Variety Shows Pushed Back as NRTA Calls for Less Entertainment and More Coverage of the Coronavirus Crisis

Shen Teng (Ace vs Ace), He Jiong and Xie Na (Happy Camp)
It’s hard to keep on a happy face to celebrate the lunar new year when it’s overshadowed by an outbreak that’s left majority of the country in a standstill. As more cases of people affected by the Coronavirus are being reported, the China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) just announced its intention to leverage on provincial television station’s “audience reach” to provide citizens with real time updates about the virus and how to combat it. 

To make way for this, television stations are being encouraged to lessen the broadcast of entertainment programs in lieu of public service broadcasts pertaining to the outbreak. Several stations like Hunan, Hubei, Anhui, Zhejiang and Chongqing TV have already heeded the government’s call with increased live coverage of the crisis. In fact, Hunan Satellite TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV have axed their uber popular variety shows such as Happy Camp 快乐大本营 and Ace vs Ace 王牌对王牌 originally slotted for broadcast during the lunar new year period along with other variety shows.  
It’s quite hard nowadays to discern between real and fake news and you can be sure there’s a lot of the latter floating around in the past few days with things being so uncertain. As a person that appreciates “knowing” more than the unknown, having media outlets to keep folks informed and to share preventative measures to control the virus from spreading is definitely a good move by the government. I just hope that not everything will be cancelled – especially web dramas and all. With everyone urged to stay within the comforts of home, what better way to keep an entire nation busy and occupied than with an intriguing drama or two eh?
Source: 1, 2

4 Comments

  1. Anonymous

    January 28, 2020 9:41 PM
  2. Nano13

    January 29, 2020 5:44 AM
  3. Anonymous

    January 29, 2020 10:59 PM
  4. Anonymous

    January 30, 2020 11:06 PM

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