I will never quite understand how McTavish has written for all three ABC soaps. Do the Execs hold her for responsible for saving ABC daytime or something?

When JFP was exec producer at OLTL and GH, and McTavish was writing, the 18-49 demos were more than good, they were excellent. OL and GH were often no.1 in 18-49's. OL was often beating Days and Y&R back in 99/00 in 18-49. Fans may have been complaining on the internet about their shows being taken over by FOJ's and bad stories, but they were not tuning out. Thats why ABC HAD confidence in McTavish.

Regarding JER, the difference between his 1st stint and his second was his approach - the first stint was evolutionary and the 2nd was revolutionary. When he came onto Days into the early 90s, he didn't have creative control. I think he said he only gained that after Maison Blanche. His first stories were engaging, sometimes original but were still based in reality. Even Carly buried alive was based in reality in a certain extent - anyone could bury someone alive! Each story got progressively more out there until Marlena's possession SL - that was a crosover point into supernatural and where Stefano crossed over into one-note villainry. Still most the stories were engaging, they had a payoff. But each story was progresively stranger, in his quest for shock and originality, culminating in the Susan/Kristen reveal of 1997 getting Days its highest rating of the JER era (and the decade?).

Compare this to his 2nd stint, where he went straight in a rediculous storyline without breaking down the audience's inertia to the idea - I think the ratings success he had was because stories were moving, unlike the entire previous year when Higley did nothing. However, the dialogue was awful, as was the acting. After the novelty of the SSK wore off, viewership did too because there was no substance or worthy novelties to replace it. I agree with the previous posters who said that scripts were worse in his 2nd stint - they were awful, really bad. JER has always relied on off-beat stories and originality to prop up his storylines. In his 2nd stint, once Corday told him to write traditional, he was effectively made to write with 1 hand tied behind his back. Since he couldn't be original in the traditional realm, he got stale and recycled watered down old storylines instead. JER's obession with finding a "hook" to lure viewers in, has made him lose sight of the need to keep them hooked in between - he has forgotten about high stakes pay-offs (his pay-offs, when they finally occur, aren't rewarding but rather come as a relief for putting a way too long SL out of its misery). JER should rewatch his early 90's stories - pre-possession, to see when he was a good writer and what he did right then and whats missing now. Watching Passions could be enjoyable rather than a tedious chore - but I kind of think he finds writing it a tedious chore as well...

I think we could also add Brad Bell to the list, because of what he's done to B&B in recent times has made a once worthy show become unwatchable tripe. This coming from a longtime B&B viewer like myself...