“Director, it’s out, the ratings are out!” On the second day after episodes 3 and 4 concluded, a staff member from Xiang Province Satellite TV excitedly found Director Liu, holding the latest ratings data.
“Quickly, tell me, how are the results now!” Director Liu asked impatiently.
“Soaring! The ratings have directly skyrocketed!” The staff member was so excited he was almost incoherent. “They’ve doubled! The ratings for the second day have already climbed to 8.1%, more than double yesterday’s ratings. It’s incredible, like a rebirth of *Liang Jian*! Tangren is too formidable!”
“What!” Director Liu felt as if struck by lightning, trembling as he sat back into his chair.
To think the ratings had directly surged to 8.1% on the second day. Based on his experience, unless the drama made significant plot errors in the latter half, it was on an upward trajectory. It was likely that breaking the station’s required 15% viewership would be an easy feat.
“How could this be? How could this be!” Director Liu muttered, lost and dejected. The staff member, not understanding his distress, quickly said, “Director, don’t be too happy just yet. Last night I browsed many film and television forums and Facebook. I found that quite a few negative reviews about our drama have appeared online, which might affect our ratings in the future!”
“What? What negative reviews? Where are they coming from?” Director Liu became agitated and asked eagerly.
“Ah, it’s the same old complaints. They’re saying the actor playing Li Xiaoyao is just a handsome man with no real acting skills.”
“And some are saying he looks very effeminate, like a pretty boy, a metrosexual. They say he’s all looks and no substance, a painted bamboo pole.”
“Sigh, these people are too shameless. Criticizing acting is one thing; actors should be criticized if their skills are poor. But what’s the point of personal attacks? Is being a pretty boy so bad? Wasn’t Prime Minister Zhuge also a pretty boy in his day?”
“And that Leng Zhiwen, she only looks a bit effeminate, but she’s incredibly skilled in combat. Her sword dance was so cool, and it looked like it was filmed in one continuous take. She must be a martial arts master!” The staff member chattered on, while Director Liu regained his composure and began thinking rapidly.
He realized this was an opportunity, a chance to completely bring down the ratings of *Chinese Paladin*. The way to do that was to ruin its reputation.
Just like with *My Fair Princess 3* before, the entire drama was met with a flood of negative reviews, causing its ratings to collapse.
And the best way to destroy a drama’s reputation was to target the actors. Similar to *My Fair Princess 3*, the negative reviews focused on the actors’ performances and character portrayals, leading to a collapse in word-of-mouth.
Therefore, they could operate the same way with *Chinese Paladin*. Currently, all the buzz around *Chinese Paladin* was focused on the actor playing Li Xiaoyao, with marketing efforts emphasizing his handsome appearance.
The word ‘handsome’ was a double-edged sword. It could lead to positive outcomes like Wu Ge, or negative ones like Hu Yifan. Now, they just needed to steer public perception in a negative direction, and the actor’s reputation would be ruined.
However, as the director of the program department, he couldn’t openly do anything that would damage his own drama’s viewership, not even a little bit.
After all, they were all in the same industry. If he made any moves, a little investigation would reveal everything. The station’s higher-ups would never let him get away with it.
Their performance targets for the year were already problematic, and they were relying on the remaining hundred million yuan to recoup costs and make the financial reports look better. Now, he was going to ruin the last drama? That was jeopardizing everyone’s livelihood!
Therefore, Director Liu absolutely could not do anything wrong in the open. Even operating in secret was difficult, yet he had to act.
Fortunately, Director Liu had a knack for conspiracy and schemes. After a moment’s thought, he had an idea. “No, we can’t let this kind of public opinion continue. We must take strict action to protect our drama’s reputation!” Director Liu declared righteously.
“I think so too!” The staff member nodded repeatedly, then showed a troubled expression. “But how should we protect the drama’s reputation? We tried many methods and made many efforts during *My Fair Princess 3*, but the results were very limited!”
“That’s because we were too merciful and didn’t know how to wield the weapon of law!” Director Liu snorted. “Go tell our legal department to select a few websites with the most vicious criticism, and one physical media outlet that’s criticizing us. Sue them for defamation and demand a public apology.”
