laid it all out, you want to know what my thoughts are on this?  Well, here goes…

I’m pretty sure the piece about Lawrence participating in the series is true, since he as much as admitted it himself already (from what has come out so far, his role supposedly won’t be too significant, so not sure what he is so excited about…haha).  As for the other 3 ‘rumored’ female leads – well, let’s look at it based on the information we know: 

.-- Teresa Mo already said in an interview a few months ago (a Mingpao interview that I actually translated and posted on my blog for those interested in reading it) that she has no intention of going back to filming TV series because of the overwhelming guilt she felt in ‘neglecting’ her family for the 3 years (2008 to 2010) that she had returned to film for TVB earlier -- so she is basically going to focus primarily on her film career and on taking care of her family.   So to me, this means that the likelihood of her agreeing to this series is very slim (unless she decided to change her mind, which I doubt) – in any case, if it turns out she does agree to this series, I for one will definitely want to understand the reason why.

.—Flora Chan stated in an interview a little over a year ago that she was going back to school to get her Masters (and possibly a Doctorate later on) in English so that she can pursue a career in Teaching later on down the road.  She said that when her daughter is older, she plans on moving the family to the U.S. and teaching there (true to her word, she is currently enrolled at HKU and studying English).  Despite that interview, there continue to be ‘rumors’ every other month or so (literally) about Flora returning to TVB to film series (honestly, I’m tired of hearing about it myself….doesn’t the Media ever stop?).   She had said in that same interview that she was going to take a break from filming series for at least 2 years if not more.

However, according to the articles that have come out, Flora is supposedly in ‘final discussion’ with Eric and them on this series – they claim that Flora agreed to film this series because it would be during summer break when she has a few months off from school (so the ‘caveat’ is that the filming needs to be completed before the next semester begins).  I guess it could work out…but still not looking forward to this because the last time Flora returned, she got a really crappy script and made a really crappy series (that barely anyone bothered watching).

.—And finally, there’s Sheren – what are her chances of accepting this series?  Well, at this point, unless the script is finalized, the chance is ‘zero’ because she already learned her lesson from the ordeal she went through filming the WAB sequel and so going forward, will only film series that have a complete script.   Also, knowing the way Eric Tsang operates, I highly doubt Sheren will want to work with him because he does exactly the same thing scriptwriter Chow Yuk Ming does – ‘on the fly’ scripts that change from one day to the next…in fact, in many ways, Eric is way worse because he’s known for being ‘spontaneous’ when it comes to filming and could change things from one minute to the next (remember how Teresa said that she would get the script the morning of filming and a couple hours later, after she memorized everything already, as she’s getting ready to film the scene, she is told to ‘scrap’ everything she just memorized cuz the script changed – Eric had just come up with a new idea for doing the scene and so changed things on the spot).   Based on this, I highly doubt Sheren is going to accept the series, as I don’t feel that she is willing to put herself through all that torture for TVB’s sake (plus it’s not like she’s contracted with TVB anyway – she’s a free artist so she can do anything she wants pretty much).

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Obviously, I don’t look upon this particular ‘project’ of Eric’s very favorably – at this point, I truly feel that it’s all just Media hype.  And honestly, the name of the series itself (“Aerobic Girls”) already turns me off because it sounds so much like an ‘idol’ series (which I absolutely can’t stand).  I surely hope that the title will be changed because as of right now, based on the title alone, the series sounds lame (and it doesn’t help that Eric is producing it – most of his recent productions have pretty much been borderline ‘raunchy comedies’, so I can’t help but think that this one will be the same…).

Oh, and what about the script?  Again, knowing how TVB operates (some things never change), most likely the script is going to suck (as it usually does in these types of ‘grand’ productions with a supposed ‘all star’ ensemble cast).  In fact, that’s one of the (many) things I can’t stand about TVB – their mentality that as long as you stuff as many ‘big names’ or ‘popular artists’ (aka artists that audiences want to see) in a TV series as possible, you can pretty much take the ‘lazy’ route when it comes to the plot and script because the naïve HK housewife audiences aren’t going to know any better and aren’t going to care as long as the artists they like show up on their screens every night.  No, I’m actually not exaggerating because it’s pretty much a fact that HK audiences have an affinity for ‘familiarity’ (there’s actually been a lot of articles written about this over the past few decades) – it’s one of the (many) reasons why TVB has continued to be so ‘successful’ over the years despite serious decline in the quality of their productions and lack of talent.  This concept also explains the reason why for many years, TVB has been utilizing the strategy of inviting ‘old’ artists back to film for them (though there are other reasons as well, such as the lack of young talent to carry a series, for example).  If you want to see whether this is true or not – well, just take a look around you….if you were to tell friends and family around you (those familiar with HK entertainment of course) that TVB plans on bringing Andy Lau or Chow Yun Fat back to film series, what do you think their reaction would be?  And ‘why’ do you think they would react that way?  I rest my case….

