TVB 2023 Mid-Year Programme Presentation - A Look at TVB's Upcoming Productions丨2023 TVB 年中節目巡禮

Hello!

Hope everyone has been doing well! TVB hosted its Mid-Year Programme Sales Presentation on June 19, 2023 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, where they promoted their 8 upcoming dramas and 12 new variety shows to be released in the next half of the year. We do expect there to be some delays with some of the promoted shows they presented here, and not all of them may be able to be aired this year. Let's take a look at what productions are coming up:

Upcoming Dramas:

Narcotic Heroes破毒強人


Starring: Moses Chan, Nancy Wu, Edwin Siu, Kelly Cheung, Bowie Cheung, Matthew Ho

Episodes: 30 

Broadcasting Dates: July 31-September 8, 2023

Produced by Marco Law, the cast resembles his Big White Duel II with a different backdrop this time involving crimes and drugs. This is not a new concept to us, TVB produces at least one cop drama a year with drug cases. The funny part of the trailer was when Ram Tsiang says, "Drug King, his days are over right?" because Moses's entire voiceover sounds like he's just got out of bed (though it may be for purposes of his character's haha). Although we are not sure how Moses will do playing the "Drug Lord", we are looking forward to seeing Nancy along with Kelly and Edwin as a fresh pair onscreen.

Unchained Medley 靈戲逼人

Starring: Owen Cheung, Katy Kung, Tiffany Lau, Nicholas Yuen, Li Shing Cheong

Episodes: 20 

Broadcasting Dates: July 3-28, 2023

Owen and Katy lead together again after The Offliners in this paranormal romantic series, where Katy plays a ghost searching for her past lover that looks like Owen. While it is not among the top shows we would like to see this year, we will likley give it a try if we have time.

Sensor From Another Dimension異空感應

Starring: Carlos Chan, Hera Chan, Nicholas Yuen

Episodes: 25

This is another of Amy Wong's productions. We are a bit skeptical about the small cast after Secret Door which is lacking suspense lately.  However, the premise of this show does sound more interesting with Carlos being able to connect with Hera's character from the future and present. Together, they solve the mystery involving a serial killer. This is remindung us of the multi-verse/parallel universe idea that a lot of tv shows and movies have been doing in recent years. Trailer is packed with some good action near the end and has refreshing leads. Glad to see TVB switching things up, and we hope that Hera is able to execute as leading lady after leading in Used Good. Looks like Nicholas Yuen has been getting plenty of opportunities lately since he has a been in quite a few shows.

Death Hint《奪命提示》

Starring: Joel Chan, Moon Lau, Owen Cheung, Tiffany Lau

Episodes: 25

The trailer was packed with action which comes as no surprise as a Jazz Boon creation. It almost looked like a sequel to The Invisibles aired earlier this year with a very similar cast, costumes, action scenes. We know it will have no shortage of fighting scenes as usual, but we hope that the script will be not too typical. It would be nice to change it up and see Jazz produce some comedy series once in a while. They only finished filming a few weeks ago, so post-production editing must be completed quickly if it is scheduled to be released this year.  If it does get aired this year, it would make sense as an Anniversary Drama to spread it further out from The Invisibles, which hopefully will not be too similar. Seems like Joel and Moon will play the main leads and possibly a couple. At least this time he is not paired with Tiffany again. Owen may have a fruitful year this year with two shows as a main lead and a couple variety shows to host. 

Romeo And His Butterfly Lover羅密歐與祝英台

Starring: Moses Chan, Aimee Chan, Kalok Chow, Kayan Yau

Episodes: 25

We are not sure if we really want to see this cheesy romance between Aimee and Moses. This is her return to the small screen after many years, and we are not feeling particulary excited about it. Maybe she will surprise us with her ease in acting alongside her real-life partner, but it may be a hit or miss for us. Adding the Romeo & Juliet portion to the story does seem a bit random, so we wonder how they will tie these different stories together. The costumes looked quite interesting with some Western elements and settings that looked like different time periods all jumbled together. That being said, this is one of Joe Chan's productions as you may have guessed, and we have seen how Treasure of Destiny incorporated historical elements into a modern setting, so we will keep an open mind.

From Hong Kong to Beijing香港人在北京

Starring: Ruco Chan, Jinny Ng, Tony Hung, Jacky Cai, James Ng, Kelly Fu, Joey Thye

Episodes: 20

Since the trailer does not look too bad, we will probably give this show a try. The musical genre and new setting in Beijing could be refreshing for viewers. It looks like a light and motivating show to see the passion for chasing one's dreams portrayed here. Jinny Ng seems to be acting more than singing lately with 2 heavy roles lined up here and The Spectator.

The Spectator 旁觀者

Starring: Pakho Chau, Venus Wong, Jinny Ng, Joey Law, Mark Ma, Shiga Lin

Episodes: 20

This horror/crime show looks intriguing and dark for more mature audiences who enjoy a serious tone. It is giving off a cinematic style, so we are curious to find out how the ratings will fair because of the terribly low viewsership ratings for Murder Diary, which kind of reminds us of this show based on the trailer. We will check it out and are hoping for some improved acting from Venus Wong and Pakho Chau.

