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Therefore, Daenerys Films and Fox were not disturbed by this controversy, but secretly contributed to it, further increasing the controversy of "Basic Instinct" to attract public attention. For this reason, Fox deliberately suppressed the MP rating committee Statements that attempt to be interpreted externally.

On the other hand, in order to show that they do not lack a sense of social responsibility, Fox and Daenerys Pictures also issued a joint statement on the new Monday, urging theaters showing "Basic Instinct" to conduct stricter age reviews to ensure that there will be no inappropriate Teenagers who meet the viewing conditions enter the theater.

Of course, whether doing so will arouse the curiosity of teenagers even more, this is beyond the control of the film company, who makes teenagers naturally rebellious.

Chapter 178 "Millionaire" starts broadcasting (editing)

Simon didn't have much time to deal with the intense controversy caused by "Instinct", and he flew to New York on Saturday morning to participate in the official recording of "Who Will Be a Millionaire".

After initially drawing up a 20-page project proposal based on his memory, during the previous few months of preparation, Simon also regularly participated in the production meeting of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and continued to contribute to this real-life project? He provided a lot of opinions on the creation of the excellent question bank, the setting of links, the selection of players and even the creation of the most detailed on-site atmosphere.

When the recording actually started, the project team that had conducted several trial shootings in advance was already at ease, and Simon decided to watch on the spot himself.After all, the success or failure of this reality show is related to whether Daenerys Pictures can successfully enter the field of TV production.

Because "Who Will Be a Millionaire" itself tends to be a variety show, and it is relatively simple to produce. The project team started recording seven episodes of the pilot program for a week, and it happened to be able to complete the entire pilot program while filming and broadcasting. .

However, this process is not easy.

On two days at the weekend, everyone on the project team worked more than ten hours, and Simon was no exception.On Sunday, he was busy until ten o'clock in the middle of the night. After seeing the final sample of the first phase with everyone and confirming that it met his expectations, Simon relaxed a little.

Monday, October 6.

The new week came in a blink of an eye, and the media buzz about "Basic Instinct" continued. It was rare for Simon to sleep late, and he didn't get up until nine o'clock in the morning.

In the morning, I went to the apartment on Fifth Avenue to check the decoration effect. After the ridiculous night with the three of them, it happened that Catherine was going to make "Blue Angel" in New York again, and Janet forced her to watch this matter.Catherine has done some interior design work in the 70s, and has more experience in this area than Janet.

At noon, I had dinner with Catherine and chatted about "Thunderbolt Blue Angel".During the period, the woman rejected Simon's suggestion to go to him tonight, claiming that she would attend a party in a circle that night.Simon expressed that he was very happy to meet some people in the New York film industry with her, but he just gave her a blank stare. After all, a woman does not want the relationship between the two to be known by too many people.

In the afternoon, I met with James Raybould as usual to discuss some affairs of the Westeros Corporation.

The debt-to-equity swap plan was confirmed. During this time, James Raybould had already liquidated the shares of New World Entertainment held by Westeros.Although Simon is bound to win Marvel, but if he can save half of the funds, he will not choose to be taken advantage of anyway. It is no longer necessary to secretly buy New World Entertainment stocks.

After completing various acquisitions and investments during this period, the $[-] million loan that Westeros had just received was depleted again in a blink of an eye, and Simon had no plans to increase his debts in the short term.James Raybould will focus on managing the existing business of Westeros for a long time to come.

Over the past six months, North American stock markets have continued to recover.

However, because last year's "Westeros combination" stimulated the strong rebound of the technology stock sector, in recent months, the rise of the technology stock market has slowed down significantly compared to other sectors.

As of last week, the total value of the technology stock portfolio of listed companies held by Westeros was about 17.6 billion US dollars, and the scale of other non-listed company shares and real estate investments was about 1.5 million US dollars.Due to the back-to-back success of When Harry Met Sally and Pulp Fiction, the industry values ​​Daenerys Pictures at around $3 million, minus Daenerys Pictures and Westeros. With a total of $2 million in debt, Simon's personal assets have reached $20 billion.

