Thinking her career in TVB had reached the glass ceiling, Chow left TVB in 1977 and joined Commercial Television (CTV) as general manager in an attempt to resurrect the ailing station, along with around 200 former TVB personnel including Tsui Hark, Patrick Tam and Ringo Lam in a bidding war between CTV and TVB. However, despite spending HK$50 million on production in just three years, CTV was unable to survive in the highly competitive television broadcasting industry and ceased transmissions in 1978. After she left CTV, Chow codirected her only feature film, "No Big Deal" in 1979, a teen comedy, with Po-Chih Leong.