Leslie Moonves believes that no matter how much time passes, he will never forget how lucky he was and how lucky CBS was in the summer of 1996.
If, before May, someone had told Leslie Moonves that, after he took over as entertainment chief at CBS, he could have unearthed two hit shows with more than 10 million viewers in just one year, and one of them is a hit drama with the highest ratings in the United States, he would absolutely refuse to believe it. The production of TV dramas seems simple, and the knowledge involved is also very deep. A TV station can launch at most three or four new dramas a year, and half of these new dramas can become hit dramas. This is simply a dream.
But now, he really knows that dreams can also come true.
It has been two months since the broadcast of CSI, and the time has come to November, and the broadcast of CSI is still quite strong. After two full months, seven episodes of the TV series have passed, and people are still full of enthusiasm for this TV series. Leslie has been keeping an eye on the ratings of this TV series, and according to his data, after seven episodes, the average ratings have always been above 10, and the number of viewers has consistently been above 18 million.
At the beginning of the TV series broadcast, there were still many people who accused the TV series of being too dark and deep and suspected that the audience could not get used to such TV series and did not like TV series with such deep content. But now, no one is saying such things anymore—especially after the third episode was released, with a rating of 24 million. While it was popular in the United States, this episode also attracted the attention of the whole United States. It is unimaginable to imagine the sensation caused by the case known as the Buffalo case.
Under his wife's tolerance, the father abused the young daughter, Tina, leaving the girl pregnant. After the born girl, Brenda was ten years old, the father wanted to abuse this little girl, just like he had Tina. The girl who had just entered high school asked her boyfriend to kill her father and mother. The young child was abused by her father. The bloody scene was greatly traumatizing, and Tina only remembered the buffalo-shaped pendant.
Pedophilia, incest, mother-daughter nature, revenge, extermination, and abused children-these themes all appear in the story. Everyone thought the murder case was already dark enough for people, but watching the gradually revealed case, they all felt the pain and darkness rushing to their faces.
The more serious the case, the more it can arouse people's reactions, and this case is a good illustration of this point. Different from the traditional perverted killer who kills and sets fire, and the police solve the case, although there are perverts in this case, the pervert is the one who gets killed. The murderer is the revenge of the weak and bullied. This also makes people discuss how to decide this case.
With this episode of the TV series, CSI has successfully deepened its theme from fancy crimes to the exploration of human nature. This very in-depth TV series has also brought 24 million viewers to CSI. This TV series has become The most-watched show of the year. The first episode received millions of viewers, and in just two episodes, it became the most popular TV series in the United States. CSI also proved itself as one of the most outstanding TV series.
Of course, it is impossible for a TV series to soar to new heights every episode. After the highest point of the third episode, the number of viewers of the TV series also declined, but no matter how much it fell, the average number of viewers was 18 million, which was still a jaw-dropping number.
A fantastic and unbelievable number - except for NBC's ER, which still maintains nearly 20 million viewers, and Friends can reach 17 million viewers, there is no TV series that can come close to this number. Even among all the TV programs in the United States, there are only some important football games that dare to claim that the ratings absolutely exceed this TV series.
Moreover, the popularity of the TV series is not limited to this: many fans have now started to spontaneously organize some discussion groups. They discussed the means of solving the cases on the Internet, discussed the direction of those cases, and even started to design the plot spontaneously and wrote the storyline script by themselves-this TV series has been released for less than half a year, and there is already much fan-fiction.
This TV show is a total hit.
"You are really an amazing genius." When watching the production of the TV series in Enigma Company, Leslie also praised Levi-no matter who it is, as long as Leslie can make money, Leslie will praise like this.
"It's no big deal. Finding the model is the most important thing in making a TV series. As long as you find the model you should have and find your own path to success, then you can easily achieve success. The most important thing for a TV series is the screenwriter. Once the screenwriter is done writing the script, everything will be fine."
Levi put it lightly, but Leslie never thought it was easy. Without ER, who can brilliantly summarize the two keys of humanity and professionalism? Without Bruckheimer, would someone else be able to make hero mode? Similarly, the ease with which Levi can do it does not mean that other people can do it. Thinking of something that no one else can think of, and doing it, is hard in itself.
