Chapter 744 Verification Time

While Eric was enjoying his vacation time in East Hampton, many people were not at all as relaxed as he was. --

September 17, the last day of New York Fashion Week.

In Manhattan's Bryant Park, Linda Evangelinsta walked in after her last show of the fashion week and said goodbye to the organizers in a hurry. She didn't even have time to take off the smoky makeup on her face, she got in In his own car, he urged his assistant to rush to the abc headquarters in Shangxicheng.

"America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" will begin airing in the next two weeks, and AE Network President Anne Sweeney asked her and Cindy Crawford today to discuss the final phase of the campaign.

Although the reform plan of the ae TV network does fail, it will not have much impact on the Firefly Group, which has an annual revenue of 20 billion US dollars. But for Annie Sweeney, who was parachuted into the ae network, the group of ae network employees, and the two reality show production teams led by Cindy and Linda, America's Next Top Model and Project Runway The success of the two TV shows and the prosperity of the AE TV network are directly related to their future careers, so everyone worked very hard during this time.

More than ten minutes later, I came to the office of Anne Sweeney, who was in charge of the ae TV network. Cindy Crawford was already sitting here. Anne Sweeney was chatting with Cindy in a low voice. When she saw her come in, Get up quickly.

"Good afternoon, Annie, I'm so sorry I'm late."

"It's okay, you're not late," Anne Sweeney said, hugging Linda.

Although Anne Sweeney is resolute in her work, she is sometimes even a little ruthless. But he is very passionate about life. Plus the age difference is not big. During this time, several women have become good friends.

After greeting each other, Anne Sweeney picked up a few documents and brought the two girls to the small conference room next to them to discuss things. ``-``-`

Sitting down around a small conference table, Anne Sweeney said: "Now the basic situation has been determined, although the group headquarters strives for it as much as possible, the number of subscribers to the new season of Life TV is still only 34.5 million. Compared to last year. It's only increased by 3 million, which is also the total audience base we have."

Cindy frowned slightly, this number is only equivalent to one-eighth of the current total population of the United States, remembering some things that Eric accidentally mentioned before, and asked: "Annie, why is it only increased by so little? Aren't you interested in lifetime's reform plan?"

"of course not,

The situation here is very complicated, just like Time Warner, they not only did not increase the number of users of lifetime. This quarter also cut the number of subscribers of Lifetime TV by 800,000, which is the factor of the game of interest. Since media control is further liberalized, operators can have their own cable TV stations. The market is so big that not every operator wants to see the rise of rival TV stations. "Anne Sweeney shook her head to explain, and then added: "However, the main factor is that Lifetime TV's previous ratings performance was too bleak, and it did not bring much benefit to the operator. This is why they will be indifferent to the reform of Lifetime TV. So, it all depends on the ratings performance of the next two TV series. "

After listening to Annie Sweeney's explanation, Linda looked at Cindy, and couldn't help but ask a question that everyone had been reluctant to face: "Annie, do you think... our show will have a high audience rating. How many?"

Anne Sweeney pressed the document in her hand, looked at the two women, hesitated, and said, "Actually, this is what I want to ask you, these two projects were conceived by Mr. Williams, you Didn't you talk to him about it?"

Linda shook her head and said, "We asked, but he didn't say. ▽○ --`-`---`-`-"

Annie Sweeney nodded regretfully, flipped through the documents beside her, took out a copy and handed it to the two women next to her, saying: "These two programs, the company signed a floating contract with the advertiser. According to the contract plan, two programs The pass line for the number of viewers of the program is 1.5 million, and the viewership rate reaches 0.8. Under this data, the average advertising fee for 30 seconds is 50,000 US dollars, the advertising time for each episode is 16 minutes, and the income is 1.6 million US dollars. The total revenue of 13 episodes just reached 20 million of the production cost, and then, through operator sharing and subsequent program distribution, we are able to break even.”

Linda and Cindy gathered together to look at the documents in front of them. After a while, Cindy looked up and said, "Then, Annie, what was the ratings of Lifetime TV last year?"

Anne Sweeney hesitated and said: "In 1994, the highest number of viewers was a TV movie "The Seventh Floor", starring Brooke Shields, with 2.21 million viewers, and the whole year of prime time last year. The average viewership was 700,000.”

"It's less than a million," Linda almost jumped up in disappointment.

Anne Sweeney nodded. She didn't tell the two girls that this was just the average prime-time viewership. If it was spread out throughout the day, the ratings would be even more dismal. As a result, the advertising revenue of Lifetime TV station last year was only a mere 30 million US dollars, which is not as high as that of operators.

It is conceivable that it is not an easy task to increase the viewership rate to 1.5 million, more than doubling it at one time, when the base of subscribers remains unchanged. -`--

Noticing that the faces of the two women were a little disappointed, Anne Sweeney, although equally apprehensive, still encouraged: "I don't think we need to worry too much. During the abc period, the company has always paid no attention to the life TV station, and there are no outstanding programs. Of course, the rate can't go up. It's different now. Just the production cost of the two programs in your hands exceeds the total investment of Lifetime TV programs in the past five years. What's more, in terms of publicity, there is also the full efforts of the group headquarters and Hearst. Support, I am still very confident in the ratings.”

Linda's heart was bigger, listening to Anne Sweeney's relief. He also nodded quickly. Dao: "Anyway, he made this show. If it breaks, I'll go back and continue to be a model, and I won't starve to death."

Hearing Linda's dejected remarks, Cindy really wanted to reach out and pinch her, with black lines all over her forehead, she turned to Anne Sweeney and said, "Annie, you called us here. Are you talking about propaganda?"

