Chapter 207 The Wind Rises
Early the next morning, headlines such as 'Friends', '30 Million', and 'Viewing Miracle' appeared in a large number of newspapers in North America, and various comments also appeared in front of people overwhelmingly. .
"Rachel Green who is spoiled and indecisive, Monica Geller who is strong and clean, Phoebe Buffy who is eccentric and off the line, Ross Geller who likes to be cynical, and Chandler who is funny Bing, the simple-minded Joey Tribbiani... After only two episodes, Eric Williams used those simple and trivial shots to create six screen characters with distinct characters for us, and also let the audience in In just an hour, I fell in love with these six virtual characters."
"The plot that is close to reality and witty can resonate more with the audience. The 31.7 million premiere score of "Friends" proves this again. When the audience sees the bits and pieces of the six protagonists living in a New York apartment, it is as if Seeing the shadow in his own life, this may be the most important factor for the success of this sitcom. Just like the "Growing Pains" that is still on the air, Eric Williams is worthy of being a genius. The details of life, spliced into interesting dialogues, firmly caught the audience's attention."
"The interesting dialogue between the protagonists of "Friends" will undoubtedly become a buzzword among young people for a long time to come, and in just two episodes, the personalities of the six protagonists have already been fully shaped. I am looking forward to the next plot. I believe that Eric Williams, who wrote the script himself, will definitely bring more surprises to the audience in terms of plot. There is no doubt that who made him Eric Where's Williams?"
"..."
Among the countless compliments,
Of course, there are also different opinions. The Los Angeles Metropolis Daily is doing a simple survey. Said that through random interviews with the audience of "Friends", it was found that less than 60% of the audience were very satisfied with the plot, while more than 20% of the interviewed audience said that "Friends" did not meet their expectations. The remaining 20% of viewers thought "Friends" was of average quality.
So the "Los Angeles Metropolis Daily" review article concluded that the miracle of "Friends"'s more than 30 million viewers was entirely the result of a series of previous hype. The results of the survey indicated that the quality of "Friends" obviously did not meet the psychological expectations of many viewers who were full of expectations for Eric Williams, and the ratings would plummet in the future.
Similar to the "Los Angeles Metropolis Daily", there are more than one newspapers and media that are despising the ratings of "Friends", but such remarks can only be grandstanding to fool ordinary people. As long as they have a little professional knowledge, they all understand "Friends". Although the ratings miracle of "Friends" has the help of hype, if the quality itself is not good, it will not be possible to reach an average of 31.7 million viewers. "Friends" has only played two episodes. It has proved its popularity. There is a viewing base of over 30 million viewers. Even if there will be a major decline in the ratings, the number of viewers will definitely exceed 2,000.
For a TV series, with more than 20 million viewers, it is definitely a super hit.
The three old TV stations in North America, and CBS originally did not pay much attention to Fox TV. The youngest of the three major TV stations have developed for half a century, and the history of CBS is even longer.
Over the years, more than one media group has attempted to challenge the status of the three major TV stations, but without exception, they all ended in failure.
Therefore, even if News Corp hired Barry Diller, known as the best man in the media industry, to take charge of the business of setting up a TV network, even if Fox has formed the fourth largest TV network in the United States in just a few years. But in the eyes of the three major TV stations, Fox is still just a newcomer to the North American TV circle. After all, it doesn't matter how large it scales. After all, the TV station has to rely on the ratings of the program to speak, but Fox has not had any good TV programs in the past few years. Before "Friends", the highest viewing record of Fox TV did not even exceed 20 million, while the highest viewing record of the three major TV stations that jointly own the Super Bowl rotating broadcast rights was more than 100 million, even in normal times, the three major TV stations can also Easily take out several ace shows with more than 20 million viewers.
Therefore, although News Corp made a lot of noise in North America, Rupert Murdoch deliberately joined the US citizenship in order to gain the power to form a TV network. However, the three major TV stations all took a cold-eyed attitude towards the "upstart" from Australia. Waiting for the opponent to come back like other challengers again.
"Friends" has more than 30 million viewers, which has completely awakened the top management of the three major TV stations. They just found out. Before you know it, Fox's TV network, a newcomer that has only been established for a few years, already has more than 100 networked TV stations, covering more than 90% of the United States. The first reaction of the three major TV stations is that Fox must not be allowed to continue to develop. After all, the size of the domestic TV market in the United States is fixed. If Fox rises, it will definitely mean that the market share of the three major TV stations will be greatly reduced.
The top management of the three major TV stations had a rare emergency meeting. After hours of negotiation, the first countermeasure was to take the broadcasting rights of "Friends" after the second season from Fox at all costs. If possible, directly take over the next episodes of the first season of "Friends", even if he pays a high liquidated damages for Eric Williams. Without "Friends", Fox's expansion will definitely slow down again, so the three major TV stations will have plenty of time to slowly clean up Fox, the "outsider" who is taking food from the tiger's mouth.
The things that the top three TV stations can think of, whether it's Barry Diller of Fox or Rupert Murdoch, the helm of News Corporation, can certainly be imagined. Although several of Eric's films have brought huge benefits to Fox, Rupert Murdoch did not pay too much attention to Eric, and only regarded him as a new director who cooperated with Fox. Doc never met Eric. But this time is different. Murdoch's newspaper group has developed to the extreme. The main ambition is now on the TV network. Eric's "Friends" has brought an important opportunity for the rapid expansion of his TV network. The three major TV stations are just around the corner, no matter which aspect, Murdoch has the need to personally come forward to win over Eric.
So, when Eric attended the opening ceremony of the 46th Venice Film Festival on the evening of September 4, a huge Boeing private plane landed at Venice Marco Polo International Airport. (To be continued)