Chapter 555: Best Actor!

When the two episodes of *Friends* that Li Zhibai guest-starred in aired, the average viewership rating broke 3%, causing the entire industry to look on in astonishment.

Originally, everyone thought that this result might have to wait until the last episode of this season to be broken.

After all, in this era, for viewership ratings to break 3% on average is simply inconceivable.

The power-on rate is too low.

To achieve such a result, one can only get those viewers who don't watch television to turn their TVs back on.

Looking at the last ten years, the peak of viewership ratings was also a phenomenal anti-corruption drama six or seven years ago, which soared to over 5%. That was a miracle that was never replicated again.

This 3% result can be said to be invincible against all opponents in the last five years.

Why?

Why were the viewership ratings of *Friends* so high?

A simple sitcom like this, with no depth, no artistic value, and even the actors' performances were simple—the kind of simple performance content that doesn't require acting skills at all.

Yet it blasted out such terrifying viewership ratings.

The shock brought to the industry by Lu Yanhe's decision to attend the Blue Ribbon Awards ceremony wasn't even as great as the shock brought by the 3% viewership rating.

It was truly too exaggerated.

According to this progress, is it possible for the final episode of *Friends* to hit a 4% viewership rating?

Exclusive broadcast.

The success of *Friends*' viewership ratings made television stations realize once again that in this era, miracles in viewership ratings can still be created, as long as you can call the audience back in front of the television.

This is different from magazines.

Maybe some people want to read magazines, but they can't buy them anymore. Compared to the newsstands and bookstores that were everywhere in the past, now if they want to buy a magazine, they might need to go to a specific place to buy it, directly cutting off the revival of the print media era from the channel—

The success of *Jump Up* is because its sales channel follows the path of physical books, not magazines.

Television still has a basic foundation now.

Basically, everyone has a television at home now, they just don't use it much and don't turn it on much.

If one day, when everyone is renovating their new homes, they eliminate televisions on a large scale, that will be the final doomsday for television stations.

And the success of *Friends* brought a humiliation to the Jingtai station that was louder than silence.

The series they had ruined in their hands was brought back to life in the hands of Bai Jingnian and Lu Yanhe.

The value of this drama is far more than what was presented before. According to the current enthusiasm of the audience for this drama, it is entirely foreseeable that this series can continue to be filmed for several more years.

The advertising revenue earned by Yuehu Station just during the two months that *Friends* aired could support the income of the past quarter—it sounds exaggerated, but in this era, for a television drama with an average viewership rating stable above 2% and also a phenomenal hit, the advertising fees are just that exaggerated.

The most obvious sign is that *Friends* airs every Friday and Saturday night at eight o'clock, ending in half an hour. The variety shows that follow after eight-thirty have seen their viewership ratings rise along with it, and even the hosts of the shows jokingly said on the show that they thank *Friends* for bringing their bonuses up for these two months.

Yuehu Station is also very strong and reacts extremely quickly.

They bought the dramas starring Lu Yanhe, Yan Liang, Wen Minglan, Yin Xincheng, Zhan Yun, and Bai Jin, and aired them during the day, or late at night on Fridays and Saturdays—

Paradoxically, the viewership ratings were all quite good, and even in the middle of the night, there was a viewership rating close to 0.2%.

"The viewership results are too good, I feel the pressure for the next season is high. With such good results, it's really hard to surpass them later," Lu Yanhe said.

"You should say that with *Friends* achieving such good results, as long as we don't film blindly, the results won't be bad," Chen Ziyan laughed. "Do you know how many people have come to me saying they are willing to guest star in a role in the next season? Everyone wants to come to *Friends* to show their face."

Lu Yanhe: "But I found that inviting big stars to guest star can indeed help improve viewership ratings."

In these two episodes, he wasn't there, and Li Zhibai came to guest star as the lead for these two episodes. Whether it was topicality or popularity, it was very high, and Li Zhibai's appearance set off another wave of discussion on the internet.

Chen Ziyan: "Many people say that the actual appeal of stars isn't that great, but that's because many people don't know how to use stars now. If you say how much appeal a single name or a single person can have, that's indeed very difficult. Being able to sell tens of millions at the box office based on one name belongs to top superstars. However, if you put a star into a suitable project, it will explode with an effect of one plus one being greater than two, or even four, five, or six. Li Zhibai coming to guest star, the topicality itself was extremely high. His age and image are not at all incongruous with *Friends*, and everyone has long known about his relationship with you and Yan Liang. You had something to do and couldn't appear, so he came to guest star, which is actually the meaning of substituting for you. Your fans will support it, and his fans will also support it."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"The key is that everyone has long been calling for Li Zhibai to guest star in the *Friends* series, which also fulfills the wishes of many viewers," Chen Ziyan said. "Later, we can indeed plan well and see which roles we can invite big names to guest star in. In this way, on the basic foundation, we can have some fresh topics from time to time to help *Friends* continue to break the circle. You know many popular American dramas don't just invite big stars to guest star; sports stars, popular writers, top supermodels, famous public figures... you can consider it."

"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded, then smiled. "Next season, I plan to arrange for Li Lili to work in the fashion section of *Jump Up* magazine."