"Forbes" this year's list of the world's richest people is expected to be launched in August.

If "Who Will Be a Millionaire" and "Basic Instinct" succeed next, Simon's net worth will definitely continue to improve.The personal assets of more than 20 billion US dollars are completely enough for him to squeeze into the top [-] of the global rich list.

In the underground parking lot of the building where the headquarters of the Westeros Corporation is located, James Raybould watched Simon's car leave. This series of data flashed through his mind, and he couldn't help feeling a little emotional again.Feeling his daughter looking at him suspiciously, he recovered from his trance, smiled and said to Jennifer, "Let's go back, your mother will prepare dinner herself tonight."

The father and daughter got into their cars, James Raybould started the car and left the parking lot, and then asked his daughter next to him: "Do you think "Who Will Be a Millionaire" can be successful?"

Simon has told James Raybould some ideas in advance about using the reality show project in his hand as a bargaining chip to exchange for New World Entertainment from General Electric.

Jennifer heard her father's question and said, "I think it's very interesting. As for the ratings, I'll know tomorrow."

James Reboulder paused for a moment, then asked: "Didn't Simon tell you his expectations for this show?"

Jennifer felt some other meaning in her father's words, and she was a little embarrassed, but she still said: "He, he is very confident in this program."

James Raybould turned the steering wheel across a street, turned his head and glanced at his daughter, and said, "Jenny, you have to know that there are some things that you need to work hard for."

This was already very straightforward, Jennifer blushed slightly, and couldn't help but think of every detail since working for Simon.

In all fairness, it's not like she didn't have the idea of ​​snatching that man away from Janet.

It's just that staying by his side may be because she is too busy, or because of other things. In short, it is basically difficult for her to have some thoughts of robbing men.Most of the time, she just unconsciously thinks that just being around and working for him is enough.

She has always thought of herself as a very easy-to-satisfy person.

The father and daughter returned to their home in the Upper East Side. Jennifer’s mother, Carol Raybould, had returned early and was preparing dinner. James and Jennifer went to the kitchen to help together. They tacitly stood in front of the TV in the living room, chatting casually, waiting for nine o'clock.

"Who Will Be a Millionaire" airs at nine o'clock in the evening.

ABC didn't give the most golden eight o'clock schedule, of course, it didn't drop this program to the most important ten o'clock slot, and Daenerys Pictures couldn't ask too much for it.Moreover, because ABC refused to spend money to promote this reality show, Daenerys Films can only invest 200 million US dollars for TV, newspaper and magazine advertisements, but this part of the expenditure is already equivalent to a week of trial broadcasting. In order to build momentum for the program, a lot of money was invested in the audition work in the early stage.

In addition, in order to preserve the initiative as much as possible, Daenerys Films did not find sponsors for the pilot episode to share the investment.Therefore, just in the pilot stage, the total investment of Daenerys Films in all aspects of this project is close to 500 million US dollars.This is already equivalent to a quarter of the budget for the entire season of "Who Will Be a Millionaire."

It is conceivable that if the show fails, Daenerys Pictures' extravagant investment will definitely become the laughing stock of the industry.

Nine o'clock.

On the TV screen, the screen switched, and with the introduction of the host Regis Fell deliberately speeding up, the show officially started.

Regis Fell was the host of the original "Who Will Be a Millionaire". Before Daenerys Pictures found him, Regis Fell was also the host of a sports program on a local TV station in New York.After receiving the invitation from Daenerys Films and realizing that he could enter the programs of the four mainstream TV networks, Regis Phil quit his original job without hesitation and devoted himself to "Who Will Be?" In the making of Millionaire.

In the living room of Raybould's house, as the elite class of this society, because they have a rich private social life, the Rayboulds have never been too interested in TV programs on weekdays.However, from the beginning of the show, the host's introduction, the fiery atmosphere of the scene and even the details of lighting and music, they were introduced into a certain atmosphere without knowing it, especially the ultimate prize of 100 million US dollars specially introduced by Regis Fair, Even the Raybould couple, whose annual income far exceeds this figure, find it difficult to calm down.

