NBC's lost opportunities?

[David V]

As we all know, the departure of Passions from NBC screens has left Days of Our Lives as the network's sole daytime soap, and that soap saw its ratings hit new lows last year (along with several others, mind you). When Passions' cancellation was announced, people began talking about the affects it would have on the fate of Days in the long term, and ultimately of an already ailing genre. But it also raised further questions, on this forum and beyond, as to why has NBC done poorly in Daytime since around 1980, why it has failed to produce soap lineup competitive with CBS and ABC in the ratings race.

NBC Daytime had its Golden Age in the 1970s when Another World, Days of Our Lives and The Doctors were in the top half a dozen rated soaps in the country. However, their ratings collectively began a slow decline- and by 1979, Another World had fallen from being among the top 2 rated soaps to the middle of the pack. It was still NBC's highest-rated soap, and ratings were still decent. Even in their run as a 90-minute soap, their ratings were still not unreasonable. It was only during 1980 that the entire NBCD lineup experienced a catastrophic collapse in ratings from which they never fully recovered. A look at the seasonal ratings for 1979-80 and 1980-81 will reveal that:

1979-80

8.Another World 7.1

10.Days of Our Lives 6.6

11.The Doctors 6.1

These ratings were well down on NBC's glory days of the 70s, but still not hopelessly uncompetitive. However, look at...

1980-81

9.Days of Our Lives 5.5

10.Anoter World 5.1

12.The Doctors 3.8

12.Texas 3.8

The week of Luke and Laura's wedding in 1981, for instance, saw massive ratings success not only for General Hospital, but also All My Children, One Life To Live and Ryan's Hope by association. Even the declining Edge of Night managed to jump above ALL of NBC's soaps that week. Four events in 1980 had conspired to cause NBC's catastrophic collapse. These were:

1) the wholesale changing and chopping of cast on Days of Our Lives. Many established figures on the show left and a glut of new characters were introduced that nobody cared about- only Liz Chandler (played by Gloria Loring) had any staying power at all.

2) the departure of Beverlee McKinsey from Another World to the new spin-off Texas.

3) the moving of The Doctors to yet another timeslot that year.

4) the entire NBC network was in a deep crisis following the Supertrain failure and the Olympics boycott.

NBC picked up Search for Tomorrow from CBS in 1982, a move which halved that show's ratings- after all, up to 1982 SFT still had decent ratings and far better than any NBC soap at the time- and sealed its fate since some NBC affiliates did not pick it up, while others dropped it after only a couple of years. It is worth noting the correlation between the ratings of Days and AW through history- the catastrophic events at Days in 1980 played its part in pulling AW's ratings down with it, especially as more viewers chose to tune in to ABC instead.

This correlation between Days and AW ratings will reveal itself when we look at the start of the "Silver Age". The Silver Age of NBC Daytime saw its soaps garner renewed acclaim in many circles and nearly (but not quite) translate it into ratings success. From 1980 to 1983, NBC Daytime's ratings were in the doldrums but during the 1983-84 season, both Days and AW managed a miraculous recovery. Looking at the ratings for 1982-83, Days was 8th with 5.7 and AW was 10th with 4.8. Compared to 1980's levels, it was a substantial loss, particularly for Another World. However, the 1983-84 season saw a resurgence- Days climbed a place to 7th with 7.1, whilst AW climbed to 9th with 5.6. Both soaps maintained fairly stable numbers until the late 80s. Add to that, Santa Barbara debuted in 1984 and while never a great ratings puller, it also started climbing slowly in the ratings.

In a sense, both Days and AW had made something of a miraculous recovery by 1984, and this is when the "Silver Age" of NBCD really began.

By 1987, after which NBC was left with three hour-long soaps in Days, AW and Santa Barbara, NBCD finally looked like having a winning formula. They attracted probably their highest average or overall soap ratings for that decade. But right after that, Days' ratings began a stedy decline that wasn't reversed until JER's first tenure, and pulled both AW and SB down with it. The BIG difference was that Santa Barbara was killed off BEFORE Days' ratings resurgence under Reilly, and Another World's ratings failed to improve along with Days like the previous resurgence of the 80s did.

In a sense, NBC missed opportunities on two fronts. They failed to make more of what was looking like a good lineup of soaps in the latter half of the 80s, and the rest of their lineup failed to improve when Days' popularity took off once more.

[DaysFanatic777]

You have made some great and valid points. You have pointed out things that I have thought about a million times. This network (NBC) has done anything but support it's daytime lineup. They allowed Santa Barbara to go down the tubes by not making sure there was a bigger and better creative change at the top. Santa Barbara had a chance to be a long running soap, and was much like B&B when it started. It had crtical acclaim, High Ratings, and a Slew of Emmy's. However, since it was on NBC, the creative energy wasn't poured into the serial.

AW should have been given an overhaul and returned to it's roots. NBC wanted another "Days" JER style at the time, so they canned the network's longest running serialized drama.