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Some last thoughts about this whole ‘name-dropping’ trend from recent years….

Honestly, I’m sick and tired of all the ‘name-dropping’ that TVB (via the likes of Eric Tsang, for example) and the Media have resorted to the past 2-3 years in terms of artists they hope to ‘invite back’ to film series for them.  Some examples of ‘names’ that have come up:  Chow Yun Fat, Andy Lau, Carina Lau, Sandra Ng, Anthony Wong, Vivian Chow, (big) Tony Leung, Deanie Ip, Jacky Cheung….and the list goes on….pretty much anyone you can think of who was once associated with TVB in one way or another (which is pretty much 90% of the artists in the HK entertainment industry) is ‘fair game’ for a so-called ‘return’ to TVB – that is, unless you do what Gordon Lam did (kudos to you, Gordon!) and outright reject TVB with a firm ‘No! Absolutely not!’ [Gordon revealed in a few interviews recently that he was contacted by TVB inviting him to return and film series for them, but he outright rejected them without bothering to listen to any further details of the series from them.  He said he did so because he already knows what he wants in terms of future career path (which involves a career in film, not TV), so why not just be direct with them and say no instead of going back to do a meaningless project that does nothing for his career goals?]  You hit the nail on the head, Gordon!!  It takes guts to go against an established ‘giant’ like TVB and the fact that he did it so firmly and confidently (without being rude about it) definitely deserves praise in my book! (Boy I would have LOVED to see the look on those lame TVB execs’ faces upon hearing Gordon reject them so bluntly – seeing those fake, smug smiles wiped off their faces for even a minute would have provided one of those ‘priceless’ Kodak moments that no amount of money could buy!  LOL!).  So basically, if an artist gives any answer other than a firm ‘No!’, they will be caught in an endless ‘speculation’ game with the Media and general public (keep in mind that there are many audiences out there who will very readily believe anything the Media says without question).

This is why I absolutely get annoyed when TVB (and the Media) ‘jumps the gun’ and starts ‘leaking’ all this information out prior to anything being confirmed. What’s the point of doing this, since it’s a ‘no win’ situation for both sides if the collaboration doesn’t work out? The only 2 reasons I can think of are: 1) they ‘leak’ this stuff out as a means of publicity / hype for the series – so basically, it’s pretty much a ‘publicity stunt’; and 2) it’s a tactic employed by the company (TVB in this case) to ‘force’ the artist(s) to accept the offer, since all the pressure from the Media (and the audiences / fans) definitely does have an impact (take Francis Ng for example – part of the reason why he agreed to return to do TITS2 was because of audience pressure – he had said in an interview previous that initially, he wasn’t going to film the sequel because he doesn’t believe in doing sequels for sequels sake, but then everyone kept pestering him about it and because he felt the audiences (and fans) really wanted him to return to film the sequel, he gave in and did it).

In conclusion….I have a feeling this won’t be the end of this whole ‘name-dropping’ thing – in fact, this is just the beginning!  I’m sure that there will be many more instances of this in the months / years to come (especially if rival HKTV finally does end up getting their license). 

Let’s see who the next big ‘name drop’ will end up being (anyone want to venture to guess?)....I have a few ‘guesses’ in mind, but for now, let’s just ‘sit back’ and see what happens…

My ‘TVB Rant’ # 23: TVB expanding into Mainland market – good news or bad news?

First off, my apologies to those who have been actively following my blog, as I recognize that I’ve been doing a poor job keeping it updated lately – some things came up and I just haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to it as I would like.  Though I’ve continued to stay on top of the latest ‘happenings’ in the HK entertainment world, I unfortunately haven’t found the chance to ‘blog’ about stuff or do too many translations lately, so I’ve actually got a long list of stuff that I would like to post about still – hopefully I’ll get a chance to do so more consistently in the coming months.

Anyway, back to the post at hand….

