The first thing you’ll see when visiting the show’s official weibo is a serious looking document pinned at the top along with the caption, “TV series fights online piracy press release, join hands in protecting intellectual property rights, uphold justice.”
The statement was in response to the entire 55-episodes of In the Name of People 人民的名义 being leaked merely two weeks after its premiere. The videos which were internal copies submitted for review started spreading on sites like Baidu, Weibo, Wechat, and Taobao and some even looked to make a quick buck out of it.
The incident has been reported to authorities and the show seems determined to fight, which makes sense given that the very essence of the show is to defend the law.
What’s amazing is that in spite of the setback, the show has become an unstoppable force. From the moment it premiered on Hunan TV on March 28, it garnered CM52 ratings past 1.0 that eventually broke 2, 3, 4, 5 and finally 6. Its final episode last Friday raked in a 6.666, pretty scary indeed.
In fact, a closer look sees the show breaking past 8.0 in a single episode (episode 49) using both CM52 and CM35 ratings as benchmark and those are numbers that haven’t been seen in ten years! For a show that initially had a hard time coming to fruition due to its political tendencies, it is undeniably a bona fide success.
Source: Official Weibo, HXnews, China
Sunny
Thanks for the update about the ratings. Incredible numbers but you are right it's quite a creepy peak number!
It's a shame it leaked so early in the show's run but I guess it does go to show if people want to watch a drama they will because the numbers have been exceptional regardless of the leak.