The Ripple Effect.
Los Angeles.
Zane Blackwood drove away from the golf course with Jessica Chastain. The sun was shining. The engine purred. Life was perfect.
Until he saw the newspaper.
It wasn't the New York Times. It was a rag called Nine Nine Weekly. Small, cheap, and desperate for attention.
But the headline was huge.
[SHADY! IS AMERICA'S GOT TALENT RIGGED?]
The article didn't pull punches: "Eminem is already signed to Golden Dawn! The show is a setup! The production company and the record label are the same people! It's not a competition; it's a puppet show!"
Zane tossed the paper onto the car seat. He didn't look panicked. He looked annoyed, like he had stepped in gum.
'Well,' Zane thought, adjusting his sunglasses. 'I wondered how long it would take for someone to figure that out. It's not exactly a state secret.'
The truth? Of course it was a show. Fair competition is boring. Drama is money.
But if this story spread? If the audience felt cheated? The show could die before it really started.
The Fixer.
UPN Headquarters.
Donna Langley stood in the war room. She was calm. She had expected this.
"They found the angle," Donna said, looking at the team. "They dug up the contract."
The production team looked nervous. "What do we do, Boss?"
Donna turned to Alexander.
"Kill it," she ordered. "Go to Nine Nine Weekly. Get a retraction. Get an apology. And do it fast."
Alexander stood up, buttoning his suit jacket. "Consider it done."
"And if they refuse?" an assistant asked.
Donna smiled. It was a cold smile.
"Then we distract them," she said. "We have dirt on three movie stars. If the newspaper won't shut up, we release a bigger scandal. The public will forget about Eminem in five minutes if they hear about an affair in Hollywood."
'The best way to hide a fire,' Donna thought, 'is to start a bigger fire next door.'
The Deal.
Alexander walked into the offices of Nine Nine Weekly. He didn't shout. He didn't threaten to sue.
He offered a choice.
Choice A: Keep the story. Get sued into oblivion. Make an enemy of Zane Blackwood.
Choice B: Retract the story. Apologize. And in exchange? You get exclusive interviews with the winner of America's Got Talent.
It wasn't a hard choice.
Pressure and Incentive. The classic combo.
By that afternoon, the editor of Nine Nine Weekly was shaking Alexander's hand. The "untrue" report would be retracted in the next issue.
The Unspoken Rule.
That Night.
Donna called Zane.
"It's handled," she said simply.
Zane let out a breath. "Good work, Donna. But what about the sharks? NBC, ABC, FOX. If a tiny newspaper found this, the big networks definitely know. Why aren't they attacking us?"
Zane was ready for war. He expected the giants to use this scandal to destroy his show.
"Boss," Donna said, her voice amused. "You don't need to worry."
"Why?"
"Because everyone lives in a glass house," Donna explained.
"Do you think NBC is clean?" she asked. "Do you think FOX doesn't rig their shows? In the TV world, we have a silent pact. Mutually Assured Destruction."
"If they expose our secrets," Donna continued, "we expose theirs. If they blow up our show, we blow up their entire network. So, we all just... smile and wave."
Zane laughed. He realized she was right.
It was the same in movies. Studios didn't sabotage each other's sets. They didn't burn down theaters. They competed, but they didn't destroy the ecosystem.
"No one throws the knockout punch," Zane realized. "Because if you break the rules, you end up isolated. And in Hollywood, isolation is death."
"Exactly," Donna said. "Controversy is fine. A little drama is good for ratings. But total war? Bad for business."
"You exceed my expectations, Donna," Zane said warmly. "You were born for this job."
The Explosion.
One Day Later.
The second episode of America's Got Talent aired.
The controversy hadn't hurt the show. If anything, the whispers of "shady deals" just made people more curious.
'Is it rigged?' viewers wondered. 'Is Eminem a plant?'
They tuned in to find out.
The Ratings:
Average: 3.3% (Up 0.6%!)
Peak: 3.8%
0.6% doesn't sound like much. But in TV terms? That was hundreds of thousands of new eyes.
The industry was in shock.
"It's a phenomenon," a producer at CBS whispered, looking at the numbers.
The show wasn't just surviving the rumors. It was feeding on them.
Zane looked at the report and smiled.
"Let them talk," he whispered. "Let them argue. As long as they watch."
The Finals were coming. And Zane knew one thing for sure: It was going to be a miracle.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Check My New Story : Dimensional Chat Group: Surviving Stranger Things
Huge Content: Read 300+ chapters ahead.+ Access to all my Fanfics Chapters.
Fast Updates: I release 10 chapters daily.
Link: https://www.patreon.com/c/kapa69
100 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter.