Is Passions being cancelled?

[PhoenixRising05]

Ok. I may bash Passions alot lately but I have watched the show since day one and, while not happy with what it is now, I do not want to see it cancelled nor do I want other soaps cancelled.

However, Passions fans defending the current state of the show need to realize that this is not the show it was. Peoeple have the right to voice displeasure and to wish it cancellation because what is airing right now is worthy of cancellation to be honest. They have had chance after chance, more chances then Sunset got. Yes, no show is what it was but Passions and JER do nothing to rectify the problems. There are no payoffs. The pace is slower then ever. The show can't be good consistently for more then 3-4 periods a year (and by good I mean things happening everyday). Bad stories like Fox/Kay/Miguel go on and on when it's clear it's not working. When something isn't working, fix it. Passions was really good in the summer but floundered again. That can't keep happening. Either JER needs to break with his style and start ending things and starting new stories and also upping the pace or someone needs to take over and make the show live to it's potential because right now it is a mess.

Having said that, if Passions had to go it should NOT be replaced with another hour of Today. They tried Later Today. It sucked. We don't need another hour of news/talk. MSNBC is for that. If Passions must go, fill the hour with another soap or a telenovela. Hell, expand Days to two hours and bring some of the fired cast back or something. Passions leaving would not hurt Days but I do agree it would pretty much cement Days going off in 2009 or having to move elsewhere, something ABC and Frons would love.

The genre doesn't need this. I hope NBC reconsiders because this is the first time a rumor like this was reported like this. I hope it's not true and that Passions makes the changes it needs to be right up there with Days. Passions still does ok in demos and such so it's not a big loss for NBC. Cut the budget again if they have to but we can't lose another soap, not without it at least being replaced by another.

[DaysnPassionsFan]

Later Today was pretty bad. It was basically a chaper version of what we see today on Martha and Rachael Ray.

[David V]

No argument, except that a case could be made for Santa Barbara- it lasted a good 9 years, won numerous Emmys and got far better ratings than Sunset Beach or Passions ever did.

[Greenlee Smythe]

It's never good news when the mainstream media is reporting that a soap is most likely getting cancelled. I'm a former Port Charles and Sunset Beach fan. So this isn't the first time that I've been through this. This is not good news for the soap opera genre especially ABC soap fans.

Remember the rumors from last year when "Days" was in contract negotiations that they could possibly go to ABC and that means that OLTL would either become a half-hour soap or cancelled.

I'm pretty sure that "Days" will stay on NBC until it's contract is finished but, it will most likely that Corday/Sony will shop "Days" around to other networks.

A one-soap lineup is not going to work. NBC execs knows this and former NBC Daytime vice-president Sheraton Kalouria even stated that you can't have a soap block with just one soap.

When ABC decided to cancel Port Charles they gave that half-hour back to the local ABC affiliates. If NBC cancels Passions then they will give that hour to NBC's Today show. And if that hour flops they may give that hour back to the affiliates or they may use it to air cheap reality TV shows instead of a brand new soap.

So bottom line is that Passions cancellation could create a domino effect where other soaps get cancelled or shortened to a half-hour.

[EricaKane4life]

-->

You're right, not NBC head, but NBC Spokesperson said: “There is a strong possibility” of the expansion, NBC News spokesperson Megan Koft said, declining further comment.

If there is a strong possibility of this then it isn't a rumor. What other timeslot is there that isn't given up to affiliates? They sure aren't going to give up DAYS.

PASSIONS fans should take this report as gospel and here's why.....

It's being reported by a person from the NEWS division, not the daytime division. She has no "stake" in making up rumors or lying, and she probably doesn't even know anything about PASSIONS or the soap division. She may even be in trouble for letting what the network is planning slip out.

Also, Megan Koft is a higher up in the NEWS division, she's not a lowly Producer, she's in the top 5 at NBC morning news, so she is somebody who would obviously know what's being planned, and she also may have been asked to drop this "tidbit" so that PASSIONS fans would get motivated about getting their show's ratings up.

