AW: Why is there anger at The OC, OTH, & Frons...

[Max]

I realize that a lot of people are upset about AW reruns being cancelled to make room for The OC and One Tree Hill. Yet, these same folks have no anger at NBC when it comes to AW's cancellation to make room for Passions. (I realize that in both instances, the main reason for cancellation was AW's poor ratings. However, the additions of Passions or The OC/One Tree Hill proved to be the final catalyst for AW's cancellation.) To me, this seems very hypocritcal. Additionally, what NBC and Passions did was far worse than what's being done by by Frons, The OC, and One Tree Hill, as evidenced by these points:

*AW reruns on SoapNet had ratings of 0.0. On the other hand, (according to Eddie's AW web page) AW averaged a 2.4 rating during the 1998-99 Season. It should be noted that Passions' average rating for the 1999-2000 season was lower than a 2.4. Additionally, NBC chose to cancel AW before SuBe, despite the fact that AW had almost a million more viewers than SuBe.

*Despite the fact that SoapNet has cancelled AW reruns, there is still a chance that one day AW reruns will turn up somewhere else. Yet, thanks to NBC and Passions, new episodes of AW will never happen.

*Passions is a show completely devoid of artistic merit. On the other hand, both The OC and OTH have artistic quality to them. (I don't recall The OC or OTH ever having witches or talking dolls. And while the actors on those shows aren't the greatest, they are not exactly the all time worst that Passions has.) As a matter of fact, I don't hate--or even dislike--either The OC or OTH. So, there goes that bogus argument (that so many here have claimed) that I hate Passions because it was the show that replaced AW; obvioulsy, if that were true, you would see me hating The OC and OTH, yet that is not the case.

*Many of you have rightly criticized SoapNet for wanting to aim for the youth market by replacing AW reruns with The OC and OTH. Yet, wasn't this exactly the same thing NBC did when it replaced AW with Passions? As a matter of fact, aside from Passions there has never been a soap--daytime or primetime--that was constructed so hastily (quality be dammed) just in order to cash in on the then-popularity that its creator enjoyed among young people.

So, I really don't get why there is all this hatred towards Frons, The OC, and OTH, yet none towards NBC and Passions. So, could someone please explain why this is the case? The only possible reasons I can think of are: (1) Passions is a daytime soap, while the others are primetime (which is a reason that makes little sense to me), or (2) the hatred here for Frons is so intense that he gets bashed for cancelling AW when not a peep is heard when NBC did the same thing.

[KMan101]

I can understand the blame on NBC. But it's not Passions' fault.

[Toups]

Max, there was anger..........in freakin1999!!! LMAO

And secondly, Passions has nothing to do with SoapNet and Brian Frons!!

[KMan101]

I agree with Toups. It's been 8 years. I love AW too but it's been EIGHT YEARS. And besides, Passions was canceled so ... there's no valid argument.

[RogerNewcomb]

Only in the past year have I maybe stopped hating Passions. I also hated Sunset Beach because they got to stay on air 6 months longer than the beloved AW. Believe me, we all HATED NBC for AW's cancellation and I still resent them for it. They gave AW hardly no notice. If they had as much notice as Passions got, I truly believe they could have found another network to air the show. I also resent P&G because it seemed there were other possible outlets but they didn't allow it.

[KMan101]

Yeah. I'm pissed at P&G. They didn't seem to really give a crap, am I wrong in that assessment?

As much as I loved Passions (1999-2002 only really), I love AW ten times more and am a little annoyed that NBC is going through so much trouble to keep it on the air.

[PhoenixRising05]

Passions has nothing to do with this. I would think people moved past being angry with Passions but I guess not.

Whatever the case, this is about Frons and Soapnet being idiots and pushing two shows that are not even in the same league as AW and the others that are going in favor of this new schedule. This development with SN is just bad and stupid all around.

[dawn9476]

We have no proof that is true. We just have Daniel Coolidge's word. We have never seen an official list of SN's ratings for all their shows like we have with everything on basic TV and the really popular shows on basic cable.

And it is not really that SN is adding OTH and The OC. My beef is that Frons is adding OTH, The OC, and two more showings of Dallas when there was more enough room for AW, too. Plus, OTH, The OC, and Dallas are all on DVD while AW isn't. I don't think a show that is out on DVD should get multiple showings.

ETA: And don't generalize. A lot of the people who are upset about AW being pulled from Soapnet are the AW SN board are still upset about the first cancellation and won't watch NBC daytime to this day.

[jcar03]

I'm guessing that Coolidge has proof or he wouldn't just print the 0.0 rating online. Face the fact that people that are Nielsen viewers were not watching and unfortuntely are watching Dallas and 90210 which leads them to want to get shows like OTH and OC.

[dawn9476]

But you are talking about two generations of viewers. Dallas and 90210 viewers didn't grow up in the DVD and Internet generation. That is why OTH and The OC is going to fail on SN. Most of their fans can watch OTH and The OC online or on DVD anytime they want. And most Dallas and 90210 fans at SN are not looking forward to OTH and The OC coming there.

[ANDREA LOATHES REILLY]

I don't think you understand what the problem really is.

With AW and Trassions, AW was not performing, so the show was axed. It was not replaced because of Trassions. Trassions or anything was going to replace the show, so the final outcome was going to be the same no matter what the replacement was.

With SN, the audience wants their classic soaps. As a RH fan, I am totally disgusted that my viewing will be reduced to just 1 hour/week. Why does Dallas (which I love more than so many things) and the teen shows need to be shown all during the day and in the wee hours of the morning? Who's up at that time? I Tivo RH. Why not move AW to the early morning and keep RH right where it is?

Frons is a moron because he does not realize that he can have both audiences. The vintage audience and the penniless teens! Stupid idiot!

ANDREA

[dawn9476]

Exactly Andrea. That is why The Noggin does so well. It has programing for little kids all day but when 6'o clock hits and most teens are watching TV, they switch to teen shows. That is what Soapnet could have done. They could have Dallas, RH and AW on in the morning and early afternoon but when after school hits, then they could have rolled out shows like 90210, OTH and The OC. Frons has no concept of balance.

[JoelMTL]

For pete's sake...AW was pulling a 0.0 rating in the key women demo on soapnet. They'd be completely stupid to keep it on the air (and I enjoyed AW back in the day).

[dawn9476]

What about all the people in the 18-49 demo including myself that don't have Nielsen box who watched AW everyday? That is like saying that they don't matter. And when we get to see the ratings for other SN shows? That's it. Never. SN telling DC that AW got a 0.0 is BS because SN will never release their ratings to back that up.

[RogerNewcomb]

I know so many people who watch those AW reruns, many people who never watched the show before. I can't believe the show got a ZERO rating. If it did, then I bet all their shows get the same rating or their highest show is like 0.1. We heard Coleridge's Soapnet spin. I would love to hear P&G speak about their classic shows, their Classic Soap Channel and the future. They have a blog, maybe if we all asked them they would comment.