CBS Shopping for ‘Light’ Replacement

Network Weighs Fate of Long-Running Soap

By Josef Adalian

CBS may soon decide to pull the plug on “Guiding Light,” the longest-running daytime drama in television history.

While no final decision has been made, the network’s deal for the Procter & Gamble-produced drama—the least watched of the eight daytime serials currently on the air—ends in September. But if CBS does drop “Guiding Light,” it likely would lock in a decision within the next month, people familiar with the matter said. That would give writers a chance to tie up storylines.

CBS also would need to finalize new programming for the daytime hour that “Guiding Light” would be vacating.

In the most significant indication that the network is seriously pondering life without “Guiding Light,” CBS has been talking to outside studios about potential replacement programming for the show, sources said.

Possibilities under discussion include both game shows and talk shows. CBS could easily cut its programming costs for the hour in half by switching away from a scripted drama.

Representatives for CBS and P&G declined comment.

In addition to contracting with an outside studio for programming to replace “Light,” CBS daytime chief Barbara Bloom has been developing possible in-house candidates for the soap opera’s slot.

CBS executives are taking their time deciding the fate of “Light,” which has survived more than 70 years on radio and television. P&G also produces the CBS soap “As the World Turns.”

Nonetheless, a decision by CBS to end “Light’s” run on the network wouldn’t be a surprise.

The serial has been the subject of cancellation rumors for the better part of a decade. Those rumors became particularly intense within the past 18 months, but P&G threw something of a Hail Mary pass last year when it implemented a radical reworking of “Light’s” production model.

On Feb. 29, 2008, the show ditched its traditional storytelling style in favor of a lower-cost model that also was intended to give the show a more realistic, less staged feel. Around the same time, CBS renewed “Light” for the current season, retaining an option for an additional season.

Ratings for the show haven’t improved since the switch. “Light” is averaging a 0.9 rating among women 18-49 and a 1.6 household rating, according to Nielsen. Season-to-date, it’s averaging 2.17 million viewers and a 0.9 rating in women 18-49; season-to-season, it’s down 18% in viewers and down 25% in the demographic.

“Light” began life as a radio soap opera, moving to CBS television.

Moving to the Web?

It’s possible P&G or CBS could attempt to keep the show alive in some form on the Internet, though doing so likely would require another radical reinvention of its production model.

Much of the daytime drama business is struggling, with ratings for most soaps down significantly over the past decade. NBC is down to one soap, “Days of Our Lives,” following the decision to dump “Passions” in 2007 (the show survived one more season on DirecTV).

http://www.tvweek.com/news/2009/03/cbs_sho...ght_replace.php

Edited March 30, 200916 yr by JackPeyton

LOL! I can't believe La Lucci used that clip as her Emmy reel one in 1995. Is it any wonder why this woman only won an Emmy once out of so many nominations? She obviously has horrible taste in picking her reels.

The blue ribbon panels used to laugh hysterically at LaLooch's reels! Like when she submitted the grizzly bear scene! Hello???Is anybody home in there? lol!

/\LMAO @ Y&RWorldTurner and rangethatrover. Y'all are killing me.

I am waiting for the hall monitors to come hush us like they did in that brilliant Susan's Second Emmy thread!

Who ME? La Looch? A second EMMY?? HERE I COME!!!!

(As Susan Flannery barrels up the stage)

lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!

I am waiting for the hall monitors to come hush us like they did in that brilliant Susan's Second Emmy thread!

Who ME? La Looch? A second EMMY?? HERE I COME!!!!

(As Susan Flannery barrels up the stage)

lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll!!!!

LOL. The better one I've been watching lately is the one where she allegedly pounded her fists to the table and ran away crying after Robin Strasser won. You can't see it on-camera, but it's just a hilarious moment to think of Susan Lucci(who was salivating for the Emmy), up against all these actresses who were far better than she was, thinking she had a chance at Emmy Gold against them.

But range.....shhhhh! We should get back on topic before the admins get mad at us!

LOL. The better one I've been watching lately is the one where she allegedly pounded her fists to the table and ran away crying after Robin Strasser won. You can't see it on-camera, but it's just a hilarious moment to think of Susan Lucci(who was salivating for the Emmy), up against all these actresses who were far better than she was, thinking she had a chance at Emmy Gold against them.

But range.....shhhhh! We should get back on topic before the admins get mad at us!

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Guiding Light. I know. Dang. I have nothing to say.

"I WILL NOT LET YOU TURN OFF THE LIGHT!"

No one wants the light turned off. It will be the beginning of the end. Michael Logan at TV guide seemed a little more positive about its chances.

So dead at the idea of Mrs. Valentine knocking Erica out the way and riding some casket herself...

But that clip really touched me, I have it on original VHS too. I do chuckle hearing Myrtle's "Ohhhh dah'lin... don't do this..."

I wonder if Lucci hated the woman who played Mona in real life, so she gave the most over the top, yet emotionless performance she could give in that scene.

OK, back on topic...

The best part of that Erica clip is the look on Phoebe Tyler's face.

