Chapter 262: Chapter 262 “Mr. Wang Hao, are you bragging?! Chapter 262: Chapter 262 “Mr. Wang Hao, are you bragging?! “Mr. Xu, Mr. Zheng, you two were quite bold yesterday,” a man in his forties dressed in a casual suit chuckled at Xu Yingcai and Zheng Qitian: “A show that hasn’t even premiered, and you’ve placed such a big bet on it, fighting for a spot at seven hundred thousand each! You’re not unaware of the current cable TV ratings; even if the company isn’t short on money, you can’t just throw it away like that.”
The speaker was Li Mingnan, the vice president of Minghai Group, primarily responsible for their company’s capital investments.
Therefore, he had a mix of admiration and anticipation for the spectacle, considering Xu Yingcai and Zheng Qitian were willing to spend such a large amount on advertising. In his assessment, the highest price for a commercial in current television programs was only about one hundred and fifty thousand.
“Ha-ha, everyone needs to be impulsive once in a while,” Xu Yingcai leaned back in his chair, leisurely sipping tea, and said, “I think Wang Hao’s program is quite good. Mr. Liu must have shown you the live recording, right? How intense was the scene? After watching programs for so many years, have you encountered anything hotter?”
“Yes, exactly,” Zheng Qitian also laughed and added, “Mr. Xu is right. He who acts quickly gets, he who is slow misses out. Opportunities often come and go in the blink of an eye, and time is often the most valuable. It’s just a pity I couldn’t secure the deal yesterday. This Wang Hao is quite something; keeping his cool at such a price is not easy.”
“What does a youngster know?” Li Mingnan said dismissively: “Cable TV ratings have been declining over the past two years, and the market’s tastes are becoming more and more complex. Who knows if this program can really take off? Sure, the scenes on-site are explosive, but it’s another matter whether the viewers in front of the TV will buy it.”
“You’re just too worried,” Xu Yingcai took a sip of tea and said calmly, “My money hasn’t been spent yet and the contract hasn’t been signed. When the time comes, won’t we know once we look at the ratings?”
“Let’s look at the ratings,” Li Mingnan nodded and said, “Talking more is useless. Ratings are the foundation of everything!”
While the group was discussing, a young man suddenly burst into the studio, ran up to Zhenan TV’s director Liu Qisheng, panting and said anxiously, “Mr. Liu, there’s trouble! Our station has been surrounded by journalists! Over a hundred of them. The security couldn’t hold them back, and now those journalists have rushed up here!”
“What did you say?!” Hearing this, Liu Qisheng was immediately shocked and anxiously asked, “What’s going on? I didn’t invite any journalists! Today we’re just tallying the ratings. What on earth do those journalists want?!”
Before he could finish speaking, the studio door had already been burst open, then a massive swarm of journalists carrying cameras and microphones rushed in! There were at least two hundred or more journalists; it was clear the young man had underestimated the number…
As it goes with journalists, they tend to hold back when few in number, but once they multiply, their boldness knows no bounds!
As the journalists rushed in, they didn’t give Liu Qisheng a chance to react; they immediately set up their cameras and microphones, directing all lenses towards the central ratings board in the hall!
Considering tonight was the official premiere of “If You Are the One,” the first day’s ratings were extremely important and would serve as a fundamental reference for the future impact of the program.
Thus, Liu Qisheng had invited everyone from the station and the present executives to come and see the ratings for themselves.
After all, however much he could invite people over, that was considered internal information, and those present weren’t the ones to leak secrets. But the presence of journalists changed everything—they would report it directly!
“You all, why have you come?” Liu Qisheng rushed over, sweating profusely; he intended to ask the journalists to pack up and leave, but contrary to his wishes, a group of journalists immediately thrust their microphones in his face—
“Mr. Liu, we’ve received news that tonight’s ‘If You Are the One’ will have a live broadcast of the ratings. What are your expectations for the ratings?”
“Mr. Liu, is Mr. Wang Hao here? We’d like to interview him to see what his expectations are for the program he’s planned.”
