Ernst. Not quite famous

Last week, the general director of Channel One Konstantin Ernst turned 49 &ndash; without a penny "fifty kopecks". But shareholders (represented by the state) value it much more. <br />

Last week, the general director of Channel One, Konstantin Ernst, turned 49—fifty dollars without a penny. But shareholders (represented by the state) value it much more.



Stars from the buffet

Actually, as a child, Ernst dreamed of cinema, not television. After all, I was brought up not on the series “School”, but on the example of the little siege survivor Tanya Savicheva, who studied at the same Leningrad school No. 35 as little Kostya, only much earlier.

– Excursions often came to us to look at the desk at which Tanya was sitting. Our guys were very proud of this. I think Kostya does too,” says physics teacher Elena Syromyatnikova. “He was thinner then, calm, sat quietly, unnoticed. Did you study? It was normal, but there weren’t enough stars in the sky.

Ernst doesn’t need this; today he himself lights up the stars of the television screen. By the way, I met one of them in the school cafeteria.

– Students from the Faculty of Journalism of Leningrad State University came to us for a snack; it’s nearby. Among them was Lenya Parfenov, who was a year older,” the teacher recalled. “He and Kostya often talked in the buffet.

Leonid and Konstantin met later, but out of professional necessity; they even wrote the script for “Songs about the Main Thing” together. But a completely different career was destined for Ernst. His father is Academician Lev Ernst, a famous biologist, vice-president of the Russian Agricultural Academy. With his transfer to Moscow, Kostya also moved to the capital. Following in his father’s footsteps, he graduated from the Faculty of Biology, defended his PhD in biochemistry with such an abstruse title that it’s pointless to even quote it, and managed to work in genetic engineering. He could become a celebrity, like Michurin, so that a movie would be made about him. But Ernst wanted to make films himself.

Dude from "Video"

He had no special education, but he had ideas. With them, Ernst, at the age of 27, came to the Videofilm creative production association.

“We came to Leningrad to film a rock concert,” recalls cameraman Boris Lazarev. “A young man comes up to us: “I’m Kostya, your director.” We are already venerable, and he is just a guy, but he started saying things that made everyone’s mouths open. Previously, they would give us a dozen cameras, we would place them around the hall and film Lazarus at random. And he drove us right onto the stage, dressing us so that we would not be noticed. Before this, getting on stage and showing your butt to the audience was considered a bummer. But the shooting turned out great. Then they even shot a video for Kinchev “Aerobics” - one of the first videos in the Union.

However, Ernst did not want to stay completely behind the scenes: he came to the “Vzglyad” program with his stories about cinema.

“He’s very young, he looks like a child, but I liked the stories because of their style,” said TV academician, author and director of “Vzglyad” Anatoly Lysenko. – Kostya saw the topic figuratively, and not all journalists are capable of this.

Lysenko gave the guy a ticket to the television screen, but at the same time Ernst had his own view of “Vzglyad”.

“At that time, it was not dandies like Kostya who were in fashion, but flamboyant revolutionaries, and some of the guys who considered themselves democrats called him a dude,” the academician admitted. - But the guy looked good to me. The craving for bohemia combined in him with structural thinking and accuracy, to which he was accustomed by biology and his father. I can’t say that I immediately recognized the channel’s director in Ernst, but I once said: “It’s enough for you to sit on the stories, it’s time to make your own program.”

Matador in a tuxedo

The program about the cinema “Matador” has not been aired since 1995, but experts still consider it one of the best on our TV.

– I am a game operator, I shot “The Investigation is Conducted by Experts” and I can definitely say that with “Matador” we were ahead of the others. The fact that there is little “dirt” on the channel now, only good “pictures” - that’s where it came from. And this is the merit of Kostya, without whom “Matador” would not exist, says Boris Lazarev, who filmed the program.

But at the same time, members of the film crew did not hesitate to joke about the leader. They used to sit and remember out loud the name of some rare film, and Ernst would turn around and name the film, the director, and the cameraman. Only later did he realize that this was how they tested him. However, he himself did not remain in debt.

– Do you remember how he said goodbye in the program? - asks Lazarev. - “Well, that’s it, bye”, “Okay, that’s it”, “That’s all”... We filmed 150 takes. It’s funny to remember now, but then... Kostya was very picky about the picture, especially about the portrait. True, it was impossible to see everything on the screen. For example, they think that at the Cannes Film Festival we filmed with a crane, but in fact it was just me who climbed so high. We didn’t have money for a faucet at that time: we even lived there as four of us in one room. And our tuxedos were from the Mosfilm orchestra, all smelling - at least people turned around.

Soon people in Russia began to follow Ernst. He became famous: in 1995 he became the main producer of ORT, and in 1999 – its general director. He acquired security, and exchanged his black “matador” outfit, which he wore throughout life, for a shirt with a white collar.

First on "First"

No matter how many rumors circulate about Ernst’s imminent resignation, he is still in the channel’s wake. And in favor with the Kremlin. Of course, in 2000 he removed Dorenko from the air, siding with Putin in his conflict with Berezovsky. And in 2008, “First” adjusted the rating of “Kommersant” in “Vremya”, placing Medvedev, still the successor, from fifth place to second. The bet turned out to be correct.

“Kostya has a phenomenal quality that is indispensable in career development,” says former “vzglyadovets” Evgeny Dodolev. – With a person who has a diseased liver, he will be a teetotaler, but with a drinker he will drink. Without any pretense, he does not adjust, he completely sincerely shares the tastes of the person with whom he is currently communicating.

Lately, Ernst has been communicating more and more often with government officials.

“This guy is certainly talented as a creative person and as a businessman, but he is absolutely built into the system,” opposition politician Boris Nemtsov is confident. – For example, he treats me quite neutrally, but in programs that are not even related to politics, you will not see either me, or Kasparov, or Ryzhkov - those who criticize the authorities. I think Ernst himself is sick of this “black list”. He’s a professional, but here you have to either play by the rules or leave TV. And he loves TV. He is one of the few who feels television and feels the viewer. Surely the idea of ​​cartoon Putin and Medvedev belongs to him. It is far from criticism, but the irony still shines through. Now the country has realized that our politicians are not real and not even on television anymore. They're cartoonish. And Ernst showed it.



Big Ernst's little weakness

Even people who admire Ernst say that he also has a weak side - his other half Larisa Sinelshchikova. Ernst broke up with his first wife (theatre critic Anna Selyunas), although they had a common daughter, Alexandra. But Sinelshchikova not only has two children (Anastasia and Igor), but also the chair of the head of the Red Square group of companies, which produces programs and broadcasts for Channel One. It is with conflicts with Sinelshchikova that critics associate the outcome of Krutoy, Pugacheva, Lyubimov and some others from the First. It is unknown how this contract affects the family budget, but the quality of the products shown by the channel can be at least controversial. Take the same series “School” - it was released by “Square”.