Anne Sweeney also ignored Linda's words and smiled: "That's right, I have communicated with the abc side, Cindy, prepare for the recording of "The Late Late Show with David" tomorrow, Linda, your The schedule is scheduled for next Wednesday."

In order to stagger the fermentation time of the topics of the two reality shows, "America's Next Top Model" is scheduled to be broadcast on next Tuesday, September 19. "Project Runway" was placed a week later. September 28, the schedule is Thursday.

After properly disposing of abc's late-night news program "Night Line". ABC poached David Letterman from cbs TV station and successfully took over this ace talk show.

During this period of time, Firefly and Hearst have used their respective channels to preheat and promote "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway" as much as possible, and a lot of corresponding news has also appeared on the Yahoo portal. ▽ ◇ Tomato☆Fiction☆Net -```--But because the two programs have not proven their viewing potential, and it is impossible to invest unlimitedly in all aspects, this kind of support is limited after all. Therefore, it can be said that landing on the ace talk show for publicity before the show starts, it can be said to be the most effective trick, and of course, it is also the last trick.

Both women have experience in participating in talk shows, especially last year, because of the popularity of the Victoria's Secret show, they received a lot of show invitations during that time, so they are no strangers to this aspect. After briefly discussing some details, Anne Sweeney took the two girls to the production department of abc to consult with David Letterman's team.

In the tense busyness, the two days almost passed by in a flash.

September 19, the fruits of several months of labor, will also be verified today.

For countless ordinary people, Tuesday is still an ordinary day.

Most of the students' summer vacation is coming to an end, and they are enjoying the last vacation time. Young people who have entered the society have completed another day's work. Because it is a working day, there are very few people who go out for entertainment, have dinner, or are alone or have a family. With a lover, or with a child, sitting in front of the TV as usual.

They don't know the abc headquarters in Manhattan. Many people are anxiously waiting for the results of the new day's viewership data, but they just stumbled upon the recent news about "America's Next Top Model" that they inadvertently saw in newspapers, magazines or TV programs. , so I picked up the remote control and remembered that my cable TV package happened to have a lifetime, so I broadcasted it and wanted to see it. And those who don't have access to Lifetime TV, if they prefer fashion, although they feel a little regretful, they don't mind too much. After all, they always have TV programs to watch.

Any TV show, you can only be successful if you can target the audience's taste and capture the audience's emotions.

In order to achieve this goal, Eric put a lot of thought into it.

For a model talent show, what young women who like fashion and have a little fantasies about the runway most want to see, no doubt, of course, an ordinary girl who was originally ordinary, suddenly appeared in everyone's brilliance. In front of me, if I had to describe it in one word, it would be that the sparrow turned into a phoenix.

The title of Eric's carefully arranged script for the first episode of America's Next Top Model is Sparrow Becomes Phoenix.

When the time came to eight o'clock, after the last commercial, the screen of Lifetime TV flashed and lit up again, and the title of "America's Next Top Model" appeared.

A series of beautiful artistic photos flashed by, accompanied by the voice of Cindy Crawford.

"I was always asked, Cindy, how to be a supermodel, and every time, I patiently coached them, you should be this way, you should be that way. Until one day, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe I could pass the TV Machine, tell this all at once to all the girls with dreams of being a supermodel, so, today, welcome to America's Next Top Model."

"After selection, we selected thirteen girls from all over the United States. Some of them came from small western towns, some from the city of angels, some bold southern girls, and some gentle northern girls. Starting today, I will use the next two months, through various standard training, to select the next rising star in the modeling world from them, and the girl who finally wins the championship will get the model contract of the elite model agency, covergirl The company's $100,000 endorsement deal and, in the future, more opportunities."

"Then, let's start now."

As Cindy, radiant in professional women's fashion, flashes to the screen, auditions of girls from all over the United States appear on the TV.

In an apartment in midtown Manhattan, time flies fast. Alice and Charlotte, the two girls who had a chance encounter with Eric, have separated, and Alice has moved to her boyfriend's place at this time.

Her boyfriend is a Morgan Stanley financial analyst named Scott, and his girlfriend is forcibly dragged to watch a fashion reality show that he is not very interested in. The picture of Cindy just now was quite eye-catching, and she hugged her girlfriend and yyed a little, but when the picture flashed, and those ordinary people appeared in front of them, Scott couldn't help laughing suddenly: " Haha, Alice, do you think these ugly ducklings can become supermodels? It's a joke, if they can also become supermodels and supermodels, then you can become world supermodels."

Alice looked at the ordinary girls on the TV, and was also a little disappointed. She still liked Cindy Crawford. At the same time, she also faintly heard that the show had something to do with Eric. Special attention today, so when Cindy declared that she was going to make these ordinary girls into supermodels, she also expressed her disappointment.

Although most of these girls in the TV are very good-looking and their faces are not ugly, no matter from any aspect, there is absolutely no trace of the radiant supermodel temperament similar to Cindy.

Watching her boyfriend pick up the remote control and about to change the channel, Alice thought for a while, but still held his hand: "Scott, wait a minute."

Scott was relatively considerate. Seeing his girlfriend insisted, he followed her wishes. However, he still did not forget to add: "Okay, just treat it as a joke."

And in front of thousands of TV sets that chose "America's Next Top Model", most people have the same thoughts as Alice and the couple, and some people have even changed channels in disappointment.

On the TV screen, the show continued.

Lucky girls began to gather in the fashion capital of New York. Different personalities, different backgrounds, and different life experiences were displayed through clever lenses, gradually making the audience temporarily forget these ordinary ugly ducklings, or find their own shadow, or Controlled by curiosity and voyeurism in their hearts, slowly, many people began to immerse themselves in the plot with great interest. (To be continued.)