bongobong

It still can, the show is only 2 months old! The show can improve (maybe it has already, like I said, I'm not watching) and get a buzz. To be perfectly honest though, it might be tougher sell to have word of mouth trust if the social media commentary matched this board. Gaslighting is probably too strong a word... but reading the gushing comments from the first 2 weeks certainly didn't match what I was seeing on screen at all. I don't want to cast aspersions on any of the posters here - it's possible I'm in the minority opinion and they really did love the first 2 weeks that much - but I remember the Passions & Sunset Beach premiere opinions being MUCH more honest.

100% I picked Bold up again regularly during COVID WFH. I had watched GH & Days previously but even when we weren't supposed to leave our homes I didn't want to sit through an hour of a daytime soap. God knows B&B isn't perfect, but it has the strongest identity of any soap since Bill Bell retired from Y&R. We're fundamentally coming at this from complete opposite viewpoints. I don't see total viewers as an important metric at all in broadcast. This isn't the 90s: the 55+ don't pass shows onto younger generations because they watch their own stuff on their phones/tablets if the main tv is being used. CBS probably doesn't expect the show to run for 10 years either. I 100% think having an almost all Black cast helps the show WAY more than it hurts. Does anyone honestly think the ratings would be higher if the Black parts were played by White actors and vice versa? CBS smartly created something for an under-served audience. I haven't come across the diversity haters complaining about the show....but that's hilarious considering BTG is less diverse than Passions & Sunset Beach, the last 2 hour-long soaps to debut. We're overthinking why the show shed viewers from its big premiere. It's the same reason as every show. People are curious, they sample, the ones who like it tune in again, the ones who don't stop watching. I'm in the later camp, but I give credit where it's due. Looking at the numbers, the show is still a success at this point.

I don't want to come across as rude, but that is an INSANE idea. You don't handicap the marketing team by limiting their use of their key assets - the Black actors. You don't bait & switch your audience. For CBS to "pull that off" they'd have to embargo the cast list, etc. Does anyone think it would have had a higher premier and audience if 60% of the pre-show ads featured Nurse Elevator Baby? Not to pick on the actress, but should she have done the big interviews instead of Tamara Tunie? And that strategy would have limited the enthusiasm of the fans who've carried the show to respectable numbers for 2 months. Honestly, reading the comments here the ratings expectations for a two month soap are crazy unrealistic. There is no need to hit the panic button. Read Toup's report: in week 7 a new show doing 77-81% of the #1 show in both major demos. Yes, there are only 4 soaps on broadcast now... but has that ever happened before? Come even close??

Brad can do something really funny and resurrect their credits on Monday.

Not a woman, nor over 50, but I'm a B&B viewer who stopped watching the show after a few days and stopped sampling all together after a few weeks. I wasn't planning on being a regular viewer unless it wowed me (mostly due to it being 1 hour and being the familiar rich family set-up) but initially planned to watch the week. There were some structural issues that dampened my interest. First and foremost was the absolute mess of the character ages. None of the generations (outside of Ms. Tunie's & her husband) seemed distinguishable so it was frustrating to figure out who was who and how they related. Yes, soaps get generationally messy over time, but why start it even messier compared to B&B is now? The mistress character being the friend of the daughter of Karla Mossey's character is laughable - if you showed a picture of the 2 women and asked 100 people who was older, 40 would say the mistress. The men all having beards and dressing the same was annoying too. Two specific events made me not bother finishing the premier week. I didn't even make it all the way through Tuesday to be honest. The first was the slap/weird reaction walkoff from the family at the end of the pilot. It felt like something out of a reality show, and I'm not a big reality show fan at all. The second was the baby in an elevator in the next episode. That felt hacky on Saved By The Bell in the 90s. A few other things bothered me too. The cut outs between scenes. I expected Tamara Tunie's to be a force but was given a generic diva. And all that political talk took me out of escapism and made me think about politics..which soaps are supposed to be refuge from. That said, there were things I liked. Even if the acting wasn't perfect, it was better than the start of any other soap I've seen. No Ashley Hamiltons, Dana Sparks or Terri-Ann Linns to be found. Having a primarily Black cast is innovative and overdue. I'm glad that people on this board are enjoying it. Not every show is for everyone. My opinion is also clearly the minority view as the show has been remarkably stable in viewers under 50. BTG's renewal will surely be announced shortly, and deservedly so based on its performance.