Chen Ziyan looked at him in surprise and laughed. "You're smuggling private goods here."

"Can't I even smuggle this little bit of private goods?" Lu Yanhe said with a smile. "And why not? Mm, when the time comes, invite Siqi and the others to guest star as well."

"Then the topic will explode," Chen Ziyan judged decisively.

In the original *Friends*, Rachel went to a company to do clothing-related work.

Lu Yanhe just changed this company to the fashion section of *Jump Up*.

*Friends* has become a must-watch television drama for many young people today, and has even become a guide to urban life for many people.

Lu Yanhe felt that the sales of *Jump Up* had been stagnant for a long time without growth—although in this era, not having sales decline is already a miraculous achievement, he still hoped that *Jump Up* could go a step further.

One cannot be satisfied with the status quo.

Once you start to be satisfied and accustomed, you start to go down the slope.

Let's use *Friends* to give *Jump Up* a boost.

"For the Blue Ribbon tribute to veteran artists segment, which people are you preparing to find as representatives of young actors?"

Chen Ziyan asked about this matter.

This is also something they need to determine as soon as possible recently.

The awards ceremony is in ten days.

Lu Yanhe said: "Dashan is definitely one of them."

Wang Dashan, who was favored by him and starred in *Lost on Journey*, did not hesitate at all when invited by Lu Yanhe to participate in the recording of *The Birth of an Actor*, completely not caring that this was a variety show, and that as a movie lead with over seven hundred million at the box office, he still had to PK with others, and he didn't even ask about the remuneration.

This made Lu Yanhe very moved.

Still the same sentence, except for himself knowing that the show *The Birth of an Actor* could actually be made very popular, for others, this form of show was the first time they had seen it, it was an unknown, and they were taking a big risk.

Even if the show is very popular, no one knows whether they will be liked or disliked on this show.

There are plenty of celebrity artists who have flipped over in popular shows.

The contestants participating in *The Birth of an Actor*, besides Wang Dashan, also include Cheng Hai and Liu Zhiyin. Lu Yanhe would definitely choose these two people.

Besides these three, he discussed it with Chen Ziyan and quickly selected the fourth one.

When choosing the last one, however, he ran into trouble.

oC〇

Because there were too many options.

Chen Ziyan said: "How about this, let's do a priority ranking. I'll pick two people at random to PK, you choose one of them, and see who stays until the end, and that's who we choose."

Lu Yanhe nodded. "Okay."

"And, this is just our preliminary idea; they might not necessarily have the schedule to participate," Chen Ziyan said. "Wang Dashan and Liu Zhiyin are both quite popular, especially Liu Zhiyin, she is a popular idol star, her schedule is no easier than yours, she really might not have time to participate."

Lu Yanhe said: "Mm, I know, let's ask first."

If Liu Zhiyin could participate, that would of course be the best.

Although she is not a proper actor and hasn't started acting properly yet.

But she is clearly interested in acting, and might walk this path in the future.

Of course, Liu Zhiyin will definitely still focus on the idol path in the next few years, and acting is just a side job.

Just an attempt.

Then, after one phone call after another was made, not a single person said they couldn't do it; they all said they would coordinate their time immediately and give a reply today.

Chen Ziyan laughed and said: "You still don't admit your appeal now?"

Lu Yanhe: "Everyone is giving me face."

Chen Ziyan: "Excessive humility is a form of arrogance."

Lu Yanhe looked at Chen Ziyan helplessly.

At this moment, both of their phones suddenly rang at the same time.

This coincidence made the two of them look at each other, staring at each other in dismay.

Lu Yanhe originally thought something terrible had happened for this to occur.

Who knew, as soon as the call was connected, Lu Yanhe heard the person on the other end say excitedly: "Teacher Jiang Jun won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Drama Series!"

At that moment, Lu Yanhe was stunned for a moment.

Whether it's the Emmys or the Golden Globes, because of streaming media, because Hollywood has blown a wind of diversification, in the last few years, almost every year there have been Asian actors winning awards at these major awards, including the Oscars—

This would have been unimaginable ten years ago.

However, an actor from a Chinese-language drama winning an award is something that hasn't happened yet.

Digging into the reasons behind it, there is actually one crucial thing, which is that Chinese-language dramas have not yet integrated into the global streaming media matrix.

Therefore, the influence of Chinese-language dramas has always been limited.

This time, because of Maxine's strong push and the escort of the parent company, *Squid Game* entered the vision of the Golden Globes.

However, no one had ever thought it would actually win an award.

Even the lead actor of the original version, Lee Jung-jae, won the Emmy for Best Actor, not the Golden Globe.

The Golden Globes still prefer to give to familiar faces.

Lu Yanhe: "That's great, congratulations to Teacher Jiang!"

The person who called was the director of *Squid Game*, Yao Yuanzhi.

Yao Yuanzhi was on the scene.

His emotions were very excited.

"Teacher Jiang is on stage, he is about to give his acceptance speech!"

Yao Yuanzhi did not hang up the phone.