Who wouldn't want to be a millionaire in no time by simply answering a bunch of questions?

Coincidentally, the first player to appear was a lawyer, about 40 years old, in the prime of life, with a very brilliant resume.Regis Fell did not rush to answer the questions, but skillfully chatted with the lawyer about his motivation and determination to participate in the show. This seemingly inadvertent detail further enhanced the atmosphere of the scene.

When the question answering officially started, the expectations of both the guests on the scene and the audience in front of the TV have reached the highest.

In the final analysis, the success of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" does not lie in answering the questions, but in mobilizing the audience's emotions during the answering process.Seeing that a topic may determine the ownership of a large sum of money that he may earn in a month, a year or even a lifetime, it is bound to be difficult for the audience to divert their attention.

This is actually the reason why the industry generally regarded "Who Will Be a Millionaire" as a reality show instead of a traditional variety show.

Because the core of the program is 'show'.

In front of the TV, the Raybould family felt a little contemptuous when they saw that the lawyer on the screen was out of the competition because of a mistake about the Great Lakes, and finally only took $8000.

Americans are still very familiar with the Great Lakes, at least many people feel that they are very familiar with the Great Lakes.

This is actually a strategy.

In the process of creating the question bank, Simon emphasized trying to find such questions that are closely related to North American audiences and at least make people feel familiar.If the question is too biased, the audience will inevitably feel that the show is just making things difficult for others, and it will be difficult for the show to gather too much popularity.

Although these questions are very 'down-to-earth', it is definitely not an easy task to answer correctly, and this is still in the case of players who have been selected in advance.If the contestants on the stage can only answer one or two questions correctly or even fail to answer one question, it will be this show that is unlucky.

After the lawyer stepped down a bit disheartened, Regis Fell quickly introduced another contestant.

This kind of puzzle competition that always touches people's hearts makes the one-hour program time seem to pass quickly. The program did not deliberately pursue the integrity of the answering session. Because of the time, the last contestant answered five questions in a row and accumulated a considerable bonus. , the first episode of the show is over.

Although the actual recording has already been completed, the follow-up episode will continue tomorrow.The next week's pilot episode will basically adopt this strategy of keeping the tail.

Because of their acquaintance with Robert Iger, the Leibold family also has some understanding of the TV network.When the hour-long TV show ended before they knew it, the Rayboulds had a premonition that the show would be a huge success.

How could a show that could pass an hour without feeling the passage of time, without distraction, be successful?

however.

Still, the Rayboulds had no idea how successful the show would be.

Because of the busyness of the past few days, Simon rested early last night and did not watch this program in front of the TV.He has watched it too many times during the production stage, and it is impossible for him to sit in front of the TV to increase the ratings of the show too much.

Simon woke up early the next morning, and today he is going back to the West Coast. He plans to finalize the casting of "Batman" in the last week of this month.

The last surprise drug test removed three more candidates from the last ten candidates. Simon is quite satisfied with this result, at least not reducing the number of candidates by more than half.Moreover, based on all aspects of information, he has basically confirmed the last few goals, and then only needs to conduct some auditions and confirm the details of the contract.

ABC had previously informed Simon that the ratings data for the first day would probably be notified to him after working hours.However, around 08:30, Simon had just had breakfast when the telephone rang in the living room.

Simon thought it was someone else, and came to the living room to answer the phone, and Robert Iger's obviously suppressed excited voice came out immediately: "Good morning, Simon."

"Morning, Bob." Simon stood by the phone and asked directly with a smile without making too many detours, "How did it turn out?"

It's not time for work, but Robert Iger is already at the headquarters of the ABC television network in Rockefeller Center in Midtown.Moreover, he was surrounded by many other ABC executives at this time, even ABC chairman Tom Murphy appeared here.

