NBC DAYTIME: What could have been!

[Mitchapalooza]

Man I just was watching a few openings of ANOTHER WORLD on youtube and it got me to thinking about NBC Daytime and the decisions that were made in the late 90's regarding their soap platform.

Man the network TOTALLY screwed up. PASSIONS appeared to always be in the works but I will NEVER understand WHY NBC chose to cancel SUNSET BEACH and ANOTHER WORLD to make way for PASSIONS.

The creation of PASSIONS could have been NBC's way of having a solid and very entertaining 4-soap block in the afternoon.

They could have kept SUNSET BEACH at 12PM, DAYS at 1PM, ANOTHER WORLD at 2PM and put PASSIONS on a 3PM (just in time for teens getting off from school to tune in).

Instead, and under the destructive orders of Susan Lee (the eternal bitch of NBC daytime and the devil incarnate), they single handedly destroyed the stability of the NBC Daytime fan base and began pitting SUBE fans against DAYS fans against AW fans with their threats of canceling one of those shows to make way for PSNS.

Once DAYS was for sure safe, it just got more bitter and even more when SOD and SOW started to almost blow the story up even bigger, with their constant interviewing of AW and SUBE fans and continued the nastiness. All of this when all along NBC was getting rid of both SUBE and AW.

I just think this was one of the WORST business moves ever for NBC Daytime. It destroyed viewer loyalty, decreased overall ratings and forever made enemies of SUBE & PSNS fans, AW & PSNS fans and just destroyed any unity that the network had.

I just wonder what would have happened and what decisions would have been made if Susan Lee was NOT Vice President of NBC Daytime during that AWFUL time.

Perhaps NBC would have a 3 or 4 soaps line up, perhaps ratings would be and up and NBC would have had a overall bigger piece of the daytime pie.

Now all they have to show from all of this is their flagship soap, DAYS, suffering by itself and dying a slow death on a network that appears to not care.

The story of NBC Daytime, which could have ended on a very good note or at least continued on is now always going to be looked upon as a sad and wimpy death, one that could have been prevented. Not to mention they have eternally pissed off MILLIONS of fans who loyally watched their soaps for years.

I want DAYS to continue so bad, but even with good ratings, I just don't think a one-soap daytime lineup is even really worth it for NBC anymore.

So sad, because it could have been SUBE, DAYS, AW & PSNS all on one network together.

[StephanieLover17]

Days of our lives is the best one of of the 4. Days will never die, you see. I will be the last one laughing when Days does not die. May leave NBC but it will most likely be picked up by another Network, most likely CBS. They can cancel guiding light for Days.

[patzo101]

You and I must share the same brain, I always thought the same thing. NBC did do this to themselves and they have nobody to blame but themselves.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

There's a lot to consider too though. Ever since the 80's, NBC hasn't had much ratings success in daytime. Despite Days' surge in ratings in the mid 90's, AW, SB, and Passions all lived in the bottom pack of the ratings. None of those shows showed signs of gaining any type of audience either.

Then you had the soaps from CBS and ABC, where were often top 5 rated, while Days was the only entry from NBC in the upper half of the ratings. More so than any other network, it's always about the ratings with NBC.

[Mitchapalooza]

I blame Susan Lee. This was ALL her doing!

She is the one that made the decision to cancel AW/SUBE to bring on PASSIONS. She is the on the demoted NBC Daytime to a 2 soap lineup.

If she was not the VP of NBC during the 90's, things would have been different. If NBC has the VP from CBS or ABC at the time, no doubt AW/SUBE/DAYS and PSNS would have all co-exhisted IMO!

[NeoAngelicLiz]

Umm this may be a stupid question but is SUBE = Sunset Beach? Or are those two different shows?

Anyways moving on I never saw AW or SUBE/SB so I really can't comment on how good or not so good those two shows were.

However based on my experiences with Trashions they can't have been any worse and in all likelyhood were a 1000x better than that garbage excuse for a soap.

So in some ways it is sad that they aren't on today.

Basically NBC Daytime has a lot of issues and the original poster is right when it comes to a lot of things.

Personally I think they need to spend then ext 2-3 maybe even 4 years rebuilding Days into a decent/steady if not great show that brings in good ratings AND then maybe start thinking of launching a new soap (or even relaunching one of the old favorites).

Does anyone else think that is possible?

