CHAPTER 28
GRAHAM CROMWELL STROLLED INTO THE CONFERENCE ROOM ON Monday morning with a stack of papers in his hands. Half-spent coffee cups and pastry crumbs filled the long table, where morning sunlight slanted across the mahogany and the bright New York sky screamed of summer.
“Okay, people,” Graham said. “Numbers are in and we officially have a hit on our hands!”
He tossed the packets into the middle of the table, and the herd of television personalities converged like a school of starving fish.
Monday mornings were when the suits revealed the ratings from the week before, when numbers were discussed, when hierarchy was established.
It was when each host discovered where he or she fared across all of American prime time and, more importantly, where they ranked within the network.
Each of them wanted to beat their same-slot rival from competing networks, but bragging rights came from within the network.
“The Girl of Sugar Beach reached its highest audience yet with episode four. With a push from Wake Up America and Dante Campbell, who previewed the explosive forensic discovery, twelve million viewers tuned in Friday night. Sidney, you’ve got a ratings juggernaut. Congratulations!”
Sidney nodded and waved a thank-you as her colleagues applauded.
Twelve million viewers was something special, and Sidney felt her stomach stir with anxiety.
She’d seen other documentaries deliver in the middle and fizzle by the end.
She wanted to make sure she didn’t follow the same course, but one-upping Dr. Cutty’s episode would be a tall task.
Already, memes and GIFs had circulated since Friday’s episode of Dr. Cutty’s powerful swing of the boat oar to Damian the cadaver’s skull.
In one video, created by someone who clearly had too much time on his hands, side-by-side videos compared the swing of Dr. Cutty to Derek Jeter.
Sidney had to admit they were eerily similar.
The YouTube segment that featured Dr. Cutty’s morgue experiment had already generated 3 million views.
As if Sidney’s thoughts had been broadcast to the room, the applause quieted and the deep, practiced voice of Luke Barrington rang out from the head of the table.
“Grand audiences can mean grand falls.”
Sidney kept the paper-thin smile. “Thanks for your confidence, Luke. You’ve had a grand audience for years. When should we tune in for your fall?”
“No time soon, I’m afraid.”
“Actually,” Graham said. “The projections are just the opposite. At least based on the website traffic. The first four episodes are being downloaded in huge numbers. The Girl of Sugar Beach is the most popular video streaming on iTunes.”
“What does that mean?” Luke asked.
“Streaming is when people download videos from this thing called the Internet and watch them on something other than a television and outside of the eight o’clock time zone,” Sidney said.
This brought a few chuckles.
“Cute,” the Bear said. “What does it have to do with ratings? Nielsen ratings, which the network uses to determine advertising prices, are not based on downloads.”
“Of course,” Graham said. “Nielsen ratings are based on actual viewers who watch the broadcast during the time zone in which it airs, and those who DVR the episode and watch it within twenty-four hours. So Sidney’s downloads don’t count toward her actual numbers, but the idea is that all those viewers who are discovering the documentary through word of mouth are racing to watch past episodes from our streaming platforms. Once they catch up, the assumption is that they will tune in to the Friday-night network broadcast. So we are all thrilled with twelve million viewers, but the projections are for that number to grow.
Based on the downloads, projections of twenty million viewers tuning in to the Friday-night broadcast is a real possibility. ”
Graham shuffled some papers and then looked back at Luke Barrington.
“Any other questions?”
The Bear, for once, was silent.
“Okay,” Graham continued. “The Girl of Sugar Beach was the big news from last week. Looking forward. Luke, this is your weekend. The Fourth of July is Tuesday, a week from tomorrow, and Part One of your four-part White House special debuts this Friday and runs through Monday, the eve of the Fourth. We expect a big audience, as usual. For the unveiling on Friday night, we’ve decided to air your special after The Girl of Sugar Beach. ”
“After? I thought I was the lead-in?”
“Originally, you were. But with Sidney’s audience as large as it is, the execs figured you could piggyback.
Based on models, you’re going to pull four to six million alone.
If you draw a quarter of Sid’s audience, your numbers will be huge.
And she’s doing well in the eighteen-to–thirty-four demo.
Killing it, actually. So following Sugar Beach will help you with younger viewers. ”
Sidney thought briefly of commenting on the fact that the star of the network would be borrowing from her audience, but decided against it.
So fragile was the Bear’s ego that an outright blow in front of the Monday-morning crowd might send him into a tailspin.
Instead, she badly suppressed a smile and caught a glance from Leslie Martin, who held down the same expression while flashing Sidney a quick wink.