Chinese entertainment starts with idols

Chapter 14: Fame Arises Overnight

"Meteor Shower" will officially premiere on August 8th at 22:00!

How to describe the content of the first episode? It was a mix of chuunibyou (adolescent delusions of grandeur), melodrama, and utterly ridiculous plot twists! It was packed with all sorts of clichés!

The female protagonist, "Chu Yuxun," and the male protagonist, "Murong Yunhai," are both admitted to Alliston Business School. One is overjoyed, while the other is furious. Then, the taxi carrying the male protagonist crashes into the female protagonist, who is riding a bicycle.

This melodramatic plot is a classic combination of "Cinderella + Prince Charming" and "bickering lovers".

Lin Feng remembers this opening scene. He was right next to the camera during filming. The beach in Xiamen is really beautiful! Even the air is blue.

Actually, Deng Shuang riding a bicycle with her hands off the handlebars was done by a body double. The shots showing Deng Shuang riding the bicycle from the front were actually of a car pulling the bicycle.

Of course, the most ridiculous part was yet to come. When Lin Feng, playing the role of "Murong Yunhai," arrived at the MG 4S store, he exaggeratedly praised an MG SUV for a full three minutes, as if it were a car a hundred times more awesome than BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

This GG insertion is so embarrassing. Even Lin Feng himself felt a little ashamed looking at it. Needless to say, this has already been reserved as material for Douyin and Bilibili parodies ten years from now.

Then came the classic scene from H4, where a fight leads to friendship: "Red Dragonfly angrily stomps on Adidas shoes," with the caption: "I'll give you three seconds to apologize to my shoes!" "This is how my shoes apologize to yours!" "Hey kid, you're pretty cocky!" "So what!"

If the first episode mainly featured memorable scenes of the male protagonist, "Murong Yunhai," then the second episode featured more memorable scenes of the female protagonist, "Chu Yuxun," played by Deng Shuang.

"First, I'm not being arrogant, I'm angry! Second, my name isn't 'Hey,' it's Chu Yuxun!"

"The idea that you are a pig is a typical sign of vocabulary deficiency. Do you want me to teach you?"

You are a pig, which can be extended to mean you are a wild boar, a porcupine, a spotted pig, a naked pig, a stupid pig, a clumsy pig, a Ukrainian suckling pig, or Zhu Bajie (Pigsy from Journey to the West)!

You are a lazy, domesticated omnivorous creature; you are a desperate and lonely animal under the starlight; you are a stupid pig that will never fly into the blue sky!

The first two episodes are fast-paced with many plot conflicts. All the main characters have appeared, their personalities have been fully developed, and the story has begun to unfold.

To be honest, Lin Feng felt a little awkward watching his own show, and he couldn't be objective or fair in his opinion. However, even though it was very melodramatic and outrageous, Lin Feng found it quite interesting.

Moreover, in the Chinese entertainment industry, which has never experienced anything truly sensational, the more dramatic and outrageous the story, the more attractive it becomes, and the higher the ratings soar.

On its premiere day, the show achieved a 2.0% viewership rating and a 9.98% market share, firmly holding the top spot nationwide in its time slot.

The viewership rating was 0.1 percentage points higher than in the previous life, and the viewership share was 1 percentage point higher. Nothing had changed except Lin Feng; his efforts had paid off.

"Meteor Shower" was like a shooting star streaking across the summer night sky, not only setting a new record for the premiere of a self-produced drama on Hunan TV in recent years, but also breaking the ratings record for Hunan TV's 10 pm slot.

Crucially, "Meteor Shower" dominated the airwaves all day, with its daytime rebroadcast achieving a viewership rating as high as 32%, thus creating a "nighttime premiere, daytime loop" dominating-the-air pattern.

With over 1.2 million online searches in a single day, it is the absolute number one in the search volume of all TV series, surpassing even the combined search volume of the second, third, and so on up to the tenth place.

This is the first time since "My Fair Princess" that Hunan TV's ratings have surpassed CCTV's (including daytime ratings) during the broadcast of "Meteor Shower," which is a miracle.

As a result, Lin Feng and the other four main actors rose to national fame overnight. Lin Feng, Deng Shuang, and Zhang Han became popular new idols, while Yu Haoming and Wei Chen experienced a second wave of popularity.

Of course, Lin Feng received the most attention, after all, a tall, handsome and charming male lead is more likely to attract female fans.

At the same time, online searches related to "Lin Feng" have begun to increase, and are growing at a rapid pace, increasing exponentially.

