Hollywood Hunter

Simon didn't have much time to deal with the strong controversy caused by "Instinct", he flew to New York on Saturday morning to participate in the official recording of "Who will become a millionaire".

After initially drafting a more than 20-page project plan based on memory, Simon has also regularly participated in the production meeting of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" in the previous months of preparation, and continued to work for this file. The reality show's question bank creation, link setting, player selection and even the most detailed scene atmosphere creation provided a lot of opinions.

The recording team really started, and the project team that had conducted several trial shooting previews in advance was already at ease, and Simon decided to stare at the scene personally.After all, the success or failure of this reality show is related to whether Daenerys Pictures can successfully enter the field of TV program production.

Because "Who Will Be a Millionaire" itself is biased towards the variety of program attributes, it is relatively simple to produce. Seven weeks of a week of trial broadcasts, the project team began recording on Saturday, just happening to complete the entire trial broadcast plan while shooting. .

However, this process is actually not easy.

On the two days of 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 watching the final sample of the first phase with everyone and confirming that he met his expectations, Simon finally relaxed a little.

Monday, June 20.

As the new week came, the media instincts in Instinct continued. Simon seldom slept, and only got up at nine in the morning.

In the morning, I went to the apartment on Fifth Avenue to check the effect of the decoration. After the absurd night of the three people, it happened that Catherine was going to make "The Thunderbolt and the Blue Sky" in New York. Janet forced her to stare.Catherine happened to do some interior design work in the 1970s.

At noon, I ate with Catherine and talked about some things like "The Thunderbolt and the Blue Sky Envoy".During this time, the woman rejected Simon's suggestion of going to him tonight, claiming to attend a party in a circle at night.Simon said that he was very happy to know some people in the New York movie circle with her, but he was just thrown away with a white eye. After all, the woman did not want the relationship between the two to be known by too many people.

In the afternoon, I met with James Rybold as usual to discuss some of Westero's affairs.

Determining the debt-to-equity swap plan, during this time, James Rebled has cleared New World Entertainment stocks in Westeros.Although Simon is inevitable for Marvel, he can save half of the money, and he will no longer choose to be an injustice anyway, and secretly buying New World Entertainment stocks is no longer necessary.

After completing the various acquisitions and investments during this period, the Westeros 100 million US dollar loan was almost empty again, and Simon had no plans to increase his debt in the short term.James Rebold's work for a long time will focus on managing Westeros' existing business.

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

However, because the “Westeros Portfolio” stimulated a strong rebound in the technology sector last year, the rise in the technology market has slowed down significantly compared to other sectors in recent months.

As of last week, the total value of the technology stock portfolio of listed companies held by Westeros was about 1.76 billion US dollars, and the scale of other non-listed company shares and real estate investment was about 150 million US dollars.Due to the consecutive success of "When Harry Meets Sally" and "Pulp Fiction", the industry's valuation of Daenerys is about 300 million US dollars, minus Daenerys and Westeros The company has a total debt of US$200 million, and Simon’s current personal assets are around US$2 billion.

"Forbes" this year's global rich list is expected to be launched in August.

If "Who will become a millionaire" and "Instinct" can succeed next, Simon's net worth will definitely continue to improve.His personal assets of more than 2 billion US dollars are enough to squeeze him into the top 50 of the global rich list.

Underground parking in the building where Westero’s headquarters is located,

The father and daughter got into their cars, and James Rebled started the car to leave the parking lot, and then asked the daughter beside him: "Do you think "Who will be a millionaire" will succeed?"

Simon has already told James Rebold in advance about the idea of ​​using the reality show project in his hands as a bargaining chip in exchange for New World Entertainment from General Electric.

Jennifer heard his father’s question and said, “I think it’s interesting. As for the viewing status, I will know tomorrow.”

James Labred paused and asked, "Did Simon not tell you what he expected of this show?"

Jennifer felt some other meaning in his father's words, feeling a little embarrassed, but still said: "He, he is very confident in this show."

James Rebold turned the steering wheel one by one, and turned his head to look at his daughter, saying, "Jenny, you know, there are some things that you need to work hard for yourself."

This was very straightforward, and Jennifer couldn't help blushing, and couldn't help remembering the bits and pieces since he worked for Simon.

To be fair, she hadn't thought of robbing the man from Janet.

It's just that staying with him may be because it's too busy, or maybe it's because of something else. In short, it's basically difficult for her to get some men's minds.In most cases, she just unwittingly believed that it would be enough to be able to stay by his side and work for him.

She has always felt that she is a very easy person to meet.

The father and daughter returned to their home in the Upper East Side. Jennifer’s mother, Carol Rebold, had returned early and was preparing dinner. James and Jennifer went to the kitchen to help. The family of three shared dinner very warmly, and then very There is a tacit understanding of staying in front of the TV in the living room, talking about things at will, waiting for the nine o'clock.

The broadcast time of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" is at nine o'clock in the evening.

ABC did not give the most golden eight o'clock period. Of course, it did not lose to the most important ten o'clock position.