I told you a year ago that Bradley Bell and Ken Corday have been planning a new NBC soap "What's Done In the Dark". I'm only talking "facts" here not gossip. The show was originally created by Bill Bell, but was rejected and put away in a drawer until NBC asked his son to merge some ideas from Corday's Salem High School spin off. Just because they introduce a new hour of TODAY doesn't mean they can't also launch a brand new soap opera. With "DOOL" on the rise, they need a more traditional soap, but I hear it's very youth oriented and will star the girl who plays Theresa on PASSIONS.

The problem with PASSIONS is that it's hard to legally fire James Reilly from that show (he created and part owns the show). The ratings have been miserable longer than any other soap NBC has ever stuck with. They can easily take the stars of "PASSIONS" and create a better, more traditional soap using those soap stars which is what I heard a year ago that they're thinking of doing.

[JER Soaps Fan]

EricaKane, all I have to say is thank the Lord that you came to this thread.

Now, tell me this: have you heard if the suits at NBC remember the flop that was "LATER TODAY?"

Again, it's the SAME DARN THING, lol.

I can't say it enough.

Besides, this isn't like the AW/SuBe war in 1999. Nope. This is different. Because if you extend "Today," you tick off the entire "Passions" fanbase if it gets canceled -- INCLUDING the other million viewers I just KNOW are waiting to come back after things 'get good.' But if you leave "Today" the way it is, virtually none of its viewers will care.

Common sense to me suggests keeping Pash.

[EricaKane4life]

I don't know many people in the NEWS division, but with the strong ratings for Regis and THE VIEW I doubt that NBC is going to launch a fourth hour of TODAY without bringing in a major "anchor" to host it, similar to Rosie O'Donnell. In fact, they may already have a big enough star/personality that they may be anxious to drop PASSIONS and start competing for the ratings.

I don't see them dropping "DOOL" and if the ratings on that soap continue to climb and Sheffer has a breakout year, then you can count on a new more traditional soap from NBC.

[EricaKane4life]

I can guarantee you all that the FEBRUARY sweeps is going to be the deciding factor for whether PASSIONS is cancelled or not. I have already heard some reports from top sources that Ken Corday has been riding Sheffer's back about February 2007 sweeps and hoping it will snow heavy this year due to NBC stating that their daytime future will be decided by the February sweeps. There's a lot of pressure and Reilly had better pull out all the stops next month. Hopefully he will go on and expose his gay "down low" love triangle for maximum shock effect.

PASSIONS is in big trouble.

[KLN]

That sounds absolutely dreadful.

Back in 2001, I was thrilled when I first heard about the possible Days spinoff, "Salem High." But that was only because it'd get the teen brats out of my hair and off the frontburner on Days.

I'm not big on Bradley Bell, either. I preferred B&B back in the day. And although he's certainly not the worst creative head in daytime, I shudder to think that his camptastic brain would come up with for a youth-oriented NBC soap. Toss in the bubble head of Ken Corday who once exclaimed "I want Tom Langan writing Days of Our Lives until the final episode" and you've got a recipe for disaster!

[bellcurve]

I think she was asked to drop this tidbit to give affiliates a heads-up on developing their afternoon lineup for the fall(with syndicated shows in mind). I'm very cynical when it comes to NBC. They haven't made a decent decision since they cancelled SB in 1993.

NBC News trumps NBC Daytime. Period. If it came down to DARK and Fourth-Hour Today, guess who wins?!

I don't doubt what you are speculating with DARK is indeed true. However, I don't think NBC would change from a one-to-two soap lineup if PASSIONS is cancelled for Fourth-Hour TODAY. It is very difficult to get the time back from the affiliates, especially where soaps are concerned.

Meredith Vieira?! I can totally see them keeping her contract and the amount of money intact for it, getting another NBC News Personality(like the guy who fills in for Matt sometimes, salt and pepper hair, kinda cute) and having them host a fourth hour of TODAY to compete with Regis and Kelly. Or maybe they will re-do THE VIEW.

One of the first days I tuned in to see Meredith on the show, Natalie Morales was doing the third hour with Matt and Al(she's also in the first two hours, right?). Has Meredith EVER done the third hour before? I think Morales is on an extended "chemistry test" to see if she can permanently fill the Katie void. She's young, she's hot, she's hip. Not sure how well she would do with housewives, but straight men with morning wood will no doubt tune in by the droves to see her.

I can see them moving Meredith to the fourth hour and giving Natalie Morales her seat next to Matt Lauer.

