Chapter 206: Qualitative Change
Chapter 206: Qualitative Change
Julia did not know how to respond to Elizabeth’s words.
Although the woman’s tone sounded calm, as though she were merely commenting on a character in the show, Julia could still hear the faint jealousy hidden within her voice.
In truth, Julia herself also felt a trace of jealousy.
Even though she had only watched two episodes, she could already tell that judging from the quality displayed by Friends, the television series would definitely become a huge hit. The likable Rachel, played by Jennifer Aniston, would surely become the most popular among the six main characters.
The influence created by this television drama would definitely exceed that of even a blockbuster film.
Eric really treats her well.
That was what Julia thought inwardly.
Commercials had already begun playing on the television. Only then did the two women realize that the sky outside had already fully brightened.
Julia stood up and stretched lazily. After hurriedly washing up, she walked out of the bathroom and asked:
“Liz, want to go downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast together?”
Elizabeth shook her head.
“I’m a little tired. I don’t want to go out. Julia, could you bring me back a fruit salad?”
Julia nodded. After getting dressed, she opened the door and left the hotel room.
Inside the room, Elizabeth stared fixedly at the television screen for a while before suddenly seeming to remember something. She stood up, picked up the phone, recalled something from memory, and skillfully dialed a long string of numbers.
Several minutes later, Julia returned carrying two packed breakfasts. Seeing Elizabeth put down the receiver, she casually asked:
“Who were you calling?”
“New York,” Elizabeth replied.
Seeing that Julia did not seem especially interested, the woman walked over and sat on the sofa.
“I just spoke with the Fox television headquarters in New York. The ratings for Friends already came out.”
Julia spread open the two salad containers, pushed one toward Elizabeth, then stood up to retrieve two cartons of milk from the refrigerator.
Hearing Elizabeth mention the matter, Julia replied indifferently:
“Why are you asking about that? A TV drama personally written by Eric would definitely never have low ratings. Maybe it already surpassed twenty million viewers right after premiering.”
“31.7 million.”
Elizabeth quietly spoke the number.
Her throat seemed as though something were lodged inside it, making her voice slightly hoarse.
As a media student, compared to ordinary outsiders, she understood far more clearly the meaning behind those numbers.
“Oh...”
Julia casually responded while pouring milk into a glass.
Then she abruptly reacted, suddenly raising her head and widening her eyes.
“How much did you just say?”
Elizabeth mechanically pulled the fruit salad toward herself and lowered her head.
“The average ratings for the first two episodes were 31.7 million viewers. The highest point even surged to 35 million. It’s... unbelievable.”
“My God.”
Julia raised the milk and gulped down several large mouthfuls before suppressing the shock in her heart.
“Could there have been a mistake?”
“How could there possibly be a mistake? The television headquarters practically went crazy.”
They truly had gone crazy.
After Fox calculated the ratings for the first two episodes of Friends, although it was already deep into the night, the news still spread throughout the entire film and television industry as though it had grown wings.
Within a single hour, countless newspapers restarted their article layouts and rewrote headlines. Endless telephones rang nonstop. Many people who had already gone to sleep were dragged out of bed.
In this era, the public’s primary audiovisual entertainment consisted of films and television. Therefore, ratings surpassing thirty million viewers were not actually rare.
However, productions capable of reaching such numbers were either important ceremonies or competitions, or major turning points and finales of hit television dramas that had accumulated fame over many years.
But for a television series to achieve such astonishing numbers immediately upon premiere had never happened before.
More importantly, Fox was a television network that had only existed for less than ten years. Although its scale already ranked fourth in North America, there was still a huge gap between it and the top three major networks.
Under such circumstances, achieving results like this became even more extraordinary.
Before Friends, Fox’s highest ratings record had been an interview program featuring Michael Jackson. Even that program had only reached nineteen million viewers.
But the moment Friends appeared, it directly increased Fox’s highest ratings record by more than ten million viewers.
As the key person responsible for causing all this, Eric Williams was woken up early in the morning by the endlessly ringing hotel phone.
It was not even seven o’clock yet.
The first call came personally from Barry Diller.
Barry Diller first described the explosive ratings success of Friends and offered congratulations. Immediately afterward, he expressed hope that Eric could return to America as soon as possible.
The chairman of News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch, would arrive in Los Angeles within the next few days and wanted to personally meet Eric.
The two then chatted endlessly for over ten more minutes. Only after repeatedly urging Eric to return to Los Angeles quickly did Barry Diller reluctantly hang up.
Eric set down the receiver. Before he could even properly process the information Barry Diller had brought, the phone immediately rang again.
The second call was from Jeffrey.
Then the third.
The fourth.
The fifth...
For the next two entire hours, Eric spent all his time repeatedly answering phone calls. Both ears became slightly itchy from the prolonged stimulation.
Only after nine in the morning did Eric finally lose patience and yank the phone line directly out of the wall, finally restoring peace to the world.
In any case, most of the important figures had already called. Whether he answered the remaining calls no longer mattered.
Moreover, the purposes behind many of those calls were far from pure.
Aside from Jennifer Aniston enthusiastically calling to cling affectionately to him while sincerely expressing her congratulations, many others were actually calling because of the broadcast rights for Friends.
Originally, out of caution, Fox had only ordered the first season of Friends. This was no secret.
Now, with Friends achieving such astonishing results immediately after premiere, even if the ratings fluctuated greatly afterward, having a foundation of over thirty million viewers meant future ratings could never possibly collapse too badly.
Under such circumstances, if the other three major North American television networks remained indifferent toward Friends, then the executives running those stations might as well step down from their positions.
Those people truly possessed remarkable abilities.
Within only a few hours, they had already found representatives to express their intentions to Eric.
NBC had even found John Aniston, James L. Brooks, and Robert Shaye to act as lobbyists.
Aside from John Aniston, who had originally worked at NBC, Eric genuinely could not figure out how the other two had become connected with NBC.
After all, James L. Brooks was a famous producer who maintained close cooperation with Fox. Was he really not afraid people would find out?
Robert Shaye’s actions confused Eric even more.
As for the performance of Friends, it was not as though Eric had never estimated its potential himself.
Since Running Out of Time was still in theaters, the three inserted Friends clips had already fermented over time and aroused enormous public curiosity.
Combined with the publicity gimmick of Eric personally writing the script and personally directing the first two episodes, along with Fox’s relentless promotional campaign, Eric originally estimated that the premiere ratings for Friends would definitely land somewhere in the twenty-million range.
Otherwise, all the hype surrounding the series would have been somewhat undeserved.
Yet once the real ratings exceeding thirty million viewers actually emerged, even Eric himself was greatly shocked.
For an American television drama, ratings between ten and twenty million viewers merely represented a simple quantitative change.
As long as a series became popular, it could occasionally break past twenty million viewers depending on plot developments.
But leaping from twenty million to thirty million viewers represented an entirely different and extremely difficult qualitative transformation.
Only a tiny handful of hit American dramas, after accumulating popularity over many years, could possibly achieve such astonishing results once or twice during a certain stage.
Now Friends had merely just begun, yet it had already created a miracle.
That alone was enough to secure its place in television history.
Thus, the sensation caused by this matter throughout the entire North American film and television industry was easy to imagine.