AMC: Daytime Confidential confirming production moving to LA

[LeClerc]

Would they pull the plug on the show that isn't the lowest-rated though? I'm sure OLTL will consistently have better numbers than AMC in the coming 12 months (They have better writing, their stars [strasser, ES] are re-signing while AMC is likely going to lose theirs...).

[Carolyn1980]

Unfortunately, (although I'm doing a complete about-face on my opinion on this, thanks to all this DC news), I don't think it matters. AMC *is* a more recognizable "brand name" than OLTL is, and the cancellation of AMC would be a huge signal to those outside of daytime that soaps were pretty much dead...while OLTL's death (outside of daytime) wouldn't garner as much publicity.

I think AMC would have to fall hard (real hard) in the 18-49 demo compared to OLTL before it was considered for cancellation instead....like at least a 0.4 difference between the two, rather than a 0.1 or 0.2 difference.

[Kubla Khan]

If ABC has decided they're going to cancel a show (and that's a big if) it's OLTL.

They wouldn't go through a huge relocation for AMC if they were planning on cancelling it. If OLTL is cancelled, that means all of ABC's soap operations would be based in Los Angeles. They would be able to cut all the ABC New York staff that oversees them, and Frons would only have to travel to NY once or twice a year to sit on the auidience of The View.

I wonder if GH and AMC will start to share any crew members, kind of like how OLTL and AMC currently share Roger Mooney.

[LeClerc]

Yeah I guess we have to go with what DC has said about ABC's perception that AMC is the "legacy soap". They've been right about everything else.

Just out of curiosity though has a network ever cancelled a soap before that wasn't its lowest-rated at the time?

[Carolyn1980]

No...but every other time, there was a pretty wide gap between a network's lowest-rated and next-lowest-rated show.

At ABC right now, the soaps are so close in the demo, I'm willing to bet they charge about the same amount for an ad on all three shows....which means it doesn't matter which one they cancel.

Like I said, though, if AMC dips to at least a 0.4 difference in the 18-49 demo (consistently) compared to OLTL, then all bets are off.

[Kubla Khan]

Since when do OLTL and AMC get significantly different ratings from each other? They're pretty much in the same boat. AMC got a 1.9 last week, and OLTL got a 1.8. They bounce back and forth with what show is higher rated. It's not like OLTL gets Y&R-esque ratings and AMC is alone at the bottom.

[Carolyn1980]

Household ratings don't mean a thing; the networks sell ads in daytime based solely on the women 18-49 demo. (Even the women 18-34 demo doesn't matter; Passions was number one there when it was canceled).

And over the last year, OLTL has been ahead of AMC more often....but not by enough to make it completely safe in an either/or cancellation choice (last week, it was 0.2 ahead of AMC).

[dragonflies]

Yeah but OLTL and GH both have consistently been doing better in the demos than AMC has for awhile now. AMC is like 5th in the demos and GH and OLTL are like 2nd and 3rd or something like that.

I still say AMC is gonna go before OLTL. Those cancellation rumors this past year weren't for nothing, they had to come from somewhere

[Jonathan]

Sort of. There's no such thing as a reverse commmute in LA. There's traffic everywhere!

Wouldn't it be ironic if GH was the one that were cancelled?

[CSF]

It should be! Then they will put OLTL in GH's old set

[Carolyn1980]

There is on the 91 freeway, and the 105, and the 605......the 405, not so much.....and forget the 101. Ugh.

[Angela]

OLTL has done better than both GH and AMC in June, July (over the weekend I was charting the daily ratings for this year by month) at least in Total Viewers. I haven't paid attention to the 18-49 but I'd assume at worse they're on par with GH.

This is kind of happening fast, I do completely believe something bigger will happen with OLTL/AMC by the end of 2010. Why did I ever feel the ABC soaps would be there in the end with Y&R? I do think it's OLTL's cancellation unless AMC falls even worse in 18-49 (I won't say it couldn't happen, the move from NYC to L.A. could backfire fast), like others have mentioned. AMC has Susan Lucci and the bigger brand name. They're not moving it to California to have it be the first one canceled.

[DRW50]

ABC has mentioned this brand but I don't even know what it gets them now. What is AMC to people? If you watch AMC now, you will see people lying about dead babies, very uneven performances, a very dark tone, and very thuggish, controlling leading men. None of this is what made AMC a success. The families, the veterans, the humor, the quirkiness, the heart, the social issues. All of that made AMC and all of it is gone. I just wonder if anyone out there now actually cares about the AMC brand.

I don't know if GH has a brand now either. I do know some people watch because they love the mob but the show's hook, what got them attention, stuff like Luke and Laura, or the romance and adventure, all that's gone now.

[dragonflies]

Of the 3, even at it's worst, OLTL is the better of them. AMC is unrecognizable, history is ignored or re-written all together, the writers focus on a character's worst trait and make that something that defines them, and so on.

[Carolyn1980]

To the general public, the cancellation of AMC or GH would be much bigger than that of OLTL, much to my chagrin. Heck, AMC and GH would be big news....OLTL would be a blip. Sad, but true.