Sorry, but I was just floored by this ratings summary by Variety:

A closer look at the Nielsens for the preem of “HSM2”:

• The movie easily outdrew the previous record for a cable movie, set by TNT’s “Crossfire Trail” in January 2001 (15.5 million). And it also bested the previous basic-cable record audience for any telecast, 16.0 million for ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” game between New Orleans and Atlanta last September.
• The movie drew 10 million viewers more than any other telecast Friday night (6.9 million for ABC’s “20/20”).
• It’s the largest aud for any Friday telecast since an episode of NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU” in 2002.
• It’s the largest audience for any movie on any network in more than 2½ years (18.7 million for “The Magic of Ordinary Days” on CBS in January 2005).
• And it’s the most-watched telecast of any kind since May, when a handful of broadcast series, led by “American Idol” (30.7 million) and “Grey’s Anatomy” (22.6 million), wrapped their seasons before bigger crowds.

Roughly half of the 17.2 million viewers for “HSM2” (8.7 million) came from the net’s target 6-14 demo, meaning that the pic also drew a sizable business among older teens as well as adults.

In kids 6-11, the 6.1 million viewers for “High School Musical 2” makes it the most-watched program on record in this age-range — above even Super Bowls. And in tweens 9-14, its 5.9 million lags only the 2004 Super Bowl.

Eek! What does this mean? Here are a few prognostications, not all of them up-tempo:

• We’re in that rare moment just before the pendulum starts to swing and the bandwagon gets jumped on hard. Think we’re going to see a LOT of musicals, a LOT of 6-14 targeted medium-budget pics, a LOT of hamfisted HSM ripoffs? Sometimes to ask the question is to know the answer. Those numbers are just too damn big to ignore any longer.
• Remember a few entries ago where I groused about the lack of Hollywood translations of Bollywood films? This changes nothing, I’m afraid– even though there the plotlines and general appeal of Hindi musicals roughly target the right demographic and are a rich source of new and interesting stories. No, look for more greenlighted Broadway reviews– the lazy, time-tested method.

I actually know somebody whose work was already affected by the HSM phenomenon. This business associate of mine, a fine filmmaker (and an excellent voice-over talent) wrote an intriguing screenplay a few years ago. Can’t get into too much detail, but for the sake of the point I’m making I’ll let you know the story centers on a little group of 16-year-olds and a fast, fast car. It also has a cool hook, realistic dialog, and fascinating little story arcs in it.

This screenplay got optioned, and he started getting notes for rewrites. At some point, the producers requested he change the ages of the main characters down to 11 to 13 years old. The explanation: the producers saw the numbers generated by the first HSM and wanted to hit that demographic. The business associate of mine who wrote it made mention of the fact 13-year-olds generally don’t drive cars and said changes would render the premise somewhat far-fetched. Not only that, the main characters in HSM are varsity graders. No matter.

He had to sort of disown the sold story, but last I heard it’s still on the path to production. As far as I’m concerned, this is an unqualified success story– that business associate is one of the very few people I know who has had a feature script optioned. Changes like that are par for the course in the biz– He should feel good the producers weren’t insisting on making the main characters talking penguins.

–Skot C.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 20th, 2007 at 5:05 pm and is filed under General, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.