On August 31st, an AI series without any real actors, Journey to the West Continued, entered the prime-time drama slot on a provincial satellite TV channel.

Produced by Mango TV, created by the Mango TV AIGC Innovation Content Center, and undertaken by Bojing Culture, the series is adapted from the supernatural novel of the same name from the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, one of the three major sequels to Journey to the West. As a seasonal series, the first season of Journey to the West Continued, titled 'Flower and Fruit Mountain,' consists of 5 episodes, each 40 minutes long. This is the first AI work in a long-series format to air in prime-time on satellite TV.

Whether the series is a hit remains unknown, but the capital market has already 'exploded.'

The stock price of Mango Super Media surged by the daily limit of '20CM' for two consecutive trading days on August 31st and September 1st, with its market value increasing by over 10 billion yuan in just two days. Stocks of Rongxin Culture, Dechai Co., Ltd., Zhangyue Technology, Huanrui Century, Bona Film Group, and China Vision Media also hit the daily limit simultaneously.

By the standards of the film and television industry, producing long series at a much lower cost and production cycle than live-action dramas and bringing them to mainstream TV screens is a story the capital market is willing to bet on. However, while AI can solve the problem of high costs for long-form video content, the fundamental logic for platforms to make money still relies on hit series driving membership payments. Whether AI long series can increase the chances of producing hits is one question; whether users are willing to pay to watch them is another.

Long Series Amplify the Flaws of AI 'Production'

An AI work entering prime-time slots on satellite TV with episodes around 40 minutes long has surpassed the common AI shorts, concept films, and experimental works previously seen in the market. This is the main reason Journey to the West Continued has caused such a stir in the film and television industry. From a data perspective, the series' performance seems to have exceeded expectations.

According to official data released by Hunan TV, the series' premiere night saw a real-time viewership rating of 0.3384% and a market share of 1.7862%, securely claiming the top spot in viewership among provincial satellite TV channels during the same time slot.

However, whether it can maintain this top spot remains uncertain. From the audience's perspective, this AI long series produced by a professional team from the traditional film and television industry still falls short in terms of content quality. One netizen commented that while the visual experience is impressive, even the most exquisite visual effects cannot cover up (this Chinese word means 'conceal' or 'cover up') the flaws in story design and narrative pace. On various social media platforms, similar complaints can be seen, such as 'too drawn out,' 'too sentimental,' 'slow pace, childish plot,' and 'at least one-third of each episode is just cute monkeys.'

Some time ago, the AI micro-series Peach Blossom Pool, which also aired on satellite TV, sparked dissatisfaction due to quality issues. Viewers mocked the series as 'feeling lifeless,' while the TV station was teased for being 'too thrifty.'

The AI video sector is not without high-quality works. An AI short series titled The Abyss, created by a 'post-90s father' working alone, has garnered over 100 million views across platforms and a heat value (a Chinese term referring to a metric of popularity or trending status, roughly translated as 'popularity value') of nearly 44 million on one platform. This short series features a clear worldview and highly distinctive character portrayals. More importantly, it maintains suspense and progression through 'exquisite storytelling,' keeping viewers engaged.

On Bilibili, a video titled 'The Greatest Sin of My Life Was Writing Humans as Demons...' by an uploader has amassed 18.306 million views, 1.57 million likes, and 815,000 bookmarks, being hailed as a 'masterpiece' by many netizens.

Whether a series is shot with real actors or produced with AI, most viewers can tell whether it is made with sincerity and skill. Journey to the West Continued, as a trial work debuting on TV screens, impresses with its viewership ratings and the reaction it sparked in the capital market, rather than its content itself. Of course, this is not solely related to the production team behind it. The more AI videos appear in long-series format and are placed on big screens, the more their flaws are likely to be amplified.

Previously, AI-generated videos focused more on short series, which generally pursue 'short, flat, fast, and exciting' content. The importance of strong stimulation, fast pace, and visual appeal far outweighs character performance and storytelling. The current capabilities of AI video models exactly (a Chinese adverb meaning 'precisely' or 'exactly') match the characteristics of short series. AI production can also, to a certain extent, compensate for the disadvantages of short series in terms of scenes, visuals, and dubbing. This is a key reason why AI short series have taken off first.

Long series, on the other hand, are the opposite. Whether a story is told well depends not only on pacing and detail pave the way (a Chinese term meaning 'foreshadowing' or 'building up'), but also on the subtlety of performances and the depth of thematic Conception (a Chinese term meaning 'theme' or 'concept'). From the content of Journey to the West Continued that has aired so far, when AI production reaches TV screens, issues such as the lack of long takes, chaotic pacing, and insufficient 'lifelessness' significantly impact the viewer experience.

Especially when compared to the many classic works already existing under the theme of Journey to the West, audiences are even more discerning.

Who Will Pay for AI Long Series?

Why did the capital market react first? The simple reason is that they see profit growth for companies in the film and television supply chain due to reduced costs.