I know I haven’t ‘ranted’ about TVB in a long time – of course there has been plenty of stuff to rant about the past few months (probably enough for several posts actually…LOL), but as I said earlier, I’ve had a lot going on, so haven’t had time to gather all my thoughts into a coherent post until now. 

Amongst the many TVB-related ‘happenings’ worth ranting about lately, one piece of news from the past few days got me worked up enough to rant about at the moment:  recently, TVB outlined in more detail their ‘plans’ for expanding into the Mainland China market (they already started doing so a little while back with the creation of TVBC – the Mainland China arm of TVB – but didn’t really talk too much in detail about their plans until now). 

Before I go into my actual rant, let me set the background for this post by briefly summarizing what TVB’s plans are in the Mainland (based on an interview that Virginia Lok did with ND Daily, which was published yesterday – link to original article here).

In summary, the plans are as follows:

.—The goal this year is to elevate the status of TVB artists in the Mainland.  Therefore, any programs that TVBC invests in, TVB will recommend its own ‘contracted’ artists (primarily their own ‘biological’ children who are under management contract) for the programs.

.—More ‘collaborative’ series (series where HK artists will collaborate with Mainland artists – similar to what they did in the series Drive of Life, Growing Through Life, etc.) will be filmed.  TVB will provide the scripts and the artists while SMG (the production company that TVB is collaborating with in Mainland) will provide the filming locations and equipment.

.—TVB siu sangs and fadans will formulate ‘teams’ that will travel to Mainland and collaborate with various ‘teams’ of artists over there.  Also, TVB will continue to seek out other Mainland TV stations and film/TV production companies to collaborate with as well.  Artists who rarely ever film in Mainland (those mentioned in the interview include Moses Chan, Fala Chen, Wayne Lai, Kate Tsui, etc.) will eventually be heading up North one after another…

.—One of the goals that Virginia Lok (as head of the Artists Management Department) has been actively pursuing is to push the current ‘second tier’ TVB artists (VL mentions artists such as Eliza Sam, Christine Kuo, Rebecca Zhu, Oscar Leung, etc. in the interview)  up to ‘first tier’ fadan / siu sang level.  With many of the ‘first tier’ artists heading to Mainland, this will open up the door for TVB to further push this goal in the upcoming year.

.—As for the question of where their scripts will come from (since TVB will be providing the scripts and most of their long-time scriptwriters already left the company), Virginia Lok stated that they are ‘encouraging’ more variety in scripts by having them come from different sources – for example:  Eric Tsang will be writing some scripts specifically tailored for TVB; artists such as Wong Cho Lam will continue to provide ideas and outlines of scripts for TVB’s scriptwriters to work with. 

.—This year, TVB will be sending 10 of its singers to participate in the popular Mainland singing contest “Voice of China”.   [Note:  VL didn’t elaborate on this so not sure if she means TVB-groomed singers such as those who came out of their own singing contest “The Voice” or their so-called ‘actors/actresses turned singers’ – my guess is that she means their “The Voice” singers, as I’m assuming that TVB isn’t going to be foolish enough to send their actors and actresses (most of whom can’t sing to save their lives) to a Mainland singing contest where everyone is levels above them…it would be way too embarrassing….]

.—Lastly, according to Virginia Lok, they are hoping to reach a wider audience in HK – meaning break the tradition of catering to ‘housewife’ audiences only and instead try to appeal to more younger audiences. [TN:  Hmmm…not sure how true this part is because VL’s boss – TVB’s Assistant General Manager Au Wai Lam – stated in an interview for TVB Magazine last year that they will continue to cater to housewife audiences in the future because that’s the majority of the audience pool in HK].

In a nutshell – towards TVB’s ‘lofty’ goal of establishing TVBC and expanding into the Mainland market, TVB’s director of external affairs Tsang Sing Ming had this to say:  “We believe that with this method [creation of TVBC], it will encourage some of the siu sangs and fadans who were previously interested in leaving to stay behind now.  At the same time, it will also attract those ‘heavyweight’ artists who already left – such as Charmaine Sheh, Sheren Tang, etc. – to return.  The ‘worth’ (aka salaries) of TVBC artists will be calculated according to Mainland market rates.”   [TN:  I guess this means TVBC artists won’t have to work for ‘dirt cheap’ measly salaries like their HK counterparts do:  good news for those who get ‘chosen’ to be TVBC artists, but definitely bad news for those who remain behind in HK and must continue to ‘slave’ for peanuts (unfortunately, this is majority of the artists currently at TVB – especially the veteran third/fourth line ones….)]

