July 28 - August 1, 2008

[Soapsuds]

The 12-17 demo means squat. Passions had the #1 spot in that demo and look where they are now....cancelled!

[Roman]

General Hospital

Biggest disappointment of the week and this show is suffering from identity issues. It took along time to figure out what's wrong with this show and its in an identity crisis. One scene its a hospital show, mob show, fashion show, and then its a cop show. GH really needs to pick it up as they've got too much going on and part of this is no family element on this show at all. All the kids have growed up and now were seeing out of control adults. ABC's flagship show had its worst week ever and needs to make the necessary changes like Y&R did.

Yep. And it hits its all-time low.

The Mob sure is working, isn't it?

[Toups]

Well, it I think it helped the show for 7-8 years. Unlike The City, Port-Charles, Generations, Sunset Beach, who probably didn't dominate any young demos. Maybe if those shows got decent young demos, they would've lasted longer.

Also, I really believe if Jeff Zucker didn't come up with the idea of adding a 4 hour of the Today show, Passions would still be on NBC right now.

[Toups]

I'm not defending GH because I hate the mob.....and to play devil's advocate......what is working? I'm gonna say nothing. Next year, ratings will continue to be all time lows NO MATTER what airs - %100 guaranteed!

[Jess]

There are 69,000 viewers 12-17 watching OLTL. I really do not think that is a very important demographic

[BlueLick]

Toups is so right,

Soaps will continue their downward spiral and its got nothing to do with soaps in general. The decline in ratings will continue for all shows because everybody is getting access to watching soaps other ways. If you don't give viewers a reason to watch it live they won't watch it live. Example of that is Y&R getting a 4.0 because they a had given viewers a reason to watch it.

Biggest example that it isn't soaps fault is Oprah. Went from averaging a 6.9 last year and slipped all the way down to 5.4.

Even prime time is falling year to year. I bet the Olympics take a slide too this year.

[Jess]

I think the mob was innovative when it started 20 years ago on GH. Now it's just pointless.

On the ratings, I have to give HS on Young and the Restless a lot of credit. He is sharing head-writing duties and is doing a very good job with it. The show has a lot of energy these days. I think for a guy with his experience to come in, share the top spot and do such great work speaks well of him. The show is better because he is writing it.

[TMOTVSoaps]

The mob stuff isn't really killing the show. Without it GH will still be low. Its the identity crisis the show is in. They don't know what type of a show GH is right now.

Like Toups and BlueLick said, soaps are going to fall in the ratings anyways b/c of the live TV watching slipping. Glad you bought up the Oprah thing, that was a huge slip, but at least its still way over 4.0. LOL!

GL, does need to change its production format just like AMC needs to change their camera. All soaps need to go to HD and networks need to stop being cheap. Why is Y&R the only one in HD anyways, its like 2009 and were still watching soaps in standard. WTF?

The 12-17 demo doesn't mean anything, but it should start factoring into the main demo. Why is it still 18-49. People over 50 are the main demo that's watching TV live. Gossip Girl and OTH have nothing to do with daytime. The CW's highest rated show might be 90210 anyways. Gossip Girl and OTH are doing way worse than soaps. Soaps have a disadvantage by being on during the day. Actually the Girls 12-17 demo usually goes up during the school year. I remember when AMC had almost 200,000 viewers in that demo. Passions got canceled b/c NBC was trying to get away from the soap genre, but things have changed since their is new people in charge.

Advertisers usually start adding in 12-17 type commercials if they notice things like that. I saw alot of teen commercials during Passions and DAYS years ago.

There aren't too many Hogan Sheffers out there to save every soap, but this is why changes are needed when necessary.

Look at the ratings during November this year and that'll tell you how things have changed.

[Roman]

I was talking to someone else, who insists that the mob is all that anyone who watches GH wants to see.

Ok?

[emilyq]

Maybe that's true at this point. They have driven away viewers who liked other facets of the show for the most part.

[Roman]

Exactly. Then, when a person says they don't like the mob and blame GH's dependance on that one facet of the show for driving away viewers, they get blasted that they don't know what they're talking about and are just too stupid to see how great it is.

You know.

THAT bullshit.

[Carolyn1980]

She's living on a ranch in Pennsylvania raising her kids near Matt Crane's (her husband) mother.

I think she just decided to quit acting and raise her kids, but I imagine she could be lured back to a NY show, primetime or daytime, since the commute would be minimal.

I agree, though....as long as Frons is there, any return of Skye would be diluted anyway. So why bother?

[SteveFrame]

The biggest problem with the ratings is yes that many of the younger group are watching soaps in other facets and other ways. Recent articles have shown that the TV audience is skewing upward in age.

Guess what soaps don't care about that age group any longer. They have nothing to relate to on the shows since the shows made it clear a long time ago that the age group doesn't matter anymore.

That is the audience that they have to attract to get higher ratings, but they don't find anything to watch anymore so guess what they are tuning out. As I said a few weeks ago here I read an article that said reruns of Law & Order on TNT are beating the soaps in the afternoon many days.

Last year for awhile I had a friend who had ratings access for about a month. They sent me the 50 & Older Demos each week for the soaps. Y&R last year was still getting 5.0's during that time in the 50 & Older Demos. I would love to know what they are getting now. How much of that audience have they lost.

If soaps made their shows appealing to a wider range of audience, they would attract a wider range of viewers. Each demo would even out to made a higher HH rating. Also as I have said before if you get the grandparents to watch - guess what many times you get a younger audience to watch too. Many grandparents now care for their grandchildren at home during the day. I learned to watch soaps when I stayed with my grandmother. I loved watching my soaps with her. And I loved when Mother wasn't working and I got to watch with her too.

Today the grandparents are watching something else and the younger audience is not even being exposed to soaps in the home much anymore.

The sad thing is that daytime has operated with this agenda for so many years that only those viewers 18 to 49 matter - so even if they changed now how many viewers in that older group have they alienated to the point they would never return anyway. Plus the 50 and older age group is growing all the time with the baby boomer generation hitting that age now.

[emilyq]

[emilyq]

LMAO. The sad part is that it isn't even the mob. There are no 'kick ass' chicks or dangerous mobsters. The women are all a bunch of self involved, dependent excuse makers who whine about every little thing and accept blame for nothing. The men sit around socializing with their enemies. That's GH's mob and it's lame.