CALCULATING ECONOMIC JUICE OF THE O.J. TRIAL
More than 20 years after ex-football star O.J. Simpson was acquitted of murder, American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson has us glued to the TV. Claire Brownell explains.
Two decades after half the population of the U.S. tuned in to watch a Los Angeles jury find former football star O.J. Simpson not guilty of murdering his ex-wife and a local waiter, the FX series American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson has us glued to our television sets once again.
Proving it’s still possible to cash in on the so-called Trial of the Century, the show’s Tuesday finale drew an average of 3.27 million viewers. Its premiere attracted a network record audience of 8.3 million.
Just how many dollars have been wrung out of the public’s insatiable interest in the case to date? We take a look at the economic impact of the trial.
TELEVISION
The non-stop live coverage of the trial changed television forever, playing a role in popularizing two entire genres: Reality TV and 24-hour news. About 95 million people watched as police helicopters followed Simpson and his friend Al Cowlings as they fled police in a white Ford Bronco. U.S. news network CNN had previously pioneered the format with live reporting from the Gulf War, but the low-speed chase is widely recognized as ushering in a new standard of immediate live coverage of breaking news. Today, there are dozens of 24-hour news networks in the U.S., although the glory days are now over. It would likely be impossible to draw that many television viewers to a single event in the age of smartphone video and online live streaming. In 2014, a Morgan Stanley analyst estimated CNN’s worth at US$10 billion.
The trial also sparked a cultural fascination with the wealthy L.A. social circles that Simpson and his murdered ex-wife moved in, particularly following a tell-all memoir by Nicole Brown Simpson’s friend Faye Resnick, who dished on the sex lives and drug habits of Brentwood’s “inner circle.” Kris Jenner, ex-wife of Simpson’s friend and lawyer Robert Kardashian, parlayed that interest into the massive Kardashian reality television empire. The family is worth an estimated US$300 million today, according to Celebritynetworth.com, and Forbes pegged alpha reality star Kim Kardashian’s earnings in 2015 at US$52.5 million.
PUBLISHING
Speaking of tell-all memoirs, practically everyone connected to the Simpson trial ended up with a book deal. More than 50 books related to the case had been published as of 1996, according to an article in the Baltimore Sun, and more than US$11 million was paid out as advances to authors. That includes about US$4 million earned by Simpson for his book, I Want to Tell You. He failed to cash in on a subsequent 2007 book, If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer, however, since a bankruptcy judge awarded the proceeds to the Goldman family to help satisfy a US$38-million civil award for wrongful death against him.
The case was also a bonanza for newspapers and magazines. Notable moments in print journalism included dismissed juror Tracy Hampton’s Playboy centrefold, a controversial Time magazine cover that altered Simpson’s mug shot to make him appear darker, and journalist John Cargill’s coverage of the trial for Dog World magazine, which focused on the overlooked canine angle. Supermarket tabloids lost about 30 per cent of their circulation from the early to mid ’90s as the Simpson trial sparked competition from mainstream outlets over the type of sensational stories previously left to the likes of the National Enquirer, according to a 1996 New York Times article.
LEGAL BILLS
Simpson spared no expense on his defence, building a “dream team” of top lawyers including Robert Shapiro and Johnnie Cochran at a cost of between US$3.5 million and US$6 million, according to various reports. The taxpayers’ tab for the prosecution and court proceedings, meanwhile, clocked in at about US$9 million, with each additional month the trial dragged on adding US$800,000 to the tab, according to the L.A. Times. And it’s hard to blame the jurors for cashing in on book deals. They were only paid US$5 a day for the 265 days they were sequestered, for a total of just US$1,325.
CHAT LINES, TCHOTCHKES AND BRONCOS
Simpson spent a considerable amount of money and effort fighting the cottage industry of unlicensed memorabilia that popped up related to his case. But sales of items ranging from a set of Pogs (a ’90s schoolyard fad involving collectible cardboard discs) to a board game called Squeeze the Juice added up to an estimated US$50 million.
Even stranger was the niche market for physical objects connected to the case. Cowlings’s famous Bronco was sold to three California men for US$200,000 in 1995, according to The Associated Press, while Chicago businessman Wasfi Tolaymat paid US$4,000 for the contents of a hotel room Simpson stayed in following the murder and attempted to auction them for US$1 million during the trial. Wondering what happened to the life-size statue of Simpson that the accused kept in his garden, a replica of which was featured on American Crime Story? TMZ reports rapper Flavor Flav received it as a gift from radio host Mancow Muller, who bought it at auction in 1999 for US$3,250. Flavor Flav tweeted a picture of himself with it in March, adding that the producers “shoulda had this on tha show — The real one.”
A 1-900 chat line set up by Simpson’s friend Cowlings, called Ask A.C., reportedly netted US$300,000 during its first month of operations. Even Simpson’s limousine driver Allan Park got his payday, appearing on a Trial of the Century-themed cruise with tickets that sold for US$500 to US$800, according to the L.A. Times.
THE FINAL TALLY
It’s impossible to put an exact dollar value on the economic impact of the O.J. Simpson trial. But considering it spawned two television industries and changed print media for the sleazier, it seems reasonable to peg the impact in the billions. Simpson himself, of course, lost considerable earning power and most of his net worth in the civil judgment against him and is now serving prison time for a 2008 sports memorabilia robbery at a Las Vegas hotel. On the bright side, he reportedly enjoys watching Keeping up with the Kardashians.