July 30 - August 3, 2007

[Rocket Man]

If you read my earlier post, how many of those viewers switched to the latest addition of Inner Tube on CBS.com where you can watch the episodes on the internet?

Also the primetime ratings of CBS has declined significantly which cause the ratings to go down across the board including daytime. Primetime is the most coveted line-up to showcase the network brand and it is important to have good ratings on primetime to carry the promotion and advertisement of shows elsewhere (late-night, sports, daytime, children's shows, news show). Even the CBS Nightly News with Katie Couric is down significantly which doesn't help the network as well.

[Ann_SS]

I highly doubt that over 200,000 viewers have switched to watching Y&R and the other CBS soaps on the Internet. If that was true, the decline would be the same every day. Instead, there is a daily fluctuation with the decline beginning on Wednesday for Y&R which suggests that the audience is reacting to what they are seeing on the screen. We have to wait to see next week's ratings to determine if this past week was a fluke or actually reflects the beginning of a serious ratings dip.

[Sylph]

Hopefully, this is the start of Lynn's downfall and Brad's change of stories. I don't like the fact that GL is becoming the new Passions.

[Sylph]

[Sylph]

[Rocket Man]

I don't think GL will be the new Passions because once Passions leave the lineup, DAYS ratings will sink lower. By looking at its history when NBC cancelled AW and Sunset, DAYS ratings declined; they even declined when "Generations" and "Santa Barbara" went off the air. If you only have one soap opera in the entire line-up then there is less of a reason for people to tune in. Perhaps a spin-off from DAYS (remember they were to do a show centralizing on Marlena in "Manhattan Lives") will retain or increase the ratings. Until then all bets are off despite of the recent hire Ed Scott being the new executive producer, maybe DAYS best bet is to leave NBC in 2009 and join Soap Net cable network full-time.

[Soapsuds]

You make very good points. Only time will tell. We will have to wait and see what happens in September.

[bellcurve]

OT, but don't spin Katie's declining ratings with the rest of what's going on...she just plain sucks!

And if that one soap opera is changing its timeslot across the country...that is another reason for people not to tune in.

I had no idea DAYS's ratings declined when GENERATIONS and SB were cancelled.

Sony/Corday could bring Jesus in to save the show and DAYS would still be screwed.

NBC will sabotage that move before it ever happens. March 2009 is theoretically DAYS's final airdate. It wouldn't surprise me if affiliates knew this and decided to not bring DAYS back after 24-HR Olympic Coverage from Beijing is done and over with. If even before that happens! If DAYS is done for in March(which is later on in the season, not at a stopping place in like the summer, or December/January midseason), that would leave affiliates scrambling to find something to put in its place. And, as we've seen in the past, the affiliates are not stupid. When AW was cancelled for PASSIONS, a lot of affiliates yanked BEACH off the air immediately afterward to avoid finding a midseason replacement.

I want to believe the best will happen for DAYS, but seeing how much NBC has supported their soaps in the past, I say DAYS is so done for.

And getting back to the bold point of the reply...if the ratings are really low, no way will SOAPnet or anyone else be able to afford the licensing fee...without a massive budget cut. I'm talking massive! Like everyone shopping at the new Salem Place, eating at the Brady Pub, and living in the same hotel room.

It might be interesting to see a cabler like Lifetime take on DAYS four days a week. It's a little more mainstream of a network and would get DAYS the attention it needs on cable.

[Sylph]

So instead of one, we'll have two Passions. (As if we already didn't have them.)

[Sylph]

That could work, but is there a real chance of that happening given their disastrous history with the genre?

[Rocket Man]

Once "Generations" and "Santa Barbara" was cancelled it impacted DAYS ratings as viewers left after the two shows were cancelled. But the biggest hit of them all was "Another World", once it was cancelled, DAYS kept sinking as it was paired with Passions as soon as AW left the airwaves.

I have to agree with what are saying about DAYS needing to do massive budget cuts, but I'm wondering if they have to do it NOW because they are so loaded with the cast, crew and sets. I cannot see DAYS continuing their current budget since their ratings is next to GL. GL got into the game in 2005 to make massive cuts in order stay on the airwaves, but all the thanks goes to Paul Rauch and John Conboy for splurging GL for years as they've realized they are in the red for so long. I'm surprised CBS didn't cancel GL then.

Perhaps FOX network is looking to get into the daytime industry, perhaps DAYS would find a new home there. But either way, if DAYS were to go Soap Net, Lifetime, FOX or elsewhere they have to make massive budget cuts. It's a matter of when.

[Rocket Man]

Overall, CBS is healthy network across the board so they won't rock the boat because they go through a cycle of ratings decline and then ratings go up by not changing their lineup of all hours in their network. I see CBS daytime remaining the same for the next few years with GL being shifting time slot-wise around some more.

ABC network is improving but has a ways to go they continue to take care of their primetime to help the network as a whole. IMO, so no major change in their lineup, except we'll see more Original shows on Soap Net with spin-offs from ABC soaps.

NBC is a train wreck, and if we learn anything from the history of NBC daytime, they've cancelled "Search for Tomorrow", "Generations", Santa Barbara", "Another World", "Sunset Beach" and now "Passions" will go to Direct TV (no mans land cable). It's a matter of time that DAYS need to start looking at another network because NBC will do what's best by cancelling another soap.

[bellcurve]

I had no clue Lifetime had a history with daytime/daily serialized dramas. And I always find it interesting that Lifetime hasn't even bothered trying to make its own daytime/daily soap.

Since Disney/ABC own both Lifetime and SOAPnet, the likelihood of DAYS being acquired by Lifetime is highly unlikely.

That's what concerns me about Ed Scott coming to DAYS. He will be working with Corday and Co. to not only produce the show in a cost-efficient way, but to make it look effortless. I thought GL did a decent job with this in the first part of 2006, but since then, the show has been floundering.

No way in hell will Rupert Murdoch/Roger Ailes sign off on a daytime soap lineup for FOX. MyNetworkTV was that experiment and due to lack of promotion(and I disagree, but several will say lack of quality), NewsCorp won't risk banking millions of dollars into a new soap lineup when the one they worked on before tanked.

If we see a new soap or DAYS crosses over to another network(like CW, MyNetworkTV, or FOX), it'll be very much in the vein of TRIBES or SWANS CROSSING. Heavily youth-driven, shot mostly on-location or with cheap sets, and aired by Seasons instead of year-round. Someone has to build an financially friendly model for a daytime soap. PORT CHARLES's method(with the right writer) would be excellent...less catering to fanbases and more driven by the writing and the production. PASSIONS's method(cutting to four episodes a week and producing material for the cast that will guarantee a four-month vacation for them).

I think we'll see massive budget cuts when DAYS drops dead-last in the ratings and stays there.

[Sylph]

Well, not actually. I overdramatised. You remember Monarch Cove (based on German Bianca: Wege zum Glück)? It ran for 11 episodes.

[Sylph]

Looking at other networks I would agree, but I might have chosen a different adjective, ie. not healthy. For them to see B&B dropping from 3.5 to 2.5, ATWT from 2.8 to 2.1 and so on and to do nothing... I just cannot believe this is happening. And Jean Passanante still writing, as well as Kreizman, whose salary is one of the main reasons he's staying as HW.

CBS has the best ratings, but I'm not sure they're gonna go up any time soon if these HW teams are in place.

A trainwreck, indeed. They said they're gonna cancel it, but Sony will have to do something if it wants to receive revenues from the ailing soap, and maybe they will achieve something.