December 1-5, 2008

[rhinohide]

I do think amateurs analyze ratings based on faulty criteria. Are they an indication of how a soap is entertaining viewers? Yes. Are they a measure of whether the soap is good or bad? Not as clear.

I agree that OLTL is good right now, and the performances are very good as well. Unfortunately, it's not very balanced at the moment. While I can watch the Marty hour and recognize the quality, I still don't care about the story and there's not enough play for stories I am more interested in to keep me engaged. As rangethatrover said in another post (and I paraphrase), if you hate the Todd and Marty story, you will hate OLTL right now. There is no right or wrong, there is only entertainment or lack thereof.

The trends disturb me because I want OLTL to be successful, and I recognize that this (the current myopic focus on SH/Marty) too shall pass. So I am just biding my time until it does, in hopes that Ron's next stories will display the same considered development and will hopefully involve characters I care more about. In the meantime, I suspect that the overindulgence of viewers who like the Marty story is responsible for the moderate downward trends, because of course, like everyone else, I do not think I am alone in not being very entertained by this particular story.

[Jonathan]

I think what we're seeing is the effect of her La Lucci's DWTS stint. I think during this time she was voted off and was doing press afterwards. I think we should be seeing more of her in the coming weeks, hopefully.

[SteveFrame]

But the Todd/Marty story is not the only story that is getting airtime and I am enjoying. Yes it is dominating but it is not the be all and end all of OLTL right now.

I loved the funeral and have loved Starr and Marcie dealing with their grief. I loved Andrew counseling Starr.

The Dorian stuff with Starr and Blair has been good.

The Vickie/Todd scene was well worth the years of seeing Vickie be blinded by her love for Todd. That scene was years in the making.

The Vickie/Starr scene was wonderful and echoed so much of the history with Vickie and her Dad. Vickie was the best person ever to give Starr advice about wanting to hate her Dad.

I have loved the little focuses on Michael & Marcie trying to come together and to be there for one another.

Cole and Starr dealing with their grief.

And I personally have loved Jessica's struggles. The talks with the psychiatrist have been interesting and not as bad as I thought they would be.

I am missing some characters like John and Natalia and Rex and Gigi - but both couples have gotten lots of coverage at other times in the year - so I like them being given a rest for awhile.

This is the way soaps used to be too. Certain stories would come to light and those characters would be featured heavily for a few months and then go to the backburner for awhile. It was hardly ever a time in the old soap formual where a character or characters stayed front burner for the whole year. So I don't mind this forumula at all.

To me the Todd/Marty part of this story is just one little part of it. The family drama is the heart of the story for me. And that is the part I am loving. It has really put the Lord/Cramer families front and center and tied several stories together. I like that a lot.

[MichaelGL]

Yes, because ratings are good indicator of that aren't they? I mean with GH so sitting comfortably in the ratings it's a good indicator that that show doesn't offend women or write their female characters badly.

Dena is gonna become the Bob Guza of DAYS, Corday is simply gonna keep her around because the ratings are good.

It is how soaps used to be. Almost everyone got their share of a story this year.

[boldfan01]

B&B probably got its boost on Friday from the death of Phoebe Forrester, which was leaked by the show weeks in advance in the TV Guide soap column. People knew the death was on Friday, and some of that momentum will probably carry over into the following week because that story was basically the only thing airing this past week. The death of a legacy character with ties to the show's core players will do that. Like others in the thread, I'm enjoying what I'm seeing around that story, and maybe others are, too.

[dragonflies]

LOL Adam if you don't like what I say, then please don't bother posting to me, I don't like AMC as it is in the state it's in now. For some reason that bothers you. I'm not some drone who thinks the show is perfect no matter how much hackiness it endures

I really honestly don't hate AMC persay, just what Frons has done to it. He keeps hiring hacks who don't do anything but drive the show into the ground.

Annie's storyline became overkill. Plus everything she did was to get Ryan back? Ooookay

LOL if you say so, I haven't seen much improvement. Pratt isn't much better than B&E. He's all about plot points the same way they were. He's been there almost 4 months and he has YET to get the characters. He's already getting 1.9/2.0, it took B&E months to even get those types of ratings

[NYC123]

Well look at daytime in general. Just because B&E kinda had better ratings was because Daytime was kinda better back then. This is now. It's not because AMC "has not made improvements" but Daytime keeps going down...........

[bandbfan]

I think B&B benefits when we have "legacy" characters on the screen period. (Although I'm not sure about Phoebe being legacy, lol). IMO, viewers of Y&R and B&B like the characters that've always been around. Y&R gets away with having lots of new blood by usually being able to introduce it well and usually weave good stories in to existing characters and stories. On B&B, it seems more fast and furious. Take Marcus and Steffy on B&B, although most on here seem to like the pairing, neither was around before a few months ago. So if you're a casual viewer, you'd really wouldn't know much at all about either. But then a match like Donna and Eric, as awful as it might be, you at least know about Eric.

[MarkH]

Amen

[rhinohide]

It is dominating to the extent that if you don't like it, it would turn you off. I don't hate it. I don't like it. It doesn't interest me. And as far as I can see it IS the end all be all of OLTL. Everything else is just an interruption.

[MichaelGL]

Steve, some people will never be satisfied until Vicki is abducted impregnated by aliens.

It is in the nature of soap writing to resort in retelling some of the same storylines. I guess the only difference in some cases are the characters and/or how it plays out.

[Errol]

Feature: A New look into Daytime Ratings: Daytime's Top 40 Shows

[Adam]

Where did that come from?