But, I repeat, I believe NBC will want a fourth-hour TODAY before they would want to go in the DARK.\

Just my opinion.

God, Kenny, did he really say that?! What a flipping idiot!

[JER Soaps Fan]

I hope JER gets the freaking picture and wraps up almost ALL the stories in February. Imagine, if NBC could promote that "Every last story will be resolved -- IN FEBRUARY," I could see the fans flocking back to see all the shockers and fallout left and right. That'd certainly raise the ratings. Like I said, I firmly believe that, like "Days," 'Pash' has a loyal fanbase that's ready and wanting to come back. It's just that kind of show. This show has reached a 2.9 high, and last week week scored, what a 1.7 average? Ratings are stablizing from what they were earlier in the year, which is good, but there's still some audience to win back. And I don't care what anyone says, for this kind of unique show, it IS possible.

[KLN]

Oh yes, he really did! LoL

[JER Soaps Fan]

"She's young, she's hot, she's hip. Not sure how well she would do with housewives, but straight men with morning wood will no doubt tune in by the droves to see her."

:o :o

[KLN]

Yes, but it's not likely. That means they'd have to be taping that stuff now, which means Reilly would've had to have written the episodes weeks or months ago... long before THIS tidbit was dropped to get his ass in gear. There would have to be some major last-minute re-writes, pretty much an entire month of nothing but new scripts RIGHT NOW. Not likely.

[KLN]

Oh, bellcurve, here's an interview with both Corday/Langan where they suck each other's asses like you wouldn't believe.

http://www.bethsdayspage.com/days/transcri...ngan4_2000.html

Ken Corday and Tom Langan

Executive producer and executive producer/head writer

TV Guide Online Q&A April 2000

Have you visited Salem, USA, lately? If you haven't, you're missing out on a slew of new characters, situations and secrets on Days of Our Lives. Tom Langan, a longtime Days producer, took over the additional title of head writer last fall, and he's been spinning his own brand of soap storytelling (teen angst, extensive use of history) ever since. The road has been somewhat rocky (erratic Nielsen ratings!), but Langan and Salem scion Ken Corday are determined to bring the show into the new millennium. Here, in part one of a two-part conversation, the duo voice their concerns about the Nielsen ratings and discuss what viewers can expect in the coming months. &emdash;

It must be gratifying that people are responding so well to your stories.

Tom Langan: It's very encouraging. As a writer, if people are responding in a positive way, [then] you feel motivated to continue the hard work &emdash; but I was very disappointed [that the ratings went down the week of the plane crash]. I don't understand it. I don't see how the Internet site [soap City] can get a million hits a week and the ratings are flat or going down.

You know the answer: Everyone knows the Nielsen ratings aren't accurate.

Ken Corday: Will you print that?

Tom, is it frustrating for you, as the prime content provider, that the number of people watching isn't accurately measured?

TL: Terribly frustrating, because you labor over this, creatively speaking, and you challenge yourself and you start to second-guess yourself if the ratings don't reflect what you think is positive, good material. Ken Corday agrees to spend half a million dollars in one week for an airplane crash that I'm writing, he shows great confidence, the audience gets excited, the network starts promoting it &emdash; and the ratings are flat.

But the Nielsen problem is nothing new! In the late '80s, during the supercouple era, Days was not a strong ratings performer.

KC: Correct. What you have to look at is that the Nielsen sample seems to be the antithesis of where we are strongest. We are strongest with women 18 to 34. Many of those women are in a single-parent home or a single-person home without children, and some of them are in institutions such as dormitories, colleges and other places that are never sampled by Nielsen. You will never have any institutional sampling; you'll never have any nontraditional sampling. So perhaps that is part of the reason [we're undercounted].

TL: It's all very frightening to me that with television being one of the greatest inventions in the last 100 years, they haven't come up with a way in Silicon Valley to monitor audiences.

KC: Or if they have, the civil liberties union isn't letting them implement it!

TL: That's an excuse, because people voluntarily get on [America Online] and they get into these chat rooms and enter contests in which they're more than willing to give up personal information. Just put a chip in the television! Why hasn't anyone done it? Somebody is stopping this from happening.

Now you're beginning to sound like a Days storyline!

TL: Absolutely. I know it sounds a bit diabolical.