Although there is a time difference between the east and west coasts, according to the long-term experience of Nielsen and other survey agencies through sampling and statistics, there will not be too much error between the relevant data and the actual ratings.

then.

The number of viewers on the first day of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" reached 1365 million according to preliminary statistics.

1365 million, which is more than double the 650 million viewership "pass line" set by ABC for this program. Moreover, this is only the first day's results, the first day's results of the unpopular summer TV show.

Just the first day of broadcast created a ratings data that was beyond everyone's expectations. No one would doubt that the popularity of this program will continue to increase in the future.

Chapter 179 Banned (Revised)

During the call between Simon and Robert Iger, ABC also faxed more detailed ratings data.

On the first day of its broadcast, the number of viewers of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" reached 1365 million, and the viewership percentage was as high as 13%.

而且，电视网和广告商最为重视的18到49岁核心观众收视率也达到5.9，这意味着北美所有18到49岁无论是否打开电视机的核心观众人群中有5.9%的比例在昨晚收看了这档节目。依照北美这部分人群1.2亿左右的总规模，具体的核心收视人数达到710万。

All of these far exceeded the previous expectations of the ABC television network.

Due to viewing habits, the number of viewers in the North American summer vacation is only 650% to [-]% of the popular autumn show. ABC therefore set a pass line of [-] million viewers for "Who Will Be a Millionaire".

The reality is that this program has reached this level with only a core audience of 18 to 49 years old.Next, even if the viewership data of the pilot episode for a week is only 1365 million on Monday, by the fall, "Who Will Be a Millionaire" is destined to become a popular show with 2000 million viewers.

Seeing the ratings data of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" on the first day, ABC executives generally began to regret not finalizing all cooperation conditions in advance.Now, although it has a certain degree of initiative, at least it is impossible for Daenerys Films to sell "Who Will Be a Millionaire" to other TV networks, but ABC has to pay a high price to ensure this program. the price.

Robert Iger said on the phone that ABC wanted to hold a meeting with him immediately to finalize more cooperation details.However, now that the show has been successful, and maybe it will be more successful in the future, Simon will naturally not be as eager as ABC.

Declining Robert Iger's invitation to a meeting, Simon flew back to the West Coast as planned.

In the next few days, as the popularity further spread, the ratings of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" continued to climb.

继周二的1550万和周三的1680万之后，试播集在周四的收视数据也达到了一个巅峰，收视人数为1730万，收视百分比为18%，核心的18到49岁观众收视率更是高达8.2（1020万）。

If calculated according to the average of 65% of the audience base of the summer file, the 1730 million viewers in June are equal to the 2660 million viewers of the autumn file.

Even in this era of cable TV's nascent public television network dominance, there are definitely only a handful of TV shows that can reach 2660 million viewers.

Therefore, when "Who Will Be a Millionaire" became popular among the audience, the North American media immediately noticed this reality show that was born out of nowhere.

The New York Times unabashedly marvels that 'Simon Westeros seems to have once again performed a miracle, even a once-in-a-year cultural phenomenon.In just a few days, Regis Fell's scalp-numbing multiple choice issue has become the most concerned topic of the entire American people. Some friends around me have even suggested that George Bush and Michael Dukakis Forget those boring finger-pointing debates and decide who will be the next President of the United States by participating in 'Who Will Be a Millionaire'.

The operating conditions of the ABC TV network in recent years have not been good.

沃伦·巴菲特和汤姆·墨菲1985年以35亿美元巨资收购这家电视网之后，由于所有权更替导致的内部动荡，ABC电视网在此前的1986年和1987年分别亏损7000万美元和3000万美元。

Without the appearance of "Who Will Be a Millionaire," the ABC television network is destined to continue to lose money this year due to the Hollywood writers' strike.

For a large media group, if it is just a simple loss, the loss of tens of millions of dollars is completely within its tolerance. However, the continuous decline in the stock price of Metropolitan ABC Group, the parent company of ABC TV Network, caused by the loss is not due to shareholders and management would like to see.