“Mr. Liu, do you believe that this program’s ratings can break two percent?”
The crowd barraged him with questions, which bewildered Liu Qisheng!
No, this wasn’t right! He intended to have them leave, but they had started interviewing already?
Looking at the cameras and microphones of the journalists present, Liu Qisheng gulped nervously—Brother Hao, I did my best!
Liu Qisheng tried to keep everyone’s expectations as low as possible, because if he set them too high and they weren’t met, wouldn’t that be embarrassing? So he slowly said, “Firstly, I’d like to thank all the journalists for coming. Our program does indeed have expectations. My personal goal is for it to reach one point five percent, which would be good. If we’re lucky enough to hit two percent, of course, that would be even better!”
One point five percent—the requirement should… be achievable, right?
A reporter asked, “I’m not afraid of the probable but of the improbable, what if the viewers don’t buy in? What if, for example, the ratings don’t even reach one percent?”
“Well, this…” Liu Qisheng broke out in a sweat, trying to think of how to answer, when suddenly he saw Wang Hao with his agent Xia Xueqi burst through the door and he rushed over without a second thought, “Wang Hao is here! If you have any questions, ask him!”
Whoosh! As soon as the reporters heard Liu Qisheng’s words, they swarmed over, microphones almost shoved into Wang Hao’s mouth, “Mr. Wang Hao, what are your expectations for your program?” “What do you think the ratings for your program will be?” “Mr. Wang Hao, do you think your program will be a hit?!”
Oh, for the love of Pete, what’s going on here?
Wang Hao stared dumbfounded at the reporters and asked in surprise, “What’s happening? Where did you all pop up from?”
He actually dared to say we reporters popped up out of nowhere, thumbs down!
A group of reporters gave a thumbs down first, then continued to ask, “Mr. Wang Hao, what do you think the ratings for your program will be…”
“A modest 2.5 percent should do,” Wang Hao pondered, well, in his previous life this program’s ratings were always around three percent. Entertainment isn’t as developed in this world, so this figure should be attainable!
His response was already quite understated, but to his surprise, as soon as this figure left his mouth, the entire room was in an uproar!
All the reporters were stunned—
“The highest rating for a program in this time slot has only been around 2.7 percent. Where does your confidence come from?!”
“Yeah, there was one episode that featured four major stars as guests that just barely broke three percent in ratings. Do you think your program can rate that high?”
“Mr. Wang Hao, are you just bragging?!”
Mr. Liu, the station head at the side, instantly broke out into a sweat, with beads the size of soybeans rolling down his forehead!
My dear brother, I’d even feel nervous claiming 1.5 percent! You just went straight for 2.5 percent! This could take years off my life! If it doesn’t reach that, the resulting situation could be hilarious!
At that moment, he wished he could tear off the face of every reporter present, of course, the first face he’d want to tear off had to be that of the third gunner who brought the reporters!
Sitting in a corner, Wei Ming looked at the incredulous faces of the reporters and almost laughed himself into a stomachache. “Hahaha! 2.5 percent, can you be any more confident? I can’t wait to see how you’ll handle it when your program fails to hit that number! Mr. Zheng and Mr. Xu definitely won’t be able to save face. I’m at least 80 percent sure they’ll choose to work with our TV station instead, hahaha!”
“You must be joking, right?” A reporter stepped forward. Everyone present who had interacted with him knew that this reporter was a sharp-tongued journalist from the Eastern Times named Liu Gang. Liu Gang asked, “Do you know how low the ratings for the previous program were? Do you know what the peak was for the first episode of the new show?”
Wang Hao was cluelessly bewildered, “I have no idea, what’s up?”
The reporters immediately burst into laughter, “Hahaha! Total outsider, write this down. We’ve got a headline for tomorrow, hahaha.”
Liu Gang snorted and continued to press, “Have you ever worked on a variety show before?”
“No,” Wang Hao shook his head, “But is 2.5 percent really that high?”
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