In the last few days of March, major TV stations and streaming platforms were busy promoting their upcoming dramas.
Each of the major stations also finalized its summer season broadcast schedules.
However, these days, the real trendsetter for Great Zhou's dramas was no longer the Big Six TV stations.
Compared to the shows produced by the Big Six, audiences were far more concerned about whether Jing Yu had a new drama airing this season—regardless of whether it was on TV or streaming platforms.
Both 'Legal High' and 'Natsume's Book of Friends' had the highest discussion volume on all the big industry forums.
Even though the flagship dramas on the Big Three this quarter were high-budget productions with luxurious casts and top-tier quality, just the name "Jing Yu" alone was enough to outweigh all of them in the audience's minds.
For most viewers, their biggest anticipation for the summer season wasn't whether Jing Yu's new work would be the best drama—it was whether it could surpass 'Fate/Zero'.
The past two years had already proven that while the Big Six were influenced by Jing Yu and had started innovating their flagship lineups…
When Jing Yu's Go-themed drama became a hit, everyone rushed to copy with other board game dramas; when his racing series exploded, a wave of racing dramas followed. And after 'Fate/Zero' made waves, there were already rumors of several big-budget, VFX-heavy series in the pipeline for the second half of the year.
But as the saying goes, those who learn live, those who imitate die.
Viewers only bought into Jing Yu's dramas, not the copycats of similar genres.
So by early April…
Even when Xingtong TV's new drama aired on the first Friday of April and scored an impressive 7.03% viewership rating on premiere…
No one thought Xingtong TV had secured the win.
"This is ridiculous. A 7.03% premiere rating, and I still feel like it's just average. Am I getting too arrogant?"
"No, it's not you. A couple of years ago, any drama premiering with that kind of rating would be instantly hyped as the season's king. But unfortunately, there's that freak on Jing Yu's side."
"'Fate/Zero' only debuted around 6%, right? And just three months later, it broke 13% by the finale. Honestly, even if his new 'Legal High' starts with just 2%, I still wouldn't bet on Xingtong TV."
"It's insane—just one person is suffocating the entire television industry. You talk about geniuses, but how come Great Zhou's entertainment scene doesn't produce two or three top talents competing together? It's just him. Nobody even knows how to compete with this guy anymore."
"Exactly. If he were only putting out stuff like 'Another' or 'My Tomorrow, Your Yesterday', honestly, nobody would be scared. Great Zhou has plenty of strong screenwriters who could write better dramas than that. But the stuff he creates? 'Hikaru no Go', 'Initial D', 'Steins;Gate', 'Kimi ni Todoke'—every one of them is a peak in its category. Most writers would be immortalized in the industry's history if they created just one of these. He wrote all of them, and in just two to three years."
"It's absurd. He just finished 'Fate/Zero' in the spring, and now he's already knee-deep in 'Fate/Stay Night', plus two more shows on the way. Even a sow isn't this productive."
"And not just productive—he's high quality too! If I ever get the chance, I swear I'm cutting open his head to see what he's made of."
"This is the difference between a genius and ordinary people. I used to know a lot of screenwriters who didn't believe geniuses really existed—they thought so-called geniuses were just lucky, hardworking people with slightly better talent. Now, when I drink with them and bring up this topic, I say the name 'Jing Yu' and everyone shuts up. We all think he's unreal."
"A friend of mine works under Jing Yu at Bluestar Media & Film. He told me the real Jing Yu is even more ridiculous than the rumors online. Most of us get wiped out writing just one drama, right? Brain-dead from the pressure and still miss deadlines. Not him. He's writing multiple projects at once, and you'd think that means he's burning out—staying up all night, bleeding for his scripts—but no. According to my friend, this guy writes scripts crazy fast. One or two episodes a day, then he spends the rest of the day gaming. He's been in the business for years, but most of his time is taken up with filming, not writing. To him, scriptwriting and composing music are like breathing."
"You serious?"
"Dead serious. Pretty much everyone in the film and TV circles around Modo city knows this. And get this—this guy, who's good at literally everything, is apparently god-awful at games."
"So that's what a genius is, huh? Effortless mastery at anything that makes money, but zero talent at what he enjoys and sucks at. Unbelievable."
"I'm jealous. He can write music, race cars, write screenplays, play Go, he's handsome and can act, and now he's even developing a game. If that 'Fate/Stay Night' game blows up too, then honestly... nothing more to say. Just give the man a medal."
Among the TV industry professionals, all the private chat groups these past few days were filled with talk of Jing Yu.
But they weren't really discussing his plots anymore—what fascinated them was the man himself. No one seemed to notice, but by now, most professionals mentioned Jing Yu with less jealousy and more admiration. When someone's talent gap is still within reach, others get envious. But when that gap becomes so big, you know you'll never catch up—people start to look up instead of across.
By the weekend, the Big Six TV stations launched their flagship dramas for the season one after another, and their ratings were fairly average.
The Big Three hovered around 6% ratings. The lower three sat steady around 4%, same as always.
Audiences loved Jing Yu's work, but that didn't mean they wouldn't watch anything else. As long as showtimes didn't clash, the Big Six still had loyal viewers.
And so came Sunday.
The premiere day for 'Legal High'.
For this drama, Yunteng TV had really gone all in this season.
They didn't even own the rights originally—they shelled out 20 million just for marketing. Basically, Great Zhou's drama fans had been hit with non-stop ads all week.
Posters of the male lead Komikado and the female lead were everywhere in the most crowded spots of every first-tier city—libraries, cinemas, shopping malls, subway stations—saturation-level exposure.
And just like that, 8 p.m. arrived.