From: http://publications.mediapost.com/index.cf...p;art_aid=54960

Soap And Serial TV Needs Some Cleaning

by Wayne Friedman, Friday, Feb 2, 2007 12:45 PM ET

TV PRESSURE GROUPS SHOULD TAKE note of what has happened at MyNetworkTV: Viewers become bored when sex and violence air on TV five nights a week.

Yesterday, MyNetworkTV finally announced what the rest of the TV business press has known since last September: that the network's all-prime-time, all-English-language telenovela plan had little chance of success.

At a Nielsen 0.3 rating among 18-49 viewers, and with an average of 300,000 viewers overall, the News Corp.-backed network couldn't even break the top 15 or top 20 U.S. cable networks.

What's on tap now? There'll be martial arts and ultimate fighting events on Monday nights and theatrical movies on Thursdays and Fridays. Telenovelas will now be squeezed into two nights, with one series each running on one night for two hours. After that -- games shows and reality programs.

All that spells relief -- economic relief. Just like telenovelas, all these genres are inexpensive to produce or buy. Like a good U.S. cable network just starting out, MyNetworkTV can ill afford the expense of scripted once-a-week sitcoms and dramas -- as well as the apathy of viewers.

Greg Meidel, the recently installed president of MyNetworkTV, told Daily Variety plainly: "Trying to get people to watch serialized dramas every night on MyNetwork TV was asking the impossible."

No kidding.

Other broadcast TV networks work in somewhat the same field. They run countless serial dramas -- shows that worry programmers, who wonder how many different shows viewers can stay interested in all season long.

The difference is that shows like "24," "Heroes" and "Lost" only air one a week -- not every night. Viewers get to catch their breath. At MyNetworkTV, with all the sex, it has been one panting sprint after another.

All these changes don't come in a vacuum. NBC recently cancelled one of its daytime show, "Passions." Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC Universal Television Group, was quoted as saying it's "the beginning of the end" for daytime serials and soaps.

Could prime-time soaps and serials be far behind?

MyNetworkTV can show you the Nielsen ratings books for insight into this question.

Don't we already have a thread about this article?

^I posted Zucker's comment a few weeks ago. However, the info about MyNetwork Tv is a new article.

Well, I think this is all ridiculous.

Although, hopefully nets can have the BRAINS to air soaps once or twice a week and not kill them altogether. There is a love for daytime soaps. Although they should air a little later than they do, I believe. And they need much more promotion.

Maybe someone should move this thread to the MyNetworkTV section, because this has more to do with those shows than daytime.

The *BIG* reason why MyNetworkTV didn't work MEIDEL is that these shows weren't even marketed properly. No one knew WHAT MyNetworkTV was, and a lot of people still don't.

I admit, FH and DESIRE weren't that great. But, WICKED WICKED GAMES and WATCH OVER ME were both soap masterpieces with excellent production values and really good acting(especially WWG and Tatum O'Neal).

"Trying to get people to watch serialized dramas every night on MyNetwork TV was asking the impossible."

Not if you promote the shows to diehard soap fanatics. Or, wait, how about promoting these shows at all!?

What's on tap now? There'll be martial arts and ultimate fighting events on Monday nights and theatrical movies on Thursdays and Fridays. Telenovelas will now be squeezed into two nights, with one series each running on one night for two hours. After that -- games shows and reality programs.

I hope the ratings register a 0HH after that. Without MyNetworkTV's all telenovela lineup, the network is pointless. But, you can't tell that to someone who doesn't like soaps to begin with.

With Meidel saying this, I'm not completely convinced the network will let AMERICAN HEIRESS and SAINTS & SINNERS run their full course. I think they will give up on them way earlier than their run.

Yep, 2007. The year that soaps died!

OMG they need to shut the [!@#$%^&*] up. Soaps have been around for over 75 years for a REASON. The people who run them now just do not know how to do them right. Plain and simple.

OMG they need to shut the [!@#$%^&*] up. Soaps have been around for over 75 years for a REASON. The people who run them now just do not know how to do them right. Plain and simple.