As the pilot episodes become more and more successful, ABC is more and more eager to finalize the cooperation plan as soon as possible. ABC executives also generally hope to make "Who Will Be a Millionaire" a regular on the network starting in July, rather than just the original 7 episodes that were originally scheduled to fill a lack of programming this fall.

So, after a few days of hard work, on Thursday, Metropolitan ABC Group President Daniel Burke came to Los Angeles in person to discuss with Daenerys Films the specific cooperation matters of "Who Will Be a Millionaire".

Santa Monica.

In an audition room at Daenerys Films headquarters, Simon and Terry Semel sit in the middle, and other staff members stand or sit around them.

On the other side of the audition table, a man and a woman are performing.

The woman is Valerie Golino, who has been confirmed to play Catwoman Selena Kyle, and the other tall man is Adam Baldwin.When the surname Baldwin is mentioned, it is always easy to think of the four famous Baldwin brothers in Hollywood.

However, Adam Baldwin is not a member of the Baldwin family.

Adam Baldwin is 26 years old this year and made his debut in 1980. Before that, his most famous role was the image of a brutal soldier in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket".

In Simon's memory, this Hollywood actor with a famous "sticky face" has also appeared in many films such as "Independence Day", "Firefly", and "Straight Out of Serenity", but these are all supporting roles.Adam Baldwin was mainly a TV actor in the original time and space, and had resident roles in well-known American dramas such as "X-Files", "Bones", and "Crime Scene Investigation".

Among the last batch of Daenerys Films' "Batman" actor candidates, Adam Baldwin has obvious advantages. He debuted at the age of 18, has rich acting experience, no bad habits, and his appearance, image and age are also suitable for Bruce Wayne. Most of the features of En.

So today is the last audition for The Batman.If confirmed, Bruce Wayne will be finalized.

In the performance venue, Adam Baldwin and Valerie Golino have obviously prepared carefully, and they have carefully considered a performance segment given by Simon.

This audition scene is about Batman just finishing a battle with the villain, and Catwoman came forward to help Batman at a critical moment.After getting along many times, Batman has already developed feelings for Catwoman, but stubbornly refuses this feeling, and Catwoman also has a good impression of Batman.

Although they were only wearing ordinary uniforms, both of them were already in a very good state.

According to the script, Adam Baldwin lifted a staff member who served as a 'prop' and placed it on a chair in the corner. This was a criminal Batman had just caught.

Valerie Golino followed step by step, with a bit of exhaustion after the battle in her expression and demeanor. Seeing that Batman ignored her, she couldn't help feeling some resentment, and replaced herself as Batman in a mocking tone. Said: "Thank you, Selena, thank you for your help at a critical moment, your behavior is simply like a hero."

'Batman' still stood there, turned around with some hesitation, and rarely argued: "Everything is under control."

'Catwoman' leaned over like a little wild cat, put her hand on the shoulder of 'Batman', and said, "Yes, yes, now, be a good girl and give your fearless hero a sweet kiss."

Having said that, 'Catwoman' leaned forward to kiss 'Batman', but was firmly pushed away by 'Batman'.The "Catwoman" who was still tender and affectionate just now also turned her face instantly, with a fickle personality like a cat, she stretched out her "sharp claws" and grabbed the face of "Batman" without hesitation, but was caught easily wrist.

After subduing 'Catwoman', the tone of 'Batman' was still indifferent, looking down at the struggling little wild cat in front of him, he said: "Good acting."

The body of 'Catwoman' leaned over again, and her tone became charming again: "Then why don't you follow along?"

'Batman' shook off 'Catwoman''s wrist, took a step back and distanced herself from her, shook his head slightly and said, "No, I'm not acting, never will be."

'Catwoman' looked at 'Batman' and turned away, took a step forward, but stopped immediately, with a bit more sarcasm in her tone: "Oh, what does this mean?"

"This means, Selena, we're going to stop here," 'Batman' turned his back to 'Catwoman' after saying this, before turning around again, said: "This means, we can't, I, can't... Gotham needs a guardian, and I need to protect this city."