Early the next morning, a large number of newspapers in North America appeared bold and black headlines such as 'Friends', '30 Million', and 'A Miracle of Ratings', and all kinds of comments appeared in front of people overwhelmingly. .
"The spoiled Rachel Green, the strong and clean Monica Geller, the weird and off-line Phoebe Buffy, the caressing Ross Geller, the humorous Chandler Bing, the simple-minded Joey Tribbiani... In just two episodes, Eric Williams used those simple and trivial shots to create six screen images with distinctive personalities for us, and also let the audience in the short-term In just one hour, I fell in love with these six virtual characters."
"A plot that is close to reality and full of wit can resonate more with the audience. The 31.7 million premiere score of "Friends" proves this again. When the audience sees the details of the six protagonists living in a New York apartment, it is as if Seeing the shadows in my own life may be the most important factor for the success of this sitcom, just like ABC's "Growing Pains" which is still on the air, Eric Williams is indeed a genius, The details of life at your fingertips, stitched together 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 after only two episodes have been played, the personalities of the six protagonists have been fully shaped. I am looking forward to the next plot more and more. I believe that Eric Williams, who personally wrote the screenplay, will definitely bring more surprises to the audience in terms of the plot. There is no doubt about it. Where's Rick Williams?"
"..."
Countless compliments. Of course, there are also different opinions. "Los Angeles Metropolis Daily" did a simple survey and 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, and more than 20% of the interviewed audience said that "Friends" did not meet the The expectations in their hearts, the remaining 20% of the audience think that the quality of "Friends" is average.
So the "Los Angeles Metropolis Daily" commentary concluded from this that the miracle of "Friends" with more than 30 million viewers was entirely the result of a series of hypes before, and the results of the investigation showed that the quality of "Friends" was obviously not as good as it was. It is a psychological expectation to meet many viewers who are full of expectations for Eric Williams, and the ratings will plummet in the future.
There is more than one newspaper media like the "Los Angeles Metropolitan Daily" that is pessimistic about the ratings of "Friends". However, this kind of remarks can only be used to fool ordinary people by sensationalism. Anyone with a little bit of professional knowledge will understand that although the ratings miracle of "Friends" is helped by hype, if the quality itself is not good, then it is impossible to achieve it. With an average viewership of 31.7 million, "Friends" has proved its popularity after only two episodes. With a ratings base of more than 30 million viewers, even if there is a big decline in ratings in the future, the number of viewers will definitely be more than 2,000.
For TV dramas, the number of viewers exceeds 20 million, which is definitely super hot.
The three veteran TV stations in North America, ABC, NBC and CBS, didn't pay much attention to Fox TV. ABC, the youngest of the three major television stations, has developed for half a century, while NBC and CBS have even longer histories.
so many years. More than one media group tried to challenge the status of the three major TV stations, but all ended in failure without exception.
Therefore, even if News Corporation invited Barry Diller, who is known as the proud son of the media industry, to be responsible for the establishment of the TV network business, even if Fox has established the fourth largest TV network in the United States in just a few years, but in In the eyes of the three major TV stations, Fox is still just a rookie breaking into the North American TV circle. After all, no matter how the scale is expanded, the TV station must rely on the ratings of the program to speak after all, but Fox has not had any TV programs that can be sold in recent years. Before "Friends", the highest viewership record of Fox TV did not even exceed 20 million, and the highest viewership record of the three major TV stations that jointly own the rights to broadcast the Super Bowl in rotation is more than 100 million. Even in normal times, the three major TV stations can also Easily come up with several ace programs with more than 20 million viewers.
Therefore, although News Corp. made a lot of noise in North America, and Rupert Murdoch deliberately became an American citizen in order to obtain the power to form a TV network, the three major TV stations were all concerned about this "outbreak" from Australia. Hu' held a cold-eyed onlooker's attitude, waiting for the opponent to return home like other challengers again.
The number of viewers of "Friends" exceeded 30 million, which made the top management of the three major TV stations wake up. They discovered that, unknowingly, Fox's TV network, a newcomer that has only been established for a few years, already has more than one hundred networked TV stations, covering more than 90% of the continental 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 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 executives of the three major TV stations had a rare emergency meeting. After several hours of consultation, the first countermeasure was to take the broadcasting rights of "Friends" after the second season from Fox at all costs. Even if possible, directly take over the next episodes of the first season of "Friends", even if it pays a high liquidated damages for Eric Williams. Without "Friends", the pace of Fox's expansion will definitely slow down again, so the three major TV stations will have plenty of time to slowly clean up Fox, an "outsider" who is preying on food.
Whether it is Barry Diller, the CEO of Fox, or Rupert Murdoch, the helm of News Corporation, they can definitely think of the things that the executives of the three major TV stations can think of. Although several of Eric's films have brought huge benefits to Fox, Rupert Murdoch didn't pay much attention to Eric at first, but only regarded him as a new director cooperating with Fox, so before silent Doc never met Eric. But this time is different. Murdoch's newspaper group has developed to the extreme, and the current main ambition is 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 about to move, no matter what the consideration is, it is necessary for Murdoch to personally come forward to win over Eric.
So, when Eric attended the opening ceremony of the 46th Venice Film Festival on the night of September 4th, a huge Boeing private jet landed at Venice Marco Polo International Airport. (To be continued..)