The Best Director

News of his preparations for this mysterious “The Cosmic Big Bang” crew had already leaked, and the name itself was enough to send fans into a frenzy. The Cosmic Big Bang! The Cosmic Big Bang! But what was it actually about? The name alone was ambiguous—sure, like “Friends” or “Two and a Half Men”—but they also sensed a fresh, different vibe from it.

NBC and other networks were also in the dark; Wang Yang had only mentioned that “it’s a series with scientific content.” Science and sitcoms?! It wasn’t unheard of—doctors, lawyers, police officers, even delivery people had been done. Why not science? But science belonged on the National Geographic Channel. Was “The Big Bang Theory” going to popularize science in everyday life? Maybe it was a family comedy about a professor’s household with a few child characters?

Or would it follow the lead of “MIT-21-TEAM” as a comedy-drama about a group of interesting MIT students? Could such a concept really work?

Many questions filled the minds of executives at TV networks and fans, but everyone knew that Wang Yang had seemingly fallen in love with “intelligence.” In “MIT-21-TEAM,” every other sentence burst with complex mathematical theories, Monty Hall paradoxes, tiger paradoxes, causing viewers to reel from the onslaught. And the opening and closing conversations held a different kind of “shock”; “Prison Break” had a plot and escape plans that were intricately interlocked and ingeniously crafted. And now, even sitcoms had to incorporate science.

If the creator of “The Cosmic Big Bang” had been someone else: Young-Someoneson, Someoneson-Wang, ABC’s Robert Iger would laugh, “Are you kidding me? Go to the National Geographic Channel; we’re an entertainment channel.” Kevin Reilly of NBC would ponder for a while before saying, “We need shows that appeal to the youth, not the elderly.” Nancy Tellem of CBS, after consideration, would say, “We could consider making a pilot.”

But now it was Young-Wang.

“Oh! We’ll order it!” Every TV network raised their hand, and they all made it clear: “Full season booked!” No one believed a Wang Yang comedy would draw less than 10 million viewers; they were always ready for 20 million. This level of risk was completely worth it.

Facing this anticipated “surging enthusiasm,” Wang Yang expressed his gratitude. He also knew he couldn’t overplay his hand, or he would become a nuisance. Therefore, he first revealed his desire to air the show on a major network and declined the fervent invitations from FOX, UPB, and WB.

The three networks could only withdraw from the competition in disappointment. Their PR officials were helpless. Should they offer Wang Yang golf club discounts? Courtside tickets to the Staples Center for the Christmas showdown? Why not look at his assets and net worth? It would be nothing but humiliating themselves.

So, naturally, it came down to NBC, CBS, and ABC—a war was underway. They each declared in turn, “No need for a pilot.” This was a blind trust in Wang Yang, a mark of respect, and it was their starting line.

“We have great confidence in any plan from Miraculous Yang, haha!” Kevin Reilly, President of NBC Entertainment, said delightedly to the media, chuckling that ‘Prison Break’ gave them boundless confidence, along with a ‘scientific law’: “You just need to believe in him, and he will definitely bring surprises. We call this ‘Miraculous Yang’s Law’. Although we don’t yet know what this series will be like, we believe in it.”

Blind trust and disrespect toward the audience? Hearing this provocative question from a reporter, Kevin Reilly shook his head repeatedly, stating seriously: “We must realize that this is not the first TV series without a pilot episode. Not having a pilot doesn’t mean disrespecting the audience; on the contrary, it’s about respecting the audience and respecting Miraculous Yang. This is a consensus among all of us, because that person is Miraculous Yang; we all need to provide him with the greatest creative space, and he will then bring us the best work.”

While NBC’s words made it seem as if ‘The Big Bang Theory’ was already theirs, in fact, it was not; meanwhile, rumors that CBS, with Nancy Tellem, was in the competition were confirmed by the media: “Yes, we’re indeed pursuing the series. Who wouldn’t want to? We also have ‘Miraculous Yang’s Law.’ In fact, we seriously considered chasing ‘Prison Break,’ but its crime genre did not match our channel’s style, so we eventually and regretfully pulled out.”

Her words were practically an apology: “I didn’t underestimate your ‘Prison Break’; that was a mistake, don’t mind it!” It’s rare for the queen of screen entertainment to publicly apologize, and 23-year-old Miraculous Yang is one such person, of course, this being one of the reasons for her excellent popularity. In the celebrity voting column at Hollywood COM, her approval rating is at 100%, the most well-liked CEO in the film and television entertainment industry; whereas Wang Yang’s approval rating is at 95%.

Nancy Tellem eventually said, “Now that everyone knows this sitcom will include scientific content, it’s very much in line with CBS’s style. We’re very interested and hope to reach a collaboration.”

“Of course we have ‘Miraculous Yang’s Law.\'” Seeing that their opponent had made a move, ABC naturally wasn’t sitting idle, with Robert Iger saying to the media: “We also have three more rules: First, he has a magical ability to change the market, don’t tell him ‘you can’t do it’; second, his vision and foresight are beyond ordinary, don’t tell him ‘this is wrong’; he always has amazing ideas and will implement them, then bring surprises, don’t tell him ‘are you kidding me?’ All of this is about believing in him! You can’t treat him with conventional methods.”

