Y&R: To what do you attribute LML's higher ratings?

[Ann_SS]

The fact is that to the end the hysteria about LML was out of control. The woman was not the devil incarnate and she didn't do anything worse than Alden or Smith re: destroying Bill Bell's legacy. She wasn't prefect, but her harshest critics are simply unwilling to give her any credit for some of the good things that she did like speed up the pace of the stories and improve some of the dialogue. I've watching this show for about 25 years and in my opinion, if anyone deserves blame for to causing the most harm Y&R post-Bill Bell, it is Kay Alden with Jack Smith closely behind.

I find Y&R's ratings tumble inexplicable frankly. Nothing that anyone has offered in the way of explanation makes any sense or is even close to convincing. The ratings have nothing to do with quality. The rating fluctuations combined with the consistent decline reflect the demographic change in the daytime audience. So for Y&R to drop so precipitously in a short period of time is a mysterious outlier.

[boldfan01]

For me, the Carmen Mesta story was part of the problem. I was more disappointed in the story itself than in its resolution, because I didn't care about Carmen Mesta. It seemed like Carmen was killed because she had been set up as a person that could cause turmoil on the show, mostly for Dru, and not because her death was a logical extension of what was happening in the story. The fact that the resolution was tied into another new character without much history that in turn tied it into yet another questionable story from LML, the Reliquary saga, only made it more disappointing.

There's truth in whether or not online reaction correlates with what viewers think, but can't you say the same thing about the ratings as well?

[YRBB]

Kay Alden destroyed Bell's legacy? :rolleyes:

Some people just won't forgive her for not being William J. Bell.

[MarkH]

I find both of these statements to be completely consistent with my views. Except my dislike of LML's Y&R to have begun earlier...probably November 2006 or so, with the introduction of Pheila. I had been getting concerned since before then, though... I loved the first part of her 2006 run.

[Ann_SS]

Oh please. Alden was a horrible headwriter, positively horrific. Interestingly, I don't even think that Bell was as good as some people claim. Y&R was stagnant and boring for long stretches under his tenure. The unwillingness to see these people's flaws clearly is one of the major reason that the soaps as genre is dying, imo. The recycling of bad headwriters who go on to ruin soap after soap. Look how Alden is getting her shot at ruining B&B. Hogan will eventually do his usual thing to Y&R. McTavish is another one. Ugh. Enough, stop rehiring these people.

[denniel]

The first part of the LML run was so good because Jack and Kay worked with her. They were a great team and I mourn what could have been had they all worked things out and stayed the writing core of Y&R.

[YRBB]

Now Bell's bad, too?

Alden's horrible at B&B, true. She was amazing on Y&R, up until around 2002.

[MarkH]

Oh, absolutely! I couldn't agree more!

[DaytimeFan]

Why people even buy that Kay Alden does much at B&B is beyond me. Everyone who knows her, including Alden herself, say that she's a worker bee. Brad Bell is in the driver's seat and what we see on screen is his vision, just as everything we saw during the WGA strike was his vision too.

My issue with LML, my biggest gripe, is how she absolutely disregarded history for the sake of her own plots. Bell, Alden and Smith never did that. Certainly they used retcons, certainly they did twist and certainly they all made mistakes. But none of them ever insulted the intelligence of the viewer. LML did that and for that reason I despise her.