Looking for a new Friends

The problem with sitcoms

According to the Morning HI newspaper in Changsha, the fees for top stars' now account for more than 70 percent of TV series' entire budget.

"That explains why sitcoms walk into a dead end. No money, no good story, no audience," Lyu sighs.

Chinese sitcoms also face more challenges, such as censorship. "Chinese screenwriters have to dodge sensitive topics, especially about politics, or risk having their works banned," says Lyu.

Ying Da, who started his own company in 1995, produced a series of hit comedies, including The Railway Station, Chinese Restaurant, Diaries of Internet Addicts, and Retired Miss Ma. But none of the shows was as popular as I Love My Family.

One of the more popular Chinese sitcoms in recent years is My Own Swordsman, an 81-episode spoof aired by CCTV in 2006. Swordsman's director, Shang Jing, who starred in Ying Da's sitcom Retired Miss Ma, says few TV channels are willing to air sitcoms during the prime-time hours of 8 to10 pm.

"When you don't get into prime time, you don't get the advertisers and investors, and so you have a limited budget. A low budget affects the quality of the sitcoms, so it's a vicious cycle," he says.

Finding success - online

Some shows that didn't make it into prime time slots are having success online. Diors Man, the Chinese version of the hit German sitcom Knallerfrauen, has been viewed 1.6 billion times on the video-streaming site Sohu, which spent 1.5 million yuan to produce it.

Two Idiots, a 20-episode sitcom about startup companies in a big city, has received more than 314 million views on iQiyi and PPS, the two video-streaming sites that broadcast the sitcom.

"If sitcoms can be an evergreen in the US, why can't they survive in China?" asks Dai Ying, the producer of Two Idiots. "If the traditional TV channels have little interest in sitcoms, let the video-streaming sites go into the market. They may yet revive Chinese sitcoms."