WORD! Totally and completely agree with you!!

I love my soaps and the networks should take into consideration the fact that unlike MyNetworkTV (which was admittedly trash when I watched it) daytime soaps are staples. The problem is not the show itself - it's what's going on with each show. All My Children is constantly alienating its own viewers; One Life to Live hasn't had a solid identity since Michael Malone's first run; As the World Turns is generic soap at best; Bold and Beautiful is so fickle you can't keep up; Passions began its descent toward exploitation and trash years ago. GH and GL have some great moments mixed in with the good/mediocre, and powerhouse Y&R is starting to show serious signs of strain. Overhaul the shows! Bring back vets, fire the hack writers, treat the shows with some sort of dignity and respect! It's all thanks to the Powers that Be.

I think the problem that MyNetworkTV had was that they were trying to show a soap 5 days a week at NIGHT, and that is just something that does not work, 5 day a week soaps were meant for daytime, not primetime. That is why when Melrose Place and 90210 were on they were once a week not everyday, I am sure if they would have put them on everyday, they would have never lasted, same thing can be said about Dallas and Dynasty once a week which is all that a primetime soap should be on. Not to mention that there NEW soaps don't have millions of people that have been watching for 20 years or more as a start up base. I in no way shape or form view there problems at MyNetworkTV to the probelms that daytime has. Daytime's problem is storytelling, once upon a time daytime soaps all had great story tellers and storylines, and now alot of it is just throw whatever at the screen for a story and see if it sticks with the viewers. The only way daytime is going to fix its problems is to get back to storytelling and stop writing drivel for storylines.

People these days talk about "The Sopranos" like they used to talk about "GH" and "Dallas." That's where people are getting their soap fix these days. Even they aren't what we think of as "soaps," a lot of prime-time shows have done a good job at adapting soap conventions to primetime genres.

I am so sick of JZ and NBC.

I do think this was posted before but oh well. Gives me more reason to wish bad luck upon the network for the horrible way they are handling all this.

I think the problem that MyNetworkTV had was that they were trying to show a soap 5 days a week at NIGHT, and that is just something that does not work, 5 day a week soaps were meant for daytime, not primetime. That is why when Melrose Place and 90210 were on they were once a week not everyday, I am sure if they would have put them on everyday, they would have never lasted, same thing can be said about Dallas and Dynasty once a week which is all that a primetime soap should be on. Not to mention that there NEW soaps don't have millions of people that have been watching for 20 years or more as a start up base. I in no way shape or form view there problems at MyNetworkTV to the probelms that daytime has. Daytime's problem is storytelling, once upon a time daytime soaps all had great story tellers and storylines, and now alot of it is just throw whatever at the screen for a story and see if it sticks with the viewers. The only way daytime is going to fix its problems is to get back to storytelling and stop writing drivel for storylines.

Showing soaps 4 or 5 days a week at night works very well in the UK. The top-rated shows are nighttime soaps there, with 4-6 episodes a week. MyNetworkTV just didn't promote itself or its telenovelas very well. I think a more established network could have a real hit with a 2- or 3-day a week nighttime soap. We see from a reality TV show like Big Brother or American Idol being on several days a week, also, that people can tune into a show for more than just one day a week at night.

Anyway it is NOT the beginning of the end for soaps. Jeff Zucker is clueless and just trying to justify his network's ineptness with daytime.

Edited February 5, 200718 yr by jfung79

OMG they need to shut the [!@#$%^&*] up. Soaps have been around for over 75 years for a REASON. The people who run them now just do not know how to do them right. Plain and simple.

ITA!

Am I the only one who feels that posting all this stuff is contributing to this BS too? I mean why keep putting this out there?

ITA!

Am I the only one who feels that posting all this stuff is contributing to this BS too? I mean why keep putting this out there?

You're not the only one. I'm sick to death of all the cancellation/gloom&doom threads we've had lately.

I think all objective soap fans know the beginning of the end was actually a WHILE ago. It sucks to admit it, but it's true. Helloooo, every thursday in the ratings threads?