CBS cancels Guiding Light

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Well, Tellem is right in this regard...

[Phoenix11]

I'm done with CBS, but I do hope that PGP can find a new home for the venerable soap. I just can't imagine a world without Guiding Light. Amidst the doom and gloom, a BPD'er created this bittersweet video that's good for a laugh (and a cry!). Best part: we get to see Grady take one for the team and go over the cliff again!

Check it out: Only Love

[DAMfan]

I called GL Fri and from what the person told me it sounds like GL is done at CBS - however she did say they were trying to work something out with another "network" to show GL and she made a big point to keep checking GL site http://www.guidinglight.net/ for any info about is going to happen with the show. And I did get in enjoying DAM [Edmund] this week.

GL HOTLINE: 866 - 695 - 1859

[Dan]

As comforting as it can be to think that GL could possibly find a home someplace else, I doubt any of us would be satisfied by the resulting show. First, it would be pared down even further and considering the extent of the previous cuts, I can't even imagine what the show would look like if it found a new home. Certainly very few to no veterans and we would also lose a lot of the higher paid middle tier talent. And if it did find a new home, it would probably save the show mere months, a year at maximum. The days are gone where EON can last for 10 years after switching channels. The PSNS-Direct TV experiment proved it and that was a show with a younger-skewing audience.

Of course, the idea that GL can find a place to roost is wishful thinking anyway and PGP is simply blowing smoke when they say that they are looking around. I'm sure they said that only to avoid looking like the bad guy and to give the fans some false hope.

It's time to close the chapter on GL, unless CBS reconsiders at the very last second. So I hope those in charge put all their resources and talent into giving this show a send-off for the daytime world to remember. That, in my opinion, will truly save the show.

[Kylie]

My roommate texted me about this when I was away this weekend and I was shocked. I don't even watch GL and it feels like a loss. Maybe because I could easily see it being one of the soaps I used to watch and have loved my whole life. In a way, I wonder if it's the beginning of the end of soaps. I never really believed the GL rumors...and now it's reality.

I admire the GL fans and their rallying together to save their show. I wish you all the best and may even fire off a few letters of my own.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

VERY well said...

[Phoenix11]

You're entitled to feel that way, but I'm going to keep fighting right up until September 18th. I really don't think PGP is simply blowing smoke in this case. Sitting at home lamenting is not going to get us anywhere, we have to make our voices heard. Now is the time to be proactive, not reactive. And if in the end, it doesn't find a new home, I want to know that I did everything I could to save this American icon.

[juniorz1]

I was SO sad to hear this after returning from my vacation. Though I've never been a regular GL viewer, I did watch a little here and there, especially during the Bridget/Hart/Julie storyline. My heart goes out to each and every person working at that studio, whether they be in front of or behind the camera. GL was truly a daytime and television entity and CBS Daytime won't be the same without it. I hope they go ALL OUT for the GL finale because the show and its fans deserve it. I've had to deal with the loss of two of my soaps in my lifetime- Another World and (my heart) Santa Barbara. I wouldn't wish those finales on any soap fan. I believe Ellen Wheeler will do her best to honor GL and its history with an amazing final week full of flashbacks and returning stars.

[Max]

Even though I have believed (and still do believe) that cancellation is better for the show's long-term reputation, I am surprised at how truly saddened I am by the news of GL's demise. Definately, a lot of this saddness has to do with the fact that it will be so hard to lose the longest running program in broadcast history. Furthermore, there were several other soaps (as well as TPIR) that I believe deserved to go before GL. Yet, the biggest reason why I'm depressed is because I realize that--at its best--GL was the cream of the crop of the soap genre which provided world class entertainment for so many.

I really do not want GL to continue on another network (or on the internet), since whenever this has been tried in the past it has always ended in failure. Instead, 100% of the concentration should be towards attempting to return GL to greatness prior to the finale.

I must also say that I am surprised at just how much hostility a couple of you have towards CBS. In my opinion, CBS held on to GL for far longer than its ratings merited; I believe the reasons why it did so were because of a reluctance to cancel the longest running show in broadcast history and because CBS truly does care about daytime's rich heritage. CBS's treatment of GL is in sharp contrast to how NBC treated AW: that network dropped AW without hesitation (despite the fact that it was not even the lowest rated soap on NBC) just so that a new, flavor-of-the-month soap could get its timeslot, and only gave AW two months to wrap up its storyliens (as opposed to the nearly six months CBS is giving GL).

[Dan]

Oh, I'm not saying don't fight. I just think we all need to consider the cliche, "Be careful what we wish for..." Who knows, if fans keep fighting, maybe a miracle will occur and CBS will relent. Or maybe Hallmark would have some luck with it. I agree with some others that that channel would be a good fit for GL. But if the fans fight without forethought, there are going to be regrets when the show gets mashed up even worse than it already is.

[alphanguy74]

I agree with that, Max. Any boycott of CBS is just going ot hur the other soaps still on the air. GL had gone downhill for so long, CBS did give it several years at the botom of the heap. But then again, SOMEONE has to be at the bottom, and if everyone keeps cancelling the bottom, then eventually you'll be left with one.

[Dan]

I forgot to respond to this, but these are the same people that allowed Kim Zimmer to take the fall for "getting her coworkers fired" when she refused to accept a pay cut during the middle of a contract, despite the fact that the actors involved would have been on the chopping block regardless of the outcome of those negotiations. They are the ones that told everyone that Michael Zaslow was going on a temporary leave of absense, but was really fired for being a "wizened old man" who was sick. Not to mention various other examples. I don't trust those moneycrunchers over at PGP more than I can throw them.

[Phoenix11]

This is part of what I have a problem with though. The Nielsen ratings system is so antiquated that I don't feel it's possible to get an accurate gauge on just how many people are watching a particular show.

[DeeeDee]

This is so sad.

[jfung79]

Sorry, no, CBS treated the show with disrespect and did not give it support. In 2006-early 2007, when the show was making year on year gains in the ratings and was actually in the pack and *not* consistently the last-place soap (go back and look), as well as winning multiple Daytime Emmys, CBS chose not to spend any money at all on the 70th anniversary. That shows you how much CBS cared about the show, its past, and its future. Ellen Wheeler had to find the money herself within the show's declining budget to do the Find Your Light stuff to celebrate the anniversary.

The way the cancellation was handled was also atrocious -- lying to people that it would probably be renewed because the ratings had improved after Phillip's return, a mere week before such a final announcement. And to make the announcement on April 1, a day for "Fools", to boot. Oh, and trying to shift the blame to P&G, CBS's Nancy Tellem saying "we talked with our partners at Procter and Gamble and we agreed that it was time." GMAFB.

Boycotting CBS aside from continuing to watch ATWT and GL does not hurt soaps because Y&R and B&B are safe for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, showing the network it hurts their bottom line -- not only in the daytime, but also primetime -- when they cancel a soap, would show the power of the soap audience and make them think harder before canceling a soap in the future.