The just-launched second season of TVB-Youku’s Chinese drama co-production, "Queen of News" (新聞女王 2), is breaking the internet for, among other reasons, talent fees – and how low they allegedly are. TVB has not commented on the leaked list. 

Rampant speculation on Chinese platform Weibo and picked up by celebrity gossip sites is that Charmaine Sheh earned HK$1 million/US$129,000 for the entire season, which was up from her take-home pay of HK$470,000/US$61,000 for the debut series. Bosco Wong and Selena Lee are rumoured to have received HK$500,000 each, and Samantha Ko HK$350,000, up from season one’s HK$280,000. 

"Queen of News 2" premiered on 5 November in China, followed by a 10 November release on Hong Kong’s flagship TVB Jade channel as well as on TVB and partner channels across the region. 

Supporters say shows like "Queen of News" are part of the revival of Hong Kong’s once-vaunted original drama industry. 

For the quarter to end September, TVB had an 80% share of weekday prime-time (7pm-11pm) viewership across all Hong Kong TV channels. This is up from 79% and 77% in the preceding two quarters, TVB 

In the run-up to the premiere of "The Queen of News 2", TVB was optimistic about its fourth quarter, saying it expected a strong performance “boosted by advertising and sponsorship deals” secured for the series.  

TVB is  currently filming "Wars of Roses" (玫瑰戰爭), which follows co-productions  such as "The Queen of Castle" (巨塔之后) on Youku and "The Fading Gold" (金式森林) on Tencent Video during the third quarter. This year’s slate also includes co-produced drama "D.I.D. 12" (刑偵 12), which streamed on Tencent Video, and AI short drama "You, and Only You", which aired on TVB Plus terrestrial channel and myTV SUPER streaming service, and in mainland China on Tencent Video  in September. 

“With AI now firmly part of our content creation toolkit, we expect to release further AI-generated drama titles through our platforms in the coming months,” the company said.