Chapter 82: Conquer Premieres: Second in Jin Ling, First in Jin Ling

At 7:35 p. m., Jin Ling Cultural Channel officially premiered "Conquer."

Yan Li and Lin Jiachuan sat in front of the TV, watching the names scroll by in the opening credits of "Conquer."

"Bro, your name."

Lin Jiachuan pointed excitedly at the screen, where Yan Li's name was clearly displayed—

【Producer】: Gao Qunshu, Yan Li

【Distributor】: Yan Li

【Special Guest Star】: Yan Li

True, when Yan Li filmed "Conquer," he was only a minor supporting actor, but now he is the copyright owner of "Conquer."

Given that, he naturally wanted to claim some recognition.

But this wasn't Yan Li abusing his position for vanity—it was genuinely necessary.

When Yan Li went out to distribute and promote the show, he needed the official title of "Conquer"'s production team—whether as producer or distributor—to make it clear he had authority.

Otherwise, if people saw his name wasn't even in the drama, they might think he was a fraud.

The "Special Guest Star" credit, however, was indeed forced.

Mainly because Big Producer Yan wanted to appear on screen, but his screen time was too little to qualify as lead actor, and even as a supporting actor, he'd be listed too far down.

So they simply created a separate "Special Guest Star" slot—perfectly masking his limited screen time while highlighting his unique status.

Besides Yan Li's name appearing above, Lin Jiachuan also snagged the title of 【Distribution Assistant】.

Lin Jiachuan was thrilled—he'd previously worked on a drama in Lian City, and no one even knew if it would air.

Even if it did, as a crew assistant, he'd barely get a name—maybe a fleeting flash at the end credits.

Now? His name was listed upfront, separately, outranking several production directors.

"Look at you, so easily pleased—this is nothing. Someday you might even get the title of producer."

Yan Li looked at Lin Jiachuan's beaming face and told him to calm down: to accomplish anything, one must keep a steady heart—true men remain unmoved even as Mount Taishan collapses before them.

Lin Jiachuan turned and couldn't help retorting,

"Bro, don't talk to me—first, flatten your own smiling mouth."

"…"

Yan Li awkwardly coughed and threw a pillow at Lin Jiachuan: "Stop talking. Watch the show."

Lin Jiachuan hugged the pillow, grinning mischievously.

A few days ago, he'd accompanied Yan Li on business trips, watching him chat effortlessly with TV station executives, sealing contracts worth hundreds of thousands—exuding the polished demeanor of a seasoned business elite.

He'd almost forgotten: Yan Li, like him, was barely twenty, fresh out of college less than a year ago.

Seeing his own name on TV—for the first time—as a key producer? Of course he felt euphoric.

Yan Li's name appeared early in "Conquer"'s opening credits, and his character also appeared early.

The first episode opened with Liu Huaqiang and his two men preparing to kill Wu Tian!

Though Yan Li had already seen the finished "Conquer," seeing the TV station's logo and the Spring Gala ads on screen made him realize—he was truly on television, seen by countless strangers—and he felt something indescribable.

Boom—boom—boom—

Just then, the TV showed Wu Tian being shot dead by Liu Huaqiang's men—boom—boom—boom—

Yan Li watched his own character die—and his emotions grew even more complex…

————

The next day, Yan Li hurried to Jin Ling TV Station to inquire about "Conquer"'s viewership ratings.

Provincial channel ratings were only local and took time to compile; Yan Li didn't receive the premiere ratings until the afternoon.

Jin Ling region viewership: 3.4%—ranking seventh among all Jin Ling dramas airing at the same time!

This result was far from impressive.

Yan Li had checked: the baseline for prime-time dramas on provincial channels was generally 3–5%.

Below 3% meant poor performance; only above 5% qualified as excellent.

Moreover, cable and satellite TV had not yet fully spread; most ordinary TVs could only receive local provincial and municipal channels, besides CCTV.

Thus, when measuring local viewership, provincial channels held absolute advantage—aside from CCTV, national satellite channels couldn't compete.

Jin Ling TV's sub-channels had massive local audiences; unless they performed terribly, they rarely dropped out of the top ten.

So "Conquer"'s current rating was merely a passing grade.

Only if viewership surpassed 5% and it consistently ranked in the local top three could it be considered influential.

"Take it slow—it's only the premiere."

Yan Li was disappointed, but not discouraged. After all, "Conquer" had no big stars and launched with almost no promotion—initial cold reception was normal.

He'd even prepared himself for the possibility that "Conquer" would flop on some stations.

Earlier, he'd gone to great lengths to sell the drama to as many stations as possible—not just to earn more money and build momentum, but for this very reason.

He wanted to give "Conquer" enough room to fail and recover!

If it flopped in Jin Ling, try Xi'an; if Xi'an failed, go to Jin Ling; if Jin Ling failed, there was Shenzhen.

"Conquer" was high-quality; as long as it aired on enough stations, it would eventually rise.

After adjusting his mood, Yan Li contacted the pre-arranged media outlets with the station's ratings to launch a new round of promotion.

Before "Conquer" aired, Yan Li had only arranged a few articles for light groundwork; now that the drama had premiered, he could ramp up output.

"Jin Ling Cultural Channel Presents a Police vs. Criminal Epic: Black vs. White—who is the True Conqueror?"

"Jiang Shan's First Role as a Villain: Sun Honglei's Career Peak Performance"

"A Hard-Hitting Drama That Reveals Human Nature's Core: 'Conquer' Strikes Straight to the Audience's Heart"

"…"

The so-called media publicity campaign, when you get right down to it, is just blowing hot air—blowing until the audience gets curious about the drama "Conquest," and then they turn on the TV.

Besides the print media push, Yan Li also had people write articles and post them on portal sites and some forums.

Still, whether these online reports got any clicks, and how much they could help the local ratings, was hard to say.

Yan Li's media publicity strategy did work—or maybe it was the inherent excellence of "Conquest" itself starting to kick in.

Starting from the second day, "Conquest"'s ratings began to climb steadily.

3.7%!

3.9%!

4.2%!

Its ranking among dramas airing in the Jinmen area during the same period was also creeping up bit by bit.

From seventh it charged up to fifth, then into the top three; by the night before the finale, "Conquest" was ranked second, trailing only the Su Youpeng version of "Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber," which aired on another sub-channel of Jinmen TV.

The person in charge of drama acquisitions at Jinmen Arts Channel was overjoyed—he hadn't expected a low-budget TV drama with no big-name actors to achieve results like these.

The day after "Conquest"'s finale, he personally called Yan Li to share the good news.

"Peak ratings broke 11, average ratings nearly 5.5%, ranked second in the Jinmen area—the station is already discussing a rerun."

"What a shame."

Yan Li felt a touch of regret—just one more step and it would have been number one in Jinmen.

Still, when one flower doesn't bloom, another does!

Although "Conquest" lost to "Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" in Jinmen, on the Jin Ling station, which had also begun airing "Conquest"—

"Conquest" fought a beautiful turnaround.

Compared to Jinmen Arts Channel's journey from lukewarm to fairly impressive, "Conquest" was dominant in the Jin Ling area from the very beginning.

Premiere ratings broke 5!

In just two days it seized first place on the Jin Ling area's same-period drama ratings chart.

And sitting right below "Conquest" was none other than "The Legend of the Condor Heroes," produced by Zhang the Bearded…

(End of chapter)