I barely saw the boss of the production company in the first phases of my fieldwork there, during which I worked more on variety programmes. That changed dramatically in the latter phases of my stay at that company when I worked on several dramas back to back. My daily observations during my time there suggest that he spent much of his time in the office participating in pre-production creative meetings for the company's prime time dramas. This observation did not go unnoticed by others working at the company. Producers working on the variety or infotainment programmes would sometimes comment on the relatively lesser attention the boss showed to their work compared to the dramas. In an explanatory but also frustrated tone, one of the Assistant Producers specializing in variety shows at the time explained to me that this was because the prime time dramas served as the brand of the company for audiences. From an early point in my fieldwork, I had realized that the amount of time the boss of the company dedicated to the writing of its prime time dramas speak to the importance the company placed on them. In some ways, this is not surprising. Despite changes in Singaporean television over the years, ‘it is the Mandarin dramas and comedies that continue till today to produce the highest ratings’ (Tan 2008: 47).

Compared to the constraints of variety and infotainment programmes, drama productions’ higher budgets, bigger teams, longer turnover time, and importantly, their attraction of more viewer attention also often mean their producers have to take more into consideration during their preproduction phases.