Julia didn't know how to answer Elizabeth's words. Although the girl's tone seemed to be just commenting on the characters in the play, she could hear the slight jealousy in the girl's tone.
In fact, Julia herself was not so jealous. Although she has only watched two episodes, she can tell that with the level of "Friends", this TV series must be very popular, and the lovable Rachel played by Aniston will definitely be the most popular among the six. The one that is popular with the audience, the influence of this TV series must be greater than that of a hit movie.
How nice Eric was to her, Julia thought.
The commercials had already started to play on the TV, and the two of them realized that the sky was already bright.
Julia stood up and stretched, and after a hasty wash, she walked out of the bathroom and said, "Liz, do you want to go downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast together?"
Elizabeth shook her head: "I'm a little tired and don't want to go out, Julia, can you bring me a fruit salad?"
Julia nodded, got dressed, opened the door and walked out of the hotel. Elizabeth in the room stared at the TV screen for a while, and finally stood up and picked up the phone as if she remembered something, recalled it, and dialed a series of numbers skillfully from memory.
9. A few minutes later, Julia came back to the room with two packed breakfasts, saw Elizabeth put down the receiver, and asked casually, "Who are you calling?"
"New York," Elizabeth replied. Seeing that Julia didn't seem interested, the girl walked to the sofa and sat down, and said, "I just talked to the headquarters of Fox Television in New York. The ratings of "Friends" are calculated. gone."
Julia spread out the two boxes of salad. Pushed a copy to Elizabeth. He stood up and went to the refrigerator to get two boxes of milk. Hearing what Elizabeth said, Julia said indifferently: "Why are you asking about these things? The ratings of the TV series written by Eric will definitely not be low. Maybe this is the reason for this." It has surpassed 20 million viewers since its broadcast.”
"31.7 million!"
Elizabeth said softly, as if something was stuck in her throat, a little hoarse. She studies media. Compared with laymen, she is more able to appreciate the meaning contained in this number.
"Oh..." Julia dropped the milk into the glass, responded casually, then suddenly raised her head in response, and asked with wide eyes, "How much did you just say?"
Elizabeth awkwardly pulled the fruit salad in front of her, lowered her head and said, "The average ratings of the two episodes was 31.7 million, and the highest number reached 35 million. It's really... unbelievable."
"Oh my God," Julia took a few sips of milk before suppressing the shock in her heart: "Is it a mistake?"
"How can it be wrong. The TV station headquarters are crazy."
It is indeed crazy.
After Fox calculated the ratings data for the first two episodes of "Friends", even if it was late at night. But the news was still like wings, and it spread throughout the film and television industry in just one hour. Countless newspapers restarted writing and typesetting, countless phones rang, and many people who had already fallen asleep were called out. stand up.
In this era, movies and TV are the main means of audio-visual entertainment for the people. Therefore, it is not uncommon to see ratings exceeding 30 million.
But those who can achieve this result are either important ceremonies or competitions, or a major plot twist or finale of a popular drama series that has accumulated fame for several years.
It has never happened before that a TV series has achieved such amazing results just after its broadcast. And more importantly, Fox is a TV station that has just been developed for less than ten years. Although its scale has already ranked fourth in North America, there is still a big gap compared with the top three TV stations. It's not easy anymore. Before "Friends," Fox's highest ratings record was an interview with Michael Jackson, and that was only 19 million viewers. As soon as "Friends" came out, it directly increased Fox's highest ratings record by more than 10 million.
As the most critical person who caused all this, Eric was woken up early in the morning by the tireless phone ringing in the room, and it was less than seven o'clock.
The first call was made by Barry Diller himself. Barry Diller talked about the explosive ratings of "Friends" and expressed his congratulations. Then he hoped that Eric could return to the United States as soon as possible. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp., will arrive in Los Angeles in two days. He wants to meet Eric in person. After chatting for more than ten minutes, Barry Diller repeatedly asked Eric After Ke returned to Los Angeles as soon as possible, he reluctantly hung up the phone.
Eric put down the receiver, and before he had time to ponder over the news from Barry Diller, the phone rang immediately.
The second is Jeffrey, then, the third, the fourth, the fifth...
For the next two hours, Eric spent time answering the phone repeatedly, his ears on both sides were slightly itchy due to the long-term stimulation, until after nine o'clock in the morning, Eric finally suffered Not long after unplugging the phone line, the whole world quieted down. Anyway, most of the more important people have already called, and it doesn't matter if the rest of them answer or not.
Moreover, the purpose of many people calling was not so simple. Except for that little girl Aniston who called in a hurry and expressed her congratulations sincerely, many others were rushing to "" Friends" broadcast rights come from.
It's no secret that Fox only booked the first season of "Friends" to be on the safe side. Now, "Friends" has achieved such amazing results just after its broadcast, even if there will be a big ups and downs in the ratings in the future, but with a rating of more than 30 million ratings as a base, no matter how bad the ratings are in the future, it is impossible to be so bad Where to go, under such circumstances, if the other three major TV stations in North America are indifferent to "Friends", then there is no need for the helm of the TV station to sit in that position anymore.
These people are indeed supernatural. In just a few hours, they found representatives and expressed their intentions to Eric. NBC TV even found John Aniston, James Brooks and Robert Shea. The guest came to lobby, except for John Aniston, who originally worked at NBC, Eric couldn't figure out how the other two people had a relationship with NBC. It seems that James Brooks is a well-known producer who maintains close cooperation with Fox. , Aren't you afraid of being known by doing so? And Robert Shea's actions made Eric even more confused.
For the results of "Friends", Eric did not fail to estimate, because "Dark War" is still in theaters, and the three episodes of "Friends" in it have been fermented during this period, which has aroused the public's strong curiosity. Heart, coupled with the gimmick of Eric writing the script and directing the first two episodes himself, as well as Fox's spare no effort in publicity, Eric predicted that the first broadcast ratings of "Friends" will definitely be in the 20 million range, otherwise I am a little sorry He made a series of hype for this TV series.
But when the real ratings of more than 3000 came out, Eric was greatly surprised.
For the ratings data of an American drama, 10 million to 20 million ratings is just a very easy quantitative change. As long as it is a popular TV series, it can reach the ratings of 20 million from time to time with the ups and downs of the plot. But the jump in ratings from 20 million to 30 million is a very difficult qualitative change. Only a very small number of popular American dramas can get one or two at a certain stage after accumulating popularity for several years. Such an amazing result.
Now "Friends" is just the beginning, and it has already created a miracle, which is enough to be recorded in the history of TV drama development.
Therefore, it is conceivable that this incident caused a stir in the entire North American film and television circle. (To be continued..)