GL: Will The Light Burn Out Out Come Sept?

[bleedingroseca]

I dout very seriously EW has any more information than TV Week or DC or anyone else.

I will believe they are going off the air when an announcement is made. Funny how all these articles are coming out as the supposed deadline looms.

[Carolyn1980]

The fact that CBS is looking at "replacements" has me worried for ATWT, as well, because I always assumed CBS would just give that hour back to the affiliates, as all the nets have done at one point or another in the past when they canceled a show. (ABC, when they canceled EDGE OF NIGHT, RYAN'S HOPE, and PORT CHARLES; CBS when they canceled various game shows; and NBC when they canceled everything but DAYS). I suspect maybe GL's slot will be given back to the affiliates, and any new programming is actually being developed to replace ATWT, either this September or next.

[MarkH]

This is a truly valid point. If they get time to plan their demise, and maybe some $$ to do it right...well, EVERYTHING must end sometime.

It would be sad, but an orderly, planned ending is better than a lot of other alternatives.

Crazy, though, that the little kid in me keeps hoping for miracles! GL saved! Soap ratings start to surge up! New soaps greenlit! Wouldn't it be nice to, once, see headlines like that?

[marceline]

That's why I say it's important to see how P&G is doing as a whole company. Because if they want out of the TV business no amount of phone calls or emails will make a damn bit of difference.

I used to work for a radio station owned by Nationwide Insurance. At the time Nationwide owned a number of radio and TV station even though most of the employees of the insurance company had no idea we existed. When the company decided to divest itself of its media interests, that's what they did, as quickly as they possibly could.

[SteveFrame]

All of this is almost like deja vu all over again from when NBC was cancelling Another World. You got all these rumors about what AW had to do to be saved. There were rumors that P&G wanted out and there were rumors that no matter what AW did it was gone. Then there was the rumor that they wanted to air Passions and that AW or Sunset Beach had to go. They felt Sunset Beach had staying power so they cancelled AW to air Passions. Then after Passions comes on they cancelled SB too. Both AW and SB ended up going so that NBC could air Passions.

It is just all so weird. That was 1999 and this is 2009. It would be way too strange if we were left without GL and ATWT both by the end of the year.

[Southofnowhere]

Fans need to watch the darn show not call in.

[skiman12082004]

Not that any of this news is surprising to me it is nonetheless bittersweet. GL has definitely improved the last few weeks and the thought of losing another soap just sucks. I just wish there would be some kind of miracle to makes soaps the "it" thing again. A boy can hope!

[CSF]

I don't know about that because CBS traditionally seems to be the last network to give time back to the affiliates. When NBC gave the affiliates the 4:00pm hour, it was in the late 70s. ABC did it in 1984, CBS in 1986.

If CBS is looking for a replacement, they may trade the hour by taking 10:00am and giving the affiliates 3pm. That way they can make their own version of The View and make it a good lead in for TPIR, but with as poorly rated as their morning news show is, who knows if that is even a good idea. They may also want to take back 4pm in exchange for 3pm since Oprah is supposed to end in 2011? Who knows, but I don't think CBS will give up any time to the affiliates if GL is canceled. Considering most, if not all of their owned stations don't even air Guiding Light at it's 3pm EST feed.

[MarkH]

Could the show have set up this toll-free # to get some kind of "hit count" to go to the networks with?

Now now. ATWT is for 2010, okay . Don't rush things, man.

[CSF]

:lol:

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Apparently, Ellen Wheeler is blindsided by this news.

http://daytimeconfidential.com/2009/03/sou...ncellation-talk

[DRW50]

That photo of Ellen Wheeler...I know there must have been better out there...I assume.

EW article:

Do you think she knows that GH has bled a huge amount of viewers in the past few years, is much lower in the ratings than Y&R, and isn't that far above GL? Or that GL was already lowest rated before their new production method?

I guess, selfishly, now that I feel like I have my GL back, I want to see the show keep improving. There are only one or two other soaps on now which I think are as good or better than GL. When I read press article like the one above talking about how much better GH is than GL, I get so annoyed, because that really is what people will believe. To know that a soap can improve as much as GL has and still be canceled, while GH, which has been vile for so long now, is still chugging along, it frustrates me. It's like, "You improved? Who cares."

I know GH has nothing to do with what has happened to GL, I know this is irrational, it's just part of my thought process. I'm liking GL again for the first time since the start of this decade and I want to see if they might be able to climb up some in the ratings if they're given another year.

If they get another year and the standings are the same, then I would be fine with letting GL go.

[EastMA2]

That had been the word I was hearing too a couple weeks ago - the show was thisclose to being renewed. All indications were that it was going to go on for another year.

Whatever happens to GL, alot of other shows are going to follow their model. If you really look at the numbers, GH will soon be hitting a 1.9 in the weekly average. They did a 1.8 one day, and several 1.9's so it's only a matter of time before they hit a 1.9 for the week. Their budget is so much higher than GL's but their audience isn't all that much bigger. AMC, OLTL, ATWT - they will all have to deal with even more cuts as ratings fall and it will translate on screen. I definitely foresee these shows adopting some of the production values that GL did in this last year. ATWT will especially be hard hit because even though it looks like they will last another year, the budget won't be there.

[Soapsuds]

Eh...GL got a bit better but I stopped watching again. I miss the old The Guiding Light. I wouldnt miss this version of Guiding Light. The show is past its prime IMO.

They should turn off the LIGHT!

[CSF]

Does anyone remember those hot promos for GL in the early 90s that would go:

QUICK!

Turn on the LIGHT!

G U I D I N G L I G H T

The CBS announcer who did them would do voiceovers during the end credits of each soap sometimes, he was SO good.

And on ATWT, he would say:

What in the WORLD is really going on? Find out on AS THE W-O-R-L-D T-U-R-N-S!

Your comment about turing off the light made me think of these.