“The Girl of Sugar Beachreached its highest audience yet with episode four. With a push fromWake Up AmericaandDante 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 Beachis 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 ondownloads.”
“Of course,” Graham said. “Nielsen ratings are based onactualviewers 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 Beachwas 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 afterThe 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 followingSugar Beachwill 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.
CHAPTER 29
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
JANET STATION WAS THE U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICTof New York, appointed six years ago by the previous administration and a carryover now. She, like most leftovers, was waiting for the other shoe to drop and for the call to come that the new gang in Washington had decided on her replacement. But it had been several months and the turnover slowed, if not stopped altogether. So when the call from Washington had come the night before, she was surprised by the identity of the voice on the other end—the Assistant U.S. Attorney General—and more so by the request.
The call had sent her to midtown this morning, away from her office at 1 St. Andrew’s Plaza in lower Manhattan. It was an unusual request, but only took a bit of digging after the phone call ended for Janet to understand Washington’s concern.
Sidney Ryan’s past three documentaries had all resulted in exonerations. It was, by any measure, an impressive string of success. Clemency took more muscle than any one filmmakercould manage on her own. Exonerations took the Innocence Project and attorneys and usually some politically connected individuals, who either had a relation with, or could apply pressure to, the district attorney’s office that had originally indicted and prosecuted the subject. It took the discovery of new evidence, too, and usually some public outcry to gain a D.A.’s attention. When celebrities got involved, things usually turned ugly. And though most district attorneys basked in any media attention directed their way, certain forms of attentiveness—the negative kind that could ruin a career—was avoided at all cost.
It was never an easy decision for a D.A. to overturn a conviction, as this was typically an admission of incompetence. Some fast research the night before told Janet Station that the three individuals highlighted in Sidney Ryan’s searing documentaries were pardoned, not by the D.A. or judge who had put them behind bars, but years later by a new prosecutor who filled the hole left by the retiring D.A. This new district attorney had less to lose from looking at a decades-old case and admitting that it was handled incorrectly by the previous administration.
These fights were hard and long, and no one came out clean on the other end. But Grace Sebold’s case was different. Prosecuted and convicted by a foreign government, Grace had never returned to the United States after Julian Crist was killed. Sidney Ryan’s documentary was chugging along, gaining a voice and an audience, and a hell of a lot of attention.
The conclusion being whispered around Washington? That a United States citizen had been wrongfully accused and imprisoned by a foreign government. The inevitable question that will be asked? Why had the government of the United States sat back and done nothing? The question and its implication was a runaway train Washington wanted to get in front of, and so the call had come to Janet Station to see how far along that train had gotten, and how fast it was running.
Her cell phone rang.
“Yeah?”
“She’s in a booth in the back. Lady with her is Leslie Martin, a producer for the documentary.”
