The Ninth and Fiftieth Eighth Chapter Soaring Topic

Because it was a TV station jointly held by several cable TV operators such as Warner Cable, Comcast, and Telecom, e! The user base of entertainment is close to 50 million, which is higher than the original lifetime TV station.

However, several major shareholders only rely on channel advantages to add e! Entertainment to their cable TV packages in a bundled form. Therefore, the management controlled by the original shareholders has always paid no attention to TV program development, e! There is a dearth of original entertainment programs, and there is only one "Real Hollywood" documentary series that tells the rise and fall of legendary Hollywood stars and all kinds of gossip. In addition, the original e! Entertainment even had a small budget to buy TV programs from outside to broadcast.

In this state, e! The presence of entertainment in the hearts of the audience can be imagined. Before being acquired by MGM, e! Entertainment gets a measly 7 cents for subscribers from operators, far below the average 15 cents that the industry's basic cable stations get from each subscriber.

The disadvantages accumulated over a long period of time cannot be changed once, and MGM took over e! After the entertainment, neither Eric nor the management of MGM has any desire to encourage growth, and plan to adopt a steady and steady development strategy.

Therefore, the budget investment of "Beverly Girls" is only 5 million US dollars, which is far from the original "America's Next Top Model" and "Project Runway". The publicity and marketing also mainly rely on the newly developed Internet media.

On February 17, after two months of uninterrupted small-scale publicity from the end of last year to the present, "Beverly Girls" officially landed on e! Entertainment TV.

In the end, the first episode of the first season of "Beverly Girls" averaged 1.12 million viewers, with a peak of 1.37 million viewers and a rating of 0.7.

This result is in line with everyone's expectations. As long as the average viewership of the first season can be maintained at around 1 million, this reality show can continue to be produced.

However, then, the topic and word of mouth of "Beverly Girls" quickly fermented.

Just like "Who Will Be a Millionaire", "Survivor" and other programs created a trend of competitive reality shows a few years ago, "Beverly Girls" is a life-style real person that completely shows the privacy of the lives of several starring actors to the audience. Show is also a kind of innovation.

After the show was broadcast, although many media commented on the reality show, which was obviously a bit of a show of wealth, and some media criticized the show for having too many performance traces, but in cooperation with the newly emerging Internet media platform. The fashionable and avant-garde "Beverly Girls" quickly became a hot topic of discussion among young people.

Some people like Deborah Hall's daring charm, some people like Kristen Heyman's coolness, and some people think Samir Cuaron is too much. Seriously, some people think the scene of Carly Whitlock standing on the top of Beverly Hill shouting 'Good morning, L.A.' to Los Angeles in the early morning sun is very inspirational.

The picture of the ponytail in the panties comes from the Czech movie "Hopeful Man". The original Eastern European actress Vika Krikes, who was originally from an unknown origin, became the goddess of surname feeling that swept the Internet by just relying on this scene. Now, in the United States, where the entertainment culture is extremely developed, the impact of this pre-imitation shot is far more than the original.

In just a few days, an animated gif of Deborah Hall wearing a ponytail in her panties at the Kristen Heyman bar has become the most trending image on the Internet of late. This picture has even become an introduction for many people to talk about the topic of "Beverly Girls": Have you seen the picture of the panties with ponytails in "Beverly Girls"?

Under the influence of these factors, although only one episode was broadcast, every detail of the 45-minute content became a topic that many netizens talked about.

Due to the lack of program content on e! Entertainment TV, it is impossible for MGM to introduce suitable e! entertainment tv show,

Now that "Beverly Girls" was all the rage, the following week, e! Entertainment has arranged three consecutive replays of the first episode of "Beverly Girls" during the day and late at night, and the total number of viewers of the three replays has exceeded 2.7 million.

Subsequently, when the second episode aired, the average viewership of "Beverly Girls" jumped directly to 2.63 million, and the highest viewership also reached 2.95 million, with a rating of 2.1. Compared to the first episode, all figures have more than tripled substantially.

The second episode of "Beverly Girls" will be broadcast on February 24, and on February 26, "Desperate Housewives" will also be launched on Rainbow Media's brvao channel.

Although "Desperate Housewives" was placed on a basic cable station like brvao, whose popularity is far from comparable to that of the public television network, Eric didn't feel it was a pity, but he still had great expectations for this TV series.