Days has been given the most chances, mainly because it's the most rtecognizeable and almost a cultural staple. It's a piece of Americana, and people love it. However, NBC hasn't had a personality to it's line-up since 1978, and it shows.

[stenbeck212]

Supertrain?

[cody_1990]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertrain

Here is where you can read about Supertrain.

I have watched NBC Daytime for a very long long time and never thought that i would see the day when things would get as bad as they are today.

[sungrey]

Ah yes, the great Supertrain. If you thought some of TV's ideas today were bad, you should have been around when Fred Silverman ran NBC in the late 1970s.

The funny thing is Fred had a keen eye for what worked at CBS and ABC. He didn't like game shows for some reason (he canceled Password to introduce Love Is A Many Splendored Thing in 1967, and he followed up eight years later by knocking off a revival of You Don't Say to bring Edge of Night to ABC).

At NBC, though, not a chance. He oversaw Days' Valentine's Day Massacre, the expansion of AW to 90 minutes (a great show, but even that's far too long for a soap) and the introduction of Texas.

The Silver Age could have lasted a lot longer if NBC had any faith in its shows. They didn't, and therefore we lost some really good talent in that time.

If you look at the first three years of Santa Barbara, it beats pretty much anything offered on the networks these days hands down. The Dobsons had conceived a tightly-paced, well-constructed show around two fighting families. Ya, it had its bumpy spots, but when you saw couples like Cruz and Eden on screen you didn't care. Lane Davies as Mason... my God, what acting.

SB was extremely good to watch until around the middle of 1991, when it began to suffer from NBC's infighting. There were too many new characters introduced throughout the latter half of 1991 and into 1992, and by 1993 the show was gone. It is still sorely missed to this day, by me and by millions of other devotees.

Days was going through a renaissance with Bo and Hope, Kim and Shane, etc. It weathered NBC's interference fairly well until running out of steam around 1992.

AW in the mid 1980s was fun to watch. It had a rough spot around 1985-86, but when Margaret DePriest took over as headwriter the show began zooming upward in quality. In the late 1980s and early 1990s AW had some great times and some merely good ones, but the quality level was fairly high overall.

You just have to wonder what would have happened if NBC had left well enough alone. Would Texas have stayed on the air through the 1980s and into the 1990s? Would Santa Barbara still be on the air today??

Take a look at the list of canceled shows in the last 25 years. I think you'll find most of them were on the Peacock Network.

Thanks a lot, NBC.

[Max]

One thing I find really absurd (and unfair as well) is how NBC is moving heaven and earth in order to save Passions, while in the past they cancelled soaps (with better ratings) at the drop of a hat. Many have explained that the reason for this special treatment is because NBC owns Passions. However, I don't think that's the full story, given that NBC owned Generations and it was cancelled at the drop of a hat. Rather, I feel the reason for Passions' special treatment is because NBC still feels indebted to JERk. To me, this love affair makes zero sense, given that JERk has not produced anything successful for NBC in about a decade.

Also, many people have said that the cancellation of AW (and the addition of Passions) was the beginning of the end for NBC Daytime. However, I must respectfully disagree: the beginning of the end was when NBC cancelled SaBa, while the actual end came when AW was axed.

[juppiter]

Eh, running out of steam? I get that people don't like JER, but that's kind of rewriting history. JER's tenure was definitely a renaissance for DAYS. Buzz about the show skyrocketed. DAYS in the 90s was a show you heard about from even non-soap fans.

[sungrey]

OK, let's go with part two, which I should have clarified: Before JER came aboard, there was a year where Days was in the tank in terms of story quality. It started just after Matt Ashford returned to the show following his brief hiatus and lasted thru early to mid 1993 (the intro of Sami, John and Marlena's infamous conference-table sex, etc.)

I'm no Reilly fan, but he did do a great job of keeping Days' numbers up through the 1990s.

[teplin]

I just read a new online interview with Vicky Wyndham, in which she talked about the battles between NBC and Procter & Gamble. It's really astonishing how absolutely clueless the NBC suits were.

[David V]

With benefit hindsight we can say the following things:

1.People may defend JER for the ratings success and publicity he brought to Days but I've said this before and I'll say it again. JER has played a major role in the destruction of Daytime in terms of its quality and viability. Soaps began to value shock value and sensationalism over quality storytelling. It slowly began to creep into other soaps, but spread like cancer in the new Millennium.

2.The cancellations of AW and Sunset Beach and the introduction of Passions resulted in not only the destruction of NBC's lineup, but coincided with the start of the acceleration of soap ratings' decline. Far more viewers have left soaps since 2000 than they have in any previous decade. Days has actually seen its audience more than halved compared to the numbers they got at the end of the 90s.

3.AW was not helped during the 80s by a revolving door of EPs and HWs, not gaining any sense of stability in this department until the Labison/Swajeski era. To my knowledge, the 80s still saw AW (for most part) character-oriented with social classes well-represented. It seemed like the formula was only majorly messed up with during the time of JFP, when NBC tried to make AW ape Days in some respects- which backfired majorly.