MarkH, I don't see why extending the show another year would help it come to an end? Then there would still be these crazy GL fanboys who say "[Erica Kane]Noooooo Nooooo, You can't put it in the ground! No.....please don't go![/Erica Kane]."

Or maybe we simply want them to wait until GL no longer profitable or watchable before they throw away 72 years of history. It's unwatchable to some but it's improved significantly for others and if they are enough to keep it in the black, it should stay on.

And by that point, will Bloom even have the option of canceling the show on her own and restoring the integrity of the daytime lineup, before Tassler/Moonves say, "Take this crap off the air"?

How exactly will cancelling the Grande Dame of daytime "restore integrity to the daytime lineup"? I don't get that rationale at all. There is not some grand renaissance waiting in the shadows that will revolutionlize, modernize, and conquer daytime if only GL would get out of the way. The history, the connection the viewer has to the whole tapestry of the show over time is the entire draw of soaps no one has as much to draw on as GL.

Okay, GL doesn't look like a traditional soap anymore and I still have problems with the production model myself but it's improved by leaps and bounds and it's not so bad that it deserves to take the whole show down. It certainly doesn't besmirch the "integrity" of daytime whatever that is. Certainly not anywhere near as much as GH being dominated by woman-hating gangsters, AMC turning into a misogynistic cellpool as well, DOOL firing it's most identifiable star and pushing a bunch of talentless underwear models instead, B&B recycling incest in a neverending-loop if ick, or Elizabeth Hassleback glorifying idiocy on a daily basis.

Will affiliates get so tired of pimping GL and instead opt to do a newscast or morning show in the timeslot GL currently occupies in those 9AM spots?

It depends on the affiliate, I guess. But since almost all of CBS's big market stations are own & operated by them, it won't happen without their express approval. Since virtually all channels who air GL at 9 or 10 AM are O&O's, the possibility is even less likely. The replacement will be either network-aired or at least network approved and syndicated. Plus, in the areas of the country where GL is weakest ratings-wise all of CBS daytime is dwarfed by ABC's lineup so replacing GL might not do a darn thing for CBS in those markets anyway.

Everyone has said for years that Bloom wants her own ripoff of The View. It's not hard to see why not: the show has grown from a boring gabfest to an all out media circus and war. It's grown from coffee talk to political punditry. And some weeks, they even best Y&R in Households and Demos.

I find it hard to see why the hell Bloom would want a View clone on CBS. The show is a bad joke that only works because the bizarre and very specific interactions of it's co-hosts. Without each element working together, there's nothing there. NBC has their version and nobody watches because there no controversy. Manufactured controversy doesn't work so CBS can't try too hard to find their own Hasselback, Behar, etc. ABC hasn't killed their soaps to make room for it either. It precedes them all. Plus, if The View is someone's cup of tea, why would they bother watching some contrived knock-off when they could just watch the original in the first place?

Also, for the millions of people who want to escape with Nikki and Victor, Ridge and Brooke, Holden and Carly, Reva and Josh, there are the millions more who are interested in watching something that has relevance and meaning that isn't a soap or a game show or a lame reality show. They want to hear about what's going on in their lives in a package that is fun but can be serious when it wants to be. I don't know why a talk show (a la The View) wouldn't help boost CBS's numbers, if it is done right?

And those millions of people can watch NBC's Today show extensions, or any one of the five 24-hour news and talk cable networks, one of the several human-interest oriented networks, or reruns elsewhere. I just don't see a huge, unfilled need here for a View clone on CBS.

I am a fan of soaps first, but I am also a fan of daytime television as a whole and its survival. Wanting these aging serials to continue is part of the reason why the genre and the daypart are on it's so-called deathbed. Are you guys aware that on some NBC affiliates(including mine), they air infomercials in the midmorning? And this was prior to PASSIONS' cancellation. Can you imagine what may happen if Moonves suddenly steps in and axes GL, without a replacement?

The answer to that is simple: CBS shouldn't be dumb enough to cancel GL unless there is a viable, workable, and profitable alternative. Handing the hour over to the affiliates across the board is simply not an option especially since most of CBS's biggest affiliates are wholly-owned subsidiaries. The network would still be responsible for programming in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas-Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and Miami.

Yeah, larger affiliates and O&O's will be able to afford the syndicated programming, but what about smaller markets?

That's why you don't cancel it without a good alternative. I'm not blaming CBS for looking at their options. They'd be fools to go into negotiations with P&G without a backup plan but that doesn't mean their options are a good idea.

IMO, GL has to be sacrificed for the soap genre and daytime television's survival.

Hogwash. The soap genre and daytime television itself as we've known it are all dying at roughly the same rate as GL. The entire daytime genre has become so irrelevent that they had to go to some upstart channel to air their awards show. Daytime can cut off it's nose to spite it's face, but it's not gonna get it anywhere. It's not as if AMC, GH, and ATWT are just lighting the world on fire but GL is the singular black-sheep blemishing the radiance of bright shining glory. They're all in big trouble and it is a slippery slope. Passions was irrelevent on many levels so it's cancellation really made little dent but GL is the Grande Dame, like it or not, and it's demise will be the official beginning of the end and the rest will not be far behind. GH is only .2 ratings points ahead of GL right now in HH, costs far more money to produce and publicize, and completely sucks.

