Survey shows about 214 million Chinese in more than 100 million
families, or 70 percent of the national total, watched the annual
evening gala broadcast live on the official CCTV networks on the
eve of the Lunar New Yea.
Actress Zhang Ziyi
sings at China Central Television's Spring Festival Gala on
Wednesday, February 6, 2008.
The variety performance gala presented by the China Central
Television (CCTV) still enjoys top audience ratings worldwide among
Chinese, according to the survey by the Nielsen Media Research.
The annual Spring Festival gala celebration started in the
1980s. Since then, it has been the most popular TV event of the
year. The special usually features dances, songs and short
comedies.
This year's Spring Festival fell on Feb. 7. The show was
broadcast live on several CCTV channels from 8:00 p.m. on Feb. 6 to
1:00 a.m. the next day.
The survey found that among all the television audience during
the period, 68.16 percent tuned in the CCTV gala .
Compared with the northern part of the country, Chinese in
southern China showed little interest to the show. The booming
province of Guangdong posted the lowest audience ratings among all
monitored regions, with only 4.59 percent watching.
In contrast, 24 million people in eastern Shandong Province, one
of the most populous region of the country, tuned in the gala , the
highest among all monitored places. The province has a 93.67
million population.
Short comedies and cross-talks have been among the most popular
parts of the gala since 2000. However, for some years, audiences
have been expressing disappointment at timeworn routines and overly
familiar entertainers.
Young people were excited this year to see pop stars such as
Taiwan singer Jay Chou.
A survey on Sina.com showed that among the performances at this
year's gala, "Blue and White Porcelain" by Jay Chou ranked top
among the viewers.
People believed that "watching the gala had become a habit", the
Sina survey said.
Meanwhile, the month-long snow disaster ahead of the Spring
Festival also thwarted many's travel plans so people "had nowhere
to go" but watch the gala , it showed.
This year's gala included a special theme -- unity and the
courage of the people to cope with the snow disaster.
An epic -- "Warm 2008" -- praising disaster-relief efforts, was
penned by leading poets to boost national morale in the wake of the
snow disaster. It was expressively recited and movingly performed
by famous artists, TV anchors and entertainment stars on the
show.
(Xinhua News Ageny February 17, 2008)