Caroline becomes such a shrew in the months after finding out about Brooke and Thorne hiding the letter. The actress is still charismatic, but does she ever get the 1987 magic back, or is this the new normal for the character? She of course has a right to be mad, but piling on Brooke - who took her into her home for 3 or 4 months after she was after she was assaulted - and forgiving Thorne right away rings false. Speaking of the OG quad storyline, the other major plot hole is the Eric/Beth/Stephanie connection. Brooke obsesses over Ridge finding out about the letter, but the thought that Eric leaving Stephanie for her mom never seems to enter her head that this would be a bigger roadblock to getting with Ridge.

I get your point about rotating in and out past characters... but Jessica? Why waste those actresses on such a non-entity. At least Ivy gives B&B the opportunity to promote the show in Australia where the show is popular.

Yeah OGT isn't great either, but not on the Mark/Kristin level. That said he's much better than what I remember of #2 who seemed like he belonged on a TGIF show. Refreshing to see a blue collar version of this show, with only 7 rich characters. The current show needs some strivers.

Good to know. Though before that happens, for sh*ts & giggles I'd love a scene with her & Mark.

Sampled some season 1 for the first time. Was Kristin Forrester an actual character in the 80s or was she inserted via AI so we'd appreciate Daphne Rose?

Pretty sure they get ahead a bunch of times because they take multiple production breaks a year.

I just heard of this show that has apparently been on for 12(!) seasons. Hallmark is notoriously low-paying, so that probably didn't improve his quote.

Interesting, Friday saved Y&R from being swept by B&B all week in 18-49.

Great news. Despite its flaws, B&B is a fun distraction you can watch a few times a week. Love that it kept its half-hour format all these years. Who knows if it would still be on if it went to 1 hour like it was rumoured have to in the mid-90s.

If they go this route during Poppy would make to most sense. Of all the women on the canvas, she's the least like Steffy - as flighty and free-spirited as Steffy is calculated and controlling. The fallout would be explosive.

Credit where it's due, CBS executed a near perfect launch for this show. Massive promotion, a great timeslot & high clearance rates. For comparison (thanks again @JAS0N47 ) B&B had only a 93-94% clearance rate for its first 5 years. Generations, by comparison, had a 98% rate until its last few weeks on the air.

That would be awesome. I'd love a scene with Brooke playing concerned mother/ex-concubine to Hope & Ridge then laughing her ass off when they leave.

If Deacon actually does dump Sheila...has he slept with Katie yet?

I think that's a good idea on paper - but would be absolute torture to watch onscreen. I can actually picture Donna saying that to Hope!

I disagree that BTG should have been placed behind Y&R. The gap between B&B & Y&R isn't huge, and the net benefit for the network wouldn't be worth the risk of moving a show that's been in the same timeslot for 38 years. Thanks for the update. It seemed like a given BTG would look better in week 4 because at least 2/3 weeks their Friday numbers were a lot lower. Do you know how week 4 compared to M-W week 3?

More of a mixed bag for BTG this week, but still looking good. Negatives: It had the biggest drop, and is only 0.04 away from The Talk's year ago in W18-49. Positives: Much healthier 38% gain on The Talk's year ago in W25-54 (CBS' sales demo). The week to week drop might look worse than it is because of how impressive its week 2 hold was. From weeks 1-3 it held 80% of its W18-49 numbers, beating the holds of Sunset Beach (70%) & Passions (73%) - but below Port Charles at 85%. It's week 3 lead-in retention (80% of B&B) towers over Passions (27% of Days).

LMAO. No EP would want to have a conversation with network executives, nor an actor's agent about bringing back someone they fired after 13 weeks and recast. The GOP dumping Mike Johnson and voting for Ilhan Omar to be speaker of the house is more likely to happen.

Sheila and Luna were fun. That kiss would have seemed a lot less creepy if I didn't watch White Lotus on Sunday though. Anika probably needs to see a chiropractor after doing all the heavy lifting in her scenes today.

Thanks for posting that @EricMontreal22! What a fun read. As an very occasional AMC watcher, it was surprising that she only really alluded to the Kendall story and I don't think she mentioned SMG at all. Isn't that universally regarded as her best AMC story? I guess she really wanted that Kelly Ripa blurb.

Two sides of the same coin. @TEdgeofNightBTG is doing fine 2 weeks in. In W18-49/W25-54 it had holds of 96%/100%. It had better retention of its lead-in in week 2 as well. Not sure how much more you can expect for a new soap launch in 2 weeks. @dragonflies Your avatar is literally of a B&B scene that aired this week.