Feb.26 (NBD) -- The third season of the documentary "A Bite of China", produced by China Central Television (CCTV), is aired during the Spring Festival holiday. However, the documentary has received criticism.

As of 8:00 pm of Feb 25, it only earned a review rating of 4.5 points on social networking website Douban, which is far behind the ratings of its first and second season (9.3 and 8.4 points).

Careful viewers even spotted some common mistakes. For example, in the third episode "Banquette", an expert is searching for Lateolabrax japonicus in Lake Taihu. But the fish netted by the cook is actually a Micropterus salmoides instead, which has sparked heated discussion.

Production team made more innovative efforts in new season

The new season of the the documentary has eight episodes with each lasting 50 minutes , which includes "Cookers", "Banquette", "Cooks", "Snacks", "Cookies", " Maintain Healthy by Eating Right", " Seasons", and "Harmony". Among all, episode 1, 6 and 8 were made with innovative efforts. Besides carrying on what the previous two seasons try to convey, season 3 delivers more thoughts on the relationships among the history and culture, the fate of Chinese people and the food.

The production team responded that though there exist risks, the third season still expects to explore new ways to bring Chinese food to audiences. It traces history and cultural connections of Chinese cuisines through large amounts of surveys and academic discussions, adding the third season a sense of culture.  

That culture and civilization behind food is the fundamental A Bite of China wants to convey. In addition to understand the food and people, the third season also tries to explain the culture created by food and the change of time behind. Food itself is constantly changing, so does the way of expressing. Changes and innovations are bond to bring new visual and emotional experience, noted the team.

NBD noticed that Chen Xiaoqing, general director of the previous two seasons of A Bit of China, has resigned from CCTV and the team is currently led by another CCTV anchor Liu Hongyan. Liu revealed previously that the team has 200 staff with Dutch photographer and film editor.

Season 3 delivers wide coverage and fetches handsome ads fee

Although review rating of the third season dropped a little bit, it maintained a wide coverage. As of 5:18 pm last Sunday, it drew a Wechat Index of 47.50 million, topping the hottest topics; 33.26 million views on Sina Weibo.

The documentary has been one of the most valued AD-bearers for CCTV. After 9 rounds of bidding, Ningxia-based wine maker EFONE finally won the bid for advertising with 118 million yuan (18.6 million U.S. dollars). In addition to a sole sponsorship with EFONE, it also formed industrial partnerships with home appliance producer Midea, herbal tea maker Wang Lao Ji, and edible oil maker Shangdong Luhua Group with 70.99 million, 40 million and 39.99 million yuan (11.2, 6.3 and 6.3 million U.S. dollars) respectively. It indicates that the documentary might have been sponsored a total of 269 million yuan (42.4 million U.S. dollars).

It's noted that sales of the most advertised wine Chateau de Pic was not very inspiring. But sales of an iron pot that appeared in the first episode has seen a growth of nearly 6000 times on T-mall.

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn