TV Show in China Attracted 420 Million Viewers During Its Season Finale and Than Was Promptly Cancelled

Posted by Andrew Meyer on June 1, 2008

super girlThere were zero typos in my post title. You read it correctly.

A show by the name of Super Girl, which is similar to the Pop/American Idol concept with auditions, voting etc, was able to attract 420 million Chinese viewers during its 2006 season finale and than was promptly shut down by the Chinese government.

According to Wikipedia, the show ran from 2004 to 2006 on Hunan Satellite Television and was sponsored by a Chinese yogurt company named Mengniu Yoghurt. TV viewers could vote by phone, text messaging and online.

There are so many things that pop into my mind when I read/watched this story on VBS.TV: First, the show attracted 420 million viewers during its 2006 season finale and I never heard a thing about it. We are talking the biggest television show ever. This tells a lot about our media coverage/access to China. Second, it appears to be one of the biggest displays of democracy in China (via the voting). Third, I bet US media companies are salivating about the possibilities of getting into China. But, we all know that won't happen anytime soon.

You can see the whole string of videos that VBS.TV is doing on the Super Girl phenomenon over on their site (or in the embedded video below). I definitely suggest watching the videos since VBS.TV was able to get a crew over to China and interview 2006 Super Girl finalist Yang Lei.


(Video might not be viewable in RSS reader)

Posted in Musicsphere, Trends and tagged with , , ,
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