GL and ATWT being discussed for LIFETIME?

[bellcurve]

KILL THIS SHOW!

My God, if GL is cancelled next year after getting a one year reprieve on Lifetime, it will not get the attention it deserves. No one will care. There won't be any more USA Today covers, there won't be any press about it, no one will care!

Please, just go bow out gracefully! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

[ReddFoxx]

This will not happen. If CBS, a network with a very large budget can't afford to keep GL around, then how is a cable network with less budget going to manage a two daily soaps, with a combined cast of over 50 people? It's just not feasible. The economy is really awful now, but even if it wasn't, Lifetime wouldn't take this sort of expensive venture on.

[UKBoi]

I'm pretty sure CBS can afford to keep GL around, it's produced on a fraction of what it costs to make most soaps and I think it's more to do with the way their affiliates schedule the show and the ratings that are produced as a result of this scheduling.

[bleedingroseca]

I don't think CBS axing the show had much to do with whether they could afford to keep it or not. GL is the only soap making money right now because it is cheaper to produce than all the other shows. ATWT, Y&R and B&B are all far, far more expensive to produce.

[JackPeyton]

Thats not true, CBS prob cut it because the cost wasnt worth it. Just because it turns a little profit doesnt mean its bringing in the money.

It may be the cheapest - but honestly, the ratings are not there. With bad demo ratings they get less adds. less adds are less revenue. Little revenue = cancellation.

[DeeeDee]

Poor GL.

[jfung79]

They're the ones who really publicized that GL needed a 1.8 to stay alive that all the "it's going to be cancelled" negative people quoted as gospel and which turned out to be true. The negative people can't have it both ways about DC's credibility.

[jfung79]

You apparently did not read my post where I said I welcomed and would absolutely accept a change in format and in cast to adapt to a new media age. Also, it would not just be a "simple network swap" but that doesn't have to a bad thing -- it's actually what I'm counting on. This is about rebirth!

The budget can be cut by going to a weekly instead of daily format. Why do people think ATWT and GL would have to stay daily soaps? Again, Night Shift is the model, I tell you!

Also there are many series on cable that look good, that's part of why cable is getting the ratings now, so cable = low budget is not necessarily true.

[Carolyn1980]

I don't care one way or another about DC, but to suggest that DC must be right, that GL needed a 1.8 to stay alive, is being disingenuous. Just because GL was canceled doesn't automatically make the 1.8 "threshold" true.

Also, from what I've read, CBS Daytime was planning to renew GL, but that plan was nixed by highers-up who wanted to see if more profit could be made from something that was cheaper to produce. How that turns out will likely decide the fate of ATWT, as well, despite all the worries that it is already going to be dumped next year. Whether or not it gets dumped depends on the ratings of the new programming CBS places in GL's timeslot.

[jfung79]

Oh, I agree, I'm not necessarily saying DC has lots of credibility. I'm just saying that people who say it doesn't better not be the same people who kept saying 1.8 1.8.

Which is why everyone needs to boycott CBS except for ATWT and GL!

[MarkH]

Based on some the numbers tossed around elsewhere yesterday, I'm thinking GL must cost about $100K/episode to make. Which is CHEAP. Chump change.

But it's probably still high for a network that airs "Flip this House" or something (I realize that's not Lifetime, which airs reruns and old TV movies--probably not that expensive either).

[brimike]

I keep saying this - but that does NO good, unless you have a Nielsen box attached to your television set. It has no bearing on ratings or advertisers if a person without a Nielsen box stops watching an entire network.

If the millions of people who don't have Nielsen boxes all stopped watching the entire CBS line-up - the ratings would stay exactly the same.

[jfung79]

If the "boycott" message is loud enough, it would reach people who have Nielsen boxes too. There's no way to organize a Nielsen-box-week only boycott, lol. To reach people, a boycott call needs to be consistent, in large numbers, and non-hypocritical. Just like promoting a show and creating positive buzz about a show is done to a mass audience in order to reach people who have Nielsen boxes.

Also, advertisers would care about letters being written to them about boycotting the network if they got a lot of those letters.

[Rakesh]

Nelson Branco first reported that.

This GL fan just can't boycott CBS.

[Kendall]

If GL and ATWT can both make a successful move to cable, think of the amount of jobs that will be saved! Not only that but if P&G can move their soaps successfully to a cable network that means the genre isn't dying. DireTV is not the same as going to Lifetime.

Lifetime is a network, while not a major network it still is and it also has it's own original programming.

The Stars who of course would want to make the move for sure are going to be the people who know they will have trouble finding work on another show. The other Stars you want to stay are usually the ones that can and would get other offers but WHO KNOWS. I think it will be an issue of how much the network/show have a budget for and who they really want to keep. On a new network there has to be some core to launching the show, they have to keep some key actors and actresses and storylines in play. I think Lifetime can definitely provide some financial assistance because P&G/Telenext will not shop the show to another that can't afford it. Lifetime can give them a brand new HD set and probably move them.

I also think there might be some backdoor stuff going on with P&G and CBS regarding ATWT's renewal. Perhaps they are giving P&G time (say until mid-May) to find a new home for both ATWT and GL THIS fall and are delaying the renewal announcement so if P&G finds a new home for both shows this fall in short fashion, they will "cancel" both shows so they can leave together. This can explain the rumor that this will be ATWT's "last" pickup and they will be off the air in 2010.