ABC, lacking competitiveness, showered praise, hoping to win over Miraculous Yang. How much value could a ‘The Big Bang Theory’ bring over 10 years if it achieved the success of ‘Friends’?

“I believe ABC will provide ‘The Big Bang Theory’ with a warm home,” Iger confidently stated in the end: “It will also bring a spring of sitcoms to ABC.”

ABC wasn’t all talk and no action. In terms of scheduling, their promise was to let Wang Yang choose any time slot for current sitcoms; NBC did the same, but suggested taking over the ‘Friends’ slot at Thursday PM 8:00, and moving ‘Joey’ to 8:30 for broadcast, offering to air two episodes back-to-back in the first week if needed; while CBS offered any slot except Monday PM 9:00, suggesting taking over ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’s spot after it ended the following season.

Of course, if that were the case, it would result in a face-off between ‘The Big Bang Theory’ season two versus ‘Prison Break’ season three, dependent solely on Miraculous Yang’s wishes.

So what about the promotion for the first season of the series? The answer from all three networks was unhesitatingly “top-notch,” as the huge success of ‘Prison Break’ had broken the traditional promotion methods. It was no longer run-of-the-mill; setting aside online marketing, the “big money” strategy of focusing heavily on one or two new series had become the latest approach in the television market — treat a TV series like a movie promotion! All networks had come up with their latest plans and the audience will see many changes in the upcoming autumn season.

How top-notch the promotion would be depended on the budget offered. ABC, throwing caution to the wind, committed to $8 million, which was the maximum amount Robert Iger had managed to obtain from the upper management, although he had hoped for $10 million; CBS had already made an offer of $10 million in a bid to cooperate, which could go up to $15 million if the quality of the series proved to be amazing; NBC, having made a fortune with ‘Prison Break,’ would not be stingy with Miraculous Yang, directly offering $15 million.

The Flame Group’s biggest initial moneymaker in terms of licensing fees was what? The first season of “The Big Bang Theory” would have 24 episodes, and ABC offered Flame Family Entertainment a high price of $4 million per episode, which is already the treatment for a top ten rating; although these were not discussed openly, CBS was not to be outdone, proposing to order 22 episodes for $4.5 million each, or $4.3 million for a 24-episode season; however, upon hearing rumors, NBC, not to be outdone and quite protective, offered an unprecedented $4.8 million per episode for a 24-episode season.

Usually, the amount of money for the rights in the first contract for a TV series will be the amount for the second and third contracts when they are ordered for half a season or three seasons at once, no matter how popular the show is, ranking number one in viewership, it would still earn at least $4 million, $4.5 million, or $4.8 million per episode for several seasons, with few shows increasing their licensing fees midway. Of course, if the producers encounter a situation where the lead actors demand a raise or else they won’t sign a new contract, the terms will be renegotiated.

In 1994, the first season of “Friends” paid each of the six main actors a salary of $6,500 per episode. After the first season broke into the annual top ten with an average of 14.88 million viewers, ranking ninth, the salary for the six actors was raised to $30,000 each per episode for the second season, and the result was an average of 17.93 million viewers for the second season, climbing to third place for the year. In 1996, under the leadership of “Phoebe” Lisa Kudrow, the six actors collectively demanded a pay raise from the Warner Brothers, so the third season’s pay rose to $40,000 each.

By 1999, the salary per episode in the sixth season was $200,000, in the eighth season in 2000 it was $760,000 and $9,000 US dollars, in 2001 the ninth season reached $1 million per person per episode, and this year’s final season has risen to an unprecedented $1.2 million per person per episode. To accommodate this, NBC had to pay Warner Bros over $9 million per episode for the first-run rights.

Lisa Kudrow, the “big brother” who proposed the famous “all or nothing” agreement of the “Friends” cast, said at the time, “I don’t think an average of $1 million per episode for several main actors is too much. It seems indeed a bit outrageous, but I told myself, ‘If the producers can’t afford it, they wouldn’t agree to it.’ Their agreement signifies that they are still making money.”

According to personnel from Warner Bros., the reason the six main actors offered such an outrageous price was that their relationship with Warner Bros. was no longer as cordial. They thought the price would definitely not be accepted and that they would break up, but Warner Bros. and NBC unexpectedly agreed.

Warner Bros. naturally wouldn’t engage in a losing business. In addition to the first-run fee of over $9 million for the tenth season, the syndication fee on TBS channel also reached $1 million per episode. For the second-run rights effective from 2011, any interested parties must be willing to pay $1 million per episode for all 236 episodes. There is also the income from various international markets, the DVD market, and various other licensing fees… it can be said to be extremely profitable. On NBC’s part, a 30-second ad spot during “Friends” can sell for more than $500,000.