What's more, how can this TV series be just a screenwriter? What's wrong with those actors? As the leading actor of this TV series, Hugh Laurie has his personal charm fully displayed in the TV series. His British style makes him look personable, and his standard pronunciation of American English makes him popular with the public. Because of his characteristic character performance, he has become popular now. Similarly, Nathan Fillion is a little ruffian, and he is used to pretending to be silly and cute, which made him break away from soap operas and become well-known. Coupled with the performance level of Marg Helgenberger, worthy of the Emmy Award nomination, and the excellent performance of newcomer Amy Adams, the actors of this TV series are also top-notch.
These people now have their own fans and followers. A lot of people are discussing who will be the first to win an Emmy and even who will be the first to become a better movie star.
ER has made more than one actor famous. George Clooney, who was still depressed until he was 30 years old, became a handsome guy recognized throughout the United States because of this TV series, and now it is even rumored that he will play Batman. And in CSI, will such outstanding actors also go out? This question is also uncertain.
However, even if they become famous, they are definitely not the first ones to become famous in this TV series: the little girl named Lindsay Lohan only acted in one episode, but in the TV series, she showed that she was completely in line with her excellent acting that doesn't match her age. There are rumors that Disney is already looking for her to make a movie; maybe she will be the first to become famous among these people.
For two full months, CSI has used one episode after another to investigate the case, attracting the attention of the entire United States, and even this TV series has begun to have a considerable impact on American society. The survey conducted by Leslie shows that because of the prevalence of CSI, the profession of forensic medicine has become popular with the public, and many people have begun to pay attention to this profession. The profession of forensics has become very popular. In the past, many cases in the United States have accumulated due to substandard forensic technology. After the broadcast of this TV series, these phenomena have also attracted the attention of the public. It is even rumored that some places have, after the broadcast, begun to investigate whether the local forensic doctors were qualified. In some places, some unqualified people were actually found out--it is rare for a TV series to achieve such influence.
His luck is really good. It will be November soon, and he should think about finding a way to help CSI improve its ratings.
There are many ways to increase the ratings of a TV series. The simplest thing is to put it on the back of the popular drama, and it can drive the ratings. However, it seems that in the whole world, there are no TV dramas that can bring up the ratings of 18 million.
And if there is another way, it is to invite celebrities to join in so as to attract the attention of the TV series. If CSI can further increase the ratings, then completely throwing away ER in the fall, it may be able to hit Super Bowl.
Leslie had no idea about it. He has also arranged manpower to invite celebrities to come and play guest roles. But before that, what he has to do is think about how to maintain a good relationship with the main creators of CSI. "Raphael, I remember that I have already told you that I suggested Enigma Company to move their company to the CBS headquarters. Didn't they respond?"
Today's Hollywood is not like in the past, where star directors belong to big companies. However, even in the present era, big companies are still big companies and directors and stars will still rent the offices of big companies that are close to the shooting. As the entertainment president of CBS, Leslie also hopes that Enigma Company will move to CBS. They have produced a hit series now, and they may produce other series in the future. No matter what series they produce, if they live in CBS territory, what they need to consider is to show CBS first.
"I asked, and they refused to move." Assistant Rafael immediately answered Leslie's words, but this result was not particularly satisfactory. Leslie frowned slightly and immediately thought of the reason, "They still want to make movies, and they don't want to devote themselves to TV dramas, right? Have they forgotten how they lost money so quickly?" Leslie shook his head, a little speechless. How long ago was this? Have you forgotten the mistakes you made? How good is it to be honest and make TV dramas? Can you play movies well?
Raphael saw the dissatisfaction of his boss and quickly searched for new good news, "There is also one good news: we have found someone for our plan to find a guest star."
"Who?" Leslie's response came immediately with interest.
"Quentin Tarantino expressed interest in the show, and he wanted to direct two episodes of the show—his only requirement is that the two episodes be aired back-to-back on the same day."
It's not surprising that big-name directors feel itchy to play. After Raphael finished speaking, he waited for his boss to speak, but after waiting for a long time, Leslie did not speak either.
If two episodes of a TV series are aired consecutively, wouldn't that be a miniature movie? Is Quentin actually willing to come to the CSI crew to film a two-episode TV series? Leslie, who just thought that Enigma Company was overreaching, was a little speechless: Could it be that Quentin Tarantino thought that CSI's shooting level was so high?
If even he thinks so, how can Levi's self-confidence be beyond his control? He was speechless again, only this time, for a very different reason.
*****
Thanks and kudos for my patreons Cherif Doghri and Abdishakur Hasan.
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