Moreover, because ABC refused to invest money to publicize this reality show, Daenerys could only invest $2 million to advertise on television, newspapers and magazines, but this part of the expenditure is already equivalent to a week of trial broadcasts. In the early stage, the sea election work for the show's momentum was also expensive.

In addition, in order to retain the initiative as much as possible, Daenerys Pictures did not find a sponsor to share the investment for the pilot episode.Therefore, just in the pilot stage, Daenerys Pictures' total investment in all aspects of this project will be close to US$5 million.This is equivalent to a quarter of the budget for "Who Will Be a Millionaire" for the entire season.

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

At nine o'clock.

On the TV screen, the screen is switched, and with the introduction of the host, Regis Phil, can speed up the speech, the program officially started.

Regis Phil was the host of the original "Who Will Be a Millionaire". Before Daenerys Films found him, Regis Phil also worked as a sports show host at a local TV station in New York.Receiving an invitation from Daenerys Pictures, and realizing that he could enter the four major TV networks, Regis Phil did not hesitate to quit his original job and devote himself wholeheartedly to "Who will become a hundred "Millionaire" is in production.

In the living room of the Rebold family, as the elite of this society, because of the rich private social life, the Rebold couples have not always 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 lighting and music details introduced them into a certain atmosphere unconsciously, especially the US$1 million final award introduced by Regis Felt, Even the Raebolds are hard to calm down.

Who doesn't want to be a millionaire in a flash by simply answering a series of questions?

Coincidentally, the first player to play was a lawyer. He was about 40 years old. He was in a very prosperous year and had a very brilliant resume.Regis Phil did not hurry to start answering questions, but very skillfully chatted with the lawyer about his motivation and determination to participate in the show. Such seemingly inadvertent details further added to the atmosphere of the scene.

When the answer formally began, the expectations of both the on-site guests and the audience in front of the TV had reached their highest.

In the final analysis, the success of Who Will Be a Millionaire is not in answering questions, but in mobilizing the audience's emotions during the answering process.Seeing a problem may determine the attribution of a large amount of money that you can earn in a month, a year, or even a lifetime, and the audience's attention is destined to be difficult to divert.

This is actually why the industry later regarded "Who Will Be a Millionaire" as a reality show rather than a traditional variety show.

Because the core of the show is'show'.

In front of the TV, I saw that the lawyer on the screen regretted leaving because of a mistake about the Great Lakes. In the end, he only took $8,000, and the Rebolds did not despise.

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, Symonte emphasized looking for such a problem that is closely related to the North American audience and at least makes people feel familiar.After all, if the problem is too biased, the audience will inevitably produce this program just to embarrass people, and it is difficult for the program to gather too much popularity.

However, although these questions are very grounded, it is definitely not an easy task to get the right answer. This is still in the case of players who have been selected in advance. After all, if the players on the stage can only answer one or two questions correctly The question can't be answered even one question, it is this show that is unlucky.

After the lawyer was a bit sloppy, Regis Phil quickly introduced another player.

One hour has passed unconsciously in this touching game. The program did not deliberately pursue the integrity of the answer section. Because of time, the last player correctly answered five questions in succession and accumulated a considerable bonus. The first The program officially ended.Although the actual recording has been completed, the follow-up will continue tomorrow.The following week's pilot program will basically adopt this strategy of keeping the tail.

Because of his familiarity with Robert Iger, the Rabolds also have some knowledge of the television network.

When the one-hour TV show ended unknowingly, the Rebolds had a hunch that the show would be very successful.

It can make people feel that time is passing by for an hour without any sense of time, and they can't distract the whole journey. How can such a program be unsuccessful?

however.

The Rebolds still did not expect how successful the show would be.

Because of the busyness of the last few days, Simon took a break 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. The ratings have improved too much.

Simon woke up early the next morning and will return to the West Coast today. He plans to completely finalize the cast of "Batman" in the last week of this month.

The last surprise drug test removed three of the last ten candidates. Simon was satisfied with the result and at least did not reduce his staff by more than half.Moreover, based on the comprehensive information, he has basically confirmed several recent goals, and then only needs to conduct some auditions and confirm the details of the contract.

ABC had previously told Simon that the first day of viewing data would probably inform him after work hours, but around 8:30, when Simon had just had breakfast, the phone in the living room rang.

Simon thought he was someone else, came to the living room to pick up the phone, and there was immediately a voice of Robert Iger obviously suppressing the excitement: "Good morning, Simon."

"Early, Bob," Simon stood beside the phone, without too much twists, and asked directly with a smile: "How is the result?"

Before it was time for work, Robert Iger was already at the headquarters of the Rockefeller Center in Midtown on the ABC TV network, and beside him, there were many other ABC executives, even ABC chairman Tom Murphy, appeared it's here.

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

then.

The number of viewers on the first day of "Who Will Be a Millionaire" has reached 13.65 million.

13.65 million, which is more than twice the "pass line" customized by ABC for this program, and this is only the first day.