Chris B

The biggest joy of the Jon/Cady news for me is that we have this to look forward to all year and beyond. It's just amazing to think that we now have a fifth soap to surprise us with these announcements. We also know they're really trying to do good work at BTG so we can actually get excited by news like this. Another thing that I love is that they've been filming for months and we had no idea. If this was any other soap I feel it would've leaked. I hope this continues once the show is on the air! It's nice to be surprised.

Errol posted an article about the ratings that give a better picture of what CBS is looking at:

To be fair, in terms of lead in's, the Bell soaps are both doing well. Not only in live viewers, but in Live+3. I know they're quality is lacking but we can't deny that people are tuning in. They remain towards the top when it comes to daytime offerings. I'm sure they're also doing well on Paramount Plus if CBS found it worthwhile to try and launch a new soap.

With holiday breaks they're probably between 2-3 months ahead which isn't too bad.

She complained about them not featuring her. I believe she said it was something like 9 episodes she didn't appear in so she asked them about it and then she got fired.

Those are excellent examples! I've seen the first few years of B&B and it wasn't bad, but boy did Sally give them a huge jolt of energy. With Y&R, I'd love to one day see their early years, but I find it pretty interesting that neither Katherine nor Lorie were there at the beginning and both ended up being such important characters during that era of the show. I'd love to be able to watch it to see how the show was prior to their arrivals.

With a soap it's a marathon not a sprint. As Vee said, it takes time for a soap to find it's footing and one of the good things about the soap format is that they'll have time to fix things as they go. It's not a Days situation where they're going to debut with 6-8 months in the can with little chance to fix it. They have time to address things that aren't working and fix them. Another thing, I'm sure they have other surprises in store for us to keep the conversation going overtime. Not only storylines, but pretty much every soap has brought on a key character after the show debuts. We have no idea what hidden weapons they have in store to maintain and build interest once the show is on the air.

I would imagine a success would be if it could exceed The Talk/match GH in live ratings. It also needs to do well on Paramount Plus. The ratings are the one thing that make me nervous because it's so hard to predict for any show. I'll have to wait and see how that cracks out before truly judging it.

Would be hilarious if it ended up being Days. Her fans would be so excited but would have to wait years to see her.

There is one thing I *think* Errol's announcement will be but I'm not going to say it and jinx myself. Whatever it is, I'm happy to hear there's more good news coming!

This is really exciting! The closer it gets the more I anticipate the show and it's nice to know we actually get substantial content the week prior to it's release. It will also be nice to see this kind of behind the scenes insight into the making of the show.

I almost never watch soaps live but I do plan to watch this live to start. For week one I plan on doing live and then rewatch in Paramount Plus to help me learn all the names and characters then I’ll pivot exclusively to Paramount Plus.

He was good on Days as well. I feel like in recent GH stints (especially the one before his COVID firing) you can tell he was phoning it in but especially on Y&R, that wasn't an option. He really stepped it up to the point I was devastated after his exit storyline which was a career highlight for him.

Ah! I do recall this now. I do think Steve Burton and Jason Thompson were good choices. Burton was excellent with Sharon Case and he did much better work on Y&R than he has on GH in recent years.

I do think JFP did good work on Y&R. Her biggest mistake was the re-design of the Chancellor estate but I thought she stabilized the show after years of garbage. I also love that she made it a point to get Jess Walton back on the show. Overall I found the writing and production values to be strong during her tenure. I could be forgetting but I don't recall the typical JFP issues coming up while she was at Y&R.

I didn't hate the WB/CW pilot for Dark Shadows. I think it was good enough to at least get picked up. I find it hard to judge just on the pilot alone. What I am most interested in is the most recent attempts to reboot the series. I know this was pitched to network and streaming services but they weren't able to get it off the ground. Mark B. Perry (Party of Five, One Tree Hill, Ghost Whisperer, Revenge, etc.) was the writer and the show almost landed at NBC, then the CW and at the time of this article it was being pitched to streaming networks. I thought the overall premise sounded interested and I liked that it would've been a continuation and not a complete remake. You can read more about it here: https://bloody-disgusting.com/exclusives/3679280/dark-shadows-reincarnation-mark-b-perry-reveals-sequel-series-may-still-come-life-phantom-limbs/

I'm one of the people who do care about how the show looks but from what we've seen, I think the show looks good and does look modern. It looks like they have a good variety of well-designed sets and the sets look like they're a good size. We also have sprinkles of location shooting so overall they do appear to have a modern production model that should attract an audience. What I'm most curious about now is how the music and directing will be. I'm also looking forward to seeing how the writers structure the show and I'm hoping for good scripts. Compared to some of the other recent soap launches, this really feels like a labor of love so I do think they'll give us something worthwhile. Even if everything doesn't work at launch, I feel confident they will make it work in time. When you look at PC or Sunset Beach, I feel there wasn't much care given to giving us a great show. With Passions, I do think JER had a clear vision and for the most part achieved what he wanted to achieve. I'm just thankful we don't appear to have a show that's just thrown together. If this is successful and another network decides to do a soap I hope they take similar care in making it.

