Howard Beal was once the ace anchor of UBS' "Wireless News" program, but in recent years, with the death of his wife, his mental state and career have declined. The company decided to fire him after two weeks as the show's ratings continued to drop. News director Michael Schumacher, an old friend of Howard's for many years, had to tell Howard the news in person, and then they went to a bar to hangover. Depressed Howard suddenly said that he was going to commit suicide on TV. Michael joked, "Okay, then we can make a special report on murders, disasters and wars. It's called "Terrorist Highlights of the Week", and the ratings will definitely increase.
No one expected that on the next day's live TV broadcast, Howard actually announced that he was going to commit suicide on the show a week later. This gaffe caused an uproar in the media, and the UBS TV network executives were even more outraged. Frank Hackett, the chairman of American Communications Corporation, who had just taken over UBS, was furious in front of the TV network executives, but the keen Michael noticed. , This ambitious new president's spearhead is not simply directed at Howard, but the entire news department he is in charge of. In the past year, the ratings of the news department's programs have declined and the losses have been serious, and Frank Huck has long been willing to operate on it. Sure enough, at the board meeting the next morning, Frank Hackett announced the downgrade of the News Department without authorization. Michael became furious and found Nielsen, the former president of UBS. However, Nielsen, who had no real power, could not help.
The original plan for the live news broadcast at night was for Howard to give a reasonable explanation to the audience for his gaffe the previous day. However, Howard, who felt hopeless in his future, once again made outrageous remarks, expressing his dissatisfaction and anger at the mental state of the contemporary American nation, and Mike. Er was at the scene at the time. He didn't stop Howard in a complicated mood. Instead, he borrowed Howard's words of indignation and let out a bad breath.
Diana Christerson is an ambitious young female UBS producer, a workaholic, sharp-minded, decisive, and good at taking advantage of men, she is planning a rather adventurous TV show - using The terrorists (a group of armed anarchists calling themselves revolutionaries) themselves filmed the action for a series of violent shows similar to today's "Reality TV". She was very interested in the "Howard Affair" and found that she could make use of it, so she found the results of the ratings survey of the last two days to persuade UBS chairman Frank Hackett, who had an ambiguous relationship with her. What is deeply surprising is that the live broadcast of Howard's "crazy" accidentally caused the ratings to skyrocket, and Frank Hackett also felt profitable, so he decided to support this matter. At the breakfast meeting of the network's top brass the next day, he overwhelmed conservatives and opponents with a hard-line attitude, and UBS decided to let Howard continue his "circus show."
The incident is now a complete success, but a new accident has occurred between Diana and Michael. One night, Diana suddenly came to Michael's office, under the pretext of giving advice to "Wireless News", flirting with American journalism veteran Michael as an admirer and schoolgirl of the year, Michael couldn't resist Diana's passionate love. Seduced, agreed to have dinner with her, and then they slept together logically. Michael discovered that Diana was a new generation of TV personality full of journalistic cells, she was extremely dangerous, but also full of energy and charm.
Howard Beal's show is getting crazier, and while the ratings have been on the rise - American audiences in the mid-1970s, who were extremely depressed and morally unbalanced, clearly recognized his craziness, but Michael was soberly aware of it. By the end, his old friend was actually insane, he strongly demanded to stop the show, and Frank Hackett, who had long been dissatisfied with him, took the opportunity to fire him. Howard, who gradually got out of control, suddenly disappeared for a whole day for no reason. He was soaked and soaked in the heavy rain. When he arrived at the TV station, the show had already started. to express the anger and repression within. Interestingly, audiences all over the United States really received this "call" from Howard. For a time, it seemed that the entire United States was sticking their heads out of the window and shouting frantically under the night. Michael didn't know whether to laugh or cry watching this crazy scene. After this episode aired, the ratings of UBS "Wireless News" skyrocketed again.
Diana began to implement her "real TV" plan in detail. Through the middleman, she had contacted and formally signed a contract with a notorious armed anarchist group. These terrorists were responsible for providing film sources to the TV network, and the profits were divided according to the contract. She bundled together several highly incendiary shows for a bold redesign of Wireless News, combining violence, divination, and more with Howard's "Crazy Prophet in the Air," the bold News programs quickly became the backbone of UBS.
Michael takes the initiative to find Diana, who is hopelessly in love with this dangerous woman, and the two come together again. Diana was indeed an extraordinary workaholic, with an ageless sensitivity to television news, but she was not a qualified woman, because even during sex, she couldn't stop chattering wildly about her work, but Mike. Er, still live with her without hesitation. The outspoken Michael chose to show off to his wife. Although he was very frank, his wife was still very angry and distressed after hearing the news. Michael moved out of his home to live with Diana.
UBS and the terrorists further refined their contracts, and at the same time UBS held its annual recognition conference, Diana became the company's new vice-chairman, and her career reached unprecedented heights. However, on the day of the reception, Howard broke down the inside story of the "illegal transactions" between the top executives of the United Broadcasting Corporation and the Arabs on the show. The next day, the White House actually received millions of telegrams from all over the United States. Frank Hackett, the executive chairman of UBS, was furious again. He was worried that the president, Mr. Arthur Jason, would fire himself for this matter. But unexpectedly, the mysterious behind-the-scenes boss Arthur Jason asked to meet Howard immediately.
In Arthur Jason's dark conference room, Howard heard the most naked speech of a real modern big capitalist. Jason's theories about monopoly, dictatorship and the law of the jungle greatly stimulated him, and he was deeply impressed and absurd. He thought that what he saw was actually God himself. Howard returned to his show, lightly brushing off yesterday's attack on the capitalist chaebols, talking about empty existential philosophies, and continuing similar conversations. His conversations became increasingly frustrating and rambling, and the show lost a sizable chunk of its younger audience and ratings slumped.
At this time, Michael and Diana's irrational extramarital relationship was finally on the verge of collapse. They quarreled almost every day, and finally had to admit that they had serious differences in life and news ethics, and they still had love for each other. , but they did not compromise with each other, and the ending had to break up.
A new round of investigation revealed that Howard's show had threatened the overall ratings of UBS, and UBS executives finally decided to cut the show, but President Jason firmly disagreed. After weighing the pros and cons, the UBS executives even planned a horrific live broadcast of the murder - Howard was shot and killed by two assassins on the live broadcast, and the killers were the anarchists on another Diana show. Howard was actually shot live on-air, but the war on TV ratings was still not over, with the voiceover calmly saying: "This is Howard Earle's story, the first case of being killed because of poor ratings."
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