After all, even the programs of paid cable stations may rush to the ratings charts, and basic cable stations with a larger potential audience cannot possibly have no room for development. In the past, "The Walking Dead" achieved a counter-attack step by step on a basic cable station like amc, which is not much better than brvao TV, and even reached the top of the ratings championship for a time.

Therefore, with Eric's intervention, "Desperate Housewives" has a much higher production budget and publicity budget than "Beverly Girls". Although only thirteen episodes were produced in the first season, the budget in all aspects increased. Up, it has also reached 26 million US dollars.

Two months before the broadcast of the TV series, MGM began to place frequent print advertisements in major women's newspapers and magazines. When the program was broadcast, several housewife actors also landed in several popular files such as "David Late Show". 's talk show for the warm-up promotion of the TV series. It can be said that "Desperate Housewives" already had a good reputation before its broadcast.

At the same time, "Desperate Housewives" also adopted the mode of two-episode simulcast when many new dramas were released.

Under the idea provided by Eric and the original screenwriter, the huge suspense created by the suicide of Mary Alice Young at the beginning of the series and the distinctive character shaping of a group of housewives in the Wisteria community have firmly caught the audience's attention.

After the show was broadcast, it almost aroused one-sided praise in the critics. Many media said that it was a waste for MGM to put such an excellent TV series on a basic cable station like brvao. Any of the big TV networks. Such an argument also stimulates people's curiosity about "Desperate Housewives".

Unlike "Beverly Girls", which had a decent start, "Desperate Housewives" received an average of 4.16 million viewers at the beginning of the broadcast through the spared no effort in the early stage of publicity, with a peak viewership of 4.73 million and a viewership rate of 3.4. This figure is already higher than the ratings of many less successful TV programs on public cable stations.

Although it is destined to no longer be able to create the kind of universal influence and huge profits broadcast by the four major TV networks, but only according to the current ratings situation, "Desperate Housewives" can recover all costs and achieve huge profits. Moreover, continuing to persevere, with the ever-expanding reputation and influence of "Desperate Housewives", Eric is still very confident that this TV series can create a miracle in cable TV ratings.

At the same time, under the promotion of "Desperate Housewives", the brvao channel will also be successfully shaped into a dedicated female channel, which is what Eric values ​​most, and it is also Eric who put "Desperate Housewives" on the brvao channel The ultimate goal is to create a basic cable station specifically for the housewives group.

The last few years have been a critical time for the widespread adoption of cable television in the United States through the Clinton administration's information superhighway program.

However, most cable TV station operators have not realized that a new era is coming. The brvao channel has the opportunity to gain audience recognition and corresponding market share, and its position in the field of basic cable stations will be unbreakable in the future.

It has been nearly half a year since MGM won the two TV stations. During this period, Amy Pascal and other MGM management have been adjusting and rectifying all aspects of the two TV stations. The successive successful launches of Beverly Girls and Desperate Housewives are also inseparable from the efforts of management.

Now, with the success of "Beverly Girls" and "Desperate Housewives", the situation of the two TV stations has officially opened, and MGM has successfully crossed the first step into the development of the TV industry. The related celebrations are naturally necessary.

The celebration party was arranged at Drew's home in Trousdale Manor. Although it was Saturday, "Iron Man" was about to start shooting. Eric had a lot of work to do. Star Firefly Studios got off work, and it was 7:40 when they arrived in Beverly Hills, and the party had already started.

In recent days, under the impetus of Firefly Group's intentional or unintentional release of wind, the news that Eric will play Tony Stark, the actor of "Iron Man", has gradually spread.

"Iron Man" will be officially launched on next Monday. At the launch conference held this Friday in advance, Eric did not appear, and the Firefly Group did not announce the exact candidate for the male lead. As a media group, Firefly Group's internal The media channels naturally know the exact news, but they obviously won't take the initiative to reveal the inside story.

Moreover, Larry Ellison, who likes to be in the limelight, jumped out on purpose, claiming that he would play an important role in "Iron Man", and his tone was very ambiguous, as if this guy was the hero, Larry Ellison Sen incidentally did some advertising for his own Oracle Group.

