Y&R: Should LML Stay Or Go?

[DeeeDee]

The ratings are erratic (at best).

There have already been droves of longtime Y&R viewers who have been (or are in the process of bein) driven off due to LML's incompetent & illogical writin.

And any ratings bumps LML's Y&R has experienced are mainly due to ex-NBC and/or ABC viewers who have begun watchin Y&R regularly cause it's the last bastion of anything even vaugely resembling a "regular" soap.

[PJA]

The ratings are no more erratic than they were before she took over. I have gone backed and looked at ratings from 2005 and 2006 before she came on and the period before she came on had some of the consistently lowest ratings ever. As far as the ex viewers from other channels tuning in..that's just pure speculation.

[PJA]

I agree that B&B is all over the place. I tried to watch it the other day when I happened to see Stephanie strangling Brooke...but that was the only thing of interest. And then Brooke was stupid for believeing ridge was at big bear.

[heatherwebber]

I don't think we remember the same show.

As I recall, and this is not knocking the show, Bill Bell's version would have months and months of little scenes building up to huge climaxes with big payoffs. I don't recall lots of cliffhangers.

Viewers tuned in to see familiar characters talking like friends. That was what a lot of the show was about much of the time.

But when the payoffs came they had more impact and meaning than the big bang explosions of ABC or the ridiculous gun-waving and yelling on GH.

[DeeeDee]

Actually, they are.

Which is precisely when she rose to power.

No it isn't. There have been droves of disgusted NBC/ABC viewers that have left their soaps only to begin watching CBS soaps (Y&R in particular), especially once LML took over began makin Y&R into a DOOL/GH hybrid.

[DeeeDee]

There were significant cliffhangers without bein farce-like with it, like Passions.

Viewers tuned in because there was a level of maturity, intelligence & consistency.

[Ann_SS]

I remember Bill Bell's Y&R have storlyines that moved at a snail's pace. It was painful to watch at times, but the climaxes were great and the emotional payoffs worth every second. These climaxes and payoffs are what LML fail to give us causing her storylines to often end with a whimper instead of bang.

[PJA]

It is speculation because you're assuming that those viewers are being counted in the ratings and we don't know if they are or not. And I still know that the ratings are no more erratic than before she took over. She brought the ratings out of their slump and made the show interesting again. Under Smith and Alden I was about to quit watching but she made it watchable again. She has her faults....late last year and early this year I was questiioning her writing abilities but once the reliquary mess ended it became interesting again. All I'm sayin is that using ratings to try to justify why they should get rid of her isn't going to work because they haven't dropped below what they were when she took over. Overall I'm still enjoying the show and it has had great cliffhangers. I guess different stroke for different folks.

[DeeeDee]

It's no more "speculation" that longtime viewers HAVEN'T been driven away because you & a couple of your relatives still enjoy the show.

Yes they are.

The ratings currently jump around then House Of Pain.

Only for a briefly which usually happens when a new HW takes over.

Riiiiiiight.

Alden's Y&R smokes Smith's & is light years better then ANYTHING about LML's Y&R.

Tons of OOC characters & rampant history destruction do not an "interesting" make.

Eh, yes they have.

Y&R hit a 3.9 one day last week.

That's more than enough of a warning to fire the hag.

If you say so.

[Taraija]

The show sucks, IMHO. It is not interesting, riveting, or even enjoyable, for me at least. I am very dissatified. I tried to stick it out for certain characters that I've come to love, but many are unrecognizable and are only made to suit plot points; plots that aren't even that good. Y&R isn't Y&R anymore and it certainly isn't improved or refreshed, imo. So yes, she should go, but these people aren't smart enough to make her go, though she deserves it more than anyone.

[sheilaforever]

Exactly and amen to that.

Brad Bell changed B&B when he completely took over the show but he kept the basic identity (with this short Marone influx) - You can watch an episode from two decades ago and still get the same feeling while watching a current episode. It's not just because of the four core characters but because the writing team which consists of longtimers but also newcomers who totally get the B&B gist like Patrick Mulcahey or those former Y&R scribes B&B took in.

Y&R used to be the same. Characters/actors come and go but the show feels like THE SHOW.

That excuse still labeled as Y&R nowadays is nothing like Y&R anymore. It started in late 2005 (coincidentally when LML suddenly appeared as consultant in the credits) and has gotten worse ever since.

I could name at least half a dozen regular posters here at SON, which were long-time Y&R viewers, but simply tuned out for good/left the board because of taht... Y&R's "old" viewership is bleeding and this will eventually reflect in ratings.

[Sylph]

Well, the news just keep getting better and better... With Ed Scott gone, we can forget about Y&R we once knew and loved dearly. This is really a grating testament to corporate entertainment's unfathomable ability to transform creative originality into anodyne excess. Y&R has become a show in which narrative causality is entirely optional; unfortunatly, that same lack of narrative sense makes it utterly impossible to care for these protagonists, no matter how noble their fight...

[PJA]

The ratings back up my opinion..not yours. She dropped to a 3.9 but Alden and Smith have had that many times and worse. If viewers were being driven away the ratings would drop and they haven't and the ratings are not erratic. Point blank you don't like the show but LML isnt going anywhere. The viewers are up from last year and that's the bottom line..if the viewers weren't happy they would be tuning out and it would reflect in the ratings.

[Sylph]

I wanted to comment on that. Even if LML goes, who knows who will she be replaced with... I don't want Jim and Babs! And KA won't be back any time soon...

[DeeeDee]

No they don't.

The ratings bolster my POV, not yours.

No they didn't.

Smith maybe, Alden no way.

Point blank, nothin.

LML continues the way she's goin & she'll be fired.

Especially while longtime viewers continue to tune out & the ratings continue to drop.

The ratings are about the same as they were last year.

Both times which LML was HW.

THAT's the bottom line.

First of all the Neilsen system is horrendously obsolete.

Secondly the above statement only enforces the point that the majority (if not all) of LML's ratings bumps have been from the influx of newbie Y&R viewers as well as the horrible state of Daytime as a whole.

Period.

CBS needs to BEG Labine to take over.