From what I read Kay Alden wanted to get rid of alot of the characters that were hated on AMC, and my guess is those were Fronsie's "pets" aka Babe/Ryan/KWAK and probably a few others. She probably did want to go back to classic AMC

In her MIT interview she said that every character on the show was poorly recieved in ABC's own focus groups. So basically snail mail, online and even ABC's own research can see that AMC sucks. That tells me that Frons simply doesn't care what fans think. How can you overlook that? I still dream about what Alden could've done at AMC. Bell and Nixon are similar and she would've brought AMC back to it's true vision. Hopefully when B&E are canned she could possibly be hired. I'll always hope for that. That woman loved AMC.

I'm totally digressing, but good job CBS! Even ATWT was kinda good last week. You feature Tom and Margo, a major supercouple and the ratings go up! What a shock! B&B and Y&R were also pitch perfect.

Actually, AMC started the trend months ago. It was hitting 1.9 before 2008, IIRC, and it started taking OLTL down with it. Then OLTL hit 1.9, and now AMC is back to its old position. riding forward with the 1.9. So, I'm sorry if the braindead "Robert Gardner is Codename: Pimple (or whatever the hell that name is)" story hasn't made it happen, or if Greenlee's psychotic narcissism and Zach and Kendall's gigantic hair can't fill the void, but it's pretty apparent if you go back and look which show the onus first fell upon.

On OLTL I get a wide canvas of many people. On AMC I get six grown-ass people making fools of themselves day in, day out drinking and clubbing while their kids wait for someone, anyone to come home. Oh, and from time to time poor Angie and Jesse.

LOL to me this is an excuse. If OLTL was so good people would be watching it. OLTL may have a wide canvas of many people, but they're stuck in some of the most boring storylines around.

The vets may be shown, but they seem to be window dressing for the most part

On OLTL I get a wide canvas of many people. On AMC I get six grown-ass people making fools of themselves day in, day out drinking and clubbing while their kids wait for someone, anyone to come home. Oh, and from time to time poor Angie and Jesse.

From time to time? Jesse and Angie (and Tad) haven't been lacking in air-time since they returned.

I don't like the sextet story myself but I don't agree with the assessment that just getting all those air-hoggers off the screen will help the ratings. Why?

a. They haven't aired more than Jesse, Angie and Tad's group this past month. And look at those ratings. They aired 2 days last week vs. 5 days for J/A/T, etc...

b. Some of the characters, pairings in that sextet are popular (Kendall, Zach) and some of them need to be made popular again (Ryan, Greenlee - as individual characters). These characters have been frontburner during ratings upswings, it's not like you just put any of them on and ratings fall because they're simply "the annoying air-hoggers."

Balance is necessary but as we see by this weeks ratings - the ratings for March in general - it's not the only thing that is going to be able to help the show. They have to write better stories all around. The sextet story where yes they are all literally seemingly clubbing 24/7 in anticipation for the orgy, heh; the stupid JR/Richie/Babe stuff. Bad. Just putting Angie, Tad, Jesse and Erica on-screen front-burner aren't going to help the ratings along - and I think last weeks AMC ratings show that. There are fans that like some of those character in the sextet and JR, Richie and Babe and are just shaking their head at the vacant and disgusting story they're all being given. They don't want them completely off-screen, they want them in better story. Ending the plot-driven drivel the management team of AMC is coming up with is the bigger solution here.

And Toups, stop that - no JER.

LOL to me this is an excuse. If OLTL was so good people would be watching it. OLTL may have a wide canvas of many people, but they're stuck in some of the most boring storylines around.

AMC and GH is no more responsible for OLTL problems than OLTL and AMC are responsible for GH problems - no more than OLTL and GH are responsible for AMC's problems. If OLTL's numbers aren't going up, that's mostly OLTL's problems - ditto AMC, GH if they're going up or down. The ABC line-up has been in trouble for the past 6 months and I would think that's a bad ABCD management problem.

Angela excellent post and ITA!!!!!!!

Is there just 1 thing peeps are hating about AMC or is it the whole entire show?

Looking at those ratings it would appear that it's the entire show?

I hope that you are right. Something has to be done. AMC in the last place WTF? I am shocked. Sponsors are going to bounce left and right if AMC's ratings continues to decline.

OLTL will be back in last place soon enough. It seems like those two shows are destined to duke it out for who gets to live in the basement. And given the ratings I can only assume that the only reason sponsors haven't pulled out altogether is ad time is cheap.

I enjoyed Angie and Jesse storyline and they are the reason why I tuned back in. True their storyline isnt special but DM and DW's sparkling presence blows almost a cast away.

Yup. J&A brought me back to AMC too and I'm the same way. I don't actually care who took Jesse 20 years ago. But there's something so magic about Debbie and Darnell and their effect on other characters like Tad, Adam and even newbies like Colby that I find myself watching. AMC at leat has that. OLTL has nothing that comes close. I can't comment on GH.

I love Jesse & Angie, but their storyline hasn't made one lick of sense really.

They also have not explained how Jesse's organs remained in his body since they were supposedly transplanted.

LOL so true Jason, plus we still don't anything. Nothing was really resolved

Is there just 1 thing peeps are hating about AMC or is it the whole entire show?

Looking at those ratings it would appear that it's the entire show?

For me it's pretty much the whole show, which is a major clusterfuck of sucktitude

It's sad that ABC soaps couldn't even get a rise when CBS soaps didn't air.

Who's to say they didn't? We don't know how much lower the ratings would've been if this had been a regular week. The absence of CBS soaps might not have given them a rise in the traditional sense but it may have stalled the fall for a week.

I think Jesse/Angie is the ONLY thing keeping the show above a 2.0, and even interest in that has waned considerably. I think people just wanted to see Jesse and Angie, and by extension, Debbi and Darnell, reunite on screen after all the hype. The show scored a 2.5 the day of their reunion (President's Day, I believe), and then fell to regular levels. That tells me that interest is there in these characters, but that the story itself, riddled with holes and sometimes incomprehensible, is turning viewers away. The key to rebuilding this show is to feature Jesse and Angie in believable stories that the audience can relate to. The Erica stuff is OK, but not an audience grabber. The rest of the show is just unwatchable.