The Queen of NEWS NEWS 新聞女王

Starring: Charmaine Sheh, Kenneth Ma, Selena Lee, Samantha Ko, Regina Ho, Shaun Tam, Venus Wong, Matthew Ho, Eric Tang

Episodes: 26

This show has received a lot of press due to the return of Charmaine Sheh to TVB. It is loosely based on the AppleTV's The Morning Show. The production and acting is top-notch in the trailer and we are looking forward to watching it, especially for Charmaine. There is a strong female cast which we predict will overshadow Kenneth and Matthew's roles here with their weaker acting. Surprisingly, it seems like Regina will get a large role based on what we saw in the trailer, whereas we didn't see Samantha or Shaun as much. We are excited to see this theme of fighting to be the prime time news anchor, since it has not been done by TVB much. We expect this to be one of the Anniversary Dramas this year.


Upcoming Variety Shows

Please note many of the variety shows have not been given an English title yet.
《貝遊歐洲》
《歐洲鐵騎遊》
《約埋班 Friend 去旅行》
《尋找世界另一個我》
《森度遊》
《北上搵食團》
《日本限定Super遊》
《日本18種住法》
Miss Chinese International Pageant 《國際中華小姐競選2023》
《香港重案》
《煮東煮西》
Midlife Sing & Shine 2!《中年好聲音2》


As you can see, many of the upcoming variety shows are based on travelling to other places such as Japan, Mainland China, and Europe now that many people are looking to go on vacations again. 《尋找世界另一個我》sounds interesting because it seems to be about meeting and learning the story of someone with the same Chinese name as some of the station's artistes.《日本18種住法》will be the first variety show that the champion, Kat Chau, of Midlife Sing & Shine!《中年好聲音》hosts along with Ali Lee. We are also looking forward to watching Midlife Sing & Shine 2!《中年好聲音2》after the success of the first season, and TVB has already been hosting auditions with over 3000 applicants hoping to get into the Top 100 spots.

Upcoming/proposed J2 variety shows:

《阿媽唔信我去亞馬遜》 (Proposed a sequel to another destination)
《隔山買假期》
《DM 旅導遊》
Hong Kong Super Pet Model Contest 2《超級毛特兒大賽2》
《膽粗粗 Here We Go
《脫單旅行團》
Time Is Money
Transform Men 《真變型金剛》
《解風大阪》

When it was time for J2's pitch, we did get the feeling that many of the J2er's ideas were half-baked. It sounded like they were still waiting for sponsors to give them the go ahead to produce the show, so they only had some ideas of what to make next. For example, 《脫單旅行團》 is supposed to be hosted by Mak Ling Ling, who brings other single girls on a trip to try to find a partner. However, it seems like they only have a rough idea currently and still have not decided which other female hosts to bring. This may come off as a bit less appealing to sponsors seated in the room in our opinion. Nonetheless, we do hope to see more creative J2 shows come to life because there have been some great new ventures since they renewed the brand last year.



That pretty much sums up our thoughts on the upcoming TVB shows. Thanks for reading our post on the TVB Sales Presentation this year! Feel free to let us know which shows you are looking forward to seeing!

- CeeJay

References:

https://www.orientalsunday.hk/%e6%9c%80%e6%96%b0%e5%a8%9b%e8%81%9e/tvb-%e5%b9%b4%e4%b8%ad%e7%af%80%e7%9b%ae%e5%b7%a1%e7%a6%ae-%e9%99%b3%e8%b1%aa-%e5%bc%b5%e6%8c%af%e6%9c%97-%e5%8a%89%e7%a9%8e%e9%8f%87-plt5-1154704/16/

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_TVB%E5%B9%B4%E4%B8%AD%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE%E5%B7%A1%E7%A6%AE

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A0%B4%E6%AF%92%E5%BC%B7%E4%BA%BA

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/NEWS%E6%96%B0%E8%81%9E%E5%A5%B3%E7%8E%8B

Images Retrieved From:

https://www.sohu.com/a/687304253_100074551?scm=1102.xchannel:325:100002.0.6.0&spm=smpc.channel_248.block3_308_NDdFbm_1_fd.1.1687194000010DA5oXoZ_324

https://www.orientalsunday.hk/%e6%9c%80%e6%96%b0%e5%a8%9b%e8%81%9e/tvb-%e5%b9%b4%e4%b8%ad%e7%af%80%e7%9b%ae%e5%b7%a1%e7%a6%ae-%e9%99%b3%e8%b1%aa-%e5%bc%b5%e6%8c%af%e6%9c%97-%e5%8a%89%e7%a9%8e%e9%8f%87-plt5-1154704/16/

https://www.bastillepost.com/hongkong/article/13005704-tvb%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE%E5%B7%A1%E7%A6%AE2023%E4%B8%A8%E8%94%A1%E6%80%9D%E8%B2%9D%E5%A4%A7%E9%9C%B2%E8%83%8C%E5%83%85%E4%BB%A5%E5%B9%BC%E5%B8%B6%E6%8E%9B%E8%BA%AB%E5%86%8D%E5%B1%80%E9%83%A8%E6%99%92

https://www.bastillepost.com/hongkong/article/13006003-tvb%e7%af%80%e7%9b%ae%e5%b7%a1%e7%a6%ae2023%e4%b8%a8%e5%a4%a7%e5%90%88%e7%85%a7%e6%8e%92%e4%bd%8d%e6%88%90%e4%b8%8a%e4%bd%8d%e6%8c%87%e6%a8%99%ef%bc%9f%e5%8f%97%e5%8a%9b%e6%8d%a7%e8%94%a1%e6%bd%94


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