On May 9, topics such as "Rating Running Man China hit bottom", "Save Keep Running" climbed to the top of searches on the social network Weibo, with many discussions about the quality of the program.
Kuyun's statistics show that the rating of episode 3 of Keep Running season 4 broadcast on the evening of May 8 on Zhejiang TV dropped to 0.27% - the lowest level since the program aired for the past 14 years.
At the same time, episode 3's rating has decreased by more than 30% compared to the first episode, reaching 0.3899%. Compared to the peak period when the program once surpassed the rating threshold of 4% per episode, the decrease has exceeded 90%.
Episode 3 of Keep Running takes the theme "Vuong Lao Cat Super Football Tournament", with a fixed cast of artists including Ly Than, Trinh Khai, Sa Dat, Bach Loc, Pham Thua Thua and Truong Chan Nguyen. In addition, there are also guests Wei Dai Huan, Ton Thien, Chau Khiet Quynh and Tu Nghe Duong.
It is noteworthy that that evening, Hunan TV's variety shows all stopped broadcasting, meaning Keep Running had almost no strong competitors, but still could not maintain a basic audience. This directly shows that Keep Running's competitiveness has seriously declined.
Before the wave of debate, the producer of Keep Running immediately reacted. The program presented charts such as CSM71, Guduo's hotness, iQiYi's hotness, Tencent Video and Youku to explain: "We are number 1".
However, according to the media, the action of the producer of Keep Running is unconvincing and "not aimed at the problem".
Keep Running does not admit or deny low ratings, but only gives indicators of hotness.
Industry insiders believe that what producers should do is release CVB rating data released by the General Department of Radio and Television to gain public trust, instead of using CSM data - data that may be controversial - as evidence to refute.
Moreover, the program needs to compare ratings of 3 consecutive episodes to prove whether it is in a state of continuous decline or not.
In fact, many viewers trust Kuyun's data, because CVB's rating data is currently not updated in real time, and is released quite late every day. Meanwhile, Kuyun has two advantages: one is that the data does not differ too much from CVB, and the other is that it is updated quickly.
The fact that the producer "ignores" the rating decline is disappointing viewers. The reason for Keep Running's increasing decline is also being discussed on social networks.
Many viewers complained because the program's game has been almost unchanged for 10 years. Meanwhile, the change of many fixed members has broken the harmony.
Not to mention, actress Bach Loc recently also faced many controversies about her attitude and behavior on the program. The fact that a fixed artist caused mixed reactions has significantly affected the audience's viewing experience.
