Chapter 66: The End of the Imperial Play
Another week passed, and "The First Love of the Prince" aired its last two episodes. These two episodes, especially the finale on August 26th, had been eagerly anticipated by audiences for a long time. Because this ending was filmed based on the results of audience voting, it seemed to have special significance for them.
For more than two weeks, the staff of the official website of "The First Love of the Prince" and the telephone receptionists of the relevant departments of the TV station have collected several hundred thousand votes from the audience. The results are as follows: The number of votes for Cha Tae-hyun and Jang Seung-won is less than 100, accounting for less than 0.2% of the total vote count of over 700,000. According to the original voting statistics rules, the two are tied and considered a draw. This result is surprising, as most people thought that Jang Seung-won's chances of winning were extremely high, after all, the drama's ratings in the second half relied almost entirely on him.
The crew thought it was a mistake by the statistics staff, so they re-checked again. The result was still the same. After careful analysis of the reason, I finally understood why there would be such an unexpected result.
Most of the supporters of Zhang Chengyuan are female audiences, including girls, young women, middle-aged and even elderly women, which can be said to be popular among all ages. Of course, the reasons why each age group likes Zhang Chengyuan are not exactly the same, so I won't elaborate one by one here.
But the composition of the audience supporting Cha Tae-hyun is more complex. Their reasons for choosing Cha Tae-hyun are roughly as follows:
"Although I prefer the second male lead Zhang Chengyuan, Cha Taehyun is the original male lead, so the female lead naturally has to be with the male lead." This is a conservative way of thinking, and in Korean society, there are still many traditionalists.
"Unconditionally support Cha Tae-hyun oppa, as long as it's Cha Tae-hyun oppa I will support him" This shows the power of Cha Tae-hyun's fans.
"Jang Sung-won is too arrogant, too conceited and too detestable. It's better to choose Cha Tae-hyun than him." This is the reason for Jang Sung-won's anti- Cha Tae-hyun choice.
"Jang Sung-yuan's conditions are too good, he will snatch our little darling away, so I don't want them to be together, even on TV I don't want to see them together." This is the choice of some fans of Sung-yi.
Although Jang Sung-yoon was more popular with female audiences than Cha Tae-hyun, his handsome appearance and cold personality in the drama also made many male audiences jealous and hateful, so they voted for Cha Tae-hyun instead of Jang Sung-yoon because they didn't want to see him win. This is roughly the reason why the two had a tie in votes.
Che Taixian knew the reason and laughed it off, his laughter a bit bitter but more relieved; Cheng Youli teased Zhang Chengyuan for being unlucky, who made him always bully her in the play; Zhang Chengyuan didn't take it to heart when he knew the reason; others thought that Zhang Chengyuan was famous and had many scandals, and being hated by other celebrities' fans was also reasonable.
Upon learning of the voting results, the director and screenwriter immediately felt a headache, because according to their predictions, Zhang Chengyuan's chances of winning were extremely high. Therefore, they carefully filmed the first ending where Chen Youli and Zhang Chengyuan became a happy couple. To be safe, they also filmed a second version of the ending where Che Taixian and Chen Youli lived together in Tahiti. However, they never thought that the audience's support for the two male leads would be almost equal, so they didn't even think about filming a third version of the final ending. But the result was far beyond their expectations.
To give the audience a sense of closure, three days before the finale was aired, the production team, which was originally about to disband, worked overtime again, rushing day and night, to finally produce the official final episode. In this ending, the female lead Sung Yu-ri neither ended up with Cha Tae-hyun nor Jang Hyuk, but instead went to Paris alone. Upon hearing the news, the two male leads dropped everything and went to Paris in pursuit of love. As for who ends up with whom in the end, it's left to the audience's imagination, as the story concludes here.
As soon as the finale was broadcast, the result was predictable, and it immediately triggered a wave of criticism. The audience was outraged, thinking that the director and screenwriter of "The Crown Prince" had gone crazy, shooting such a disappointing ending. They had waited for about an hour on the 26th without blinking, just to wait for a satisfying ending, but now they were being fooled. How could they not be furious? So that night, the crew of "The First Love of the Crown Prince", especially the director and screenwriter, was scolded by countless audiences until they were covered in dog blood.
But the production team also had its own difficulties. Integrity is the foundation of being a person, and since the voting results were announced by the notary public, even if they didn't want to broadcast this unsatisfactory ending for both sides, they could only bear the scolding from all directions. Compared to pleasing the audience, industry reputation is more important, because this gimmick of letting the audience vote to decide the ending was something they came up with, and they had already borne tremendous pressure. If they didn't fulfill their promise, they might be severely punished by the Korean Broadcasting Committee or the Television Drama Association, and the consequences would be even more severe. In comparison, the public's scolding would at most last for a few days before automatically dispersing.
However, the production team took some measures to respond. First, they held a press conference to apologize sincerely and explain the reasons for doing so, seeking public understanding. In addition, they made a solemn promise that they would never again create such confusion in the public eye. Finally, they released two other versions of the ending on the internet, allowing everyone to watch them for free, thereby satisfying those viewers who were disappointed by not seeing an ending that met their expectations.
But these have nothing to do with Zhang Chengyuan anymore. The day after the drama was killed, and after having a farewell dinner, which was August 27th, he immediately rushed to Zheng's house to comfort Xiaoshuijing, because he had made Xiaoshuijing too sad during this time.
The whole summer vacation, because Zhang Chengyuan was busy filming, he didn't accompany Xiaoshuijing to play even once, and even the opportunity to meet was very rare, making Xiaoshuijing complain constantly, and even said on the phone that she didn't want to recognize him as her brother anymore. For children, spring break and summer vacation are the best times for fun and games, Xiaoshuijing had been looking forward to spending quality time with Zhang Chengyuan this summer, but he hadn't accompanied her properly even once, no wonder Xiaoshuijing was very upset! Fortunately, children's tempers come quickly and go quickly, when Zhang Chengyuan appeared in front of Xiaoshuijing and sincerely apologized to her, Xiaoshuijing immediately forgave him.
In the evening, in Zheng's sisters' room, Zhang Chengyuan lay on a single bed, his tall body almost occupying all the space, leaving little room for Xiaoshui to sleep beside him. She simply hugged him tightly and fell asleep. Just now, Zhang Chengyuan had played a knowledge quiz game with Xiaoshui, and after she got tired, she fell asleep on his chest. Zhang Chengyuan was afraid of waking her up, so he lay still at the head of the bed, thinking about his own affairs.
Thinking about the filming process and gains of the past few months; thinking that with his current popularity, he should be able to take on the lead role in the next TV drama, and his future career should also be on the right track; thinking about how to deepen his relationship with Fin.k.l's four sisters, hoping to formally establish a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, at least pursuing one of them...
