July 28 - August 1, 2008

[MarkH]

Steve, I love it when you post this message! You "get" it, and you are consistent.

I do think the recent Y&R trend is interesting, but also revelatory. Promotion brought them in on Friday (last week's ratings). A good cliffhanger brought them back on Monday, and most of them stuck around. But, as the week progressed, numbers fell, and by the end of the week viewers were 600,000 below the week before.

We know the writing (quality), acting and production were all high during that week.

What was missing? PROMOTION!!! It is just near-impossible to turn this ratings ship around, and quality is irrelevant. I would argue that some of the episodes at the end of the week were better than "Sudden Impact", but that doesn't matter for viewership.

But if Y&R keeps up this quality for six months, and if CBS would keep on promoting it...it COULD build up a bit.

Same for OLTL. They need to promote. They also need to nuke Mendora :-).

[Roman]

And see, I don't mind te Mob, if it fits into the context and fabric of the show.

When it becomes the whole show......that's where I run into my problem.

[daysfan]

The Mob has been a part of GH for many years now, many years, but it was applauded when done right and was not the center of the show. Now, it feels like all it is is the mob with other little stories thrown in, and there's a new villian every six months or year. In the past two years, how many have we had? Lorenzo, Jerry, Trevor, Anthony, Claudia, Johnny, and maybe more I'm forgetting. With of course Sonny and Jason fighting all of them, and lets not forget all the new people that have been associated with these mobsters. Such as Cooper, Logan, Ian...and sooner or later, these new characters end up in a body bag once the writers get tired of them. Then we have those small villians that are not mobsters but still sudden villians like Diego.

And the women are not strong. Even Claudia, while she is a mobster to some extent, doesn't feel strong at all. Carly is pretty much laughable especially compared to how great she used to be in my eyes. I enjoy Kate I'll admit, though.

And then the hospital...which is what the show is supposedly about, from what I know, Patrick and Robin is the only story that significantly involves the hospital.

Its just a mess. And I'm sure more mob is on the way.

[JackPeyton]

I think gived his time there its too close to call, sure more of it ahs been good than bad, but whats been bad has been really bad. Its far to easy to call him better than other given how much time they have had to hack away, and how little time he has...

the show sucked justa s been when it was the kendull show and she was on every single damn episode.

[SteveFrame]

To me AMC's problem is not just Zendull, but it is the whole sextette. Each one of the characters are terrible and so overexposed that I don't care about any of them anymore.

I find Ryan/Annie, Aiden/Greenlee, Zendull, Rylee, Ryan/Kendall and all that mess so overdone. They are all the worst couples ever in AMC's history. I have hated Kendall/Zach from teh very beginning. And I am so tired of Kendall and Greenlee. The whole sextette is the reason that I finally just gave up on AMC.

All the other shows I have given up this year have had multiple reasons, but AMC's boils down to Ryan, Greenlee, Kendall, Zach, Annie, & Aiden. That story is sick.

[SOAPSFOREVER]

B&B deserves its drop. Is there any more depressing soap on the air right now??? Eric in a coma, Storm appearing as some ghastly underwater figure, Katie crying relentlessly?? And that's just in one episode. ENOUGH WITH ALL THE GLOOM AND DOOM!!! Get some Prozac, writers! You're depressing the hell out of your audience (and causing us to turn off our sets)!

[tgilbrea69]

Great to see ATWT at number 3! But I wish it was with 3 million viewers again like it was 4 months ago. Also shocking to see how much all ABC soap tumbled.

Does anyone know who the head writer for ATWT is? Is it something like Goutman? Would love to see somebody else at the helm there and get things back to the days when the storylines were more about relationships as opposed to dead babies, poisonings, and other trash. Any success the soap achieves is a result of the great actors there and in-spite of all the insane and unrealistic plot twists.

Well, that was my two cents :-)

[tgilbrea69]

Great to see ATWT at number 3! But I wish it was with 3 million viewers again like it was 4 months ago. Also shocking to see how much all ABC soap tumbled.

Does anyone know who the head writer for ATWT is? Is it something like Goutman? Would love to see somebody else at the helm there and get things back to the days when the storylines were more about relationships as opposed to dead babies, poisonings, and other trash. Any success the soap achieves is a result of the great actors there and in-spite of all the insane and unrealistic plot twists.

Well, that was my two cents :-)

[MichaelGL]

My I wonder what story did he rip off when he had Marcie go on the run, Addie cured of her mental illness and her goal to live life to the fullest, and other stories?

These ratings are dreadful, period. We should be thanking our lucky stars that we have still 8 soaps on air right now with these ratings, it's pitiful.

In regards to the ratings=quality argument, I do believe that in certain situations ratings don't equal quality. Time and time again this has been proven. Remember the Emmy winning Santa Barbara?

[Sylph]

Emmys = quality? When was that?!

[whyamcwhy]

I am not suprised B&B went down in the ratings. The show is becoming too Logan centered and too much Katie/Donna stuff. Why doesn't Felicia have a storyline? She could be the next Stephanie if written right. And I think that her and Owen could be fun to watch together. They have chemistry. And why doesn't Thorne have a storyline? Why not revisit him and Katie again. The show just seems to be getting completely off track. I don't care if I miss a show anymore and it used to be my favorite soap.

Sad to see that AMC has fallen so much but they deserve it. The show is stagnant. I read spoilers on it and it seems like nothing ever really changes or happens. The same characters are featured, the same couples, the same everything. I read Pratt's plans for AMC and I can't figure out what he will really be changing. Fusion will still be there just written like Ugly Betty. The same six characters are going to be interacting and featured so I just don't think AMC is going to improve anytime soon. A recycled couple from another soap will be heavily featured and written like Army Housewives. How inspired. He is taking all his ideas from primetime shows- how about having an original thought and direction for the show? How about completely overhauling it and making the changes that need to be made?????? AMC is in BIG trouble.

[Soapsuds]

Yup, it is has been depressing. Sure looks like something Kay Alden would write. That's how her Y&R version was.

It's still Pissant writing with Goutman influence.

IMO, Santa Barbara was a piece of garbage of a soap. I never saw the appeal of this soap. It was poorly written, acted, etc....it had no quality to it. Even the theme music was atrocious.

[dm.]

Santa Barbara was bad? Ok, Soapsuds, now you're talking crazy. But I guess it's your opinion. The soap was way better than 3/4 of soaps these days.

[KAnder5695]

OLTL does promote, it just promotes crap. The summer stories they seem to be promoting are either Rex and Gigi or the disgusting quad of Todd/Marty/female whore (Blair)/male whore (John). I do not need to see FF in present day stuff with her treating Brody like crap and in 1968 stuff who NO ONE can save and is ridiculous on every level. Rex and Gigi are fine as a mid burner pairing, but they are not this great love story. You know there is a problem when people feel worse for their obstacles then them. There is no drama on OLTL. Everything is a big campy joke. RC is focusing on the wrong people. Mendorra (which was always going to be bad) is all about Cris/Sarah and Antonio/Talia. They have wasted AE (and that is solely on Ron).

[Vee]

It's NEVER too close to call when a writer is better than Dena Higley or Jean Passanante.