Despite not attracting the frenzy of interest of last year the 2006 Super Girls Show has proved to be a bit hit once again, securing millions of yuan in income for Hunan Satellite TV, an official said.

The Shanghai Morning Post reported yesterday that Li Hao, the director of Hunan Satellite TV's Editor-in-Chief's Office, revealed that it was thought the singing contest Super Girls Show that concluded on September 29 had earned the TV station over 100 million yuan (US$12.67 million) -- just from the advertising.

Li explained the program finances included gross income from short message telephone voting and that was still continuing. However, he considered this a small part of the earnings as this figure was split with cell phone service operators.

In early October a top executive of the Hunan Bureau of Broadcasting and Television estimated the show had grossed 300 million yuan (US$38 million) in total. This is a much higher figure than last year's 100 million yuan. Although the Super Girls-mania was not as big a draw as last year for viewers, the advertising agencies regard it as gold dust.

Wang Ping, chief-director of the 2006 Super Girls, also told the newspaper that a Super Boys Show could be produced next year along with another Super Girls. He said they had actually wanted to produce a Super Boys this year but were turned down by the national TV administration.

And the after effects of the 2006 Super Girls remains in the air. Last Friday a mysterious fan swept up 900 tickets for a Super Girls concert being held on November 11 in Shanghai at a cost of 400,000 yuan (US$50,677.82). Though the female fan explained she had done this for fellow fans of the Super Girls champion, Shang Wenjie, the organizers were completely stunned and said they had never seen an individual behave in this way before.

(China.org.cn by Zhang Rui, October 26, 2006)