[Mitchapalooza]

All it took was a new headwriter to cause DAYS to surge in the ratings in the early 90's. DAYS was basically in the same shape AW was ratings wise, but hiring Reilly really turned things around at DAYS ratings wise and had NBC taken the time to give a [!@#$%^&*] about AW and how people like JFP and Ken Fitts were detroying it's identity, perhaps it wouldn't had suffered as bad as it did ratings wise. Perhaps things would have been different for AW.

Same thing for SUBE, NBC never got behind the soap. It failed to secure full affliate coverage of SUBE from the premiere and it only dwindled every year from there. SUBE wasn't even playing on 25% of NBC affiliates when it first premiered. HOW was that show supposed to even gets it foot in the door when its own network barely supported it from the start.

Had SUBE and AW been given as many chances and as much promotion and network backing that PASSIONS got during its 8 year run on NBC, no doubt things would have turned around for at LEAST one of them.

[Max]

Mitch, I agree with almost everything that you wrote. However, I don't believe that Susan Lee is singlehandedly responsible for destroying NBC Daytime; instead, I believe that her higher-ups had a lot to do with making those terrible decisions.

Also, while it would have not have offended anyone if there was a 4-hour lineup of SuBe, DOOL, AW, and Passions, there would have been no way the NBC affiliates would have allowed for it. Therefore, at least one soap had to be cancelled to make room for Passions (which NBC was determined to bring to the air). Now, as it turns out, NBC wanted to cancel both AW and SuBe in order to make room for the show. However, I personally beileve that AW was cancelled before (the less popular) SuBe because had it been the other way around, NBC would have had a much harder time justifying AW's cancellation in December 1999 (given the fact that it would have had higher ratings than Passions had at the time). By cancelling AW first, NBC made it easy for themselves to cancel SuBe six months later since that soap had lower ratings than Passions.

[Mitchapalooza]

Yes SUBE = SUNSET BEACH. Most use SUBE because the SB was used for another cancelled NBC soap SANTA BARBARA.

As for your idea, I don't think we will EVER see another soap besides DAYS on NBC. SUBE/AW/PSNS will NEVER be back on NBC and the network will NEVER launch a new soap unless something monumental happens to the viewership of the entire genre.

DAYS will *COULD* survive past 2009, it depends on who is running NBC at that time, but it looks bleak at this point. Who knows, the show will be 45 in 2009, perhaps NBC will just say "f*ck it, lets just keep this thing going". I mean the show is still making SOME money for the network.

[Ryan]

SUBE - Sunset Beach

SB - Santa Barbara

[MichaelGL]

It's her fault that DAYS has been snubbed for Emmy recognition for the past few years.

[Mitchapalooza]

Your right, perhaps it had to do with the decisions from higher up aswell, but no doubt Lee has a HUGE part in the decision, I mean she was in control of the entire daytime drama lineup.

SUBE and AW cancellation were BOTH pre-meditated by the network. You are right, they had full intentions of cancelling both. This is why their decision to cancel AW over SUBE made no sense at first, but after all was said and done (and SUBE was cancelled too), it certainly makes sense now.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

AW was constantly changing writers and producers in at least its last 20 years on the air. One of the soap magazines called it, "the longest soap transition ever." Unlike its P&G sister soaps, ATWT and GL, it never had a renaissance or gold era in the late 80's/early 90's. As much as many fans hated Jill Farren Phelps' tenure on AW, she actually did help with the ratings. The show rose a bit in viewers and the demos during her brief run there. Also, if it weren't for JFP and her bloc voting style, Anna Holbrook and Charles Keating would not have won those Emmy's in 1996. Seemingly, it looked like she was saving the show, but things did collapse. In it's last 3 years on the air, AW had something like 5 different head writer changes. P&G and NBC tried to save the show, but in the end, nothing worked and ratings wouldn't budge. NBC simply didn't think it was worth it to pay P&G a high licensing fee for the show anymore.

I wanted AW to stay on the air, but I really do believe NBC and P&G tried to save the show before its unfortunate cancellation.

Sunset Beach, well, that whole situation was botched from the begining.

[bellcurve]

Sorry AW Fans,

But I would have preferred a DAYS/AREMID combo over keeping AW on the air. Or DAYS, followed by AREMID spinoff, and then AW if they wanted three soaps on the air.

I still would have preferred that over DAYS/AW/BEACH. I firmly believe DAYS would still be on the air today, and so would the spinoff. And Aremid was such a gothic, creepy town!

[bellcurve]

I'll be perfectly honest...as much as I LOVE BEACH, NBC should have totally went with UNION PLACE(Claire Labine's much talked about soap bible).