True. I just believe that if Craig turning evil again was shown on the shown instead of him coming back to Oakdale with a plot and scheme would've probably made older fans buy it more.
I do believe that Rick would've been more reasonable over Craig to be the show's pariah. I feel like when Scott Bryce came back that they should've restored Craig to the leading man he was under Marland. They could've made someone else the pariah.
Nah, Goutman wanted Craig hated but the audience wasn't buy it. I forgot what the story was at the time. I tend to forget stories that insult my intelligence. Since fans/viewers were on Craig's side he blamed it on Bryce's acting. So he fired him. Fans that were left watching, which I assume were the long term viewers, knew Bryce's Craig very well and thus his reasons for doing things. They had come to love his version of Craig so putting him in inept story that made him the villain was going to fly with long term fans.