Hong Kong’s television viewing habits saw a notable shift last week, spanning November 24th to 30th, with major programming on Jade Channel recording across-the-board increases in prime-time viewership. The surge was prominently driven by public interest in a major local disaster, with news programming reacting quickly to the incident and achieving record ratings.
The most-watched program was the information magazine, Scoop, which achieved a cross-platform peak rating of 23.7 points (representing approximately 1.53 million viewers), marking a substantial increase of 4.5 points from the previous week. This placed it firmly in the top spot for overall viewership. Following the trend, the long-running sitcom Lo and Behold also saw a slight uptick, reaching a peak of 17.8 points (1.15 million viewers), a marginal rise of 0.5 points.
The intense focus on current affairs fueled the rise of the late-night news broadcast. Pivoting swiftly in response to the Category 5 blaze at Tai Po’s Wang Fuk Court on Wednesday, the Late News program was promptly rescheduled to an earlier 10:30 PM slot. This timely coverage of the significant public interest event propelled its peak rating to 15.3 points (990,000 viewers), securing a 3.1-point increase.
The viewership appetite for drama also remained strong. The major anniversary drama, Queen of News 2, reached its peak with 20.5 points (1.33 million viewers), up 1.4 points. Similarly, the acquired mainland Chinese drama, Meet Yourself, starring Liu Yifei and Li Xian, also saw a modest increase of 0.3 points, peaking at 15.5 points (1 million viewers). Lifestyle programming, exemplified by Senior Travel with Sis, also rose 0.3 points to a high of 12.5 points (810,000 viewers).
Philanthropy and High-Profile Specials Drive Weekend Viewership
Weekend programming maintained the momentum, registering significant ratings. Saturday night featured the annual charity telethon, Tung Wah Charity Show, which mobilized over a hundred singers and artists. The event successfully raised an impressive HK$118 million, with all proceeds specifically allocated to the disaster relief fund established for the Wang Fuk Court incident. The charitable event achieved its highest ratings in nearly five years, peaking at 19.1 points (1.24 million viewers), a jump of 2.3 points.
On Sunday, high-production reality and documentary formats dominated. The competitive program Midlife, Sing! 4, hosted by Mimi Lo and covering the Australia, Canada, and United States finals, peaked at 20.4 points (1.32 million viewers), increasing by 1.1 points. Further enhancing Sunday night’s performance was the premiere of the new documentary series, No Poverty Land V: Endless Journey, hosted by Cherie Chan. The debut episode achieved a healthy peak rating of 16.3 points (1.05 million viewers), rising 1 point.
The strong performance across the week underscores the effectiveness of topical, responsive news coverage and the continued draw of major local terrestrial broadcasting events, both in drama and large-scale reality and charity programming. This ratings period highlighted the crucial role local broadcasters play during periods of significant community interest and crisis.