How much of your mind is occupied by this &emdash; because head writing is a full-time job, as is executive producing! Do these thoughts interrupt your creative process?

TL: No, because I'm going to write what I'm going to write. I've always said that if my writing is not going to be pleasing to the show owner or the network then they should get somebody else, because that's what I would do. Fortunately, at this point, people are very pleased with how the show is doing. But, as I said, it angers me to know that these are the ratings, because with all the technology we have I know that there could be a much [more accurate] sample than it is.

What are your strengths as a writer?

TL: The fact that I have no children. I devote my full time to this. I don't know what my strengths are. I have no idea. I really don't.

KC: Tom's first strength is that he's lived and breathed Days of Our Lives for close to 10 years. In dog years it would be many, many more! So he knows the show. It's not like someone who's walked in and is learning it while writing it. He also knows that if it's not broken it doesn't need to be fixed, so he's not constantly dumping characters that are familiar and important to the show. And he also knows for anything to grow and change and get better, you have to water and get new life in the family trees for the Hortons, Bradys and DiMeras. That is a responsibility that the previous head writers over the last five years had not been addressing.

But over and above all that, I think Tom realizes that this is a medium about emotional connections more than physical connections, more than intellectual connections. There are deep emotional reasons attached to the things we do, and they connect sometimes over an arc of a year or two. The show is in transition since Tom really started writing the show. To look at the show now, it is not the same show it was last summer. I find it a better show, a more intriguing show and a fresher show to look at. We're not trying to or being asked to follow five or six storylines a day.

TL: Do you watch the show?

Of course I do!

TL: I'm just curious &emdash; when Ken says to you it's a different show than it was last summer, do you see that?

I do. And if I can answer my own question, I feel one of your strengths is the humor. It's not humor that is directly related to the storyline. It's almost throwaway humor. And I don't mean to say throwaway as in throwaway, but in that you have to be quick to catch it.

TL: Do you have any favorite storyline right now or anything you're curious to see more of?

Abe and Brandon's history. I want to find out exactly what happened, because Abe and Lexie have been underserved. I mean, they've had stuff to do...

TL: ...But they haven't had a story in a long time.

KC: Well, there's a lot more coming there, but I think that the plan that Tom has laid out goes at least a year down the road before any of the big, big secrets are revealed.

Were there specific characters that you wanted to write for when you took over?

TL: The story takes on a life of its own and you sort of just go with those people. I did want to bring Chloe in, however, because I felt that the group of kids needed a loose cannon that was mysterious.

That's a good way to describe her.

TL: You don't know which way she's going to go yet. And we won't know that for a while because she has a lot of baggage &emdash; emotional and psychological baggage.

KC: And what that's done is enable him to bring Nancy and Craig into center story as opposed to the peripheral kind of mustache-twisting.

Tom Langan: What do you think of Belle and Shawn?

I don't understand Belle. We don't know a thing about her. We don't know what she wants, whether she's a good girl or a bad girl. Is she a heroine? Because she's written to be something of a heroine, yet the actress plays against that. She plays mischievous. We know she has a heart because she defends Chloe and stands up to Phillip, and we know that she wants Shawn and that she's a good daughter &emdash; but none of that translates. I don't feel any of that. I think it's because the actress (Kirsten Storms) plays against what's being written.

TL: I think it's in the writing, because you want to keep her as something of an unknown &emdash; you don't want to predict what's going to happen if, let's say, Shawn should become interested in Chloe.

But do you know in your head what Belle is all about?

TL: Not yet, no. I know more about Chloe than I do about Belle, and like you I've been watching her. It's very interesting to me, as a writer, to watch the show because I'm seeing, word for word, how the actors interpret what I write for them and how they relate to the material; that really can motivate you to write more for a character. It works the other way, too, obviously.

A lot of people have asked about Brady.

TL: Yeah, I know. I would love to bring Brady in... the only thing is I have [too] many people. Let's just say that he won't make an entrance as Eric did, years after Sami. Of course, the time might be right soon because Jensen [Ackles, who plays Eric] is leaving the show... so we'll see.

As a head writer you're creating story but you're also juggling the number of good guys and bad guys on the canvas, as well as contracts and who's coming and going. How do you manage it all? Do you use a chart or a bulletin board, or is it all in your head?