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Now that the background is laid out,  here goes the rant…..

To be very honest, I actually don’t really give a damn about TVB expanding into the Mainland market, as I don’t watch Mainland series anyway and I’m not planning to watch in the future either (doesn’t matter if some of my favorite artists film in the Mainland – the series just don’t interest me).  So basically, what they decide to do over there is not my problem – that’s for the Mainland entertainment world to ‘worry’ about.

The piece that I’m most concerned about is how this expansion into the Mainland thing is going to affect TVB in HK – both the quality of series overall as well as the artists who will be ‘left behind’ so to speak. 

In terms of artists, I’m referring specifically to those third/fourth/fifth tier ‘green leaf’/’gam cho’ artists who are not ‘popular enough’ (meaning they are not on the ‘most favored’ list) to be given the time of day by TVB.  What’s going to happen to these talented green leaf artists who, under the current ‘system’, are already largely ignored and neglected by TVB?  What are the options?  Continue to work slave hours for cheap TVB at below market salaries that are barely enough to make ends meet in the hopes that 20 years down the road (if they make it that far) they will finally be able to climb to ‘recognizable’ status?  Or get out now while there’s still a chance and find something better to do than to work for a company that doesn’t give a damn about them (and never will as long as there are other more ‘popular’ artists to tend to)?

Of course, the ideal situation would be for these artists to ‘have a way out’ in the form of being able to continue doing what they love best (acting) in their own home territory (Hong Kong) -- namely, having the option to work for a different TV station in HK that better suits their needs.  Unfortunately, with this whole free TV license thing still in limbo (and no clear end in sight), the options are very limited – artists who still want to film TV series in HK must either work for slave-driving TVB or the ‘most likely soon to fold’ ATV (newsbrief: ATV’s top exec James Shing recently announced at FILMART that they will go back to producing series again – hmmm…given ATV’s current situation, let’s see if that actually pans out or not).  HKTV is probably the best option out there for most of these artists, but until they get their license (which could take a LONG time), it’s still a bit of a risky choice.

Oh and how about the quality of future series that TVB produces?  I mean, you’d think that TVB learned its lesson from the drastic decline in the quality of their series the past decade or so – just when you think that the quality couldn’t get any worse, now they’re planning on mixing in more ‘collaborative’ series  in the years to come, despite the fact that those types of series were never well-received by HK audiences (understandably so). 

And even with the collaborative series thing aside, the quality will still continue to suffer because the fact of the matter is, many of the ‘second tier’ artists that TVB is planning to promote JUST DON’T CUT IT – majority of the them need to go through acting training big time (oh and while they’re at it, some of them should go through ‘Cantonese as a Second Language’ courses as well…). 

Hmmm….all this makes me think whether TVB’s move to expand into the Mainland market is really because they want their artists to be ‘more known’ in Mainland (as they claim) or they’re actually motivated by something else (like greed and the hunger for power, for example).  I mean, honestly, TVB already has a huge problem with lack of capable artists at home (HK) -- instead of trying to ‘expand’ their empire further, shouldn’t they be more concerned with ‘fixing’ the issues they have at home first (by investing in acting training and changing some of their antiquated policies for example)?

The piece that gets me really worked up about this whole thing is the fact that TVB is so adamantly opposed to opening up the market in HK to allow more free TV stations in (and are doing everything in their power to prevent new licenses from being issued).  Sure, I understand the ‘argument’ about trying to protect business interests and profits, etc. but fact of the matter is, those are just excuses because anyone with common sense knows that TVB is not going to go bankrupt just because more TV stations are added to the mix.  I mean, let’s be real – we’re talking about a company that makes billions of dollars every year and while most companies are struggling to even survive, they are still turning over a hefty profit year after year (and now with the full-fledged expansion into the Mainland market, they will be raking in even more profit due to the lucrative market over there).  Given the great prospective and outlook in their favor, why does TVB need to continue selfishly holding on to their monopoly in HK when they know full well that they are stifling the growth of the industry (and threatening people’s livelihoods in the process)?

Bottom line – I don’t have the answer to whether TVB’s expansion into the Mainland is a good thing or bad one, as it really depends on the way you look at it.  But I do know that for me at least, I’m not too thrilled about it (for the reasons stated above).  Whatever the case, let’s see where this decision of TVB’s ends up leading...