“Only through such means can we curb this unhealthy trend! I want to let them know that not everyone can criticize our station’s dramas. Do they think they can ruin *Chinese Paladin* like they ruined *My Fair Princess 3*?”
“Absolutely not!” Director Liu said indignantly, pounding the table forcefully, clearly filled with anger.
The staff member was taken aback. He felt that resorting to legal action seemed like an overreaction, as no television station had ever done such a thing before.
However, thinking of *My Fair Princess 3* suffering heavy losses due to various negative reviews, and now *Chinese Paladin* facing the same risk of being ruined by negative criticism, he felt anxious and thought that a strong response might be a good thing.
So, he immediately nodded and relayed the idea to the legal department.
“This should solve it. Let the storm come even fiercer!” Director Liu wore a hint of triumphant smugness.
His previous statement and demand for legal action meant that no one could say he intentionally intended to damage *Chinese Paladin*’s reputation. He was clearly protecting it! This was the truth!
But as someone who had managed public relations before, how could he not know that for keyboard warriors, unless you could truly imprisoning them, the more drastic the response, the more it would ignite their anger?
Furthermore, most of the spectators would be very indignant upon seeing this. Therefore, the lawsuit would not only fail to quell the dissent but would instead fan the flames.
A wave after wave of negative reviews would surely flood in. Even with the backing of a giant like Jiangnan Group, *Chinese Paladin* would be torn apart by the public’s fury.
“I am truly too clever!” Director Liu felt extremely pleased with himself.
Xiang Province Satellite TV’s legal department acted quickly. Within an hour, they released official information through various channels and sent out lawyer’s letters to several entities, demanding they immediately cease defamation and apologize to Xiang Province Satellite TV.
Concurrently, the television station issued a stern condemnation statement through public channels.
In this statement, Xiang Province Television declared that the actor playing Li Xiaoyao was an outstanding actor whose performance was flawless.
However, some individuals with ulterior motives had criticized and personally attacked the actor based on his appearance, which was extremely malicious. Xiang Province Television strongly condemned this.
The evaluation of an actor should be based on their acting skills and abilities, not their appearance. Actors can also possess charm that transcends gender. Therefore, the public was urged not to comment on the actor’s gender or appearance, but rather to focus on their acting, charm, and individual capabilities. They believed that Leng Zhiwen was the best Li Xiaoyao, and so on.
Well, it’s worth noting that based on this announcement, it seemed that the Xiang Province Television, from top to bottom, was unaware that the actor playing Li Xiaoyao was actually a woman!
This was indeed the case, because Tangren Film and Television had concealed Leng Zhiwen’s gender from the very beginning. All members of the crew had signed confidentiality agreements, and anyone who knew Leng Zhiwen’s gender was forbidden from disclosing any information.
The only one who hadn’t signed an agreement was Liu Fei. However, she hadn’t known that the actor she was acting opposite was a woman in the first place, otherwise she wouldn’t have acted so resistant on set.
The original plan was to reveal her gender after the first scene was filmed, but there was a falling out before that. Naturally, she remained in the dark.
And this was the effect that Boss Huang needed to achieve. A reversal is only truly spectacular and captivating to the public, and most memorable, when revealed at the very last moment.
Therefore, it was estimated that Boss Huang wouldn’t reveal this great secret until *Chinese Paladin* concluded.
Of course, Boss Huang was particularly cunning in one aspect: in all official promotional materials and artifacts related to the actors, the actor’s gender was deliberately obscured.
For example, there were no indications of a male or female lead in the promotional posters, nor were there any gender markers in the cast list. These were all replaced with the term "Protagonist." Leng Zhiwen and Shu Chang's names were also placed together.
In short, the official promotion left no evidence that Leng Zhiwen was female, nor any evidence that she was male. The only potential leak of gender was probably Leng Zhiwen’s slightly feminine name.
So, Huang He made a decisive stroke, and the name on the cast list became Leng Zhiwen. "Wen" is more commonly used by males, while "Zhi" leans slightly towards feminine, and historically, many males in ancient China bore this character in their names. Therefore, the name as a whole leaned towards gender neutrality.
As for whether changing the name deliberately would be suspected of being a publicity stunt, there was no need to worry. Isn't it normal for celebrities to use stage names?
Half of the celebrities in the world use stage names. Could you accuse all of them?