4.How many soaps introduced since, about, 1975 can be considered long-running successed? B&B has been the only one introduced since then to have continued on to this day, and I think B&B is extremely lucky in many respects- beginning life sandwiched between two of CBS' most popular soaps (Y&R and ATWT), being well-supported by the network et al. Ryan's Hope lasted 14 years and had decent ratings for half of those- a change in timeslot in 1984 signalling the beginning of the end. Loving never attracted strong ratings, but swapping timeslots with RH improved its ratings and it was able to hold on for a decade.

One question that has to be asked, which I'm sure Days and AW experts here will be able to answer is this: what was the major factor in the ratings resurgence of both Days and AW around the 1983-85 period? While ratings never reached the levels they enjoyed in the 70s, the recovery stopped the rot that had plagued those soaps since the late 70s. Add Santa Barbara into the mix, and its ratings climbed every year and reached its peak around 1987-88.

[sungrey]

I'll take a stab at it, but everyone else feel free to chime in.

With Days, the seeds of the eventual recovery were planted when Pat Falken Smith returned as head writer. She created Stefano and Tony, used the DiMeras effectively alongside Doug and Julie, and brought in several former characters from the 1970s Days to give the show a sense of balance between old and new. It worked very well.

Pat left of her own volition and Margaret DePriest, her replacement, concocted The Salem Strangler. Keep in mind this was before spoilers were commonplace, so those people who watched the show and saw Marlena get strangled probably spit their lunch out and went "holy [!@#$%^&*], what just happened?" They told their friends, who told their friends, and so on... and the ratings went up about two points around June 1982. The ratings stayed higher through the rest of the year as they slowly integrated Mickey and Maggie into the DiMera drama, brought on Bo and Hope, etc. It was a very successful formula and worked like a charm.

AW copied Days to the extent that it used a supercouple -- Catlin Ewing and Sally Frame -- with great success. (Thomas Ian Griffith and Mary Page Keller are still married to this day.) God, they had charisma. The show also effectively utilized Rachel and Mac with a vendetta involving Carl Hutchins... the show had a ton of momentum and it resulted in much higher Nielsens during the 1983-85 period.

Sam Hall took over as head writer in fall 1985 and he took the show through a stupid stretch where none of the plots made sense, but DePriest came aboard in late spring 1986 and immediately brought some energy to the show. A few longtime characters were written out, but Margaret reactivated the Rachel/Mitch drama with success and also created a believable foe for Michael and Donna in Reginald Love. Carl was off the canvas at this point and the show needed a believable villain... and John Considine was sooooooooo damn good in the role.

NBC left the shows alone during this period for the most part. Look what happened.

[juppiter]

I completely and totally disagree here. I think people disliking PASSIONS tends to cloud real history about JER in the 90s. In the 90s, shock value was becoming part of American (and world) culture no matter what. With the advent of the internet, pagers, and cell phones, people wanted what they wanted NOW, not later.

ALSO, JER told stories on DAYS extremely slowly which is what soap operas traditionally did.

ALSO, while DAYS was being crazy (and damned good at it) you had Y&R counter-acting with that. It remained number 1 and told the same kind of stories it always told under the leadership of William Bell.

ALSO I was drunk when I was writing this so lol I hope I wasn't bitchy.

While NBC did try to make AW into another DAYS, the rest of the soap genre as a block rejected JER and DAYS (kind of like today, you hear that PSNS isn't a "real soap," so were the Days of Our Lives in the 90s. Note DAYS being blacklisted from the Emmys since then. There was no major DAYS copying.

[David V]

Exactly, we can see now why Frons has been so bitterly criticised for his running of ABCD, because he has been very hands-on and effectively blurred the identities of the three shows in the process.

Many attribute the butchering of NBCD's lineup to Susan Lee, but at the same time some people speculate that the higher-ups at NBC may have had something to do with it (i.e. the disgraceful way AW and SuBe were axed).

I actually thought that while Sunset Beach was ludicrous in some ways and awful at worst, itcould be quite interesting and entertaining at its best- its storylines seemed to run the gammut from traditional soap to sensationalism and the supernatural. It did have though, I felt, some very good production values- particularly the location shots.

It seems that the NBC network as a whole- and not just NBCD- is in some kind of deep-seated malaise and really only the Law & Order franchise and especially SVU has been a saving grace. In fact, SVU underlines one of the things the best Primetime shows get right that Daytime these days gets horribly wrong- the best Primetime drama has a good mix of characters (young and old), middle-aged/older characters as front burner, more emphasis on acting talent than appearance, good storytelling... and above all, an air of unpredictability that has been lost from soaps in the age of spoilers.

[sungrey]

Dick Wolf has been quoted on record many times as saying he uses soap actors because they get the material and they're the ones most often available in New York for prime-time guest appearances. Many actors have laughed at being handed five or six pages of dialogue, asked "think you can handle it?" and telling the production staff they sometimes have 20-30 pages in a single soap script.

[David V]

For guest appearances certainly, I remember Ellen Parker (ex-Maureen, GL) making a guest appearance on SVU.