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CCTV New Year's Gala

CCTV New Year's Gala
Directed by Zhao An
Jin Yue
Lang Kun
Ha Wen
Feng Xiaogang
... others
Presented by Zhao Zhongxiang
Ni Ping
Zhou Tao
Zhu Jun
Li Yong
Dong Qing
... others
Ending theme Can't Forget Tonight (Chinese: 难忘今宵)
Country of origin  People's Republic of China
Original language(s) Mandarin
Production
Running time Around 270 minutes
Release
Original network China Central Television
CCTV-1
CCTV-2
CCTV-4
CGTN
CGTN Canal Español
CGTN Français
Original release 12 February 1983 (1983-02-12) – present
CCTV New Year's Gala
Simplified Chinese 中国中央电视台春节联欢晚会
Traditional Chinese 中國中央電視台春節聯歡晚會
Commonly abbreviated as
Simplified Chinese 央视春晚
Traditional Chinese 央視春晚
Further abbreviated as
Chinese 春晚

The CCTV New Year's Gala, also known as the Spring Festival Gala, and commonly abbreviated in Chinese as Chunwan, is a Chinese New Year special produced by China Central Television. Shown on the eve of Chinese New Year on its flagship CCTV-1, satellite channel CCTV-4 and the China Global Television Network channels - CGTN, CGTN Spanish, CGTN French and CGTN Russian, the broadcast has a yearly viewership of over 700 million viewers, making it one of the premier television events of China.

The Gala has a largest audience for any entertainment show in the world, and it has often been described as among "the most watched television program in the world." The 2014 edition of the Gala drew an estimated 800 million viewers to the broadcast. The special is a variety show, often featuring musical, dance, comedy, and drama performances. It has become a ritual for many Chinese families, including overseas Chinese, to tune in to the show on Chinese New Year's Eve. Many Chunwan performers have emerged as household names in China solely as a result of their recurring appearances on the program.

The first CCTV New Year's Gala was held in 1983. It was the successor to Beijing Television's irregular New Year's Eve broadcasts, which date back to 1956. In the 1983 show, a unique and live New Year-related stage was set up at CCTV in Beijing, with performers in the arts, drama, dance, and song selected from all over the country. For every year since then at the turn of the Lunar New Year, the program begins at 8:00PM and lasts until roughly 12:30AM on the first day of the New Year. The program has become increasingly expensive every year, and tends to be set on larger stages each time. The evolution of the New Year's Gala is, in many ways, representative of China's technological growth since 1983, with a significantly new look around every five years. Research commissioned by China Television Research (CTR) in 2007 indicated that an estimated 93.6% of families watched the Gala on television, although these ratings have been disputed.


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