Edited April 1, 200916 yr by RoseVioletDaisy

Leave Erica alone! If this was Generations, nobody would be looking around all bewildered like those folks.

Nicely put!

But I'm glad you brought up Generations. That was a show that was killed before its time. What did it have...three seasons? That's why I can't get upset as the idea of GL getting canceled. 70+ years is plenty.

Edited April 1, 200916 yr by marceline

The best part of that Erica clip is the look on Phoebe Tyler's face.

Or maybe we simply want them to wait until GL no longer profitable or watchable before they throw away 72 years of history. It's unwatchable to some but it's improved significantly for others and if they are enough to keep it in the black, it should stay on.

How exactly will cancelling the Grande Dame of daytime "restore integrity to the daytime lineup"? I don't get that rationale at all. There is not some grand renaissance waiting in the shadows that will revolutionlize, modernize, and conquer daytime if only GL would get out of the way. The history, the connection the viewer has to the whole tapestry of the show over time is the entire draw of soaps no one has as much to draw on as GL.

Okay, GL doesn't look like a traditional soap anymore and I still have problems with the production model myself but it's improved by leaps and bounds and it's not so bad that it deserves to take the whole show down. It certainly doesn't besmirch the "integrity" of daytime whatever that is. Certainly not anywhere near as much as GH being dominated by woman-hating gangsters, AMC turning into a misogynistic cellpool as well, DOOL firing it's most identifiable star and pushing a bunch of talentless underwear models instead, B&B recycling incest in a neverending-loop if ick, or Elizabeth Hassleback glorifying idiocy on a daily basis.

It depends on the affiliate, I guess. But since almost all of CBS's big market stations are own & operated by them, it won't happen without their express approval. Since virtually all channels who air GL at 9 or 10 AM are O&O's, the possibility is even less likely. The replacement will be either network-aired or at least network approved and syndicated. Plus, in the areas of the country where GL is weakest ratings-wise all of CBS daytime is dwarfed by ABC's lineup so replacing GL might not do a darn thing for CBS in those markets anyway.

I find it hard to see why the hell Bloom would want a View clone on CBS. The show is a bad joke that only works because the bizarre and very specific interactions of it's co-hosts. Without each element working together, there's nothing there. NBC has their version and nobody watches because there no controversy. Manufactured controversy doesn't work so CBS can't try too hard to find their own Hasselback, Behar, etc. ABC hasn't killed their soaps to make room for it either. It precedes them all. Plus, if The View is someone's cup of tea, why would they bother watching some contrived knock-off when they could just watch the original in the first place?

And those millions of people can watch NBC's Today show extensions, or any one of the five 24-hour news and talk cable networks, one of the several human-interest oriented networks, or reruns elsewhere. I just don't see a huge, unfilled need here for a View clone on CBS.

The answer to that is simple: CBS shouldn't be dumb enough to cancel GL unless there is a viable, workable, and profitable alternative. Handing the hour over to the affiliates across the board is simply not an option especially since most of CBS's biggest affiliates are wholly-owned subsidiaries. The network would still be responsible for programming in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Dallas-Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, and Miami.

That's why you don't cancel it without a good alternative. I'm not blaming CBS for looking at their options. They'd be fools to go into negotiations with P&G without a backup plan but that doesn't mean their options are a good idea.

Hogwash. The soap genre and daytime television itself as we've known it are all dying at roughly the same rate as GL. The entire daytime genre has become so irrelevent that they had to go to some upstart channel to air their awards show. Daytime can cut off it's nose to spite it's face, but it's not gonna get it anywhere. It's not as if AMC, GH, and ATWT are just lighting the world on fire but GL is the singular black-sheep blemishing the radiance of bright shining glory. They're all in big trouble and it is a slippery slope. Passions was irrelevent on many levels so it's cancellation really made little dent but GL is the Grande Dame, like it or not, and it's demise will be the official beginning of the end and the rest will not be far behind. GH is only .2 ratings points ahead of GL right now in HH, costs far more money to produce and publicize, and completely sucks.

Well said. I couldn't agree more! Especially in regard to your last point about GH being only .2 above GL in HH. GL may be at the bottom of the pack, but aside from that, CBS is still the number one daytime network. All of the other soaps are only a stones throw away from GL's numbers. If they want to cancel GL for it's 1.6/1.7's they might as well cancel all three ABC soaps, ATWT, B&B and Days. Y&R is the only soap still in the upper 3's.

I just don't believe it's going to be canceled this year. Until someone from CBS comes out and says the show is ending on this date, then I'll believe it. I won't be surprised, but I'd expect all daytime executives to consider their numbers and their drama's futures.

Damn! Even pop culture czar Perez Hilton has picked up this story!

I think GL may really be getting cancelled.

I see a CBS verison(Which means boring) of the View.

I see a CBS verison(Which means boring) of the View.

Not saying that they wouldn't try again, but they've tried that before. It was like the extra hour of Today they do with Hoda and Kathy-Lee but a panel of like four ladies and I'm pretty sure one of them was Les Moonves' wife who's on Big Brother etc.