Despite not attracting the frenzy of interest of last year the
2006 Super Girls Show has proved to be a bit hit once again,
securing millions of yuan in income for Hunan Satellite TV, an
official said.
The Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday that Li
Hao, the director of Hunan Satellite TV's Editor-in-Chief's Office,
revealed that it was thought the singing contest Super Girls Show
that concluded on September 29 had earned the TV station over 100
million yuan (US$12.67 million) -- just from the advertising.
Li explained the program finances included gross income from
short message telephone voting and that was still continuing.
However, he considered this a small part of the earnings as this
figure was split with cell phone service operators.
In early October a top executive of the Hunan Bureau of
Broadcasting and Television estimated the show had grossed 300
million yuan (US$38 million) in total. This is a much higher figure
than last year's 100 million yuan. Although the Super Girls-mania
was not as big a draw as last year for viewers, the advertising
agencies regard it as gold dust.
Wang Ping, chief-director of the 2006 Super Girls, also told the
newspaper that a Super Boys Show could be produced next year along
with another Super Girls. He said they had actually wanted to
produce a Super Boys this year but were turned down by the national
TV administration.
And the after effects of the 2006 Super Girls remains in the
air. Last Friday a mysterious fan swept up 900 tickets for a Super
Girls concert being held on November 11 in Shanghai at a cost of
400,000 yuan (US$50,677.82). Though the female fan explained she
had done this for fellow fans of the Super Girls champion, Shang
Wenjie, the organizers were completely stunned and said they had
never seen an individual behave in this way before.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, October 26, 2006)