Because of some sensitive reasons, there was no channel for the live broadcast of this year's Golden Globes in the country, so it couldn't be seen.

At this moment, Lu Yanhe quieted down.

Over there, he saw that Chen Ziyan had already hung up the phone.

So, Lu Yanhe said: "Director, I'm with Sister Ziyan, I'm putting it on speaker."

He turned on the speakerphone.

"... Thank you, thank you! Sorry, my English level is limited, I only know how to say thank you, hello, I am Jiang Jun."

This sentence, Jiang Jun said in English.

One could tell just by listening that it had been practiced, practiced for a long time.

"Fortunately, Yuqian accompanied me here. Yuqian, please trouble yourself to be my translator."

Jiang Jun invited Jiang Yuqian.

Jiang Yuqian showed a surprised expression.

Jiang Jun waved his hand, signaling Jiang Yuqian to come on stage.

Everyone looked at Jiang Yuqian.

At this moment, the camera was also aimed at Jiang Yuqian.

Jiang Yuqian laughed, stood up, and walked gracefully toward the stage.

Five minutes before this, she had just lost in her own category and didn't win Best Actress.

Many people didn't understand the Chinese sentence Jiang Jun just said and didn't know what was going on now.

Jiang Yuqian went on stage, stood next to Jiang Jun, and explained in English: "Jiang Jun asked me to be his translator. I don't know if he wants to comfort me—after all, I didn't go on stage to accept an award just now. He is really a very good man, right? It's a pity he is already married, and his marriage with his wife is very happy."

The whole audience laughed and applauded.

Jiang Jun didn't know what Jiang Yuqian had said, but seeing the reaction from the audience, he knew Jiang Yuqian had said it well.

Jiang Yuqian signaled that Jiang Jun could speak.

Jiang Jun: "If I say at my age now that I feel like I'm dreaming, would it be laughable?"

Jiang Yuqian translated.

Laughter rang out again.

"But that is really how I feel, because this is the first Best Actor trophy I have won since I started acting, right here, at the Golden Globes."

Jiang Jun's tone was somewhat excited and resonant.

This time, what was received was applause of congratulations and encouragement.

"There are really too many people to thank, in front of and behind the scenes, everyone, really, only after participating in the production of a good play do we know that the industry we are in is not an industry of fighting alone, but an industry of mutual achievement."

When Jiang Yuqian translated this passage, the expressions of many people in the audience became serious.

These words certainly resonated with those who were seriously filming and loved this industry.

"Sometimes, I really thought that perhaps as an actor, I would just end up in obscurity like this. Because I had an illness, although it was cured, there weren't many people looking for me to act in the first place, and after that, it was even worse. At the age of forty, I ushered in the winter of my acting career."

There were gradually some tears in his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking of.

"But I never thought about giving up, and there were also people who didn't give up on me. A young man named Lu Yanhe told me when we collaborated on *Seventeen Layers* that when I recovered from my illness, there was a script for me to play the lead. I was stunned. I thought he was joking. I even thought he was asked by my wife to tell a kind lie to encourage me to overcome the illness."

Jiang Yuqian, standing on the side, felt sour in her heart just listening to it.

As an actor herself, she understood Jiang Jun's feelings very well.

"As a result, he really brought this script to find me. This script is *Squid Game*."

At this moment, the applause at the scene was incomparably enthusiastic.

Jiang Jun took a deep breath and raised the trophy in his hand.

"He has a movie about to be released in the United States soon, called *The Mist*. Originally, he should have attended tonight's awards ceremony with us, but because he is still filming, it's *Friends*, which many of you like, so he couldn't come over. I hope he knows that I am very grateful to him. When many people questioned me playing this lead, he never wavered in this idea."

"Finally, thank you to the Golden Globes. You gave me a glorious night. I will take this award and continue to act firmly. Thank you!"

China's first Golden Globe Best Actor.

Who could have thought of it.

Three years ago, he was still an uncrowned king in the hearts of industry insiders, with superb acting skills but never having the opportunity to play a lead.

Three years later, he experienced a major illness, experienced the low point of his acting career, and then, this summer, became popular globally with *Squid Game*, and on this winter night, won a Golden Globe.

Lu Yanhe posted on Weibo immediately:

—Thank you Director Yao Yuanzhi for calling me from the scene, so I heard Teacher Jiang's acceptance speech for the first time. I feel proud and excited for him from thousands of miles away. It's so good. Finally, the uncrowned king has put on the crown that should have belonged to him long ago. Also thank you Teacher Jiang, for believing in me from beginning to end. This must be a good script, this must be a good play, this must be a representative work. I did it, and Teacher Jiang did it too. Congratulations to the *Squid Game* crew, see you in the second season! (Sister Yuqian, you are the Best Actress in my heart forever! Hurry up and finish filming *The Phone*, the other script I wrote for you is about to be finished!)

That night, Station Chief Shen Tailin of Jingtai Station looked at Lu Yanhe's Weibo post congratulating Jiang Jun and was silent for a long, long time.

He suddenly remembered a sentence Hu Siwei had said at the station before:

Originally, these all belonged to us.

Why did they all end up with others in the end? ===== CHAPTER 556 =====