Chapter 64: The Situation Takes a Sharp Turn for the Worse

  Just when many people thought that "The Heirs" would reach a new high in ratings, it encountered its strongest competitor yet - KBS TV's broadcast of "Full House", starring Song Hye-kyo and Rain.

  Song Hye-kyo, the most popular and beloved actress in Korea at the moment, rose to fame with her role as Eun-hee in "Autumn Fairy Tale". If we compare their popularity in Korea alone, Sung Yu-ri might not necessarily lose to Song Hye-kyo, or even if she did, it wouldn't be by much, considering Sung Yu-ri's massive fan base from her singing days. However, when it comes to the impression left on TV viewers' minds, especially among the middle-aged ajumma demographic who make up the bulk of TV audiences, Sung Yu-ri is far behind Song Hye-kyo. After all, Song Hye-kyo's past roles have been deeply etched in people's hearts and evoked great sympathy, whereas Sung Yu-ri is still a relatively new actress who only recently transitioned from singing.

  Compared to beauty, the two have more distinctive features in spring and autumn, making it hard to distinguish between them. Although Sung Yu-ri is taller, there are many men who like petite women like Song Hye-kyo. In terms of acting skills, Sung Yu-ri, a newcomer, cannot be compared to Song Hye-kyo, a veteran who has been in the industry since 1996. If one must say that Sung Yu-ri has an absolute advantage in some aspect, it would only be in singing, where she is a professional singer and naturally excels. Unfortunately, singing ability has little relation to TV drama ratings.

  So overall, Sung Yu-ri can't be compared to Song Hye-kyo in the eyes of TV viewers. As a singer-turned-actress, she has already been questioned by many people.

  Let's compare the male leads of the two TV dramas. The male lead of "Full House", Rain, is also one of the most popular singers at the moment, and his popularity is in no way inferior to Cha Tae-hyun's. Although Rain's acting skills are far from impressive, he plays a star in the drama, which can be said to be a natural performance, so there's no need to worry about his acting skills. Moreover, Rain's tall and handsome appearance and fashionable attire have left Cha Tae-hyun, who is of a more down-to-earth type, far behind, making him even more likely to make girls scream with adoration.

  Among the actors in "The First Love of the Crown Prince", only Zhang Chengyuan, the second male lead, can absolutely surpass his opponent. The second male lead Jin Shengshu in "Romantic Full House" is also excellent and not young, but he just debuted last year and obviously cannot be compared to Zhang Chengyuan, who has recently gained popularity. In terms of appearance and acting skills, Zhang Chengyuan also has the upper hand, and can be said to have defeated Jin Shengshu in all aspects. Of course, for a small number of people, Jin Shengshu's portrayal of a gentle gentleman is more suitable as a boyfriend or husband than Zhang Chengyuan's portrayal of a cold-blooded man. But this point is obviously irrelevant.

  The competition between the actors is secondary, the real reason why "Romantic Comedy" will surpass "First Love of a Royal Prince" is that the former's plot is more innovative and interesting than the latter. The success of a TV series depends not only on funding, directing, and acting, but also on the script. In this regard, it is clear that "First Love of a Royal Prince" has lost out.

  The plot of "The Crown Prince's First Love" is a clichéd Cinderella and prince romance that has been done many times before, although some attempts have been made to give it a fresh spin in certain places, but ultimately nothing new has come out of it.

  The story of "Full House" takes place in the mysterious entertainment circle, and is a fresh love story between a big star and a small scriptwriter. There isn't too much suffering, but rather a lively and cheerful romance, which can be said to be a reversal of the mainstream mode of Korean dramas in the past, making the audience feel refreshed and curious. This is also an important reason why this drama achieved a good rating of 21% as soon as it was broadcast.

  If it weren't for "Full House", the audience might still be stuck in the traditional mode of Korean dramas, not knowing that love stories could be made into such an interesting and lively show. As a result, "Prince's First Love" wouldn't have been hit hard, and its ratings wouldn't have dropped from 31% last week to 24.5%. If it weren't for Jang Sung-yoon's unexpected surge in popularity over the past two weeks, which boosted the ratings, they would definitely be below 20% by now. However, it can be predicted that as "Full House" continues to gain popularity, if no rescue efforts are made, "Prince's First Love" will eventually lose out and end in defeat.

  Director Lee Kwan-hee, screenwriter Jung Jin-young, and the head of MBC's broadcasting department were also worried, and after an emergency meeting, they decided to revise the script. However, at this point, more than half of the filming had already been completed, and nearly three-quarters of the budget had been spent. Was there enough time to make changes? Moreover, even if they managed to revise it hastily, it was uncertain whether it would win over the audience's favor and rescue the ratings slump.

  However, not changing is also not an option. If they don't change it, the only outcome will be a dead end. The script's framework has already been set, and even if they make changes, they can only tweak some minor details. Perhaps the final ending can also be slightly altered. But can this salvage the situation? Neither the director nor the screenwriter is confident.

  In order to come up with a better solution, the director and screenwriter gathered the main members of the crew and several main actors together to brainstorm, but ultimately still couldn't think of a good way.

  Perhaps it's not that no one has thought of a solution, but rather they don't dare to speak out, because if the proposed solution doesn't work, then the consequences are not something everyone can afford. As a result, people either remain silent or say some irrelevant polite phrases, and in the end, this meeting also ends with nothing accomplished.

  Zhang Chengyuan did think of a way that wasn't really a solution, which was to increase his own screen time. With his current sudden surge in popularity, he might be able to barely maintain the current ratings. However, how could he bring himself to suggest this? If he said it, he would only end up offending people and giving them a bad impression of trying to show off. He would rather have the drama reduced in episodes or even cancelled by the TV station than do something that would ruin his image, and he definitely wouldn't let Cheng Youli speak on his behalf to say such a thing.

  In fact, without him saying it, in the subsequent filming, he found that his drama seemed to have increased a lot, and was almost on par with the male lead Che Taixian. In some aspects, he even had more opportunities to shine. Zhang Chengyuan was happy in his heart, but he was more worried about affecting the harmony of the crew, especially his relationship with Che Taixian. He was worried that Che Taixian would misunderstand him and think that he had used some underhanded tactics to increase his drama so much.

  At first, Jang Sung-won also thought he might be overthinking it, but later even Seung-yoon Lee asked him privately: "Is your manager Park Byung-ryul doing something behind your back?" This made him think that his concerns were not unnecessary.

  Jang Sung-won quickly found Cha Tae-hyun and explained to him, Cha Tae-hyun smiled and said: "Young man, don't worry about it. Actually, I was the one who asked the screenwriter to do this. I think if we increase your scenes, the ratings won't drop anymore. So, this small sacrifice, I'm willing to make. Because if this drama ends up losing to our competitor and gets cut off early, I'll probably get endless criticism from the media and audience. That would definitely make me sick."

  He paused for a moment, then continued: "I'm doing this also because I hope you can help me out and share some of the pressure. I hope you won't blame me for being presumptuous!"

  Zhang Chengyuan hastily said: "Tai Xian, you're joking, thank you for the compliment, I will work even harder." In any case, increasing his screen time was a good thing for him.

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