Behind the scenes in Sheen's Korner
Charlie Sheen and his F-16 Id have both been shaking it up the past week. His string of edgy, on-air diatribes left traditional interviewers gasping for air. Pumped up with Tiger's Blood and Adonis DNA, Charlie took the battle to the airwaves in an attempt to get the gatekeepers at CBS to get his mega-hit show Two and a Half Men back into production.
Then a little birdie twittered into Charlie's ear: "who gives a shit about CBS, YOU are the brand. No one tunes into CBS, they tune into Charlie Sheen and you can connect with that audience directly. Within 24 hours Charlie had over one million Twitter followers (now close to two million) and #winning and #tigerblood were trending topics in the Memesphere.
Producer Brad Wyman, a longtime friend of Charlie's (and my partner in LOOK, the Movie, LOOK the TV series and now WYTV) introduced him to our new venture The WYTV Network. The premise simple. Hollywood filled with trolls: LOSING! The future of Entertainment the Internet: WINNING! It's all in the very early stages: LANDGRAB!
Over cigars and war stories about "The Chase" (Brad produced, Charlie starred) The plan was hatched. WYTV's portable studio would set up in his house (the Lodge), we'd all start Tweeting it up Saturday morning and go live at 7pm. Tens of thousands might tune in. It would be Sheen's mike, Sheen's roll. Sheen's Korner. A big experiment.
It's already history. Only it was hundreds of thousands. Will be millions shortly.
Episode One of "Sheen's Korner" was very "Alpha." Work in progress. Haters out in force. Who cares? They are Trolls. First show was a TROLL FILTER – goodbye LOSERS! Episode 2 Beta: Tigerblood will be flowing. Charlie on fire – sooner than you think. More cigar smoke. The show will be great
So is Charlie WINNING? Or was it a flame-out? Check the balance sheet:
Sheen's Korner: 1.5M views in less than 24 hours.
631,554 live simultaneous viewers a UStream Saturday night record and second only to The Chilean Miner rescue.
960,000 additional views of the recorded episode. (growing every minute).
Perspective: that is more than 2X CNN's primetime audience.
Dollars spent on promotion $0.
Twitter followers added since the show aired: 300,000 (now a record 2M+ in under a week).
Charlie has already won. In one week he's already as big as a Cable Network and more than 10% on his way to an audience the size of Two and a Half Men. No gatekeepers or "suits" needed.
On the Tech side the WYTV team was superb. For months we have been working on the art of live streaming. Not web-cam-shake-your-booty-fuzzy, but real Multi- cameras, switcher, cut-aways, lighting, smooth high-quality stream. It's new ground.
Why WYTV? This network is where HBO was in the 1970s. HBO gave people something they couldn't get on TV: back then it was uncut, uncensored movies. That's all. This week WYTV gave you Charlie Sheen: something you couldn't get on TV. No cable subscription needed.
We have no illusions. Live broadcasting is hard - maybe a lost art. We are bringing it back, with the interactivity and socialness of the Internet as part of the formula. It's all being figured out in real time. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it's so bad it's good. But there are magic moments emerging. Soon the magic will be persistent.
UPDATE: Charlie was back on the air Sunday with his own view of Episode One. You can check it out at Sheen's Korner.
What other shows are on WYTV?
GlobalSoulTV – Uber DJ Matt Robinson and his oh-so Soultry sidekick Erinn Anova hittin' R&Band Soul like it's supposed to be.
Fleischer's Universe – Mega talent Charles Fleischer (aka Roger Rabbit) shows his mega-brain in an alternate reality where Albert Einstein channels Robin Williams.
Down the Rabbit Hole – Starring Twitter personality @Duchess_rebecca. Live from Des Moines: it's Prairie Home Companion with thongs, sports and vodka.
Those Video Guys – From across the pond these dudes tell you what's watchable on the web and what sucks royal jelly.
You can find the full schedule at WYTV.
Should Hollywood be worried? Nah, people will just keep paying their huge cable bills while the Networks hold their oh-so-special content away from Netflix and Amazon and iTunes. On the other hand, I can't name a single broadcast show in history that ever got 1.5 million viewers without a single dollar spent on promotion.
Be very worried Trolls.
Dedication: to Alison Rosen who was and remains the future of TV.