"Is the male lead really that handsome?! My heart skipped a beat, his looks are amazing! He's just as good-looking as my Korean oppa!"

"I need this male lead's information in 3 seconds! He's my Prince Charming! Does anyone have his handsome photos? I want to use them as my phone's wallpaper."

"His name is Lin Feng, born in 1988, a 2006 graduate of the Performance Department at Beijing Film Academy. This is his first leading role in a film or television series, and it's already so popular. What will he be like in the future!"

Following its success, "Meteor Shower" continued its momentum, airing its third and fourth episodes on August 9th, with the plot becoming increasingly engaging.

Episode 3 features the iconic scene where Chu Yuxun formally declares war on Murong Yunhai: "Murong Yunhai, listen to me! Does being poor mean you should laugh at me? Does being poor mean you should bully me? From today onwards, I declare war on you—Murong Yunhai!"

Episode 4 features another memorable scene where "Duanmu Lei" comforts "Chu Yuxun": "If you want to cry, go for a run, that way you can evaporate all your tears."

Although "Meteor Shower" is quite cheesy, it has so many memorable scenes. Its ratings have surged again, reaching 2.25%, and its market share has officially surpassed the 10% mark, reaching 11.78%, continuing to hold the top spot nationwide in its time slot.

At this point, "Meteor Shower" became an absolute smash hit, and no one doubted that it was a phenomenal success.

As the series continued to air, the enthusiasm did not subside; instead, it escalated into a nationwide craze for watching the show.

Especially for students who are currently enjoying their summer vacation, spending their days glued to the TV watching movies and sleeping during the day has already affected their summer homework progress.

"Dream City" has become an ideal university "utopia" for students, and some students have even expressed that they want to go to university in a coastal city and attend the business school.

Classic lines from the show, such as "Duanmu took me to Metersbonwe" and "So what!", and even the filming location "Aliston Business School," have become popular internet memes.

Furthermore, with the popularity of "Meteor Shower," there has been an increase in related media reports, and many portal websites have even launched special discussions around the "cringe-worthy" aspects of the show, purely to capitalize on its popularity.

For example, articles like Tencent's "Let's Watch the Meteor Shower Together, the Outfits Will Shock You" and Sina's "The Meteor Shower Crosses the Minefield to Find the Cute Points" have attracted widespread attention.

Meanwhile, during the broadcast of "Meteor Shower," almost all of the original soundtracks, including the opening theme, ending theme, and insert songs, became nationwide hits.

You can hear "Meteor Shower" and "Take Me Fly" everywhere you go, and the top songs on all the charts are completely dominated by songs related to "Meteor Shower".

For example, six out of the top ten songs on the QQ Music and Kugou Music charts are the soundtracks from "Meteor Shower".

The top three are "Starry Sky Story", "The Flight I Want" and "Doppelganger Lover", while the 6th, 7th and 9th are "Let Me Sing a Song for You", "Recollections" and "The Waltz of Love" respectively.

Furthermore, in the latest Baidu search rankings, both "Meteor Shower" and its five main actors topped the relevant lists. "Meteor Shower" saw daily searches exceed 500 million, firmly holding the top spot in the TV drama rankings.

The five lead actors quickly rose to the top of the list of most popular male and female celebrities. Among the top five most popular male celebrities, apart from Zhou Jielun who ranked fourth, the rest were all members of the H4 group. The only one at the bottom, in fifth place, was Zhang Han.

exploded!

They all exploded!

The TV series is a hit!

All five actors have become breakout stars!

Lin Feng, on the other hand, made an even bigger and bigger reveal!

Since the day after "Meteor Shower" aired, Lin Feng has firmly held the number one spot among popular entertainment stars.

In this era before Weibo, Lin Feng's fan forum has over 100,000 followers, approaching the follower count of a top-tier celebrity, and the number of posts is increasing by an average of 10,000 posts per day. The fans are incredibly enthusiastic.

Some people are discussing the plot, some are discussing Lin Feng as a person, some are sharing handsome photos of Lin Feng, and some have even dug up Lin Feng's graduation photos from elementary school to university and his military training photos.

"Lam Feng is so handsome and acted so well. I think his future is bright, and it's time to declare myself a ten-year fan!"

"He's really handsome, and Lin Feng has been handsome since he was a child. I'm convinced, he's definitely a naturally handsome guy!"

"So Lin Feng can play basketball too! Those faintly visible eight-pack abs are so tempting! I love athletic boys!"

"Meteor Shower" was a huge hit, and Lin Feng rose to fame overnight because of it!

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