As a result, these ambiguous information has intensified media speculation, and with the recent discussion about Eric's net worth, the topic of "Iron Man" has also become hot.

As the latest issue of "Forbes" magazine in March is about to launch the new year's Forbes Rich List, there are more and more topics about Eric's net worth, and major financial media have launched their own rich list in advance. Data, like a whole bunch of outpost awards before the Oscars.

Although the data released by different media are not the same, they have one obvious thing in common. Eric Williams will become the first super rich person in the United States and even the world with a net worth of more than 100 billion US dollars.

No one knows what the gap between the billionaires and the tens of billions is. After all, Eric is only the first and only one.

However, this does not prevent many media from automatically finding similar references, that is, the two most influential families in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Morgan and the Rockefellers.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Morgans and Rockefellers controlled almost the entire United States in their heyday.

Take Hollywood as an example. In the early 20th century, several major Hollywood film companies were basically subsidiaries of the Morgan consortium and the Rockefeller consortium.

At the same time, the current general system in the United States, whether it is General Electric, General Motors, or other companies with the prefix of GM, are basically the companies under the Morgan consortium, and JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley are still Wall Street. financial giant.

Similar to the Morgan family, the Rockefeller family originally controlled most of the energy and ore industries in the United States, and it can be said to control the economic lifeline of the United States.

Exxon Mobil, founded by the Rockefeller family, is still the world's largest oil company, and has no rivals in the United States. In many countries with a relatively high degree of openness in the energy industry in the world, Exxon Mobil can be seen behind their oil industry.

Go back to the present.

Few people deny that with the advent of the information age, the world is undergoing changes in the technology industry.

In this transformation, the rise of the information industry is undoubtedly the most eye-catching. Compared with high-end industries such as genetic technology and nuclear technology, the information industry is also a basic industry with the highest level of popularization.

Although Eric Williams has risen in Hollywood, before he knows it, he has invested in a large number of companies in the field of information technology.

Moreover, whether it is Internet companies such as Cisco, Yahoo, and America Online, or companies in the communication field such as Qualcomm and sprint, under Firefly Investments, they all have a pivotal position in the entire industry.

Although these industries have not yet developed to the extent that they have become the lifeblood of a country's economy, there is no doubt that at the current rate of development, once human beings truly enter the information age, these companies under the name of Eric Williams will all be It is enough to have a pivotal impact on the development of the information industry in the United States and even the entire world.

Even Eric Williams will become the 'John Rockefeller' of the information age. What is even more terrifying is that this time, there is no 'j.p. Morgan' who can compete with him, even relying on Microsoft to become the global leader Bill Gates, the second richest man, only controls an operating system platform, and Microsoft's influence is far from comparable to the Firefly investment involving the entire information industry.

At the end of the discussion, some media even called on the federal government to intervene to limit the further expansion of firefly investment and prevent the emergence of monopoly giants, but this obviously did not hurt the development of the firefly system.

Trousdale Manor, Drew's mansion.

Just as Eric's car entered the courtyard, a group of people greeted him.

Eric hugged the girl, and then shook hands with Amy Pascal and his wife, including several strangers, who were also introduced by the girl.

After the greeting, Drew, who held Eric's arm affectionately, walked into the courtyard surrounded by the crowd, and said coquettishly, "Eric, I thought you weren't coming."

Listening to the laughter echoed by everyone, Eric also laughed: "It's not that you don't know, I've been very busy recently."

Kris Jenner, who eagerly approached Eric, asked: "Eric, we have all heard some rumors, do you really plan to play Tony Stark yourself?"

"This, keep it secret for the time being, you can guess boldly," Eric smiled and shook his head. If he confessed publicly in front of so many people, the news would definitely be out of reach.

"I don't think this is possible. Isn't Eric going to direct his new movie in the second half of the year," John Carley, president of MGM, also said: "However, Eric, why did Firefly tell "Steel" Keep silent about the male protagonist of "Man", it won't really be Mr. Larry Ellison of Oracle who is going to play it?"

Eric didn't speak, and some other people immediately retorted with a smile: "That's even more unreliable."

Everyone chatted casually, and soon came to the party scene on the lawn in the backyard. The girl always likes to hold parties with great fanfare. There have been one or two hundred people gathered here. When Eric appeared, there was naturally a commotion.