October 5-9, 2009

[JONNYSBRO]

God DAYS has added over 500,000 viewers from last year and the show is drastically cheaper then it was last year. Is Gary Tomlin becoming the savior of daytime? LMAO. Tomlin/DAYS have seemed to be a match made in heaven. The show is cheaper, ratings are up, and show is flourishing. A year ago I would have said DAYS was done and now I can see it being renewed next year.

[Toups]

How exactly wasn't it a soap opera?

[Y&RWorldTurner]

DAYS is the only success story in daytime right now, and the success story of the year overall for daytime really...

[Toups]

Yup. Other soaps should try to model what's happening at DAYS in terms of: consistency, focus, long term storytelling, having a vision, and telling classic soapy storylines. And it shows what good teamwork can do without interference.

[Max]

Toups, I don't consider Passions to be a true soap opera because it didn't take itself seriously in the way a traditional soap would. Rather, I consider Passions to be a parody of the soap genre. (I consider SuBe to also have been a campy farce as opposed to being a bona-fide soap opera, although Passions was an even more extreme example of such a case.) Even many Passions fans have said that one of the reasons why they enjoyed their show so much was because it utilized humor in such a way that your typical soap would never do (by employing elements such as breaking the fourth wall; having characters talking to themselves; and featuring witches, talking dolls, and monkeys). Although there are many folks who would disagree with me on this assessment, I just don't consider any show which features these elements to be a soap opera in the way one typically thinks of such programs.

[jfung79]

No double standard here -- I bashed Passions before it came on and I never stopped. My NBC boycott never ended. I do consider Passions a soap and I'm glad NBC replaced AW with a soap, but they should never have replaced AW to begin with. I was rooting for Passions to get low ratings in its first couple of years as punishment to NBC.

And yes, what little I saw of Passions was awful. Same stories dragging on, some guys going shirtless for weeks at a time, mediocre acting, bleh. I was fine with the supernatural element but not with the extreme campiness.

Towards the end, I wasn't clapping when Passions was canceled because I knew it had fans and I felt bad for them ... And also by this point, the survival of the entire daytime soap industry was in question, not just particular soaps or particular kinds of soap opera. But I wasn't all that sad either, as in a way I felt it was karma.

So I'm gonna keep on bashing LMAD and CBS, thank you. I wish I could have stuck to my CBS boycott too, but I did watch Big Brother over the summer so I broke my word and in that sense I'm a hypocrite. But I plan to stay away from CBS (besides supporting the last P&G survivor, ATWT) through the next 9 months, and I'm pretty sure I can stick to that.

[Toups]

That's kinda elitist. LOL That's almost like the crowd that thinks west coast soaps aren't real soaps.

So basically a "true" soap opera is one that takes itself seriously? That's the only qualification? Is Guiding Light one? So they took themselves seriously when they did the clone and time travelling? Is GH is a traditional soap? Did they take themselves seriously when they had a weather machine or an alien visiting? Passions had all the qualities of a real soap opera....they just had "extra" qualities that other soaps didn't.

[Max]

Toups, if this makes me an elitist, then so be it. Although what constitutes a "true" soap is a subjective question, I just think that "seriousness" is one element that must be present in order for a show to be considered a soap.

You make a good point regarding your GL and GH examples. And, while this may be a bit unfair, I still consider both shows to be true soaps becuase--by and large, when you condsider their full histories--they usually do/did take themselves seriously. However, I do believe that such unrealistic storylines no doubt hastened GL's demise (just like Lumina did for AW). More importantly, these storylines have greatly damaged the credibility of the entire genre and are a big reason why I believe the soap genre is on the brink of extinction.

Nevertheless, I feel it is important to clarify that I no longer consider JER to be the sole reason for the sorry state of the genre. Although I still feel that he caused tremendous damage, he by no means was alone when it came to pushing for these bizarre storylines. As JER's most ardent and eloquent admirer on this board, I do want to apologize to you, Toups, for my having previously singled him out as being the major reason for the genre's troubles.

[SouthOfSoap]

Didn't think I'd ever see that day again

[Toups]

Just because things are unrealistic doesn't mean it's bad. As long as you make it work, you can tell the most outrageous, unrealistic story you want. I don't for a second think that unrealistic storylines damaged the credibility of soaps.

That's cool of you, Max.

[SouthOfSoap]

2009 is quite the anomaly for DAYS. All data for 2nd week in October sourced from Toups SON Ratings archive (thanks!). Yes I know a one week cross section in time is hardly representative/open to random distortion, but its interesting nevertheless!

Oct 5-9 2009 HH and Viewers : 2.2/8 and 3,015,000 (+20.8% y/y) Tomlin/Whitesell/(Higley)

Oct 6-10 2008 HH & Viewers : 1.9/6 and 2,496,000 (+4.3% y/y) Tomlin/Higley

Oct 8-12 2007 HH & Viewers : 1.8/6 and 2,391,000 (-29.4% y/y) Scott/Sheffer

Oct 9-13 2006 HH & Viewers : 2.6/9 and 3,386,000 (+7.7% y/y) Wyman/Sheffer

Oct 3-7 2005 HH & Viewers : 2.5/9 and 3,143,000 (-9.5% y/y) Wyman/JER

Oct 4-8 2004 HH & Viewers : 2.8/10 and 3,476,000 Wyman/JER

Oct 6-10 2003 HH : 2.9/10 Wyman/JER/end of Higley

Oct 7-11 2002 HH : 3.2/12 Wyman/Brash & Cwikly

Oct 8-12 2001 HH : 3.4 Langan aka Satan

Oct 9-13 2000 HH : 3.7 Langan aka Satan

I know DAYS was in the mid 4's for most of 1999 hitting 5.0 in the week of Sami's near execution (July 1999) under SSM.

So in 10 years, DAYS rating point has probably halved. I suspect audience is down 45% though because rating points per 1m increase each year.

Y&R is now where DAYS was 9 years ago. Using that (faulty) logic, Y&R is safe for another 9 years at least!

Its very comforting to note that DAYS isnt that far off from its 2004/5/6 levels in audience numbers (15% isn't to far, say as compared to 50%)

[Sindacco]

Lets not forget that the shows A-storyline this past year is reaching its climax.

[DRW50]

I remember Passions taking itself VERY seriously for the first year or so.

[Rakesh]

Good for DAYS! I'm so happy for them. I'm also glad I'm watching DAYS again. Loving it.

Like The Hills...

P&G should cut ATWT down 30 mins. I was hoping LMAD would fail so ATWT would get another year. We all know ATWT is dead now.

[Rakesh]

TRH coming to NBC daytime will not result in DOOL getting canned. Mark my words, NBC will not let go of DOOL. DOOL is doing a great job in the demos that the advertisers seek. That is how NBC and DOOL will make a profit. I'm sure they will get at least another year on NBC.