The 29-day lead was overtaken on the last day! Yang Yang counterattacked and climbed to the top of the Seoul Awards China region, Zhang Linghe's narrowly defeated attracted heated discussions on the whole Internet

Jiuzhi Network News On July 15, 2026, the voting results of the China region of the 21st Seoul TV Series Awards "Asian Star Award" were officially announced. This cross-border popularity selection, which lasted for a full 30-day, broke the biggest reversal of this year-Zhang Linghe, who has been ranked first since the start of the voting and has led the gap for 29 days, was overtaken by Yang Yang in the last 24 hours before the deadline. The latter finally topped the list in China with a total of 1.8885 million votes, and at the same time set a new record for the highest number of votes in various divisions around the world for this award.
Global voting for the Asian Star Award of the Seoul TV Drama Awards started on June 15 and is open to audiences in more than 230 countries and regions through the officially designated platform IDOLCHAMP. It is one of the most widely participating TV drama popularity awards in Asia. There were more than a dozen actors shortlisted in China. On the first day of voting, Zhang Linghe relied on the overseas popularity of the series "Chasing Jade" to win a 24% vote rate, leading the way with an absolute advantage. After that, he stayed at the top of the list for nearly a month. At the highest, he led the second place by more than 300,000 votes, and was once regarded by the outside world as a favorite to win without any suspense.

After entering July, the situation began to undergo subtle changes. Yang Yang's fans and overseas audiences launched centralized mobilization, and the growth rate of votes continued to rise. In the last week, the gap between the two sides continued to narrow, and voting entered a white-hot stage. Finally, on the deadline of July 14, the Yang Yang camp completed the lead in votes and sealed the victory with a lead of about 660,000 votes, staging a textbook-level voting reversal.

This counterattack is not simply a fan battle. The core support comes from the global ring-breaking effect of "The Legend of Ordinary Cultivators". As a benchmark work for domestic costume dramas to go overseas in the first half of 2026, the drama has successively won the championship in streaming Chinese drama broadcasts in Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea after its launch. It has also entered the top ten of Netflix's global non-English drama list, covering more than 190 countries and regions. Han Li, played by Yang Yang, relies on his complete character growth line and delicate performance to attract a large number of overseas ordinary audiences. This voting, IP from overseas China and overseas contributed nearly 40% of the votes, breaking the previous pattern of "closed-loop voting by domestic fans" for such awards.
It is worth noting that the Asian Star Award is a purely popular voting award, which is completely voted by global audiences and is independent of the professional review awards in the main competition unit of the Seoul TV Drama Awards. This Seoul TV Drama Awards received a total of 352 works from 46 countries and regions, setting a record for the scale of the competition in the 21 years since its establishment. The core awards such as best male and female protagonists and best drama series in the main competition unit will be selected by a jury composed of senior directors and screenwriters from many countries and will not be included in popularity voting data.
After the voting results were released, related topics quickly made hot searches on social platforms in China and South Korea, and the number of discussions on the entire network exceeded 200 million in a single day. Some netizens joked that "a conclusion can never be reached until the last second." Some voices rationally pointed out that the essence of this vote was an audience competition between two domestically produced overseas dramas-"Chasing Jade" is more recognized in South Korea, while "The Legend of Mortal Immortal Cultivation" has a wider global coverage, and the victory and defeat are only based on the difference in the circle, not related to the strength of the actors.
Some film and television industry practitioners said that in the past, the popularity voting for overseas awards was basically dominated by domestic fans, and the participation of ordinary overseas audiences was extremely low; the appearance of nearly 40% of overseas votes in this voting just shows that the overseas travel of domestic drama series has shifted from "release to sea" to "content breaking". Overseas audiences have begun to actively participate in the relevant selection of Chinese films and television, which is more industry reference value than a single voting ranking.
According to official news, the 21st Seoul TV Drama Awards Ceremony will be held on October 8, 2026 at the KBS Hall in Seoul, South Korea. In addition to the Asian Star Award, various awards in the main competition unit will also be announced simultaneously. Many domestic dramas and creators have been shortlisted for professional awards.