At 36, Liu Xinyue quit her stable local TV job for CCTV, responded sharply to age criticism with her calm, powerful presence.
At 36, she quit her stable job at a local TV station to join CCTV. When the entire internet criticized her for being too old, she silenced her critics with just a few words.
When Liu Xinyue, a native of
Jilin, first entered the industry, she couldn’t even stop herself from trembling when speaking in public. She started at the very bottom as an intern producer at a local TV station, covering live events, editing footage, and learning how to manage the broadcast. She stayed with Liaoning TV for more than a decade. During those years, she served as the lead host of the Liaoning TV Spring Festival Gala for six consecutive years,and swept every “Top Ten Host” award in the industry. Her colleagues at the station and her long-time co-hosts all took it for granted that she would firmly hold her position as a top-tier host at a local station for the rest of her life. No one expected that, at the age of 36, she would show up at the entrance to the CCTV Hosting Competition exam hall, dragging a suitcase filled with her hosting materials.
As soon as she entered the venue’s waiting area, a fellow competitor began hinting that it was sheer folly for a woman over thirty to switch to a new sport—that competing for a spot against young people in their early twenties at her age showed she really didn’t know her limits.Those remarks were clearly aimed at her. If it had been anyone else, they would likely have been too embarrassed to even look up—and might even have backed out on the spot.
When it was her turn to stand in the spotlight, her voice was steady, without a hint of a tremor. She simply said that age is never a boundary drawn by others—it’s a path you carve out for yourself, step by step. As soon as she finished speaking, those who had been waiting to see her fail were left speechless, unable to utter even a single word of rebuttal.
No one knew how difficult those six months of preparation had been for her. During that time, her father was seriously ill and hospitalized, so she put all her work on hold to stay by his bedside. In between feeding him, wiping him down, and keeping him company, she would clutch her well-thumbed, crumpled script and rehearse it silently.During her more than a decade at a local TV station, she had covered down-to-earth local news stories and hosted major gala events. To meet CCTV’s hosting standards, she gritted her teeth and honed every skill to the highest level; pulling all-nighters to revise scripts and practice her delivery became a regular occurrence.to the point that even the family members in the same ward felt anxious watching her push herself so hard.
In the end, she won the silver medal in the competition and, as a natural progression, joined CCTV. No sooner had she settled into her role than she was tasked with hosting several major national-level galas.On camera, she exudes composure and poise; the moment she speaks, she commands the entire audience. Those who had originally been waiting to see her fail all fell silent.
