Taipei — The 41-year-old Show Luo is making a comeback by launching his own YouTube channel called Show TV. In his first video, Luo disguised himself as a cleaner to eavesdrop on people sharing their thoughts about him.
That video managed to garner a decent 470,000 views so far but the subsequent uploads have not been doing well and have only earned him a very measly sum. Luo put on a pig costume in the second episode, clearly inspired by his nickname Xiao Zhu, or Little Pig. He went around giving high-fives to strangers on the street while cheering for healthcare workers.
Last year Chinese blogger Grace Chow announcer her breakup with Taiwanese star Show Luo following her accusation of his philandering ways. Luo became one of the most hated celebrities after the news broke and he was dropped from multiple jobs where he reportedly lost millions of dollars.
Viewers were not impressed, with some questioning if it was really him under the mask and others lashing him for breaking safe distancing measures. Even after almost two weeks, the video only had 100,000 clicks and it is having trouble catching up to the success of the first episode. His third and latest upload doesn’t seem to be faring much better.
8days.sg reported that in the video, the star gathered a few of his male friends for a group workout, which some saw as a cheeky way of referencing Chow’s infamous “multiplayer sports” allegations against him.
The good news: The feedback was a lot more positive this time, with some remarking that it made them miss his stint on popular variety show 100% Entertainment.
The bad news: It’s a little slow on picking up views too, garnering just 80,000 clicks in a week.
Media outlet Apple Daily did some calculations based on the accumulated views and estimated that all three of Show’s videos can only bring in about US$647 (SGD870) in ad revenue — a very, very far cry from what he could earn in the past as a singer, actor, and host.
That said, they also pointed out that with a net worth of NT$2bil (SGD95mil), it’s likely that Show’s new stint as a YouTuber is only to pave the way for his showbiz comeback, and that he’s not relying on it as a way to generate income./TISG