Chapter 207: Ratings Miracle

Next morning, headlines such as "Friends", "30 Million Viewership" and "Ratings Miracle" appeared in bold in a large number of North American newspapers along with numerous reviews  of the show.

"The spoiled Rachel Green, the clean-freak Monica Geller, the eccentric Phoebe Buffay, the nervous Ross Geller, the sarcastic Chandler Bing, and the simple-minded Joey Tribbiani... In just two episodes, Eric Williams introduced six characters with distinctive personalities and caused the audience to fall in love with them."

"A plot that is close to reality which the audience can easily relate with along with unlimited humor. The 31.7 million ratings score of Friends is the greatest empirical proof of this. When the audience watched the six characters living in an apartment in New York, they were able to see parts of the characters in themselves. This may be the most important factor behind the success of this sitcom, just like ABC's Growing Pains. Eric Williams is worthy of being called a genius since he managed to turn everyday life and happenings of these six characters into interesting conversations, which firmly captured the audience's hearts."

"The interesting dialogue between the six protagonists of Friends will undoubtedly become popular amongst youngsters for a long time to come. In just two episodes, the personalities of the six protagonists have been fully shaped. I look forward to the future plot development. I fully believe that Eric Williams, who wrote the script personally, will definitely bring more surprises to the audience in terms of plot. There is no doubt that Friends is another of Eric Williams’ masterpieces."

"..."

Aside from the countless reviews complimenting the show, of course, there were also reviews filled with criticism.

Los Angeles based Metropolitan News-Enterprise did a simple survey through random interviews with the audience of Friends and found that less than 60% of the audience were interested in the plot. Over 20% of those interviewed said that Friends did not meet their expectations while the remaining 20% thought that Friends was a pretty average sitcom.

Therefore, Metropolitan News-Enterprise concluded that the miracle of more than 30 million viewership of Friends was entirely the result of a series of publicity and hype. The results of the survey indicated that the quality of Friends did not meet the psychological expectations of many viewers who had high expectations for Eric Williams, and that the ratings would surely fall.

Similar to Metropolitan News-Enterprise, many other newspapers and media outlets were pessimistic of the future ratings of Friends, but such remarks could only fool ordinary readers.

Anyone with the slightest understanding of the broadcasting industry would understand that although the ratings miracle of Friends was supported by hype, if the show’s quality had been poor, it would’ve been impossible for it to reach an average viewership of 31.7 million. With just two episodes, Friends has created a viewer base of more than 30 million. Even if there is a major decline in ratings in the future, the ratings would still continue to exceed 20 million at the least. During the '90s, TV shows with ratings of more than 20 million were few and far between.

***

In the past, the three major television stations in North America, ABC, NBC, and CBS, didn't pay much attention to Fox TV. Even the youngest of them, ABC, had been around for almost half a century while the history of NBC and CBS was even longer.

Over the years, more than one media group had tried to challenge the status of the three major television stations, but without exception, they all failed.

Therefore, when News Corporation appointed Barry Diller - who was known as the top dog in the media industry - to take charge of their TV network business and even when Fox TV became the fourth largest TV network in the United States, in the eyes of the three major TV stations, Fox was still just a newcomer in the North American broadcasting industry.

After all, the growth of a TV station was dependent on the ratings of their shows. However, Fox had not had any hit TV shows in the past years. Before Friends, the highest ratings record of Fox TV did not even exceed 20 million while the highest ratings record of the three major TV stations that jointly owned the Super Bowl’s  broadcasting rights was more than 100 million. Even without the Super Bowl, the three major TV stations each had a few hit shows with ratings of more than 20 million.

Therefore, although News Corp. made a lot of noise in North America, such as when Rupert Murdoch obtained American citizenship in order to create a television network, the three major TV stations all scoffed at the "upstart" from Australia while waiting for him to return home like each of their previous challengers.

However, Friends obtaining ratings of more than 30 million was a complete wake-up call for the top executives of the three major TV stations. They suddenly realized that Fox TV, a newcomer that had only been around for a few years, already had more than 100 networked television stations, covering more than 90% of the United States.

The first reaction of the three major TV stations was that Fox could not be allowed to continue to develop. After all, the domestic TV market in the United States was limited. If Fox gained market share, it naturally meant that the three major TV stations would lose market share.

The top executives of the three major TV stations held a rare emergency meeting. After several hours of negotiation, the first countermeasure they decided upon was to take away the broadcasting rights of the second season of Friends from Fox at all costs. They even agreed to take over the broadcasting rights for the remaining episodes of the first season of Friends, even if they had to pay a high penalty for Eric Williams.

Without Friends, Fox's pace of expansion would certainly slow down and the three major TV stations would have plenty of time to slowly destroy Fox, the "outsider" who attempted to steal from them.

However, since the three major TV stations could think up such plans, Fox’s CEO Barry Diller and News Corp’s Chairman Rupert Murdoch could also anticipate their actions.

Although several of Eric’s films had brought great benefits to Fox Films, Rupert Murdoch previously did not pay too much attention to him, and only regarded him as a newcomer director who was working with his company. Naturally, he never cared to meet Eric. However, this time was different. The newspaper business of Murdoch’s News Corp. had reached its limits in terms of growth. As a result, his main focus was now on his Fox TV network. Eric’s Friends had brought an opportunity for the rapid expansion of his TV network. Since the three major TV stations were planning to make their move, Murdoch had to come out in person to win Eric over with better terms.

When Eric was attending the opening ceremony of the 46th Venice Film Festival on the evening of September 4, a huge private Boeing jet landed at the Marco Polo International Airport in Venice.