CMG unveils host line-up for 2026 Spring Festival Gala

The China Media Group (CMG) on Wednesday unveiled the host line-up for its 2026 Spring Festival Gala, the country's premier television event to be aired on February 16, Chinese New Year's Eve.

Six experienced hosts -- Ren Luyu, Sa Beining, Neghmet Raxman, Long Yang, Ma Fanshu and Liu Xinyue -- will greet global audience at the CMG's headquarters in Beijing, while another eight will join forces from the gala's four sub-venues across China, a tradition that has been followed since 2016 for the arrangement of the annual event.

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CMG unveils host line-up for 2026 Spring Festival Gala

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CMG unveils host line-up for 2026 Spring Festival Gala

Yang Fan and Jiang Duo will host the show from Harbin, the provincial capital of Heilongjiang in northeast China. Guo Ruotian and He Chuan will be at the sub-venue in Yiwu, Zhejiang Province in east China. Zhu Xun and Bai Yu will join in from Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui in east China. Zhang Tao and Wang Chuhan will appear at the sub-venue in Yibin, Sichuan Province in southwest China.

The Spring Festival Gala, also known as "Chunwan" in Chinese, has been a major cultural symbol for the Chinese New Year celebrations in China since its debut in 1983. On every Chinese New Year's Eve, families and friends across the country gather to enjoy a mixed show of songs, dances, comic sketches, operas and folk arts, among other performances.

The gala is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the world's most-watched TV program.

2026 is the Year of the Horse, the seventh animal in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac.

China made public a work plan on Friday to further upgrade service consumption infrastructures and support housekeeping, elderly care and childcare sectors.

The document, jointly released by the Ministry of Commerce and eight other departments, outlined 64 measures to boost service consumption, including traditional sectors like catering and accommodation, tourism, as well as elderly care and childcare.

Emerging growth sectors, such as housekeeping, performance services and inbound consumption, are also covered.

These measures will create new consumption scenarios amid efforts to drive service consumption and meet people's growing needs for a better life, according to the ministry.