OLTL: Another knife plunged in the back of the show

[Scotty]

From: http://www.backstage...004055934.story

[Vee]

I'm beginning to think these stories specifically mentioning OLTL when ATWT is the show just got cancelled are a concerted effort to seep the "inevitability" of OL's demise into the public consciousness. Why else would EW run a shot of a tombstone with Viki's face on it? (Foregrounded as well, while ATWT is in the background)

Also, there is a Freudian slip in there: They claim five soaps will be on the air as of September 2010. The soaps left, not counting ATWT, are six: Y&R, B&B, DAYS, AMC, OLTL and GH. Unless they intend to claim OLTL will be off the air as well by September (which I seriously doubt, even if it cancelled in the first six months of this year), that is another odd move.

[DRW50]

Vee, something tells me they actually were counting OLTL as being gone by then.

There's a weird sort of almost gleefulness to some of this coverage, especially smug EW. I sometimes underestimate just how much a lot of the media hates soap operas, perhaps because of the old belief that they are somehow superior to As the Stomach Churns, even though their journalistic standards give us things like Jayson Blair, or TV gives us Balloon Boy.

[Vee]

Not going to happen. Look at how long it took GL and ATWT to wind down. Unless they do it in the next two months, which I don't believe they will, I really doubt that will occur.

I think it's far more likely it was just another case of mainstream press getting something big wrong about soaps...again. They do it all the time and seem to enjoy misprinting stuff about daytime, just to prove how far away from it they are. While running cover stories on the latest "comeback plan" for Heroes. Gee, I've never seen coverage like that in the soap press...

[R Sinclair]

Misleading, melodramatic thread title. I was expecting a lot more.

[Ann_SS]

I think that OLTL may have more time because it doesn't seem like ABC has any alternative programming lined up, then again ABC could be working on something we don't now about.

[Sylph]

[YRBB]

:lol:

[bellcurve]

Like someone funnier than Aisha Tyler or a Days-to-ABC coup.

[marceline]

I like it! It's very "Bringing. Drama. Closer."

[Ann_SS]

I have seen Aisha Tyler's comedy routine. I don't find her particularly funny so finding someone funnier can't be that hard.

I think ABC will give OLTL and AMC a chance to settle in after the move to the new studios. The reduced production costs should buy them a year or two as long as the ratings don't collapse.

[R Sinclair]

People seem to be forgetting or ignoring the fact that OLTL is coming in under budget, so it's not causing ABC to bleed money right now. It's just not pulling in a gigantic surplus, either. I agree with Ann. Also, I wish fans of ABCD lineup would stop running scared based on CBS. CBS doesn't own their soaps. Sure, any cancellation isn't good news for the genre as a whole, but we've known for years that CBS/P&G do things differently from ABCD. They were the ones that wouldn't cast Real Andrews(ex-Taggert, GH) and Julie Pinson(ex-Eve, PC) for their shows in the mid 90's because they were "too sexy."

[All My Shadows]

For real. There's nothing new in that article.

The ABC soaps are the safest on the air, IMO, and that's one of the few positive results of Frons's BSCness. He's obsessed with the shows, even if he's [!@#$%^&*] them up, and I don't see him dropping any of them right now because losing an hour of programming means losing an hour's worth of power.

[Sylph]

Except that it really wouldn't be his decision. It will come from up above. So he can be obsessed about them as much as he wants.

[JaneAusten]

I don't believe ABC is that much safer. We know AMC was actually in danger of cancellation a year ago and that's why he focused so much attention to the show. In the end I doubt it will be Fron's decision. I'll say again, once any of these networks find that magic replacement or the next generation programming, all the shows will be gone. And it's not Judge Judy or LMAD. I still think it will be some sort of news/talk show hybrid.