The Night Night Show with Hello (贺珑夜夜秀)

Plot

Season 1 (2023–2024)

Taipei, October 2023, weeks into the run-up to the January 2024 presidential and legislative elections. In the first episode, 贺珑 tells the audience he is not 博恩, that he may never be Better Than Brian, and that the budget for episode one has already burned out. He then delivers a mock apology to the four leading presidential contenders, 柯文哲, 侯友宜, 郭台铭, and 赖清德, setting the tone: nobody is off limits³. Each episode combines a news-style monologue, stand-up segments, guest interviews, and musical performances, with co-hosts Albee and 吉尼丁 filling out the desk and sketches. The show's bread and butter is the election: candidates come on as guests and are quizzed, teased, and set up for viral moments.

Two of those moments became the season's most replayed clips. In a "guess the price" game, TPP vice-presidential candidate 吴欣盈 guessed that a roughly six-ping Taipei studio apartment rents for NT$6,800; when the real answer, NT$15,000, was revealed, her jaw dropped on camera. She then guessed the price of a Hermès Birkin bag to within NT$50,000, which became the joke in itself: a politician who does not know what rent costs but knows luxury handbags perfectly²¹.

The most famous scene of the season, and possibly of the whole show, is the chicken-and-chair segment with Toyz and 超哥. Toyz, the former drug-dealer-turned-YouTuber with an open feud against fried-chicken-chain owner 超哥, is handed a box of 超派鸡排 as a gag. He holds it up to the audience, declares "这东西狗都不吃" (even a dog would not eat this), and throws the chicken into the crowd. At that exact moment 超哥 himself walks out unannounced, picks up a chair, and hurls it across the stage. The two rivals end up in the same frame, live, in a staged-but-unscripted-looking collision that instantly became the clip everyone associates with the show²¹.

Then comes the crash. On the January 22, 2024 episode, the show interviews 王志安, a Chinese media personality visiting on a tourist visa, which itself brushes against regulations.²² On stage, Wang remarks that putting disabled people on political campaign stages is "too sentimental," a comment read as mocking lawyer 陈俊翰, a disabled politician. The internet erupts. Netizens organize a boycott, compile a list of the show's 17 sponsors, and pressure them; ride-hailing platform yoxi and mattress brand Emma publicly apologize and cut ties, with yoxi pulling its product-placement footage. Legislators call it a "garbage show" that should stop recording^{23 • 24}.

On January 28, 贺珑 posts a response video. He admits the production failed to vet the guest's remarks repeatedly, calling it their oversight, and urges viewers to vote for the DPP party list in 2028 to send 陈俊翰 into the Legislative Yuan. Some viewers call the apology "高级酸" (high-end sarcasm), but the numbers tell another story: 640,000 views overnight, 850,000 within 17 hours, 870,000 in a day, climbing to 14th and 15th on YouTube's trending list, while fans donate anywhere from NT$30 to NT$6,590^{23 • 25 • 26}.

The season-one finale, recorded January 27, 2024, is the emotional close. 贺珑 reveals that despite its huge viewership the first season lost about NT$5 million, saying the show is "always compromising." He chokes up talking about the controversies: his 90-year-old grandmother warned him before episode one not to touch politics, and during the storm she waited up for him until the early hours, crying and begging him to quit. He refuses, promising to keep the show going at least to a third season to honor the "Better than Brian" slogan²⁷.

Season 2 (2024–2025)

The comeback season pivots hard. The production announces it will invite no political guests at all, replacing election satire with entertainment: YouTubers, film casts, and game segments. The first episode books Joeman, the biggest name in Taiwanese YouTube, alongside the cast of the gangster film 《角头》: 王阳明, 郑人硕, and 张怀秋. New member Peggy joins to host street-interview VCRs. More than half the season's recordings sell out before taping, and on launch day 100,000 people flood the ticketing site at once and crash it^{28 • 29}.

The season's signature segment is 酸民百万富翁, a millionaire-style game where internet trolls get to win real money; director 李康生 walks away with the NT$250,000 prize. 贺珑 announces that season two turned a profit, though combined with season one's losses the show still has not recouped its total investment. He also admits the guest he wants most is 罗志祥, who refuses to come even when offered money: "I brought cash and he still won't come"³⁰.

The series ends, for now, off camera. In 2025, after a public relationship controversy involving his late ex-girlfriend 天残 and co-host Albee, 萨泰尔娱乐 terminates its contract with 贺珑, leaving season three without a plan⁸.

Characters

• 贺珑 is the host, director, and face of the show, a stand-up comedian from the 萨泰尔 stable carrying the burden of following 博恩. He is self-deprecating about his budget and his ratings, and willing to apologize on camera when a joke goes too far.
• Albee is the co-host and desk anchor of season 1, later entangled in the 2025 controversy that ended the host's contract with the company.
• 吉尼丁 is a season 1 cast member appearing in sketches and segments.
• Peggy is the season 2 addition, hosting the street-interview VCRs that replaced political coverage.

Interpretations and controversies

The 王志安 episode is the defining controversy. Beyond the disability-discrimination accusation, critics noted Wang was in Taiwan on a tourist visa while appearing on a political program, and the boycott extended to sponsors and legislators. The apology video split audiences: supporters saw genuine accountability and a call to vote for 陈俊翰, while detractors read the whole thing as sarcasm aimed at the mob, the "高级酸" reading. An academic thesis from National Chengchi University analyzed episode 9's structure and argued the show's jokes only land when viewers share localized political knowledge, and that its segments constantly balance entertainment against news reporting³¹. Commentators also flagged from the start that 贺珑's version was spicier than 博恩夜夜秀 and carried the same risk of being flamed⁴.

Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations

The show is itself a successor: it inherited the format, the "夜夜秀" name, and the "Better than Brian" slogan from 博恩夜夜秀, which by June 2019 had accumulated 57 million channel views and turned profitable in its second season⁴. No spin-offs or adaptations followed before the 2025 contract termination put the franchise on hold.