King of Hollywood

Chapter 377: 99 Michael Ovitz

Chapter 377: Chapter 99 Michael Ovitz

“Well, that’s it, the meeting is adjourned,” Claude announced, and the attending executives breathed a sigh of relief as they quickly got up to leave.

“They looked frightened,” said Adrian, sitting at the head of the table, half-jokingly, after everyone had left. Adrian had not spoken much during the entire meeting; aside from necessary topics, it was mostly Claude adjusting, arranging, and criticizing, which was probably why he always seemed to be sidelined.

“Most of them are just pretending,” Claude said indifferently, waving his hand. “I didn’t put much pressure on them. They just want to act committed to show they are trying hard. You have to distinguish who the real workers are.”

“That’s okay, with you here, I really don’t need to worry about those things.” Adrian spread his hands with a look of pride.

“You, you…” Claude glared at him, but deep inside he probably couldn’t help feeling a bit proud as well.

“All right, Claude, though there were some minor issues, overall, it was a good start. It’s not enough to support a sweeping overhaul of ABC yet, but we can’t wait much longer either.” Adrian said, pointing to his head, “I still have many ideas here.”

“Everybody Loves Raymond” finally started airing on ABC in mid-January ’96 after rushing through casting and production. Thanks to effective promotion, Adrian’s gimmicks, and extensive prior secrecy to preserve the script, the first episode’s viewer rating hit ten percent, meaning about twelve million people tuned in! Although these figures couldn’t compare with “Friends,” it was still an unprecedented high for ABC in recent years, and according to feedback, many people liked the show—it was warm, funny, humorous, and suited for family viewing, so the viewer rating remained the same for the second episode.

This was undoubtedly a strong motivator, delighting the restructured ABC executives and making many critics optimistic about their prospects.

“The fact proves that being acquired by AC Media was very correct. It took just half a year to see improvement. It might not continue but it’s certainly a great start. Had it been Disney, ABC might not have seen such early signs of dawn,” a financial magazine thus wrote.

However, while “Everybody Loves Raymond” had expected success, the simultaneous airing of the reality show “Survivor” did not receive as much enthusiasm. There were indeed a lot of participants, attracted by the substantial rewards for the winners, but the viewer ratings after airing were mediocre—neither very hot nor too terrible.

“A few people spending some time in the wilderness, getting eliminated if they don’t meet the objective—it’s an interesting idea, but… I feel like it’s lacking something,” a viewer commented during a survey.

“It sounds like it should be thrilling, but it’s actually not as exciting as I imagined, so if there were better options, I’d definitely watch something else,” another viewer said.

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