Hollywood (我就是好莱坞) Part II

CHAPTER 223- Impact of Friends

The day after Friends' success party, Murdoch couldn't wait to use News Corp's vast media empire to release the news that Firefly will obtain a 10% equity in Fox Network, Friends will continue to broadcast on Fox Network, and that Firefly and Fox will continue to closely cooperate in the future.

When this news came out, most of the media which had been pessimistic about Fox's chances of retaining Friends due to the influence of the immediately changed their stance by 180° and began expressing their optimism about the future prospects of Fox Network.

Not to mention the fact that Firefly will work closely with Fox, just the already existing Friends is more than enough for Fox to seize significant market share, create more sophisticated TV shows and cultivate a loyal audience. This will allow Fox to cement its position as the fourth largest network in America. In addition, it's even possible for Fox to overtake one of the Big Three in the future.

Thanks to this good news, Fox Network's original market value of less than $1 billion rose rapidly. After hearing about the imminent deal between Firefly and Fox, the Big Three not only did not give up on Friends, instead, they began to contact Eric more frequently. After all, the transfer of the network's equity won't be completed overnight.

Among the Big Three, ABC, which had been in a slump since its merger with Capital Cities Communications in 1985, was the most eager and even offered equity similar to Fox. However, the Chairman and CEO of ABC, only managed to obtain the board of directors' approval to sell 3% equity to Firefly.

Even though the value of ABC's 3% equity is more than twice the value of Fox's 10% equity, Eric was not interested. He was aware that ABC has been losing money for the past four years and will continue to do so until its acquisition by Disney which means that he will receive no dividends from ABC for the next few years.

Therefore, investment in ABC will bear no fruit. In addition, a tiny 3% equity stake is not likely to give Eric a large voice within ABC. As long as one has a little sense, one can see which network has a higher potential between the booming Fox and the decrepit ABC. As a result, Eric's choice is obvious.

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On the evening of September 10th, under the close attention of the Big Three and the laughter of the audience, Friends' second week of the broadcast came to an end. Two hours later, Nielsen released the episode's ratings data. The average number of viewers for the third and fourth episodes of Friends reached 24.6 million while the highest ratings even reached 29 million.

The Big Three also received this data and began to analyze the factors behind the success of Friends. Finally, they concluded that the reason behind Friends' high broadcast ratings was that, in addition to its humorous writing, the first two episodes had been directed by Eric.

Of course, there have been many film directors who have been involved in the production of TV shows in the past and a few have even personally directed a number of episodes, but those film directors had done that because they didn't receive work anywhere else. Unless they had no other choice, no film director would stoop so low as direct TV shows since it was considered taboo in Hollywood.

Therefore, the publicity gimmick that Eric, a young man who has directed many hit films and has become famous enough to rival Spielberg and Lucas, would personally direct a TV show has aroused a strong curiosity within the audience. They wanted to see the TV show directed by Eric who has performed one box office miracle after another. Eric did not disappoint them as the quality of Friends more than lived up to their expectations.

After they understood this, the Big Three rushed to follow suit almost simultaneously. Soon, Steven Spielberg, Francis Coppola, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, and many other bigshot Hollywood directors received extremely generous invitations.