Faulkner

Coric with the midriff display:

This is uncharted territory for a daytime soap to launch in this kind of crowded media environment, especially when the networks essentially left this genre for dead for so many years. It was a whole different world when Passions premiered (1999) and may as well be a different universe from when CBS last launched a new soap (B&B in 1987). It’s a truly unique event that doesn’t have any apples-to-apples comparisons (which is why I’m questioning using traditional methods). I’m curious what kind of promotional strategy they’ll employ. It’s fascinating to me. Ads during CBS Daytime (both on linear and Paramount+ streams of the soaps) will be a given. If this were Frons era ABC (which owned their soaps), he’d force some kind of crossover event on the current soaps. But that’s also a different era. I’d hate to see what that would look like on modern-day Y&R and B&B. Obviously they have a target audience in mind, and CBS has a lot of primetime series that have rated well with Black viewers (The Equalizer being No. 1). NFL comes back early September. CBS will be premiering most of its fall schedule in October, with Equalizer coming 10/27: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/cbs-fall-2024-tv-premiere-dates-1235947646/amp BET would be a great platform of course, and they’re luckily still part of the corporate family (even though it’s costly talked about as up for same). What major fall events/premieres are lined up for them? The BET Awards have come and gone. I could see them rerunning episodes on BET for increased visibility, but that would be post-premiere. An A-lister might help, even if it’s a short premiere arc, like what The City tried to do with Morgan Fairchild back in the ‘90s. Victoria Rowell making a return to soaps would probably be the biggest story in terms of actors primarily known for their soap work, only because she’s still so popular and hasn’t worked on daytime in 20 years. But someone we’d be surprised to see on daytime would really help cut through the noise.

I agree. You’re developing the first daytime soap in 25 years, a history-making event, and you don’t even celebrate it on your sole primetime showcase devoted to the genre? And it doesn’t just have to be about staffing news. It could be someone from the network going more in depth about why they pivoted to soaps, etc. What’s the backstory? Who approached who? MVJ is probably slammed with developing, but they could trot out a CBS rep to talk about it. This is 2024. Gotta think a little outside the box and the old rulebook. There needs to be a different strategy to keep people’s interest level up and cut through the noise that is our world today. Hopefully, they have an ace card up their sleeves and surprise us with some huge names that go well beyond known daytime stars. Maybe Vivica A. Fox returns to her daytime roots? Maybe they’ve lured a few sitcom favorites on the level of Jackée to the show. (Mo’Nique!) It’s getting hard out there for actors at every level, especially for Black actresses of a certain age, and some “A-listers” or people who are “A-list adjacent” might leap at a chance for a steady gig, perhaps with some outs to do other stuff.

This look is such a serve (no pun intended).

Thicc thighs save lives:

Rybakina sh!t the bed. Paolini vs Krejcikova it is. Krejcikova is somehow even more irritating to me than the other Czech Barb, Strycova.

Shelley was so good in 3 Women. Altman brought out the best in her. A career retrospective:

These current soaps are so godawful and depressing that I’m eager to get some news about this. I feel like they could start trickling out information about BTS writing/production staffing now. That kind of info rarely gets the casual viewer that excited anyway outside a few household names (Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes) or folks with strong cult followings. But it would suggest movement. They can wait to announce casting. Announcing the first daytime soap in 25 years, then going radio silent for 4-6 months (aside from MVJ’s tweets) is not the move. They already had our attention. The fall is going to be crowded with Oscar season, the sh!tshow of the election, other premieres, etc.

From Rothenberg? We got an Italian in the men’s semifinals. Just not the one we expected.