America 1982-Chapter 291 - 14: Saving Her_2

Er had been bustling about these past few days, probably not getting much rest, and even though his dark skin hid his dark circles, you could still tell from the bags under his eyes that his recent travels between Chicago and Los Angeles had been anything but easy. Speaking in an even tone, he said:

"Let’s put it this way, if we want these guys to run the TV station according to our thinking and set up our BT network, we first need to make sure they make money. This means that the programs we offer have to substantially boost local TV ratings, making it easier for them to sell their own ads."

"Finding Daddy in America had a very good response in the black communities around Los Angeles, but the reception to Battle of Youth paled in comparison. The black audiences who watched it found the competition too complex and confusing. Additionally, Sean informed me that FOX is producing a dance competition reality show similar to Battle of Youth’s format, so we’ve temporarily scrapped the project," Rick Russo interjected as Er mentioned the shows.

"I had a meeting with the team, and considering the complexity that pure competition shows entail, which requires viewers to understand tedious competition procedures, and the market’s saturation with similar programs, we decided to take inspiration from existing gimmicks, like when I tried to shoot an adult film based on Terminator during my active years in the industry," he said.

"My team and I looked at the bestsellers of the past three years, the top-grossing films, and the most-watched TV shows. Then I came across a book, published in the United States in 1949, with seven million copies in circulation by 1970. Perhaps due to its title or other reasons, it reappeared at the top of the historical bestseller lists in 1984 and has remained there to this day. Out of curiosity, I specifically asked Martin to visit black communities to see if they had heard of it. Surprisingly, many people in the lower strata had heard of the book, not through reading but through radio stories. It’s an alternative history novel called 1984, and I’m sure everyone here has read this bestseller," Er explained.

Everyone, including Martin, nodded at the mention of the title, indicating their familiarity with the story.

is a dystopian novel written by English author George Orwell, published in 1949. The story is set in the imagined year of 1984 and, in the author’s vision, by then the world is divided into three superstates: Eurasia, Eastasia, and Oceania.

Eurasia includes the European continent and the areas around Western Siberia in Russia, essentially representing the author’s belief that the Soviet Union would eventually conquer all of Europe.

Eastasia, on the other hand, encompasses most of Asia, a coalition forged by the yellow races into a formidable superstate.

The primary setting of the story, Oceania, comprises the entire Western Hemisphere, the British Isles, Australia, and Africa, making it the most powerful of the three superstates.

Tommy had also read this popular bestseller. In his view, the reason why this book was so successful in America, and even promoted by the United States Government, with radio broadcasts airing audiobook versions, was that its premise aligned with the government’s malicious speculations about the Soviet Union. The authorities hyped up the book, hoping the citizens would read it and consider its story a potential reality, leaving them convinced that life would be as miserable as depicted if the Soviet Union ever ruled the world.

Rick, seeing that everyone was acquainted with the story, continued to elaborate: "In the book, the leader of Oceania is referred to as Big Brother. Big Brother monitors every single action and word of the citizens through cameras. The most famous quote from the book is ’Big Brother is Watching You,’ and it has left a deep impression on all of us."

"So, I thought of adapting this concept into a reality TV show called Big Brother Is Watching You. This time, though, all the viewers are Big Brother, and the participants are the monitored citizens. My concept is to set up a villa as a holding dormitory for the Ministry of Love in Oceania, where sixteen strangers will live, completely isolated from the outside world, with every move they make and word they speak recorded by cameras and microphones. There will be a designated Denunciation Room, and a substantial cash prize will be on offer, with one person being eliminated every week, for a season lasting three months. The winner will walk away with one hundred thousand US dollars."

"This means the participants need to have superb acting skills, strong emotional resilience, and clever tactics to win the competition and take home the cash, just like the protagonist in the novel."

"Every week, the guests will anonymously vote to evict one roommate, and the audience will also vote to decide who they find the most disagreeable and disingenuous. If the audience and the guests do not choose the same person, then the two will face a final showdown. We will design various tasks to increase the interaction and conflict among the guests, intensifying the human tensions in this enclosed environment. The guests can even go so far as to have intimate relations, which we’ll broadcast as long as it doesn’t violate television broadcast standards. In short, this is a reality show that satisfies voyeuristic desires and delves into human nature, showing people driven to avoid elimination by any means necessary, even if it means resorting to physical transactions."