After Journey to the West, AI begins its own pilgrimage into television

A television drama with no human actors and no location filming has entered Hunan TV’s prime-time schedule. The New Journey to the West uses images generated by ByteDance’s Seedance model line, while MangoTV’s internally developed Mango Lingchuang platform coordinates production.

The series adapts a lesser-known novel from the late Ming and early Qing periods, presented as a sequel to the classic Journey to the West. Its story takes place more than 1,000 years after Sun Wukong became a Buddha. After the sacred scriptures are misunderstood, disorder spreads through society and the stone at Flower Fruit Mountain cracks open again. Sun Xiaosheng, described as Sun Wukong’s second-generation successor, begins a second journey west with Tang Banjie, Zhu Yijie and Shadi.

The show premiered on Aug. 31. Mango Super Media, its producer, then hit the 20% daily limit in two consecutive sessions, lifting its market capitalization by more than 10 billion yuan. The rise spread to other media stocks, including Huanrui Century, Huace Film & TV and Chinese Online.

The New Journey to the West is not the first AI production to appear in a satellite broadcaster’s prime-time schedule. Its distinction is that it is the first horizontal-screen, long-form series made entirely with AIGC to receive such a slot. The 30 episodes run for 40 minutes each and air at 8 p.m. through a nationwide satellite television system.

That placement suggests that China’s broadcasting system is beginning to recognize AI television dramas as eligible for mainstream distribution. A conventional television series often takes one to two years to produce. This series completed 30 episodes in four months. In March, an AI short film about Huo Qubing also attracted 500 million views after costing about 3,000 yuan in computing expenses. The developments point to a rapidly changing production model, from scripts to finished programs, as AI moves deeper into the film and television industry.