And so it begins. The death of Y&R

[MarkH]

Now THAT is an interesting idea! But do they have a 4 pm local newscast or other show?? It would make sense if they were putting Y&R on at 3, and then a local show at 4. Does anyone know? 4 pm usually goes to Oprah/Ellen or a judge show....at least on the east coast

[bellcurve]

I would not be surprised to see other affiliates follow suit or play with their lineups.

Also, they maybe using Y&R as a strong lead-in for their afternoon block, but as MarkH mentioned, Y&R did well because it was a lunchtime staple and it had the convenience of being in a cushy timeslot.

Another thing to mention...how many of those Y&R fans are GH fans? Alot of people begin their soap watching day with Y&R. If it came down to picking Y&R over GH, which ones would they pick? Especially when GH pulls off their cool sweeps stunts.

Without strong writing and definitely without a good timeslot, Y&R will suffer if other affiliates follow suit.

Barbara Bloom probably wants to kill Y&R and after dealing with queen bee, who can really blame her? Maria's unaware that she's destroying the #1 show on the air.

[MarkH]

Nor I. That is the reason for my hyperbolic thread title. Seriously, these affiliates are lemmings--all the more desperate in these financial times. That's why they all syndicate the same sh*t and make the same local programming decisions (news at noon, 5-6:30, etc. etc.). If Atlanta gets any traction with this move, watch all of CBS go this route.

[DRW50]

They don't really have anything to replace it with though. TPIR is falling apart and I doubt LMAD is going to do much better.

[JimTolkien]

The other thing as well here to consider is I believe CBS doesn't own or even have any say in the affiliate so CBS can't do anything about it anyway. So it would appears as if the station is experimenting..if it doesn't work, they can do whatever they want.

[MarkH]

Soaps are FRAGILE. This kind of experiment has historically been shown to be disastrous.

That said, I think you're probably right about CBS' power. But there is still some power. When the Boston NBC affiliate said "We're not putting on Leno at 10 pm", NBC threatened them majorly--I guess maybe even with the loss of affiliate status. CBS could definitely do some kind of "last stand" with the Atlanta affiliate over this issue...but I doubt they want to jeopardize their 8th largest market when broadcast ratings--overall--are bleeding out.

[Ann_SS]

Okay, I went to the Web site of the Atlanta CBS station. I see why they are moving Y&R. They are hoping that Y&R will be a strong lead in to bolster TPIR which airs at 11:00 a.m. TPIR's ratings may be shaky in their market so they are trying to use Y&R to bolster TPIR. If any soaps are in danger of being cancelled on that affiliate it will be B&B and ATWT. GL will no longer be at 3:00 p.m. The local news is at 4:00 p.m. followed by "The People's Court." It seems like they have canceled a local show called "Better Atlanta" and are now showing an episode of TPIR at 10:00 a.m. and at 11:00 a.m.

Here is the ul: http://www.cbsatlant...ings/index.html

[aMLCproduction]

The topic is the death of Y&R. The fact they don't write for AA's is part of the death of Y&R. Since W J Bell stepped down, no other writer after him has appreciated or understood, just how many AA's watched Y&R. I know straight men, thugs, drug dealers, players, doctors, teachers etc. who at 12:30 watch Y&R. (Using that as an example to prove how deeply Y&R connected to AA's and our culture if you really want to go there) They were front -n- center and integrated and written very well. Not all of them sounded the same. There were layers. MAB, Sheffer, Hamner just don't get it or care.

The main point, Y&R is going down the path of other soaps. It's so scary and shocking to see Y&R, the golden standard, the industry leader is now a common soap, with no class. Why doesn't anyone else see what we see? (ESP TPTB) If something is not working, fix it, and change it.

Is Bill Bell scared to fire his own wife? She has got to go. I didn't like her from the start. She’s not a good writer at all. She has an ego like kanye West. It was all about me, me ,me and oh, my writing team. Well it's YOU YOU YOU now failing failing failing. She's the EP and HW, and it's quite clear she doesn’t know what in the hell she’s doing. Why give her a head management position and a head writing position if the ship failing? From a business angle what sense does that make? CHEAP. TO save money I bet. They probably don't have to pay her a whole lot. MAB is in the family . I want to see some credentials

when soap writers used to take over a show, the writer actually had a plan and knew how to execute it. Take Bill Bell as he took over Days, Marland on ATWT in the late 80’s and 90's, Malone in the early 90's at OLTL, JER, round one on Days, Claire Labine at GH in the 90’s, Pam K Long at GL in the early 90’s They had a plan, a vision.

Today it's all robotic. It’s all the same. Everyone is scared to take risk. Soaps were known for BIG RISK taking. Now, it's so bland. Nothing different. Nothing creative, nothing innovative. That's what soaps were all about.

Somewhere they have lost it. It all became too mechanical if you will

[DeeeDee]

*cough*ryanshope*cough*

[JimTolkien]

Yep, definitely experimenting.

[MarkH]

No AnnSS, I think you may have confused the time switch. Y&R will be on at 3 pm, the death zone.

Based on the link you provided, here is the daytime lineup for Monday, September 28 (I picked that date at random...the start of the second week of GL-free CBS)

7 am - The Early Show

9 am - 700 Club

10 am - TPIR (that will become LMAD in October)

11 am - TPIR

12 noon - Local News

12:30 pm - Better Atlanta

1:30 pm - B&B

2:00 pm - ATWT

3:00 pm - Y&R

4:00 pm - Local News

5:00 pm - People's Court

6:00 pm - Local News

6:30 pm - CBS Evening News

7:00 pm - Insider

7:30 pm - Inside Edition

8:00 pm - Begin Primetime (How I Met Your Mother, etc.)

[P.J.]

Am I being dense? It seems to me the station is moving it from stronger competition (AMC, at least according to these figures) and pitting it against a weaker show in Atlanta, GH.

Aren't there regions of the country where Y&R has aired at 3/4 pm for YEARS??

[Ann_SS]

You are right. I totally confused the time switch. I thought that Y&R was being putting into the 10:00 a.m. time slot. Moving Y&R to 3:00 p.m. may be an attempt to improve their 4:00 News programming. I still don't believe that the affiliate is trying to kill Y&R. If anything it is banking on Y&R taking on GH in a head to head match up.

[bellcurve]

In several markets, they are pairing Let's Make a Deal with Price.

[SFK]

I find it very interesting that they're showing back-to-back TPIR, and I find the fact that they air The 700 Club at 10am even more interesting. The 700 Club on a network morning? That is so 1986.

With so many people dvr'ing these days, I wonder just how significant of a change we're talking about here. Maybe I'm being naive, but I tend to think that the folks who are home during the day wouldn't have such a HUGE issue with catching the show at a later hour. One thing about GL though, there was no nightly rebroadcast on SoapNet like there is for Y&R, so a Nielsen family who'd regularly watch or record Y&R during the day might lose the show that key daytime viewership when they watch at night on cable.