I'm probably a third through season 11 and I always go back and forth on my thoughts of this season. Right now I see them throwing so many ideas out there that it can feel muddled. So much potential I feel is wasted. Danny, Amanda and Paula - I feel like the writers enjoyed having their own new characters to showcase but none of these characters fit on the show. All of the actors are good but not for Knots Landing. The Danny story in particular doesn't work because it's coming off the Jill saga. I don't believe Val would be so dumb and dismissive of Gary to fall for such an obvious creep. It also doesn't help that Amanda and Gary have no chemistry. Why they tried to keep Paula going is beyond me because she was never interesting. The Next Generation - They did such an amazing job setting up a next generation that they completely botched in the end. It makes absolutely no sense that Olivia is struggling and pinching pennies when she has Gary and Greg as stepfathers, Karen as her aunt and Valene as a close friend. You mean to tell me that none of these millionaires could help her get a job? I don't understand why they didn't just throw all of the young characters to the Sumner Group and let the sparks fly. Oakman - I actually really enjoy this storyline. I love when Knots does a good mystery and this one is fun. The only downside is that I do feel it doesn't involve enough of the cast. Maybe they could've included Pat and Karen more, which brings me to... The Williams Family - The did such a good job of establishing these characters but it's like they just gave up on Pat. She's largely been an extra all season either absent or appearing in the background. I just don't understand it. The chemistry with Val and Karen was there, the chemistry with Frank (and Gary) is there. It doesn't make sense that they just suddenly stopped writing for her and I don't blame Lynne Moody for being upset by it. Overall I'm finding the episodes to be watchable but the Danny story is the one thing that kills it for me. I just can't buy Val being this dumb at this point in the story.

Of course there were accidents, as there were on all of the soaps that were live or live-to-tape but overall I think Dark Shadows does hold up well from a production standpoint. Especially the Black and White episodes which I feel added to the atmosphere and hid some of the imperfections. It's not just Dark Shadows but I think all of the soaps from the 60s and 70s hold up incredibly well.

This is so true. I'd also point to Dark Shadows which has held up for audiences even today. They obviously didn't have much in terms of budget but it didn't matter. They were largely successful at everything they did because they had creative people in charge who knew what they were doing.

You can see on camera that they didn't have a plan. It was all figuring things out on a go. Eliminating some of those unnecessary sets (like the nail salon they probably never used) could've been used to create a larger courtroom set and more public areas that they could've utilized more often. Also, BTG is different. They're not in a cramped New York studio. They have the space not only for sets but already built facades for location footage.

The way they crammed their studio with sets, the sets were too small in many cases. It was a case of excess for the sake of it and without a plan on how to utilize those sets.

I agree with you about KMH as Emily. I thought she was very limited as an actress and couldn't handle the material given to her. It was hard to warm to her Emily or be truly empathetic to the situations she'd get herself into. On the subject of GL's Peapack days which were discussed previously, I still say they could've made that work. ATWT never looked the way GL did and at times GL did use the format to it's benefit and could deliver decent episodes. I feel like the main reason this didn't work is because it was too much of a learning curve and the people in charge weren't qualified to make it work. If ever there was a time to bring in someone like Mal Young it was then. The shaky camera was a choice, a bad choice. So was the dreadful music, random scenes filmed in the middle of the woods and not adapting the writing to fit the new format. British soaps had already mastered that format and could've helped them do it the right way. They should've cut back the cast and built up a community feeling again. I remember Ellen Wheeler bragging about how they transformed their studio so they had a set for pretty much anything, even a nail salon. I feel like even that was a mistake. They were set up to fail.

The actor wasn't bad but the Brennan character has always been a flop for me. He is dull and doesn't have chemistry with anybody. I was never moved by his scenes with Carly and found them to be a filler pairing which is strange considering how important she is. I'm hoping the new actor fits in better.

One of the reasons given for getting rid of The Talk is because of it's low streams. It's live ratings were also significantly behind the entire daytime lineup. Errol posted a ratings report from CBS Daytime a few weeks ago and from that I do recall the numbers they were touting included delayed viewing. I don't remember if it was Live+3 or Live+7, but I'd imagine they'll be looking at those numbers plus how well it does on Paramount Plus.