According to interviews with multiple industry insiders by National Business Daily, the production costs of some AI long series can already be more than halved compared to live-action dramas of the same scale, with teams of fewer than 20 people able to complete long-form content. Regarding Journey to the West Continued, Cai Huaijun, chairman of Mango Super Media, stated, 'The entire 30-episode, 40-minute-per-episode content, from planning to launch, took 70% less time than traditional 3D animation, with total costs being a fraction of those for similar S-tier live-action dramas.'

This clearly addresses the biggest pain point of high content costs in the film and television industry and directly determines that AI's penetration into the traditional film and television industry is almost unstoppable. However, companies cannot rely solely on cost-cutting to boost performance. The value of an AI long series ultimately depends on market evaluation.

For long-form video platforms, a more critical standard is how many membership conversions it can bring.

In this regard, platforms must face an awkward truth: the willingness to pay for live-action dramas among domestic users is already low, and their likelihood of paying for AI long series may be even lower.

Referring to AI short series, a survey titled 'AI Short Series Viewing Behavior and Attitudes' showed that over 90% of respondents were aware of AI short series, with 74.68% having watched them. However, in terms of payment, 86.52% of respondents had never paid for AI short series, while only 13.48% had, with 83.87% of those paying users having spent less than 50 yuan in total.

We do not deny that excellent content will always have users willing to pay for it. However, during the current transition from the era of live-action dramas to AI-generated dramas, whether domestically or overseas, the public's 'resistance' to the latter remains very strong.

This resistance stems partly from a natural aversion to the 'fake.' Some time ago, the hashtag 'AI Faces Physiological Disgust' generated 52 million views and 20,000 discussions on Weibo, reaching the top 4 on the trending chart. With the explosion of AI short series and animated dramas, 'AI faces' have inevitably become uniform, leading to aesthetic fatigue and resistance among viewers.

On the other hand, it comes from a deep-seated desire for 'authenticity.' In fact, since the proliferation of special effects blockbusters and the misuse of virtual production in many series, viewers' alertness to 'non-authentic textures' on screen has been accumulating, driving them to yearn even more for the cinematic effects presented in real-life scenes. Now, with the use of AI technology causing an explosive growth of 'fake' content, the public worries that once inferior content drives out quality content, there will be even less 'authenticity' left for them to see.

Users' unwillingness to pay is not only due to their payment willingness; in fact, the platforms' unreasonable charging models are also a significant factor.

Currently, on Mango TV, we see that for Journey to the West Continued, SVIP members can watch 3 episodes in advance, while VIP members can watch 2 episodes in advance. This continues the platform's charging rules for live-action dramas.

AI-generated videos will reshape the 'rules' of content supply in the future, and correspondingly, a new set of charging rules that are more acceptable to users should be established on the consumer side. If charges are levied according to the original rules, a foreseeable result will be low payment rates. Moreover, choosing to charge before AI long/short series can answer whether they can withstand standardized market scrutiny is hardly a graceful approach.

In the AI Era, Good Content is Even Scarcer

The long-series market is sluggish, especially this year.

According to Yunhe Data, in the first half of 2026, the total effective viewership of the top 20 long series across all platforms was 20 billion, down 8% year-on-year; 110 new domestic series were released, 27 fewer than the same period last year. And if one asks whether there have been any major nationwide hits, the answer is disappointing: no. Ironically, while no outstanding good series have broken through, plenty of poorly made ones have.

Many netizens believe that the regression of domestic film and television content may have reached its limit, and that 'destruction leads to creation.' The emergence of AI videos might bring an opportunity to tear down and rebuild.

This is a highly optimistic and somewhat unrealistic idea. Why do we say that? From films to online big-budget films, from long-form videos to short videos, and from long series to short series, every time production barriers lower, it leads to a rapid expansion of the supply side and an explosive growth in content output. However, from the results, the number of truly high-quality, classic works does not seem to have multiplied. Now, in the AI era, we are also seeing that after a brief explosion, AI short series quickly fell into the dilemma of a continuously declining hit rate.

Whether domestically or overseas, the content of the film and television industry is declining at a visible pace. A common issue is that while streaming media has brought unprecedented content supply, it has also allowed 'speed' and 'quantity' to gradually overshadow 'quality,' leading to a growing scarcity of original and innovative good stories. Instead, various poor IP sequels, adaptations that deviate from the original spirit, and numerous remakes are 'flooding the market.'

This is also accompanied by a shift in power along the industry chain: previously, outstanding creators dominated the industry, but gradually, companies and the capital forces behind them have taken over, wielding absolute control over nearly every link.

Now, as we enter the AI era, AI is penetrating the entire film and television supply chain. But can it solve this core issue? Pessimistically, not only can it not solve it, but it may even exacerbate the problem. Because AI not only eliminates processes like shooting, production, and post-production but even faces the risk of replacing story creation.

It may be able to 'create' works superior to those by poor screenwriters but is basically incapable of producing works comparable to classics.

Of course, the emergence of AI video models will allow some individuals with storytelling abilities but lacking production capabilities to emerge, partially filling the severe shortage of good screenwriters and giving audiences hope of seeing more excellent stories.

This may be one of the few consolations the AI content era offers us.