When it finished, people were whispering at each other as we waited to hear from them. Mordecai, one of the junior executives, asked us to come with him. He waved to Erik to follow, and we gathered in the lobby. “Off the record, I loved your show, and my girls would go wild for it,” he said. “Erik and I are going to take you to lunch while the bigshots put together a proposal for you.”
“That’s good, right?” Amy hadn’t talked much, but she had a good read on people. She spent the meeting watching their reactions, not the shows.
“Very good. Basic salesman stuff; never let them leave without a deal because they won’t come back.” I turned to Mordecai and smiled. “Where are we going?”
“There is a wonderful restaurant on the top floor of this building,” he said. Smart, not even letting us go back to our vehicle. We rode the elevator to the top, taking a table with a view of downtown and the ocean beyond. We didn’t talk business, but I had a great time talking to Erik about producing shows and trading stories. Erik’s presence gave me an idea. I struggled with how to handle day-to-day Sharkbait Productions in America while staying with my Pack in Australia. Linda and Erik were friends who had worked together before; perhaps he could be an associate producer and work with us?
One thing I knew for sure; with all the movers and shakers in Hollywood, our appearance here would not go unnoticed. “I bet we have messages from five other networks before we finish dessert,” I said.
I was wrong. It was seven.
Mordecai looked at his phone and called the waitress over to settle the bill as we finished our drinks. “They’re ready for you,” he said as he stood.
“Good, because we’ll have time to talk with the other seven networks who know something is going on if we wrap this up in the next hour.” His eyes got big, and he couldn’t get us back downstairs fast enough. He ducked into the room, opening the doors for us a few minutes later.
I could sense the tension as we sat down. “Thank you for lunch; it was lovely.”
“You’re welcome,” the CEO said as she sat taller in her chair. “I’ll get to the point. We want to broadcast your show, and we have prepared a generous offer for it.” She went through the particulars, and I had to fight to keep my expression from changing as I heard the numbers. “We also want the right to match any offer for future documentaries from Sharkbait Productions. We’d like to keep your brand on our network.”
“Right to match isn’t as good as the right to refusal,” Amy said over the link.
I agreed. “I don’t like the idea of a right to match; when I shake someone’s hand and seal a deal, it means something to me. I could grant you the right of refusal instead. When these programs become available, I’ll have a much better idea of their worth on the open market. If you turn down my proposal, I’ll shop it elsewhere.”
A few eyes got big. “We’ve never made a financial commitment like this before,” the VP of Programming said.
I made a show of looking through the figures, then closed the folder and pushed it in front of Stan. He didn’t even open it, as he could run numbers in his head faster than I could put them into a calculator. “This show is going to be a hit, and we both know it. Stan?”
“The baseline number is acceptable, but bump it up by a hundred thousand dollars for every half-million viewers, broadcast and online combined,” Stan said. “When it blows away the competition, we gain as well.”
“We would also offer bonus programming for one-third the per-episode fee,” I said. “It would be a fan-talk format, like Sharks After Dark. We would bring in guests, the four of us could make appearances and ask questions, trivia, follow-ups, and things like that. It’s cheap programming that builds the brand.”
It was also a way to get paid for another thirty minutes with a few hours of work, which I could do from my home in Australia.
The negotiations went quickly after that. We had discussed our strategy and minimum numbers, and we had gone well above that. The final deal was worth a minimum of thirty-five million dollars, and an option for the aftershow at four hundred thousand an episode. Payment would be in stages; Linda delivered the first eight episodes as the CEO handed over the first check. “This is the start of a long and profitable relationship,” she said.
“I hope so.” We managed to hold our screams and jumping around until we reached the parking garage.
**********
We ate dinner at the airport before taking a direct flight to the vacation destination of Cancun, Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula. We arrived late, getting to our room well after midnight. We were excited, but the girls were already asleep when we got in. Amy and I quickly showered and got to bed, hoping to get some sleep before we had to be up for the modeling session.
We caught up on each other’s adventures as we ate breakfast, using the mind link for anything sensitive. I was thrilled for the twins; they left with contract extensions that would keep them in the Bodyglove family until 2036 with a significant pay raise. It had the schedule flexibility they needed to work with their school and mates, and they would pay them to make two USO trips before the contract expired. I was thrilled to hear this, as I knew how much they wanted to spend time with service members. Our appearance at the San Diego Exchange was one of our best. “We’ve talked about doing a show on SEAL training, but we should consider a USO show as part of our reality show,” I said.
“I’d LOVE that,” Amy replied. “Can we fit it in?”
“We can if we do one less show on the Sea Scout,” Linda replied.
“Or we turn one show into a documentary,” I said. “Think about which location would make the best shark-focused documentary, and we can change that out. Maybe one on Hammerheads in the Keys or Bermuda? Great Hammerheads make great shows.” We might as well, Discovery wanted them too, especially for Shark Week.
“We can see what we come up with, and maybe our local expert has an idea.” A documentary took a couple of weeks to film, as you wanted lots of underwater videos to fill the show.
The twins had been thrilled at how successful our negotiations had gone. “I can’t wait to do the talk shows,” Makani said.
“We can come up with some fun games and contests,” Noelani said.
“I bet you can,” I said. I grew up watching those shows, and I had my ideas. Trivia contests, bloopers, behind the scenes moments, and interviews would quickly fill up a 21-minute program. We’d still have to work hard to make a quality product, but I could do it from home. Wherever that ended up being, I thought to myself.
We did a lot of the shooting early before the beaches got crowded. We did attract spectators, but Carla worked with local police to keep a perimeter. We finished at the beaches by ten, and then our party had a police escort to Captain’s Cove, a restaurant with seating on the pier. We ate a light lunch on the water while Mercedes and her photographers took candid shots. This time, the shoot was emphasizing beach wraps and dresses. Finally, we went back to the Westin Ocean Villas and Spa for photos in the expansive pool and spa areas.