A show with just a name and “scientific content,” “The Big Bang Theory” for $4.8 million an episode? Despite NBC’s deep pockets, this move is still incredibly crazy; of course, CBS and ABC are as well. But this battle might well determine the sitcom landscape on television for the next ten years, as well as affecting the relationship with Magical Yang. According to the “Magical Yang Law” and “Magical Yang Rule,” if they don’t want it, FOX will immediately shout, “I’ll take it for $4.5 million per episode!”

With the current market situation, if “The Big Bang Theory” goes with Magical Yang’s usual style of using new actors and extras with little to no fame, each person might be paid about $50,000 to $60,000 per episode, so even if there are six main actors, the total salary per episode wouldn’t exceed $360,000; not including Magical Yang, the cost per episode for such a sitcom shouldn’t exceed $1 million. This means that if Flame chooses NBC with the highest offer, they would make a pre-tax profit of $3.8 million per episode just from the first-run licensing fees alone, a total of $91.2 million for the first season.

The current bids of $400,000, $450,000, and $480,000 are a hundred percent for buying into Magical Yang, investing in a new show “guaranteed” to rank among the top ten in annual viewership. Nonetheless, even so, NBC doesn’t dare to buy three seasons all at once, only daring to buy one season first, after all, this is a very high price.

“Right now this series is just some ideas, but it has received a great deal of enthusiasm from many, many people, which makes me feel quite honored,” he said.

Wang Yang truly hadn’t anticipated such rapid development to this exaggerated point. The little tactic of “when the snipe and the clam grapple, the fisherman profits” had worked, but he felt none of the joy he had felt when he duped Lionsgate into thinking Artisan Entertainment was interested in releasing DV movies to speed up the distribution of “Paranormal Activity.” Because now he was “Miraculous Yang,” the chairman of the Flame Corporation, and many things had changed.

If trying to make a bit more money would obviously worsen relationships all around, then it was somewhat a loss not worth the gain. His initial thought was to be satisfied with $3 million per episode—after all, this wasn’t like “Prison Break,” a one-hour, live-action drama filmed on location; it was a half-hour multi-camera sitcom mostly shot in a studio! Who would have guessed that without even a few words exchanged, the bidding had passed $4 million? It was just a normal bidding procedure.

“We’ve chosen NBC for ‘The Big Bang Theory.\'”

In an exclusive interview with “TV Guide” magazine and in a blog post, Wang Yang announced the news. He had also discussed it privately with Nancy Tellem and Robert Iger; meanwhile, NBC was already overjoyed, bursting with confidence in their announcement: “In the 2004-2005 TV season, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ will take over the ‘Friends’ slot, and we believe it will keep audiences tuned into NBC on Thursday nights at eight.” Both CBS and ABC said they were “very disappointed.”

Wang Yang didn’t choose to fan the flames, pushing the networks to jack the per episode price over $5 million. He opted for the most suitable strategy of “knowing when to stop when something is too good” and let everyone shake hands and call it quits. After all, he hadn’t said anything ugly or even expressed any stance. Of course, both “Prison Break” and “The Big Bang Theory” would definitely injure the interests of the opposition, but that’s just how the game is played—you can pick NBC but you can’t embarrass others.

Especially as a Chinese American, one has to maintain good relations with everyone. Words and deeds are some of the greatest factors that determine outcomes.

It wasn’t like he meant to embarrass anyone. It’s just that you can’t make “The Big Bang Theory” for NBC, produce “The Cosmic Big Bang” for NBC, and create “The Brain Big Bang” for ABC… It’s impossible to satisfy everyone, so the best you can do is to express your true feelings tactfully.

“Choosing NBC was mainly because of ‘Friends,\'” he said. “I started watching ‘Friends’ when I was 14, and I think I’ll never forget that couch in the opening credits. Now to take over its slot, and have the opportunity to continue its glory, to maintain the Thursday tradition, is very meaningful to me. I want to thank everyone who trusts ‘The Big Bang Theory’ and trusts me. Our team will work hard, and starting next year, we will bring joyful Thursday nights to everyone.”

The fans and audience understood his decision well—besides “Friends,” he had a good working relationship with NBC, so why change networks? CBS and ABC really couldn’t hold a grudge, knowing they were just used as leverage in the bidding, but that’s the rule of the game. “Miraculous Yang” had given them much face, both publicly and privately, and with NBC’s victory announcement, the soap opera drama “The Battle for Miraculous Yang” had finally come to an end.

In the end, Flame Family Entertainment accepted NBC’s offer for a full season order for the first season with 24 episodes at $4.8 million each for the premiere rights, plus no less than $10 million for promotional costs. The specifics of the contract were still under negotiation, but that didn’t hinder Flame from starting production; if NBC decided to drop their order tomorrow, both the now furrow-browed Nancy Tellem and the worried-looking Robert Iger would “haha” and raise their fists in triumph.

“Hello, is this Professor David Saltzberg? This is Wang Yang. Yes, I’m looking for you, haha, not about basketball or football, let’s put our past aside. You know it’s about ‘The Big Bang Theory.’ I would like to invite you to join our team as a script consultant…” (