After the fiasco over Stephan Chan’s corruption case, the battle between the TVB executives has once again heated up! According to the Hong Kong media, between October and November (TVB Anniversary months) every year, it will be 2 dramas that fight to be the best of the best. This is the battle between Catherine Tsang and Tommy Leung and it has been going on for years. They have both won and lost. However, in recent years, Tsang’s dramas have been very well-received and critically-acclaimed, and they include
Heart of Greed and
Rosy Business. In order not to lose to Tsang’s dramas, Leung has decided to push
Gun Metal Grey, which stars Felix Wong and Michael Miu, to compete with Tsang’s
No Regrets.
Tommy Leung changes strategy
Last year, Leung’s drama
Born Rich was defeated by Tsang’s
Beyond the Realm of Conscience. He does not want to lose again, hence he decided against broadcasting
Relics of an Emissary, which stars Sammul Chan and Kate Tsui and switched to police drama
Gun Metal Grey instead.
In September this year, Leung’s
Growing Through Life was defeated by Tsang’s
Can’t Buy Me Love.
Growing Through Life, which is being led by Raymond Lam, Bosco Wong, Damian Lau and Cecilia Yip, has received poor reception, with the average ratings being only 27 points. However,
Can’t Buy Me Love, which is being led by Moses Chan and Charmaine Sheh, has been getting an average rating of 33 points. Leung saw that he could not afford to lose to Tsang again, hence he decided to use
Gun Metal Grey as this year’s Anniversary series.
It was said that
Relics of an Emmisary was taken out because it was led by younger cast members. Felix Wong’s come-back to TVB and the collaboration between the "2 Tigers" was also the main selling point of
Gun Metal Grey, and therefore, guaranteed ratings. Also, Leung’s
E.U. was also very well-received by the Hong Kong audience. It is no wonder that he has confidence in police dramas.
In reponse to such a change, when the Hong Kong media approaced Leung for clarification, he said, "The anniversary series are determined by the programmes department. It was said that
Relics of an Emmisary was first chosen, but they decided againse it due to the background of the drama. (Are you confident of
Gun Metal Grey?) As for confidence, you must ask the producer, but I have watched this drama and I think it’s good."
Catherine Tsang snatches the limelight
Cathering Tsang was in-charge of dramas such as
Heart of Greed,
Moonlight Resonance,
Rosy Busines and
Beyond the Realm of Conscience. These dramas have received high ratings and good reception. For the last 2 years, her dramas have swept all the major awards in the TVB Anniversary Awards. In the battle between Leung and herself, the most classic example was the clash between
Born Rich, which starred Gallen Lo, Ray Lui, Jaime Chik and Anita Yuen, and
Beyond the Realm of Conscience. In the end,
Beyond the Realm of Conscience had ratings of 35 points, with the highest being 50 points, setting the record for Hong Kong television.
Born Rich was lambasted for being boring and therefore, had poor ratings.
This year, Tsang’s pre-modern drama,
No Regrets, which is being produced by ace producer Lee Tim Shing and led by TV King and Queen Wayne Lai and Sheren Tang, has been highly anticipated by many even though it has not been aired yet as there are many discussion points for this drama.
Regarding the battle between the 2 executives, Wayne Lai said, "Throughout these few years, the programmes department has arranged dramas according to their topics, so I am guessing that this time round, they arranged
No Regrets and
Gun Metal Grey to be Anniversary series as they have different topics. I hope that these 2 dramas will have good ratings, so that both sides may win."
No Regrets’ producer Lee Tim Shing has confidence for his drama. "Everybody hopes that this drama will rewrite the ratings record for Hong Kong. Whether we will eventually succeed is not known, but Lee Tim Shing humbly said that police dramas have always been a ratings guarantee, so he hopes that both
No Regrets and
Gun Metal Grey will succeed.
- Credits to
www.ycwb.com
Comments: I hope both dramas will succeed, but of course, there's a reason why I set up this blog. I echo Producer Lee's wish. I want to see No Regrets rewrite the ratings records for Hong Kong i.e. hit at least 51 points. Rosy Business could have hit at least 50 points, but it didn't because the high-definition TV ratings were not taken into account. Therefore, I really hope that No Regrets will really have No Regrets. People in Hong Kong, do give your greatest support to No Regrets! =D
*PLEASE CREDIT DREAMLUCKY IF REPOSTED! THANKS! ^^
No Regrets - YOUR fan-blog for this awesome drama by dreamlucky is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at just-noregrets.blogspot.com.
