BOOK ONE: DECEPTIONS
Chapters One to Twenty Six
Vignettes 1 - 140

BOOK TWO: YESTERDAY ECHOES
Chapters 27 to
Vignettes 141 -

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Vignette #42: Daytime

Tolan finally took back over, moving on to the next order of business. Both Ian and David Turner remained silent, but the old man kept glancing over at the younger, seeming to note his reaction to anything and everything. Simon Kent remained an obnoxious power mouth, wresting away as much control as he could from Tolan.

“And finally, we will be announcing shortly the cancellation of “Sebastian Manor” and adding that hour to “America Alive!” Tolan added as almost an after thought.

This was what Ian had been waiting for. He turned to Wella, who dropped her eyes and nodded ever so slightly.

“Excuse me if I am speaking out of turn,” Ian asked timidly, “Is that a done deal?” He couldn’t help but see Kent, shooting him a look that could only be interpreted as deadly.

“Well, no, but I think we are pretty unanimously in agreement…” Tolan answered.

“I understand that, but are we sure that that this the best move?”

Kent rolled his eyes and plopped his pudgy hands on the table. “It makes perfect sense. “Sebastian Manor” is a huge disaster…”

“Despite a pedigree…” Ian interrupted to Kent’s annoyance.

“Soaps are losing ratings, and we expect to let “The Best of Everything” go when its contract is up, as well. Soaps are dead. Let the affiliates have the time.” Kent waved his hands in the air.

“Actually…” Ian stood, “If I may…?”

“Please, proceed…” Tolan took a seat and looked at David Turner, sitting there with intrigued pleasure on his face. Kent practically spit on Ian as he began handing out copies of the information his staff had compiled.

“If you will take a look at this data, we may want to reconsider before any formal announcements are made. While “America Alive!” is our highest rated daytime show, it is also by far our most expensive and adding the 9 am hour will actually triple the cost.”

Ian referred to his own notes. “That extension would be competing with Regis, Ellen and a host of others that will clobber us in ratings. According to this research most of our affiliates wouldn’t even pick up the added hour, as they have established hits guaranteeing them market shares up to five points higher than our peak at 7 am.”

“So essentially, you believe that we’d just be losing another hour to the affiliates?” Logan queried.

“Absolutely, and it would be the most expensive loss on our schedule, day or prime.” Ian added.

“Well…” Kent snorted, “That will be saving the network a lot of money in the long run and many headaches sooner than later.”

“Actually, if you will pick up the copies behind the previous data, you will see that more than sixty percent of the money earned from daytime comes from our two soap operas, plus the fact that in foreign markets they regenerate the same amount of money or more, while “America Alive” has no foreign market value whatsoever.”

“We are all aware of that fact,” Tolan remarked, “But as Simon pointed out, soaps are a dying breed, it makes more sense to just get out and take the hit, rather than continue to see our market shares dry up.”

“Jack, that seems true on the surface, but you have to look a little outside the box…” Ian saw Wella pull on her ear, meaning he was beginning to step over the line. “I’m sorry let me rephrase that…”

Kent pounded his fist on the table, “I don’t think I care to be told what I already know, by a boy whose only job here seems to be to get attention by wiggling his fanny in public!”

“Excuse me?” Ian’s buttons had been pushed and Wella could have gouged her eyes out and she still would not have been able to stop her boss now. She just sat back and hoped he didn’t hang himself.

“If you were paying a little more attention to what was going on in the industry instead of ogling my tight little ass maybe HRT wouldn’t be in the decline it’s in.”

There were a couple of nervous giggles, and Kent stood up. “I don’t have to listen to this!”

“Sit down!" Ian glared at the man. "I respected you enough to let you insult me from the moment I walked in and by God you wee little man, you will sit down, shut up and listen to what I have to say!”

Kent turned to see if Tolan, or any one, would back him up. He slowly sat down in his chair and folded his hands in his lap. “By all means, please proceed.”

“Throughout the world, and even in US prime time, soap operas are the highest rated and most profitable programming. You can quibble about those dollars, but we seem to be forgetting that daytime drama is great seeding ground for the network and the entertainment industry as a whole. You would be hard pressed to name one major actor, writer, producer or director working today that didn’t spend some time there.”

Ian allowed a moment for the executives to process those statements. David Turner nodded his head, and Ian took that as a sign to proceed. “As a whole, we simply haven’t kept up with the public. Daytime is still playing to a 1960’s audience that no longer exists. The story telling is slow and shoddy. You can tune into almost any soap once a week and still not miss many details. When it comes to “Sebastian Manor” you can tune in once a month”

Tolan turned to the older man on his right, “Is that guy still tied up naked in the chair?”

Ian answered for him, “Yes, as he has been for thirteen weeks now. What we need to do is reinvent or at minimum modernize our daytime dramas. Find the fine line in the speed of storytelling that makes you not want to miss the episode, but not tune out completely if you do because you won’t be able to catch up. With that will come the ratings, the profits and the industry will start looking back at us to set the standard. It’s a small step, but it’s a step.”

Kent smiled, “Very impressive, Mr. Justyn, but you have left out one glaring detail.”

“Which would be?”

“A daytime soap opera has not been launched successfully since the mid-sixties.” Kent smiled and patted his chubby little hands together.

“Wrong again. In the late seventies, CBS launched “The Bold and the Beautiful”, not initially successful, but they stood behind it and in three years, rather than the average five, it became the number two daytime program, as has been for the last ten years, right behind “The Young and the Restless”, which was launched in 1972, the last immediate hit launched in daytime drama.”

“Can we afford to take that time, though?” The older gentleman asked.

“I don’t think we can afford not to try, and we can ease the cost of doing so by launching it with our Fall line up. We push it with our Prime Time programming giving it the aura of glamour and excitement, something not usually associated with soaps. All we would have to do is be able to back up that aura.”

Ian closed his folder, “I apologize, Mr. Kent, for my outburst. You will find me very passionate about what I believe in and ready to fight for it until the last drop of blood is spilled, much like yourself.”

Kent nodded his head, and least feigning acceptance of Ian’s apology.

“Well, I think we have a lot to think about, but I think we all are probably thinking the same thing. There’s not much time to develop and launch a new daytime drama, so we’d better get cracking.” Tolan said to the table.

Kent smiled, “Oh Jack, why don’t we just put it in the obviously capable hands of Mr. Justyn? We’ll give him a head start on profitability by handing all of daytime to him; just fold it into his team, as he says.”

There were snickers around the table. David Turner, sat forward. “Kent, I think that’s a great idea.” He turned to a stunned Ian and mumbled, “Probably the only really good one he’s had all day.” He looked directly at Ian. “Son, do you think you can handle that?”

“I…uh…”

Turner leaned back in his seat. “I think you can.”

Jack Tolan looked at Ian. “Son, that baby is all yours now.”

“Uh...thank you, sir.” Wella almost had to pick him up off the floor, but first she had to pick up herself.

Ian looked over at Kent, whom to his surprise was gloating. “Yes, young Mr. Justyn. I think we all look forward to seeing just what you do with something you obviously feel so passionate about.”

Neither remembered much of the rest of the meeting. They adjourned for the day just in time for a late lunch.

Ian ran straight to the can and vomited. It went well, but he didn’t expect to just be handed the daytime division like that. It was unheard of. He looked at the toilet and mumbled to himself. “Well now is time to shit or get off the pot.”

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