Simon returned to New York on September 5th and immediately dove into the final preparations for the launch of American Idol. The show, a major feature of ABC's fall 1995 lineup, was scheduled to premiere on Tuesday, September 26, at 8 p.m. Each week would feature one episode, split into two parts: an audition phase during the fall and the competition phase starting in the spring of next year.
The original American Idol had the advantage of building on the success of its British counterpart, making its U.S. debut an immediate hit. This new version lacked that established popularity but had the full support of the Westeros system's vast resources.
From the moment Simon conceived the project, American Idol was designed to be a large-scale collaboration within the Westeros music empire. Daenerys Records, ABC, Eaglet Portal, and Tinkobell would all play roles.
Before the pre-show promotional campaign even began, Tinkobell had secured the exclusive title sponsorship rights for American Idol at a hefty price of $25 million. Moreover, during the first season, Tinkobell planned to give away 100,000 iPlayer-10 digital music players through a series of prize draws and audience voting promotions.
Factoring in the manufacturing costs of the 100,000 iPlayer-10 units and the title sponsorship fee, Tinkobell would be investing $50 million in the first season alone.
Not only was the sponsorship fee significant, but the news that 100,000 iPlayers, valued at $50 million, would be given away—along with cash prizes and record contracts for the winners—generated immediate media buzz when it was announced in late July.
Initially, the TV department expected only modest sign-ups for the first season. However, within a month, more than 300,000 people across the United States had applied through both online and mail-in channels. The production team was forced to triple the staff responsible for handling auditions.
Due to music licensing issues, contestants weren't allowed to choose songs freely. Instead, they had to select from a list of ten pre-approved tracks from Tinkobell's Broadcast music catalog, provided in response to their audition applications. These tracks could be accessed on the Broadcast website.
Thanks to the pre-launch marketing tied to the 100,000 iPlayer giveaway and the requirement that contestants use Broadcast's catalog, the site's music sales had surged, and iPlayer production—already ramping up—couldn't keep pace with demand.
Based on these early indicators, Tinkobell's $50 million investment was proving to be worthwhile. Despite lacking the British version's foundation, the new American Idol was poised to match, if not exceed, the launch of the FOX version Simon remembered.
Now, all that remained was ensuring the show didn't suffer from the common pitfall of starting strong but declining over time.
To that end, Simon, fresh from his return from Europe, once again took on the role of a hands-on micromanager. He personally oversaw everything from the audition process, the development of the prize draw system, and the camera and lighting setup in the competition studio. He even spent a full day staging a rehearsal with the four judges, fine-tuning their performances even though they were already well-prepared.
After being bombarded with countless reality shows in his past life, Simon knew exactly how the judges should perform to create the best atmosphere on set.
Simon also added a running gag for Cher and David Kreuger to clash, taking inspiration from the "32 concerts" skit he remembered.
Cher was an absolute workhorse in the American music industry. Even well over a decade later, she would still perform dozens of concerts each year. While her tours weren't on the scale of Madonna's, they were far from small-time productions.
The first season of American Idol was set to wrap up by the end of May next year, just in time for Cher's planned concert tour from June to September. Simon incorporated the "32 concerts" joke into the show, suggesting that whenever Cher and Kreuger disagreed about whether a contestant should move forward, Cher could counter Kreuger's opinion by citing her upcoming tour and her professional authority.
They rehearsed this bit several times, and it worked brilliantly.
Cher was more than happy to play along with this setup since it would undoubtedly boost interest in her upcoming tour.
Whether or not it was actually 32 concerts was irrelevant.
Given Cher's workaholic nature, it was quite possible she would end up performing even more. At her peak, she had been known to perform over a hundred concerts in a single year. This trivia had once even made it into the infamous Golden Globes bribery scandal, where one of the gifts to the judges was tickets to Cher's concert, simply because they were so easy to acquire.
If Cher ended up doing more than 32 concerts next year, then they'd already have material for the second season's joke.
Kreuger could mock Cher for having said 32 concerts but actually performing 64, and so on.
Meanwhile, song choice for contestants was another key factor.
In the past, a reality show like The Voice of China could set the stage on fire with the right song, such as "High Song," which sent ratings soaring. However, choosing a low-key, sentimental track like "Yi Jian Mei" would never achieve the same effect.
These elements were, in the grand scheme, minor details.
The core of the show was still the competition itself.
Simon viewed American Idol as a reality show. While audiences believed they were watching something "real," the key was still in the "show"—it was all about the performance. That said, based on past experiences, the first few seasons of a music reality show often produced several breakout stars, and Simon was aiming for this outcome to further grow Daenerys Records.
The selection of judges reflected Simon's strategy.
Cher, the "big sister" of the panel, was already a Daenerys Records artist. Reviving her career would boost album sales for the veteran singer.
David Kreuger, who had produced the Backstreet Boys' first hit album, was skilled at crafting pop hits. He would be instrumental in identifying marketable talent from the pool of contestants.
As for the other two judges, Jay-Z and Jennifer Lopez, Simon included them as secondary figures. His ultimate goal was to cultivate both as potential stars for Daenerys Records.
Jay-Z's future success spoke for itself.
Jennifer Lopez, on the other hand, was a mystery to Simon. He had never fully understood how she managed to maintain her popularity for so long. Still, recognizing her potential, Simon was confident that investing resources in her would yield substantial returns.
Simon always believed that successful individuals possessed certain qualities that set them apart.
In this world, successful people are a minority, and luck plays a big role. It's incredibly difficult for outsiders to pinpoint the characteristics that lead to success.
Simon's greatest advantage was that he already knew who and what would succeed. With this foreknowledge, placing his bets gave him an overwhelming edge.
While Simon was busy overseeing the final stages of American Idol's preparations, the biggest news in North American entertainment was Jurassic Park 2 officially surpassing $400 million at the domestic box office. From September 1 to September 7, during its 14th week of release, the film added another $3.91 million, bringing its total to $402.37 million, making it one of the rare few films to join the $400 million club in North American box office history.
Additionally, with the major global markets having opened, by September 7, Jurassic Park 2 had grossed $632 million worldwide.
As the North American box office passed the $400 million mark, Jurassic Park 2 also crossed the $1 billion milestone globally.
The $1 billion mark was an essential milestone in Hollywood. Before Jurassic Park 2, many films, such as Jurassic Park and Batman Begins, had fallen just short of this threshold. The only film to surpass it was last year's The Dark Knight Rises, the final entry in the Batman trilogy.
Now, Jurassic Park 2 had not only become the second film in history to gross $1 billion worldwide but, with major markets like France and Japan still in the early stages of release, it was well-positioned to surpass $1.1 billion globally, possibly even outgrossing The Dark Knight Rises, which had earned $1.135 billion.
Meanwhile, rumors of General Electric's talks with Time Warner were beginning to circulate.
Nothing had been made official.
However, word was spreading among those in the know.
The clearest indicator was Time Warner's stock price. After Waterworld's box office disaster in late July, Time Warner's stock initially plummeted. But starting in mid-August, it began to recover. By the close of the first week of September, Time Warner's market capitalization had reached $20.7 billion.
According to Terry Semel's sources, Time Warner's executives and key shareholders were eager to sell the company, but there was a substantial price gap in negotiations with GE.
At its core, Time Warner's assets in film, television, and publishing had steadily appreciated in value over the years, bringing the company's total worth to $32 billion. The low stock price was largely due to the company's merger-related debt, internal power struggles, and bad investments like Waterworld.
Given its improving operations, Time Warner's stakeholders insisted that GE's offer should not be less than $30 billion. In contrast, Jack Welch's bid was reportedly no more than $25 billion.
The two parties were $5 billion apart.
Historically, Time Warner's market value had exceeded $100 billion during the height of the dot-com bubble in the early 2000s, thanks in large
part to the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. This legislation eliminated barriers between cable television, internet, and traditional telephone services, fueling speculation about a unified communications network. Time Warner capitalized on this by expanding its cable network services, driving up its stock price. Steve Case of AOL had targeted not only Warner's media assets but also its cable network infrastructure to supplement AOL's internet services.
Currently, Clinton's Telecommunications Act was still in the works. However, with Daenerys Entertainment disrupting the market, Time Warner's post-merger situation had never been ideal. Despite this, Warner Cable, Time Warner's cable network division, was thriving. However, without the Act's support, and with AOL dominating the ISP market, Time Warner's stock never soared as it had before.
Still, at $30 billion, Simon considered Time Warner a bargain.
If possible, the Westeros system would be more than happy to acquire Time Warner.
Of course, that possibility didn't exist.
Acquiring Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ABC had already pushed the boundaries of what Washington would tolerate.
Simon remained in New York until September 10. After returning to the West Coast the next day, Eaglet's long-anticipated IPO roadshow officially began.
Given the company's continued strong growth throughout the year, Eaglet's management and its underwriters had revised the IPO price twice, with the final offering price set at $35 per share—16% higher than the original $30 estimate.
At this price, Eaglet's IPO valuation surpassed $150 billion, with total fundraising expected to reach $18.6 billion, not counting any potential greenshoe options.
This made Eaglet's IPO the largest in global history, both in terms of valuation and total capital raised.
While Eaglet's monopolistic growth had instilled confidence in most investors, skepticism persisted due to the sheer scale of the offering.
Julian Robertson, founder of Tiger Management, one of the leading hedge funds in recent years, voiced his doubts during an interview on NBC's Today Show, calling Eaglet's IPO an "irrational" move and declaring that the tech bubble had reached its peak. He also announced that Tiger Management would be shorting a series of Westeros-affiliated tech stocks following Eaglet's listing.
Historically, Tiger Management, once on par with Soros's Quantum Fund, grew to over $20 billion after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. However, Robertson's incorrect bet on tech stocks, which he aggressively shorted before 2000, eventually led to Tiger Management's collapse.
Currently, Tiger Management had over $8 billion under management, and Robertson commanded considerable respect on Wall Street.
Simon hadn't expected Robertson to start predicting the tech bubble's collapse even before the Asian financial crisis.
Westeros made no public response to Robertson's comments, but Cersei Capital's hedge funds were quietly preparing.
Orchestrating a large-scale economic crisis requires years of planning. Some North American hedge funds had already begun positioning themselves in Asia, and Cersei Capital was no exception. Hedge funds are a zero-sum game; for some to profit, others must lose. Since Julian Robertson was eager to make his move, Simon had no problem taking his $8 billion off his hands.
_________________________
[Check out my Patreon for +200 additional chapters in all my fanfics! $5 for all!!]
[w w w . p a t r e o n .com / INNIT]
[+50 PowerStones = +1 Chapter] [+5 Reviews = +1 Chapter]