TL: It has to be in your head. If it's not in your head then you shouldn't be doing it. A lot of times people said, "Oh, my goodness &emdash; Mike and Carrie are leaving the show. What are we going to do? It's going to leave a big hole in the show." I said, "Yippee. Let's play Belle, Shawn and Chloe. Let's get more Nancy and Craig." I would love it if Mike and Carrie came back to the show, but it's great from a writing standpoint to get some fresh people on canvas that we don't know about. We know everything there is to know about Mike and Carrie; they loved each other!

In terms of the juggling act, one thing I do try to say to myself as I'm writing each show is, "Gee, do I have any comedy here? Do I have any fun? Are people going to smile when they see these scenes? Are they going to be depressed [for] the whole show?" You have to come up with a balance of adventure, romance, fun and excitement.

As a writer, who were your influences?

TL: That's very easy. [Legendary soap writer] Bill Bell. Bill Bell really nurtured me for the 10 years I was on The Young and the Restless. We became very close through the show and had a friendship, mainly, about the show. I loved his writing and I was amazed by his talent. We communicated very well in discussing daytime in general, and he was the first person to say to me many years ago, "Tom, I'd like to train you to be a writer."

I remember exactly where it was. It was in Malibu and we were having lunch and he was buying sandwiches to bring back to the house in the Colony. And I was so flustered by it, I just put it in the back of my head &emdash; and here I am 10 years later, doing it. But he really believed in me. He believed I could do it, and he was the greatest influence on me.

Have you spoken with Bill since you've taken over as writer of the show?

TL: Yes. And I told him that it was very daunting and that I sort of fell into it. I said to Bill, "I really feel that as each week goes by I'm really getting into the rhythm of it." And he said, "Tom, that's the keyword. Look at me: I did it for four years and I never broke stride. You can do it. From the sound of your voice you really sound like you're doing the right thing, you've got the right attitude and the right work ethic." He was very encouraging.

That anecdote brings me to something that is a problem in daytime, which is that writers don't train other writers. Are there specific young writers that you want to work with?

TL: Well, it's interesting. This is a very special animal, daytime, and some people take to it like a fish to water, and other people try it and it just doesn't work out. It just doesn't fit them. It's something you have to be working within; you have to be available 24 hours a day. I hate these people who say, "Oh, my God, I work so hard. I'm a head writer on daytime and I have no time to myself." I would love to find people who could take over for me someday but they just don't present themselves. The desire is not there, the talent is not there and it's not something that you can look at someone and say, "Oh, there's a head writer." It takes months of getting to know them. Actually, there is someone whom I met recently, a young lady who I think has great potential. But again, she looks at this as being impossible, which is the same way I looked at it 20 years ago.

Ken Corday: Unlike many of the head writers I have worked with, Tom is the kind of head writer that is not an island unto himself. He is a nurturing head writer. He will sit &emdash; although I'm not privy to some of these meetings &emdash; with his breakdown writers and associate head writers and allow them to bring some of themselves to the script. He will sit with people, whether it's the script continuity person or a new breakdown writer, and take the time to explain that this is the way that these characters interrelate. And there is a good synergy between him and the current writing staff. Better than I have ever seen on this show. Similar to the synergy that existed when Bill Bell was head writer here, and also creating The Young and the Restless and training Pat [Falken] Smith and giving her outlines, yet reading every one of her shows! And that was in the day when you would not just write the show but you would write the scripts as well!

The transition between head writers really has to be hands-on. Thank god Tom was hands-on here when we went from Jim [Reilly] to Sally Sussman to Lorraine Broderick. Had he not been here, I think there would have been a lot of glitches. There would have been big gaps and big jumps and big holes in the story that he seemed to plug. After a while, with all his fingers in the dyke, he said, "OK, I'm going to stop being the Dutch boy and I'm going to be the guy who fixes the dyke and builds a new one," very metaphorically speaking. But if something is not working, he is able to work it out. And if something is working he can be told, "This is great," and then he moves on. He doesn't hammer that nail. He's a rare find.

What hasn't worked?

TL: I think it's been too short a period of time to know. I think sometimes things do present themselves and you say, "Oh, God &emdash; let's get out of this. It isn't working." That hasn't happened yet, so ask me that in a year.

I will!