Joshua Jackson by Nancy Krulik

Author:Nancy Krulik
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Archway
Published: 2001-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

9

In the Eye of the Storm

When Josh, James, Katie, and Michelle emerged from their cozy Wilmington cocoon, they were shocked at just how psyched the rest of the planet seemed to be about the upcoming debut of Dawson’s Creek.

“All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Wow! What is this all about?”’ Josh admitted to a reporter for the Houston Chronicle.

Josh’s preshow press tour began right after Dawson’s Creek wrapped the first season. He and James were whisked away to New York City to meet and greet the media. Josh had done promotion tours before—mostly for the Mighty Ducks films— but he’d never been treated quite the way he was now. Without even having a show on the air, he was already being courted like a true celebrity.

“They flew James and me [to New York] for a Seventeen magazine function, which was truly one of the more bizarre experiences of my life,” he recalls. “We step out on the stage, me and James in our Blues Brothers suits, ties, and the hats. Everybody starts screaming. They had no idea who we were, just screaming for the sake of screaming. They rolled the clip, [and] not one of them was watching the clip. It was just crazy.

“The next day, [I] wake up, get all cleaned up, dress myself, which was really the hardest thing I had to do all day. Then get into the limo service and drive to our Entertainment Weekly photo shoot in this beautiful loft.”

Throughout the seemingly never-ending series of meet and greets with industry people and reporters, Josh seemed confident and relaxed. Most actors would be anxiously awaiting the premiere of the show, and dreading the Nielsen ratings it would incur. But Josh didn’t seem at all concerned about whether or not Dawson’s Creek would live up to the hype.

“I don’t feel any pressure because we’re done already,” he told a GlobeNet reporter. “It’s out of my hands now.”

When January 20, 1998, rolled around, Josh, James, and Michelle were in New Orleans “pitching ourselves shamelessly,” he jokes. That night they, along with millions of others, gathered around their TV sets and watched as the first Dawson’s Creek episode, “Emotions in Motion,” took to the airwaves.

Although the fans already felt as though they knew the cast of Dawson’s Creek, the pilot episode filled them in on the details—like Joey and Dawson’s unique sleepovers, and Pacey’s penchant for a certain older woman.

Almost from that very first moment, Dawson’s Creek was a bona fide success. Although the show’s numbers were not as high as shows airing on what is traditionally known as “the big three”—ABC, NBC, and CBS—they were very respectable for the fledgling WB. More important, the overnight ratings showed that Dawson’s Creek had hit its mark, doing especially well with teenagers and young adult women. Those are markets advertisers salivate over.

During the weeks that followed, positive word of mouth caused Dawson’s Creeks’ ratings to grow steadily. In fact, in its fourth week out, Dawson’s Creek actually beat Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the ratings.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.