Aside Lord of Shanghai <梟雄>, many of TVB’s series in 2015 were not very well received. Due decline in the station’s ratings, TVB CEO Mark Lee (李寶安) withdrew a total of five series from this year’s broadcast lineup. The series include: No Reserve <巾幗梟雄之諜血長天>, Rogue Emperor <流氓皇帝>, Come With Me <性在有情>, Watch Out Boss <波士早晨>, and The Last Healer in Forbidden City <末代御醫>. The majority of these series were highly publicized, with The Last Healer in Forbidden City potentially Tavia Yeung’s (楊怡) final series at TVB. No Reserve was also one of Myolie Wu’s (胡杏兒) final productions. Although it is not fully clear as to why the five dramas were pulled, it is speculated to be due to the politics between TVB upper management. With Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍) losing favor, Mark Lee and Assistant General Manager Felix To (杜之克) decided to scrap the worst five series filmed the last year, although the projects cost over $75 million HKD to produce. Observing the popularity of Fan Bingbing’s (范冰冰) The Empress of China <武媚娘傳奇> in Hong Kong, Felix To decided to purchase a variety of Mainland series to air during its primetime hours, including Wu Xin: The Monster Killer <無心法師>. In response to the executive decisions, Rogue Emperor star Kenneth Ma (馬國明) shrugged, “It hasn’t been set in stone yet so I don’t have a response.” Sharon Chan (陳敏之) on the other hand expressed, “I haven’t heard about this, but I’m the lead actress in [Come With Me]. It would be a shame if it didn’t air. But as an artiste – I can’t help it. I will respect the decisions of the company.” Creds: ihktv
Why would they pull out No Reserve? I thought it was a hyped drama considering it's third of the trilogy of No Regrets which won multiple awards?
just my speculation - probably for Lords, besides the politics reason, perhaps having two dramas with very similar storylines isn't a good idea to put...dramas like that usually are in contention for drama of the year you'll probably see Lords vs No Reserve on the last award ceremony. Which both stars Wayne and Myolie. I think it's a mixture of politics and strategy.
Cheaper to rent Mainland drama than to produce? but these are already completed.....so it doesnt' make sense
Agreed, looks like Mandy was a lead too in one of these series. Pretty lame that TVB does this, if anything they should just put them straight to blu-ray or online format so that people can still get a chance to watch it. Such a big waste of talent and resources.
Some of the excuses makes no senses... To scrap series that are already made is a waste of money. Just air it another time, if these higher ups aren't happy with ratings than start putting higher quality stuff on TV. TVB can't half ass dramas anymore. Variety shows are a joke these days as well.
Say... you're a vendor with one stall with limited space, and in that stall you have a choice of putting bullshit, or something that everyone wants. What do you fill that stall with? TVB's dilemma is, it has limited air time to sell and has to make that time as attractive as possible. Having spent 75 million HK$ on a product that no one wants, may eventually cost it 500 million or more HK$ if it occupies prime sales real estate and does poorly or nothing at all. On the other hand, a prime show brought in from outside, might just make it HK$ 100 million in advertising revenue. Of course, these numbers are just imaginary but you get my point. Putting on a bad show would cost it much more in the long run and TVB knows it.
Big Green shall stay away!! I think TVB should just release it, and work on better appeal on their future ones. Why waste the drama after filming them?
I don't think TVB would throw out those dramas, but rather to only market them in ways that don't wind up costing it money. For example, if they only use it for overseas DVD sales, then that would be fine. But giving poorly done productions real air time is not in its best interest. The air time advertising space is its most valuable commodity, and TVB knows it.
The excuse for holding back those drama is just plain stupid. Look at what they are airing now? All are underwelming. I think they are saving it to air on the anniversary time.
You know, back in '97, I always said that they were making a big mistake and got it backwards. Instead of giving HK to China, they should have given China to HK, LOL...
